Life and all in Redding California
Given the drought, it has seemed like a decadent pleasure to run our fountain. Especially so during these last several hottest days of Summer. But the local birds surely enjoy it. Local wildlife must be impacted by drought too.
This bird is certainly thirsty.
Redding has it’s share of tough old birds.
We have water. It’s Really Redding.
Sometimes the war drums of the drought campaign ring hollow in River City.
I am 100% for saving water (see how I ripped out my back lawn and replaced it with decomposed granite). But Redding is not in the desert.
We have water.
Marc Beauchamp, columnist for our local paper, recently ran an email he’d gotten as an opinion piece in his blog. I don’t know who wrote it. But the author articulated some points about Redding and our relationship to water (and our present drought) that I believe are worth sharing. My sentiments echoed.
An excerpt:
“As an adjunct to this line of thinking let me offer this. The truth is that the city of Redding has plenty of water. We sit at the confluence of five or six of the most important rivers/streams in California.
“In addition, Redding receives more direct rainfall than Seattle, a little known fact that should win a wager at any respectable cocktail lounge south of here.
“This terrible drought notwithstanding, we are awash in water even at this time. The rainfall that we receive in addition to riparian rights and precedent use would dictate so.
“After all, downstream urban use and AG interests came along much later than Redding. Redding has water and this fact is due to our geographical positioning.
“On the other side of this argument is that our geographic positioning lashes us with a very hot summer season and our community suffers for this. I believe that our inability to attract high quality corporate investment and thereby all the attendant benefits (wealthy middle classes, high quality shopping, quality higher education, quality cultural events etc.) is due to the Death Valley summer conditions that we endure.
“San Diego, La Jolla, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Santa Barbara, Palo Alto and any number of coastal cities enjoy the benefit of their geographical positioning as well.
“They have moderate temperatures year round and the wealthy choose to live there. They receive these benefits but do not want to accept the negative side of their geographic positioning which is that there is now insufficient water for all of them to live there, much less continue developing.
“Since we suffer the inconvenience of our location we, at the very least, should receive the benefits of our location.
“When it is unbearably hot here we do not ask the residents of Los Angeles to pay our air conditioning bill.
“When they do not have sufficient water they should have no moral or legal claim to the water that we might use on our landscaping done by LW Landscapes or similar companies, or any other use that we might have for our water, certainly not without compensation.
Let Redding offer to those south of us this proposition. We have plenty of water and you can locate your family here and your businesses here and be assured that you will have sufficient water.
“We here in Redding should be watering our lawns, building water features, and even finding some discount sheds to make sure our landscape looks spectacular. Every landscape should have a shed so that maintenance tools, like rakes or hoses, don’t obstruct the gorgeous landscape being created. We should also let the Market figure out where is a good place to live and have sustenance.
“Los Angelinos taking a 2 minute shower twice a week while we run through the sprinklers on our lawns would do more for the promotion of Stillwater Park than a phalanx of overpaid “Marketing Directors”.
“Hope this view might provide a perspective for dialogue between the haves and the have nots.”
There was more to the piece, but that’s the section that struck a chord with me. Here’s a link to the full article.
Redding has been asked to cut water use by 36%. Complying seems more an act of artificial solidarity than anything of real hydrologic value. Seeing now all the dead landscaping showing up around here isn’t helping Redding, and it isn’t really helping the rest of the state much either.
I remember this well. About 15 years ago the cities of Merced and Redding were in a battle for the next University of California. Even though Merced was located less than 30 miles to CS Stanislaus, a decision was made to place the new campus in Merced. Recently a bill was introduced to create a new UC with a STEM theme and Northern California students and families want the University of California to build this newest campus in Redding. You can sign the petition to bring the UC to Redding.
“Where science lives.” It’s ReallyRedding.
We enjoy a world class pool and aquatic facility located in Caldwell Park near the Sacramento River in Redding.
Northstate kids really need to know how to swim, and can get lessons here. There’s also a bunch of activities and fun events, which you can learn about at the Redding Aquatic Center website.
Cousins with grandma. Sure, just try to get everyone to smile AND look at the camera.
A life aquatic. It’s ReallyRedding.
Edit 2019. This place is closed and the owners moved to Jacksonville Oregon.
Here is one of our well loved B&Bs, Old Thyme of Redding.
They posted a video to offer guests some idea of what delights they may expect.
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Highly recommended. Old Thyme is ReallyRedding.
Your hosts: Tony and Linda Kilcollins
oldthymebnb@att.net
Spoken languages English, Phone: +1530-241-1444
Be sure to Like Old Thyme on Facebook too.
We keep a list of Redding area lodgings and B&Bs at the tab near the header.
David Gendron lives and shoots in our far Northern California region. His images often range from surreal to abstract and beyond.
Provocative, and evocative.
Visions well worth our view. Click on any of the thumbnails here to go to his online gallery.
Now living in Cottonwood, David is self described thus:
I’m on Earth for a photo assignment. Not sure where my next job will be.
Well, we’re glad you stopped in for a look around, and to show us what you saw, David. You are Really Redding.
Recently, the Martian robot rover Curiosity completed a journey of more than 26 miles on Mars. Over 11 years. You can watch a time lapse of the journey in this video.
It seems to me that years from now, when looking back on this period of history, this will seem a more important accomplishment than most things we see in the daily news.
Robot planet explorer from California. From the Red Planet to Really Redding.
Before Redding existed, Shasta was the queen city of Northern California. Shasta’s mostly fireproof main street now lies in ruin. But you can catch a glimpse life in the Gold Rush era and more at the Courthouse Museum.
The ruins are now Shasta State Historic Park. There are also live demonstrations of pioneer skills like blacksmithing that go on in the park. Here are a few images I captured of what the museum typically has on display.
