Spring Walk in Three Rivers

About a week ago on a chilly afternoon with brilliant sunshine and puffy white clouds, Trail Guy and I went for a walk. Nothing much to say – just enjoy spring in Three Rivers with me.

Trail Half-Day

Yesterday I promised to show you the hike my walking buddy T and I took one morning instead of our usual ground-pounding fast walk. (This qualifies as a hike because we carried food and water.) We drove about 10 minutes into Sequoia National Park, a little ways past the entrance station in order to walk to Shepherd Saddle.

This was our view when we started around 8:30. Sure felt casual compared to our normal meeting time of 6:00.
We were expecting rain and wanted to test our new parkas, but Sycamore Creek was the only water we saw besides some puddles and a few water troughs for the stock.
Now here is a peculiar sight. Have you ever seen a horse with a perm?
The clouds obstructed most views of the mountains except for a tiny piece poking out.
The manzanita were almost the only flowers we saw.
The clouds were beautiful looking down the canyon.
And here we are, at the gate on Shepherd’s Saddle. We are on National Park land; the other side is a mystery as to ownership.
T gave me a tangerine, and it was so pretty I photographed it before peeling it. We left the emergency M&Ms unopened – please be impressed.
Going home was much quicker. Duh. It was all downhill.
Sycamore Creek already?
We wondered if it had more water flowing on the way back down, but didn’t pursue the question.

Okay, Central California artist, get to your easel and start painting.

Memorial service for The Cowboy
Bert Raymond Weldon, May 21, 1956 — January 8, 2019
CELEBRATION OF LIFE AND RECEPTION Friday, March 15, 2019, 11:00 a.m. CrossCity Christian Church, 2777 E. Nees Avenue, Fresno, California 93720

Early Spring in Three Rivers

February is my favorite month around here. It is the beginning of spring, with apologies to my readers in less temperate climates, who might be a little less enthusiastic about this month. Sometimes I take a break in the middle of the day to enjoy Three Rivers during this exciting weather period.

Upstream view of the middle fork of the Kaweah River from the Dinely Bridge.
Downstream view of same.
Before retirement, Trail Guy wore green pants with a gray shirt. Now, he wears the opposite.
A regular peculiar sight on the Dinely Bridge.
Primary colors in my yard, and some bright sunshine in the middle of a rainy day.
Back in the studio, listening to pouring rain on my metal roof.
The flowering quince outside the kitchen window attracts birds. More accurately, it is the bird feeder that attracts them.
Here is a different kind of bird. I am more interested in flower names than bird names.

Every year I ask this unanswerable question: Why can’t February have 31 days instead of August?

The Lake as a Metaphor

Prepare yourself for a long essay today. I hope you can recover from this major bloviation by tomorrow when I post about early spring in Three Rivers. Yes, I still work . . . you can see more paintings in progress next week. But February is my favorite month, so for now I am choosing to show you the beauty of Three Rivers instead of paintings in progress.

While at Kaweah Lake recently with Trail Guy, it occurred to me that our lake can serve as a metaphor for life in Tulare County. Think about these comparisons.

Tulare County is in the Central Valley, California’s “flyover country”, meaning the part people just blow through or over to get where they really want to go, like San Francisco, Napa Valley, Los Angeles, Death Valley, or Yosemite (“Oh dear, must we first go to Fresno? horrors!”). 

While puttering around on the lake bottom (more around the edges, because it has been filling up lately), I thought of all the people flying past on the highway above, probably unaware of what the lake below has to offer. Isn’t a lake for sailing? This one, not so much. How about water skiing? Sure, in the earlier half of summer, not in February. Looks empty, meh, keep driving. 

Someone’s beloved home was once here.

 

Here was the stone fireplace; over there must have been the bathroom. A small living space with large views in a great location.

Tulare County is poor and uneducated, with bad air, fat people, high welfare, diabetes and teen pregnancies. Not too appealing, eh?

Kaweah Lake’s drained floor is kind of cruddy. We pick up aluminum cans and shake out the mud and gross stuff before squashing them. We slip and slide on the slimy mud that is coating the old road. We pick cockleburs out of our shoelaces and the shaggy edges of my unhemmed jeans. There is a lot of trash and broken things. It is a cheap place to visit for recreation compared to Sequoia—$4-5 per car instead of $30-35 for Sequoia. (Can’t remember exactly, so I am guessing at the actual numbers.)

Tulare County has been my home for almost 60 years (minus a few misguided years in college), and I work hard to find the good things here, particularly as an artist, looking for beautiful ways to represent my turf.

The lake bottom has treasures, whether it is aluminum cans for my friend’s Hawaii fund, Indian grinding holes, or an occasional blue marble or oyster shell (mysterious finds, indeed). Don’t forget, it also has beautiful views, lots of birds, and a few wildflowers too.

Tulare County’s main industry is agriculture. We feed the world, producing more food than any other place in the country (except Fresno County, because we trade off with them to be king). 

Kaweah Lake was built as water storage for agriculture (but flood control was its primary purpose).

What is this thing??
Disc Golf Association? A frisbee golf course!
Sometimes there are surprising peeks at beautiful views.

Tulare County has Sequoia National Park, a major recreational destination.

Kaweah Lake is a countywide draw for those who love to recreate on water.

Where in your life are you overlooking beauty, history, treasures, and recreational opportunities right under your nose, because it seems meh, boring, cruddy, and beneath you?

Field Trip

Trail Guy and I took another field trip. If I call it that, then it sounds as if I am working. I am always working if I hand out a business card or take a photo that might be worth painting.

View upcanyon from Slick Rock area at Kaweah Lake.
Alta Peak is the highest one; Moro Rock is the granite monolith just above the green hills on the left; the spots in the sky are my signature photo look.
Mustard is usually the first wildflower in the foothills, blooming in early February like clockwork (if we’ve had rain).
Walking in the lake bottom means getting cockleburrs in ones shoelaces.
With the recent rains, the lake is filling up, so we walked up to the Horse Creek Bridge, since our normal route is underwater now.
The pillars are huge up close and would be fun to paint, maybe like the trunks of redwood trees. I wonder how mural paint holds up underwater. . .
On the other side of the bridge is the abutment of a small old bridge. No dates visible, and only a vague idea of its purpose (besides the obvious one of crossing Horse Creek).
Looking back at the bridge. I’ve never seen it from this side before.
What a peculiar sight and strange find –an oyster shell! Were the squirrels planning on using it as a trap door? Did if fall from someone’s boat?

‘splorin’

Three Rivers is a very spread out community with the Middle Fork, South Fork, North Fork and East Forks of the Kaweah River flowing down long canyons. (Yes, I know this is four rivers; I don’t think the town namers were paying full attention).

Trail Guy and I went exploring; we wanted to find a road and see if it connected to another road. (Vague enough for you? Gotta protect privacy. . .) We found the road, but our key didn’t fit the locks, so we kept driving up South Fork. There is a campground that is part of Sequoia National Park at the end, and we hadn’t been there in many years.

The road is terrible. Truly terrible. Rough, rutted, rocky. Unmaintained.

This isn’t the rocky rutted part; it was too messed up to pull over, get out and photograph in those places.
There’s a view of Homer’s Nose that makes it look deceptively accessible.

In the campground is the trail to Garfield Grove, Giant Sequoias 2.9 miles away. And a footbridge, across which is the trail to Ladybug and to Clough’s Cave (with a gate across the opening).

The footbridge was icy. Trail Guy crawled underneath to see if it was the same one he helped build back when the Earth was young.
Brrr, I’m heading to the sunshine.
Good thing I went walking this morning already, because I only want to sit on the tailgate and contemplate things in the sunsine.

We ran into someone we knew from Three Rivers, just home from a yearlong assignment in Macedonia. As we were catching up with him, some people came off the trail, overheard us, and came over to say that one of them got home from Macedonia yesterday. What?? This sort of thing just gobsmacks me. Ever been gobsmacked? It is sort of fun.

Another Fun Day at the Easels

I took three photos of these paintings so you could see the improvement, or was it so I could have something to say on the blog today?

The former. I always have something to say. (Have you noticed this?)

There was a problem on the far left. Sometimes this happens when I just blindly copy my photos. See how those 2 oranges merge into a somewhat visually confusing lump? After studying it for a weekend while it dried above the wood stove, I figured out how to repair it.

Decision made – change this into one large orange. And while repairing things, I straightened the line of the table. Used a yardstick – is it cheating to use tools in the Art World? Not in my little art world.

Almost finished. needs a couple more layers on some of the do-over parts, a signature, and a much better photograph.

I thought this would take much longer, but these colors are fun and there is a real freedom in painting what I choose instead of what might sell. Not complaining about the business of art, just enjoying some yippee-skippee time at the easels with these happy colors.

The colors are truer when I photograph it outside.

This might be finished. It is now signed, but while it is drying, I might find aspects that could be improved.

And since I am outside, let us enjoy the yellow leaves. I am so thankful we didn’t follow through on our first impulse when we moved here 20 years ago to get rid of the mulberry tree with its ugly knobby over-pruned knuckles. Instead, on the advice of the very experienced Gene Castro’s Tree Service of Three Rivers, (not a paid ad, just a statement of fact) we allowed the tree to gradually grow a large enough trunk to support its limbs through some judicious pruning.

It is the purview of the middle-aged to think that walks and leaves are great. (Don’t worry Little Grasshopper, one day you too will be able to enjoy these lovely and healthful freebies in life and be able to correctly use words like “purview”.)

A Walk in Three Rivers (or Forgive Us our Trespasses)

Trail Guy and I go for walks from our house in Three Rivers. I’d say its just what old people do, but we’ve been doing this for 20 years, and we still go steep places that may or may not be considered trespassing.

Here is how things looked yesterday afternoon.

The decorations on the Dinely Bridge might be considered a Peculiar Sight, but we are used to them and look for them.

The star gets placed and lit by Southern Calif. Edison each December. It might be considered a Peculiar Sight to a newcomer. (I consider the dark spots in the sky to be a peculiar and annoying sight; it might be time for a new camera.)

Some retired guys wear short pants almost all year around. At least this retired guy has nice legs. . .

Sycamores along the river below have more color this year than in a long time.

Edison is releasing water instead of sending it down to the power plant. I don’t know why.

The clean air is such a relief after the rains, which we are so very grateful for.

Then we walked home, and our mulberry tree was just lit up with yellow. This is a fruitless mulberry, the type that gets hacked back to knobs by most folks. Not us – we need the shade and love the yellow (never mind what it has done to the grass beneath or is doing the ferns by the front porch).

Tucker and Scout were happy we returned. We have to sneak off so they don’t notice and follow us.

Scout is always ready for action (which is why she is slightly blurry in this photo.)

Yellow eyes, yellow leaves, 2 black cats.

P.S. Today’s Anne Lang Emporium featured oil painting 

Navel, 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, $60

The Perfect Gift Boutique

For the past 20 years or so, I’ve been part of a group called the Kaweah Artisans. We put on a little boutique-sale-show-event each year on the Friday and Saturday following Thanksgiving. We’ve been at the Three Rivers Arts Center for many years, but this year we will be somewhere else in Three Rivers.

We will transform this empty building into a Christmas boutique.

THE PERFECT GIFT BOUTIQUE

41849 Sierra Drive, Three Rivers, California

Thursday, November 23-Friday, November 24

10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

If you are heading uphill/upstream and get to the Chevron station, you’ve gone too far, so turn around, head down, and this time it will be on your right. If you get to the candy store, you’ve gone another mile too far, so buy some chocolate, then turn around, head downstream, and it will be on your right, a few buildings after the Chevron.

PARTICIPANTS: Nikki Crain (weaver), Anne Brown (potter), Carole Clum (metal sculptor), Sam McKinney (gourdista), Elizabeth Mitchell (jeweler) and maybe even a few surprise guests. Oh, and me! Me too!