Dan and I spent a few nights in Napa last week. It was strange to stay overnight somewhere when we live so close, but the time-share stay was a retirement gift from his co-workers and it was a great opportunity for us to go do some of those things that are “in our own backyard” that we don’t take time to do otherwise.
The weather outlook for Tuesday was dry so we decided to find a place to hike. Many of the state and county parks in the area are closed due to the recent horrific fires. But we found a trail that was unaffected by the Tubbs Fire. We had breakfast in Calistoga and then drove up Hwy. 29 towards Mt. St. Helena.
The Robert Louis Stevenson State Park to the north of the highway is closed but the Table Rock trail is south of the highway.
The trail starts out in groves of oak, madrone, and bay trees. This area was damp from recent rain and the trees looked as though they were covered with green fur.
A new kind of fir fur tree?
Making things larger than life through the lens.
As the trail descended the other side of the first ridge the vegetation seemed more typical of California chaparral. These are the seeds of the California Buckeye.
The California buckeye is one of the first deciduous trees to leaf out in the spring, but it also goes dormant and loses it’s leaves in late summer. Although the “nuts” may seem similar to chestnuts, these are toxic.
The trail leads to the western end of a formation called the Palisades, volcanic rock that towers over the northern end of the Napa Valley.
That is the town of Calistoga down below. 
We sat on the rocks known as Table Rock for quite awhile, soaking up the sun and watching birds and the beautiful sky. The fire missed this area, but not Mt. St. Helena in the background and the lower area along the highway.
As we sat on the rocks Dan noticed a Cal Fire plane flying around Mt. St. Helena and then saw it drop something–we wonder of that is seed to help stabilize the burned landscape.
This local church was booked for any of the Fibershed group who wanted to spend the night after the long day at the Symposium.
It is a great place to stay for anyone traveling in that area. 
This was originally a house that was purchased from the Frick family in 1950 and turned into a church. There is a fascinating multi-level maze of rooms and halls and stairways. This view looks down from the third floor on what was originally the family’s living room.
I love this dining area, partly because the table is of the same era (at least from looking at some of it’s features) as the table that my mom bought and we still use, although this one is in much better shape than ours.
I stayed in this bedroom with five other women. There are several bedrooms with different numbers of beds. I think the place can accommodate 36 people.
When I got up on Sunday morning I decided to take a walk before our meeting and headed up a road I found behind the church.
This is my kind of Sunday morning.
The road I found led me back down to the main road and Tomales Bay.
It is great when you find open space accessible to the public.
Rebecca pointed out huckleberries which were still on the bushes, although the normal harvest season was over. I wouldn’t have known and would have avoided these unknown berries.
Stephanie (wearing her handknit Jacob sweater) ate her share as did the rest of us.
This is a much wetter area than where I usually find myself and there were still signs of the previous night’s rain.
Another testament to the dampness were the large slugs that we saw.
The view overlooking Tomales Bay. What a beautiful day we had!
As we were coming back down from the ridge that has a view of the ocean, another hiker coming up the hill saw our silhouettes and offered to take our photo. This is the view that she saw.
What time I have spent in the snow has been well after the storms have come through. There is something very different and beautiful about being there immediately after the snowfall…
…while the branches are still heavy with snow.
I loved seeing the snow clear to the tops of the trees. As the sun started warming the trees, snow cascaded from the highest branches.
I spent the night at M & K’s (Dan came home for chores and dog duty) and the next day Dan came back and brought Chris and Meryl with him. Then we celebrated our private family Christmas.
The younger generation helping the older one with digital issues.
Chris plays a mini-flute sporting his new Storm Trooper oven mitt.
Here are my sheep/barn related Christmas gifts. My wheelbarrows constantly need their tires pumped up so Dan got the fittings to go on an extra air compressor in the barn. There are tubes and tires for my handtruck. Dog treats from Hawaii. Sheep and dog magnets. All the attachments for my new GoPro (birthday present). Footrot Flats is a comic strip series that I think only a sheep farmer would enjoy. Hand and foot warmers packets that I’ll share with Farm Club in the barn. 
We took another hike that afternoon. This was a great two-day Christmas celebration with family. And it’s not quite over. The kids are taking us to see StarWars in a couple of days. The only thing missing was my granddaughter and her family but at least we spent a week with them not long ago.
This is Jenkinson Lake. There camping areas all around it and lots of people on this Memorial Day weekend. I had Ginny on the leash and she had a lot of lessons in good behavior when meeting kids, bikes, etc. Matt had told me that it was about 10 miles from their house, around the lake, and back. When I was standing here I though that maybe I’d do that instead of just an out-and-back walk. I would continue to the left in this photo, go around the dam in the center of the photo and back to their place.
After walking some more I came to this part of the lake and decided that maybe an around-the-lake walk wasn’t going to work for today. This is a finger of the lake that juts back up the valley and I would have to walk all the way around this part and the main part of the lake in the other photo. So I went a little further up the west side here and then turned around but took a higher trail back that avoided some of the crowds that were nearer the lake.
This is Ginny sitting on the dock. She didn’t seem to care that the ground under her was rocking.
That low growing shrub is mountain misery and here are some close-ups.
Mountain misery is unique to the western slope of the Sierras and there is a lot of it. It has a pungent oily sap and can play a role in preventing erosion to hillsides in the years following major fires. On the other hand those same deep far-reaching roots use up a lot of moisture and may prevent other plants from becoming established. 
I don’t live in the mountains so don’t deal with it as a “weed” and I like the fragrance–it reminds me of the forest after a rain.
I came across a small area of striking yellow on a south facing slope. I didn’t identify these flowers but in their midst I found some…
…monkey flowers. At least I’m pretty sure they are Mimulus but I don’t know which species.What I noticed first about them were the seed pods.
What I noticed first about them were the seed pods.
Don’t tell Rusty and Maggie where we were. I feel guilty leaving them home. This was fun for Ginny and me and Ginny got about 6 miles of on-leash work on manners.
…to the trail to Bassi Falls at about 5400′ elevation.
There wasn’t enough snow to snowshoe but there was no wind and the other signs of winter were still there.
