Walk report: San Pedro, California

Hello, everyone.

While visiting folks on our recent trip, we were introduced to a lovely walk in San Pedro, California. It started out just a stroll in the neighborhood. (Lots of pretty gardens there!) Suddenly we were walking along a dirt path alongside a fence. At the end of the fence, we found a steep downhill trail--the cliff path. It led down to the rocks of the shore.

 Looking down at the top of the trail

View of the Channel Islands from the trail

The path with wildflowers

The walk wasn't long, but because of the height change it was very invigorating. When our relative called it a "hike" she wasn't exaggerating.

One can't even tell that on the other side of the top is a city!

Walk report: Joshua Tree National Park

Hello, everyone.

Sorry about the hiatus in posting. I forgot. And there is, as usual, a wait list on sewing projects.

During our recent trip to visit family, we did a few walks. South Mountain Park has already been talked about.

Today I will mention that we also visited Joshua Tree National Park. This park is adjacent to Interstate 10 and just west of the California state border. (For those who remember, the infamous state ag department plant checkpoints don't appear to be staffed any more.) There are very few services in the area, as it's remote. Plan of bringing water and snacks with you if you're wanting to do a long walk. Also, of course, the usual desert area clothes should be worn as appropriate to the season.

The cutoff to the park entrance that one comes to while driving west looks like nothing. Take the exit, it's the only one as far as we could tell. It's straightforward, in that there are almost no crossing lanes between the highway and the park.

Part of Joshua Tree is in the low desert, and well furnished with such typical plants as ocotillo and some saguaro. The other part of the park is in the "medium" desert, neither low altitude and hot enough to be "low" nor high altitude and potentially cooler so as to be "high." The medium desert zone has as its famous plant the park's name plant, Joshua trees. These are an extra large species of yucca.

Another desert plant that grows in flocks in some parts of Joshua Tree is cholla cactus. This little thing that looks so cute from a distance is related to prickly pear cacti. Like them, if you touch it you will most likely get a flock of large and small (glochid) spines. In some places people plant cholla as a defensive hedge.

(We once had a prickly pear (nopal) hedge, it was pretty in bloom but a menace to beginning bicycle riders. It hid a huge cutter ant colony, too. Until we took the hedge out to put in a fence, we had no idea where the many, many attacks on our trees and shrubs were coming from.)

Cholla Garden cacti

There is a lovely short stroll near a cholla patch. They have helpfully placed some parking there. If I remember right, the park calls this the "Cholla Garden" as there are tons of chollas close together there.

Jumbo Rocks jack rabbit, with rocks

Farther on, we stopped at a rock outcrop called, I think, the Jumbo Rocks. I think they're granite, much eroded and really "neato" to look at and walk around. This area also has a parking area, and a couple of little tables to eat lunch at. (Bring your own picnic. And *pack out your trash.* I think I may have seen a restroom there. Check on the park map for restroom locations, campsite locations, entry gates, etc. There are no concession shops.)

Among the many very large rocks, and the amazing blooming cacti, there was a jackrabbit.

We got to Joshua Tree around 9 in the morning, an ideal time for strolling in the warm/hot desert. By the time we left, after a couple of strolls and reading some interpretive signs, it was nearing noon. We left by the gate at 29 Palms, a small city in California. I think there were about 20 cars and 30 motorcycles in  the entrance lane.

This is a really nice park for people who like to walk in the desert--some walking trails are rather long and you're supposed to sign the board at the trail head before you head out on them--and view nature.

This year was an exceptional year for the spring blossoms in the California desert. One final picture from Joshua Tree National Park:

June gloom, a weather phenomenon

Hello, everyone.

We're still on the road in sunny California. Well, not-so-sunny, actually. We're needing our windbreakers!

We're north of our home latitude, so it is earlier in spring here than in south Texas. Many of the past days have been surprisingly cool. Here is a picture of the sky on one of them.

The clouds are only about halfway up on the mountains. One of the local folks explained it to us. At around this time it is often cloudy and cool, with days in the 60sF, even in May. They call it June gloom.

Weather can be so surprising.

We have been seeing some fascinating flowers but the pictures are scattered over various devices so I will wait until we are at home and can get them all in one place to put pictures up.

Stations of the Cross

Hello, everyone.

In my last post, I showed some sculptures of the Stations of the Cross at Mission San Luis Rey. It occurs to me that some of my readers may be wondering what in the misty hills are Stations of the Cross.

The Stations grew out of another ancient Catholic Christian custom, the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. (Pilgrims to Jerusalem and the Holy Land became known as “palmeros” for the souvenir palms they picked up.)  While the pilgrims were in Jerusalem, especially if it was Holy Week,  devout pilgrims would walk the path of Jesus’ route to the Cross and His death. They would stop and pray at various points along the way.

Over time, the set of stopping points became a list of fourteen events that ends with Christ’s death on the Cross at Golgotha. And, over time, the custom became well-known. As the Church had declared that there were great spiritual benefits from accompanying Christ in spirit during His Passion, it became apparent that only people with the wherewithal and time to go to the Holy Land and travel about could do this. Beginning (I think) with the Franciscans, the people began going in heart to the Holy Land and accompanying Christ on his walk to the Cross in their own churches. Since this is a spiritual journey to begin with, crossing time back to the first century AD, crossing space as well as time doesn’t matter.  

Catholic churches almost always have a set of Stations for the faithful to spiritually follow Christ to Golgotha. There are a number of published books of meditations for a person to use, as well, such as the ones by St. Alphonsus of Liguria. These days one can not only get them on a Kindle, one can go to either indoor ones or outdoor ones in various places.

From Rome, Jesus is taken down from the Cross

From Mission San Luis Rey, Simon is conscripted to help Jesus carry His cross

From Pamplona, Spain, another view of Simon's conscription to help Jesus carry the Cross

From Madrid, Jesus is nailed to the Cross

From St. Paul's in Mission, Texas, some of the Stations. Left, Jesus is crucified, showing also the Blessed Virgin and St. John and one other figure at the foot of the Cross.

As you can see, over the centuries, different artists have approached the depictions differently. In future, as opportunity comes, I will collect more pictures of the Stations (in various settings) to share with you all.