How’s that for a giant title? Let’s see it again: “Photographic Reasons I Love February in Tulare County”. However, I confess to taking these photos at the end of January. Sometimes the anticipation is just overwhelming, or maybe February is pushing back at being the shortest month and intruding on January.
Driving down the hill one day, I just had to pull over and gawk.
It happened again when I was closer to Exeter.
These paperwhites are very fragrant.
I tried to get a profound photo of a black cat with white flowers, but Tucker just wanted to sit on my lap and purr and drip.
If you subscribe to my newsletter, you learned that I have some new cards for sale, and this post will be a refresher for you.
What do you do when it rains day after day?
Besides being a looky-loo at all the flowing water around Three Rivers, apparently I sit around designing and ordering new cards. Then I fold and package them, in three different assortments.
Bigger than my normal little notecards, these glossy cards are 4-3/4 x 7-1/2″, a package of 4 cards with envelopes for $20.
Three assortments:
Tulare County: Citrus Cove, Citrus & the Sierra, Farewell Gap at Dusk, Honeymoon Cabin (1 each of 4 pictures, with envelopes)
Citrus Groves: Citrus Cove, Citrus & the Sierra (2 each of 2 pictures, with envelopes)
Mineral King: Farewell Gap at Dusk, Honeymoon cabin (2 each of 2 pictures, with envelopes)
If you order, I will pay the postage.
BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!
I also put together packages that have four cards with envelopes, all the same design. This is NOT on the website, so if you have a particular favorite and would like a package of just that design, let me know via email or phone or old fashioned mail or catch me somewhere in Three Rivers. Same price.
There is an art show coming, “Tulare County: Varied Impressions”. This is the juried show I entered 6 pieces in, in spite of there being a 3 pieces per artist rule. I couldn’t decide, so I let the curator do so. She chose these three paintings:
This meant I had to gather them from three different places where they were hanging for sale, and then drive them to Tulare on a blustery wet day.
It was beautiful out and I thoroughly enjoyed my errands. Tulare is west and south of Three Rivers, a dairy town out in the flatlands. There is lots of open farmland on the route I chose (and also along the ones I didn’t choose).
Valley oaks are a common sight in the Central Valley, quercus lobata, the largest of the American oaks.
Farming is a tough way to earn a living; my mom always said it was like living in a constant gamble. Someone has given up on this grove of walnuts. The price was too low for many growers to harvest this past fall.
Tulare is big dairy country; lots of Portugese immigrated here from the Azores and brought their knowledge with them. Haagen Dazs ice cream is made in Tulare! There is also a Land O’ Lakes production plant there, and probably lots of others I don’t know about. (My family was into citrus rather than cows.)
This is the Tulare Historical Museum, which also has the Heritage Art Gallery, where the show Tulare County: Varied Impressions will be (details below).
After a few more errands, I headed home. While at The Four-Way (the intersection of 198 and 65) where one can turn south toward Exeter, I heard an emergency alert on the radio. It advised people to not drive to Exeter, Lemon Cove, or Three Rivers, saying there were dangerous thunderstorms.
Without regard to the warning, I drove home to Three Rivers, passing by Lemon Cove. There was a fabulous rainbow, and very heavy rains, but it was too exciting to take any photos.
That’s right—I promised you details about the art show.
TULARE COUNTY: Varied Impressions
JANUARY 12 – FEBRUARY 18, 2023
Artists’ Reception, Thursday, January 12, 5-7 p.m.
The poppies and other wildflowers were at at their peak on March 11. Three friends and I took the afternoon off to go fill our eyes.
First, we had to empty our wallets to fill the gas tank. Welcome to Three Rivers.
Then we headed down around the lake, and up Dry Creek Road, all within eastern Tulare County.
This last photo shows Terminus Dam in the distance, which creates Kaweah Lake. The flowers weren’t fabulous right there at the Dry Creek Preserve, but it was clear and green, which is pretty fabulous on its own.
We never did get out amidst the flowers but stayed on the shoulder of the road, and actually did no trespassing whatsoever.
After thinking over the title Heart of Rural Tulare County, I wasn’t satisfied.
I looked at the original coloring book, Heart of the Hills, and realized that this one needed to be Heart of the County.
That’s the ticket! My Shadow Consultant agreed, after suggesting a couple of tiny adjustments.
The idea to do this came quickly, and the retail places that sell my work want it in time for Christmas. That’s why most of the drawings are gleaned from the previous coloring books, compiling them into a broad portrait of the county’s rural places. I thought you might need to know that. It is sort of like buying a “Best of” album from your favorite music group, and then you either say, “Oh I love this song” or “Wait, I already have this”.
Like all the previous coloring books, each page has a tiny hidden heart.
Three Rivers has one river, the Kaweah, pronounced “kuh-WEE-uh”. Four forks come together into the Middle Fork, but apparently only three mattered when it was time to name the town. (No, I don’t know which three.) Middle, Marble, East, South, and North are the names of the various branches.
A week or two ago, I learned that the brother of two of my former drawing students took on something called a “bridge project”. He was commissioned to create four 2×2′ tile mosaics to decorate a new bridge somewhere in the county. I asked around and concluded it must be the bailey bridge at the upper end of South Fork Road. So, Trail Guy and I went exploring.
You can see evidence of the SQF Complex fire that burned a lot of South Fork, threatened Three Rivers, Case Mt. and Mineral King
Here is the bridge, going in just upstream of the old bailey bridge, and still just one lane wide:
You can watch Nate Norman talk about making these tiles on this YouTube video. (You might want to fast forward past the first few minutes of someone talking about Arts Consortium business and get right to Nate’s presentation.)
I did a screen shot from the video to show you one of his truly beautiful mosaics. As someone who has experimented with tile mosaic in the past, I can assure you that this was no small undertaking.
We drove up near the bridge, but it was being worked on so I just took a couple of photos. I am guessing the tiles will go on each of 4 main pillars, one of which I have circled the spot in red for you.
The bridge is about 11 miles up South Fork Road, and I think the campground is one mile farther. We didn’t cross the bridge, but headed back down. It was such a beautiful day that I almost forgot about August. And heat. And smoke. And smog.
There were poppies, but they were closed up due to the overcast day. However, I did get this poor photo of a few wildflowers by kneeling in the mud on the side of the road.
You are welcome.
I do what I can to find the beauty in Tulare County, but not so much that people will flock here. Remember, we are uneducated, poor, unemployed, fat, and diabetic. Oh, and there is that bad air filtering down through the Altamont Pass from the Bay Area for which we get penalized. Further, there is no Trader Joe’s and never will be.
Today’s tour will consist of views – oak trees, the pond, the arbors, and finally, the views from the 2 hills on the north east corner of Tulare County’s Mooney Grove Park.
I felt sad to not be going to the park when my murals were finished, and this tour was my way of lingering. Now that our extended tour of Mooney Grove has concluded, we will return to the actual business of art next week.
Today we’ll look at trees in Tulare County’s Mooney Grove. Just trees, no talk.
Tomorrow we’ll visit some oddities and unusual pieces and points of interest in Tulare County’s Mooney Grove Park. Many things can fit in a 100 acre park.
More photos of Mooney Grove Park, where I took a walk each day after I finished working on the murals on the Tulare County Museum.
Speaking of the museum, let’s focus on that treasure today. I’ve included pictures of the Pioneer Village behind the museum (entered through the museum) and 3 photos inside the museum.
Tomorrow, we’ll look at a bridge, not my favorite bridge (Oak Grove), but a simpler bridge in a true oak grove.
Tomorrow we’ll look at trees.
Tomorrow, we’ll look at a bridge, not my favorite bridge (Oak Grove), but a simpler bridge in a true oak grove.