Wildflowers Close up

Here is a closer shot of the wildflower from yesterdays post.

Wildflowers

Here is another shot from my hike with Napa Land Trust. These yellow flowers were about the size of peas. There were many wildflowers, but they were hard to photograph since I do not have a macro lens.

I'm Melting

It has been so incredibly hot here the last couple of days. It was 97 degrees today at 3pm. So tomorrow I am leaving work early and going out on the bay. Life can't get any better than that !

Panoramic Dam

While at the Dam last Sunday, we took a few shots from the observation platform. Several shots were taken side by side and I stitched them together using Windows Media Live photo Gallery. The shot below is 3 photos stitched together.   I like all the tools in Windows Live and will try using it more often.  If you click HERE you can see a bigger copy and can really see how the panoramic turned out. Compare it to my April 14th post below.

DOUBLE DELIGHT

Madrona Manor

Here is a a shot of the lovely Madrona Manor Wine Country Inn and Restaurant near Healdsburg in Sonoma County. This is the place to take out of town guests if you want to impress them. The grounds are beautiful and it is a popular place for weddings.

Lake Sonoma

Here is another shot from Sunday's picnic at Lake Sonoma

Lupine River

On the way home from my wildflower hike on Saturday we stopped off at James Creek Road and saw some magnificant displays of spring color.

The Easter Eagle

Went with my sister and brother in law for a Easter picinic at Lake Sonoma. As we were sitting in the park at at a picnic table a bald eagle flew into the huge oak tree right next to where we were sitting. In all the years I have lived in California I have never seen a bald eagel in the wild. The park ranger said there is a nesting pair that keep house on the lake.

LUPINE

I went hiking today with the Napa Land Trust. We went for a wildflower hike up at Snell Valley up by Pope Valley. On the way back we stopped on James Creek Rd to look at hillsides that were covered in Lupine.

WYSTERIA

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I never realized until this year how much wysteria is growing around the valley. I took this photo last Sunday at Turnbull Wine Cellars in Oakville which is 12 miles North of Napa. Turnbull is small and unassuming when seen from the road, but the grounds are quite beautiful in the spring.

The CIA

When I first moved to Napa, I met people who said they worked at the CIA. I thought how strange that they live in Napa and not Washington DC. I now know when locals say CIA they mean Culirnary Institute of America. CIA's Napa Valley Campus has occupied the former Christian Brothers Winery — Greystone Cellars “the largest stone winery in the world.” Greystone is on Highway 29, just north of the town of St. Helena.
Greystone's exterior walls are 22-inch thick tufa stone. Built in 1888 it has survived two major earthquakes. Greystone was used by the Christian Brothers to make sparkling wines from 1950 to 1989.

Zinfandel Lane Bridge

The casual tourist might not realize this, but Napa County has approximently 60 bridges. Many of them are from the turn of the century and are on the National Register of Historic Places. I took this shot yesterday at the Zinfandel Lane Bridge, built of stone in 1912 across the Napa River.

The Golden State

California's state motto is The Golden State. Maybe these are some of the reasons: , the California Gold Rush of 1840's, The Golden Gate Bridge, Our state flower the California Poppy California. Indians cherished the poppy as both a source of food and for oil extracted from the plant. Its botanical name, Eschsholtzia californica, was given by Adelbert Von Chamisso, a naturalist and member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences, who dropped anchor in San Francisco in 1816 in a bay surrounded by hills of the golden flowers. Also sometimes known as the flame flower, la amapola, and copa de oro (cup of gold), the poppy grows wild throughout California. It became the state flower in 1903. Every year April 6 is California Poppy Day.