Hiking, Preserving Good Ideas & Praying for Rain

There are good ideas and bad ideas. Leaving oaks for palms was not one of my better ideas. Perhaps I mentioned on a different post that I missed big trees while living in the desert. Of course, I had a great connection with my lemon tree and will always miss her fragrant blossoms and juicy, plump fruit. Lately however, I've reunited with some old friends and though I remember certain mighty trees, do they remember me?

Most ideas start with a seed that develops into something great and tall like an oak or they shrivel...withering away... if not watered and protected. 
Nurture your ideas and they will grow!


Going on a hike is a wonderful idea!

 Yes, pay the small day-use fee and let’s go.

Hiking boots are a must.
 Even though it's mostly flat terrain
 there are rocky sections and tarantulas.

Which way should we go? A Robert Frost moment.

Is this tree gorgeous, or what?

Before we moved to the desert, we lived five miles from the Santa Rosa Plateau and Ecological Preserve. It is a great place to go hiking--observe nature and sometimes--even wildlife. Yesterday, on a lovely November Sunday, and after a nine-year hiatus, we finally returned. Though looking a bit dry, I was elated that our new home is still only six miles away.
You should see this place in the spring!

Dry grasses reflect the seriousness of the California drought. Remarkable and strange due to the international news this area created during a deluge about a month ago. Huge floods just down the street were washing cars away. Lightning and thunder shook our home and a lake formed on a lot next door. There was also rain last week and evidence of lightning strikes up in the preserve.

Once home to the Luiseno tribe, it’s a serene place now consisting of 9000 acres. The preserve has coyotes, mountain lions, mule deer and other animals roaming free in their natural habitat. We saw two large, gold-colored coyotes but hurried along the trail so they wouldn't alert the rest of the pack.

There are vernal pools, meadows for horseback riding, mountain biking and the oldest standing structures in our county called the adobes. 

It’s only a 2.5-mile hike and a lovely way to spend the day. There are picnic benches surrounding the adobe buildings and it’s very quiet. The only sound was the woodpecker banging his bill into the 400-year-old oak above us.
 Here are some interesting facts about 

the adobes.

* Built in 1846 by a rancher called Juan Moreno--the last Mexican governor of California territory, Pio Pico, granted him 48,000 acres.

* Moreno sold his ranch in 1855 for $1000 and some livestock.

*    In 1876 some British businessmen bought the land for $1 an acre.

*    In 1894 it went into receivership.

*    In 1964 it was sold to Kaiser Steel for 21 million.

*   In 1984 it was purchased by the Nature Conservancy.

Have you heard of the Nature Conservancy’s Plant a Billion trees campaign? Now that’s a great idea!