From Edmund White's gloriously thoughtful The Flâneur:: The flâneur [city walker/wanderer] is by definition endowed with enormous leisure, someone who can take off a morning or afternoon for undirected ambling, since a specific goal or a close rationing of tme is antithetical to the true spirit of the flâneur. An excess of the work ethicContinue reading “The Driven American: Unable to wander freely”
Category Archives: the land
Brower: Wilderness a place to rescue yourself
"For [David] Brower [who led the Sierra Club] wilderness was the place "where man could be alone, where you could rescue your self from what Ortega calls the other — all the extraneities that pile on you too deep." From Nature's Altars, p216 This is my way of saying I'm going to hit the PacificContinue reading “Brower: Wilderness a place to rescue yourself”
Fracking in Upper Ojai: the latest
Fracking — which as you all no doubt know is the injection of water and chemicals below ground at pressure, to break up rock formations and release natural gas and/or oil — has come to rural Upper Ojai and Ventura County. In truth, fracking turns out to have been going on in this area for aContinue reading “Fracking in Upper Ojai: the latest”
Whispering in the ear of nature’s secrets: Harriet Monroe
In Nature's Altars, Susan Schrepfer looks at how much it meant to women of the turn of (the 20th) century to go to the mountains. She writes: "High altitudes…released [women], they said, from the requirement of being a consumer, from "clothes and vanities," from the corsseted, perfumed, and coiffured dictates of polite society. Of aContinue reading “Whispering in the ear of nature’s secrets: Harriet Monroe”
Here comes the drought: Climate Prediction Center
From the forecast from NWS's Climate Prediction Center: Drought is forecast to persist for much of the West and expand across northern California and southern Oregon. Just doesn't look good…at all. Sigh. I miss water in our creek.
When the L.A. River (and Sisar Creek) ran wild
This month in this part of Southern California, we've had a lowly 36% of average rainfall (although precipitation in this region of the world is so variable that "average" is more of a mathematical construct than a reality to be relied on). Still, we've had about five inches of rain, roughly half of what itContinue reading “When the L.A. River (and Sisar Creek) ran wild”
The Sierra Club High Trips and why women liked them
In the High Trips, for about thirty years at the start of the 20th century, the Sierra Club as a mountaineering club peaked, surely. On those brilliantly organized journeys, as many as 200 people at time went into the High Sierras, having committed to a walk of a minimum of two hundred miles, over several weeks of hiking. Though theContinue reading “The Sierra Club High Trips and why women liked them”
A pilgrimage to the snow on the mountain: 2013
Every year for the past fifteen or so I've walked up our local mountains, called Topa Topa, during the snows. This year, as you can see, we've had only dustings… …but still, I was not alone. Saw nearly two dozen fellow travelers, from age one or so to seventy, in all shapes and sizes, withContinue reading “A pilgrimage to the snow on the mountain: 2013”
Fracking: Pro, Con and (possible) Compromise for CA
The Wall Street Journal is excited about the possibilities of fracking for California: California has Saudi Arabia-scale oil resources, notably in its largely untapped Monterey shale field, which stretches northeast for more than 200 miles from Bakersfield in central California. New technologies, especially smart, horizontal drilling and hydrofracturing, aka "fracking," make that oil accessible, andContinue reading “Fracking: Pro, Con and (possible) Compromise for CA”
Little on the dry side in California?
NOAA says it's not likely to change:
Kit Stolz 