After…
after playing in the mud attempting
to lower the lower pond the second-to-last day persisted sunny and bright,
which couldn’t be said for Friday, as it stayed overcast and dark until
rains swept through in the afternoon, big winds, crazy stuff
and dogs, unto sunset.
I’d cleaned house, transplanted a few little sagebushes and loaded out with an eye on the storms…hoping for better weather over Donner.
Saturday, last walk and
after checking the transplants [happy to have been rained on], we left around 8:40
to visit Twist and Terry at their Blue Pit campsite, then down the desert, 9:20 a.m.
Looking up from the south end towards the Granites [above], CR 33, southbound [below].
Doyle, California
Reno, Nevada
Reno; a detour for wine [for a birthday party next Saturday]
before, the weather over Donner having been benign, falling into
some inexplicably stupid traffic across the Valley,
despite which we made Benicia with time to unload, begin laundry and Bicycle Before Collapse.
Next day away to Oakland soon after lunch then
on to
San Francisco
for an off-hours visit to Brian Gross Fine Art, Linda’s “Aerious” exhibition, while
in other rooms, Roy DeForest [dog], Meridel Rubenstein [below]
…and many Flemings in the front.
There we met up with a great group of out-of-town friends, curators and collectors, everyone immensely enthusiastic about Linda’s show and many as well quite taken with Robert Hudson, a sculptor surprisingly heretofore unknown to several of them. It was all terrific fun.
In spits of rain we made our way home, juvenated and exuberated, for take-out sushi [not shown].
Monday, Benicia-by-the Bay, hey…
to be continued…out in California.
M
Thank you for taking us on this journey to CA and to Linda’s spectacular show @ BG.
Thaw hitting fast here in Ketchum.
X/P
Well I hear they’ll be skiing at Mammoth until the fourth of July, if that’s an issue…and Linda’s show’s up until 29 April.
Depending if you’re driving [and your tolerance for gravel roads] we’re right on the way back to the Bay Area from Ketchum when we’re at Wall spring, also.
Linda’s show is wonderful; glad we made the opening. I like your thru the sculpture views.
The desert is so changeable; you definitely capture its moods. And SO MUCH water on the Smoke Creek!
Nasty crack in the mini’s windshield somehow works with SF street scenes.
Do I have this right…
– ponds too low, so
– add bentonite..
– now ponds too high?
You need ’em to be “just right” [height]!
Ponds too low due to, hopefully, clogged perforations in wells [which can be cleaned]…bentonite didn’t work out all that well but the lower pond’s too high [when water flows] as the exit ditch is about a foot too high for its reconfiguration.
those ponds seem to be something to ponder about
Robert looks a bit out dated to me
Particularly ponderable being the fact that the addition of bentonite if anything seemed to accelerate the leakage where I applied it…
Interesting observation about Hudson; it’s true he’s been mining that territory for some considerable time now, but as someone who’s been essentially painting [or at least revisiting] the same painting since about 1968 the shock of the new doesn’t count all that high up in responding to work I like…and I’ve always liked his. But it’s true, he dates back to the sixties, and it definitely stays true to those roots.
Wishing you a happy birthday, Michael! (My outdated email address for you is not working). I hope to see Linda’s show before it closes…J
Nice shots, Mike. Is wine cheaper in NV?
Well it seems a particular Australian sparkling wine [who knew?] is, but whether it’s actually as good as it seemed at first taste will have to wait until Saturday. High hopes, however.