120/365: New Friends

120/365: New Friends, a photo by doglington on Flickr.

You meet the nicest people hiking in the South Bay hills. This is Suzi and her horse who join me for part of my hike along Long Ridge above Cupertino.

119/365: Encore Martini!

119/365: Encore Martini!, a photo by doglington on Flickr.

I need to be careful. This exercise is turning into A Year of Martinis. But I couldn't resist a picture of this one as they served it in such a great glass. The mix: Bombay Saphire, a touch of Vermouth, shaken with olives.

118/365: Anchors Aweigh

118/365: Anchors Aweigh, a photo by doglington on Flickr.

It's sailing season on the Bay, when temps are warm and before the blowing gales of midsummer. And Boadicea is ready to go.

117/365: A Padre's Bathroom

117/365: A Padre's Bathroom, a photo by doglington on Flickr.

We're finally starting to build our home in Sonoma after years of just having agricultural buildings and outbuildings. I wanted this bathroom to look as if it would be in context in an old Mission. That is if the old Padres had had indoor plumbing and Kohler fittings. But otherwise authentic.

116/365: Top of the World, Ma!

116/365: Top of the World, Ma!, a photo by doglington on Flickr.

If there is anything I'm taking more pictures of than Martinis, it's the top part of the hikes I'm going on. I'm still new enough to hiking that when I clamber to the top of a ridge, I feel it's important enough to commemorate. This is the top of a hike on Long Ridge Open Space Preserve off Skyline Boulevard in Palo Alto looking toward the Santa Cruz Mountains and the coast.

115/365: San Jose Rose Garden

115/365: San Jose Rose Garden, a photo by doglington on Flickr.

This is my second photographic trip to the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden. It's a fantastic place with hundreds of varieties, colors and sizes of rose. Many are in bloom now, but I'm told one of the beauties of this garden is the length of time the roses bloom. So we should see roses in peak bloom well into fall.

114/365: Brown Hills

114/365: Brown Hills, a photo by doglington on Flickr.

Santa Teresa County Park isn't a very exciting destination. The views are all of the IBM facility, power lines or Silicon Valley. But it's one of my go-to places to get the dogs a long walk that doesn't involve a long car trip. In this view, the hills are already turning brown at this early date. Which may mean we are in for an early fire season.

113/365: Park Duck

113/365: Park Duck, a photo by doglington on Flickr.

Not many inspiring things to photograph today, but I did like this duck's bright orange feet. He also had a certain swagger that only a City Duck can have when he lives in a park that doesn't allow dogs in the gates.

112/365: Vineyard Haircut

112/365: Vineyard Haircut, a photo by doglington on Flickr.

Yes, our vineyards have a funny haircut. It's all part of the plan, explained here:
leftcoastcowboys.com/2013/04/29/cut-yer-damn-hair/

111/365: Grapelets!

111/365: Grapelets!, a photo by doglington on Flickr.

Actually these are just buds that will flower, then "shatter" and only then produce grapes. But they look like tiny little grapes at this point. This is a Cabernet vine.

110/365: Orange Rose

110/365: Orange Rose, a photo by doglington on Flickr.

Remember that sad little rosebud whose picture I posted a few days ago? That was one of ours. I took a stroll to the famous San Jose Municipal Rose Garden and their blooms put ours to shame. I don't think I've ever seen an orange rose.

109/365: Crossing the Middle Ridge

109/365: Crossing the Middle Ridge, a photo by doglington on Flickr.

At Henry W. Coe State Park. There isn't really a sense of how high up this ridge is, but we are looking out East toward the Sierras in the distance.

108/365: Gather Ye Rosebuds

108/365: Gather Ye Rosebuds, a photo by doglington on Flickr.

While ye may. In the heat, our roses are opening fast and may wither and shrivel just as fast. I think it's going to be a short flower season this year. The wildflowers are already showing signs of being past their prime.

107/365: California Natives

107/365: California Natives, a photo by doglington on Flickr.

A Bay Checkerspot Butterfly on a Blue Dick. Yes, those of you who are twelve. You can start giggling now.

106/365: The Delta Queen

106/365: The Delta Queen, a photo by doglington on Flickr.

This has been a kitschy attraction in San Jose since the early Sixties. It's the Delta Queen Car Wash. While you get your car washed and hand dried, you can grab an espresso or a martini at the bar, feed the ducks in the pond or just have that camp Show Boat moment. Yes, big wheels keep on turnin'...

105/365: Showy Flower

105/365: Showy Flower, a photo by doglington on Flickr.

I'm not sure if this is a native California wildflower. I found it on a hike but not in a particularly wild area. Any thoughts?

104/365: Duck Fat

104/365: Duck Fat, a photo by doglington on Flickr.

I had planned a healthful dinner of vegetables from my own garden -- artichokes, asparagus, carrots and beets. Then Andy introduced potatoes fried in duck fat and negated everything.

103/365: Pillows Are For Terriers

103/365: Pillows Are For Terriers, a photo by doglington on Flickr.

End of story.

102/365: Waiting for the Sun

102/365: Waiting for the Sun, a photo by doglington on Flickr.

Did you know California Poppies close up at night or in high winds and open up when the sun is warm? Now you do.

101/365: Clarkia?

101/365: Clarkia?, a photo by doglington on Flickr.

This looks like some variation of Clarkia, a group of flowers native to Western North America -- and named after Clark of Lewis and Clark. But I've never seen one this vibrant in color or this red.

100/365: The Face that Could Sell a Thousand Light Products

100/365: The Face that Could Sell a Thousand Light Products, a photo by doglington on Flickr.

Today a crew from Rejuvenation Hardware came to my San Jose house to do a photoshoot for their catalog. They forgot the one accessory that can sell any product, a Smooth Fox Terrier just dripping with star power. I offered them two of mine. They declined. And I think their results are the poorer for it.

The story here: leftcoastcowboys.com/2013/04/10/were-going-to-make-your-k...

99/365: From Lick Observatory

99/365: From Lick Observatory, a photo by doglington on Flickr.

Okay, I promise to step away from the panorama function. But i couldn't resist this one taken from the top of Mount Hamilton from the parking lot of the Lick Observatory. I think we are looking across Silicon Valley toward the Coastal Range and the Pacific. I was more concerned about showing how curvy and clinging to the edge the scary road up there was.

98/365: Solitude and Sprawl

98/365: Solitude and Sprawl, a photo by doglington on Flickr.

Another hike with my Meetup group and another instance of the duality of San Jose. While it seems like the most sprawling mass of suburbia outside of LA, San Jose is surrounded very closely by open spaces, mountains and county parks where you can completely forget urban life. Well, some of the parks do that. This particular one, Santa Teresa County Park, had very few trails and areas that didn't include views of massing suburbia, large electrical towers and IBM facilities (their Almaden campus is nearby). However, it does has miles of trails that you can share with turkeys, bobcats, coyotes and deer about 1 mile from the nearest strip mall. It's the last vestige of one of Jose Bernal's land grants -- Bernal being one of the key members of the De Anza Expedition that marched up the coast of California in 1774 to claim the land for the King of Spain and eventually found San Francisco.

97/365: A Georgia O'Keeffe Moment

97/365: A Georgia O'Keeffe Moment, a photo by doglington on Flickr.

The workmen in Sonoma are always finding interesting bones around here -- the remains of coyote, bobcat and Mountain Lion dinners. They always leave the around in various places for me to find. This was Sunday's O'Keeffe moment.

96/365: Vineyard Haircut

96/365: Vineyard Haircut, a photo by doglington on Flickr.

In preparation for growing season, we've cut the ground cover. The bare strip was created with a blow torch! The idea is to keep all vegetation from interfering with the emitters. We're hoping a few seasons of scorching this area and we'll have nothing seeding out there anymore.

95/365: Blue Eyed Grass

95/365: Blue Eyed Grass, a photo by doglington on Flickr.

A Sonoma native wildflower.

94/365: Dr. Suess Flowers

94/365: Dr. Suess Flowers, a photo by doglington on Flickr.

Now something else has popped up in this garden I've inherited. Don't know what this is, but it would be at home in a Dr. Seuss book.

93/365: Banana Slug!

93/365: Banana Slug!, a photo by doglington on Flickr.

Went on a hike in the Santa Cruz Mountains and saw the revered Banana Slug. This guy was positively scurrying. By the time I clicked the shutter, he was already moving out of the frame. Who knew a gastropod could move so fast? Such is the wonder of the Banana Slug.

The post here: leftcoastcowboys.com/2013/04/03/a-walk-in-the-woods/

92/365: Alarm Dog Terriers

92/365: Alarm Dog Terriers, a photo by doglington on Flickr.

We have a tiny fenced back yard in San Jose. But we have to be careful releasing the dogs into it. There is a large dog on the one of the other sides of the fence and Oscar is convinced he can chew threw the wood and get him. Ditto when the neighbor was having some fence work done and the dogs were going crazy at the intrusion. Yes, we are protected by ADT. And that actually doesn't stand for Alarm Dog Terriers.

91/365: Redheaded Tree

91/365: Redheaded Tree, a photo by doglington on Flickr.

With this San Jose house, we inherited a garden. Which is the first ornamental garden I've ever had. In San Francisco, we have a deck, in Sonoma, I only have a vegetable garden. Especially in Sonoma, all my plantings have been with a concern to not allow invasive, non-native species. People in San Jose have no such fears. Everybody's little back yard features a U.N. of ornamental plants. I suspect this one isn't a California native. But I have no idea what it is. I call it The Redheaded Tree.