We humans have to learn to save for a rainy day. Meanwhile, local critters just know what to do. This guy (or gal?) was hard at work yesterday, gathering acorns.
Oak acorns have supported life here since prehistory. So good you can smell them.
No rest in this green world.
Preparation. It’s ReallyRedding.
Lake Shasta still quite full for Fall 2010
I took these images at Bridge Bay yesterday. The lake seems really quite full for this time of the season. It looks like you could have really lovely day of boating out there.
Sometimes the lake is way down this time of year, making boat launches problematic, and revealing a big bathtub ring effect of lakeshore. Not quite as aesthetically pleasing as these images. But who can complain this year? Not me. It’s supposed to rain here Saturday, so presumably the lake will be further replenished. Abundant water, it’s Really Redding.
Hummingbird bathing
Looking down on Redding…
… from the sky. Erin took this photo of Redding looking south from a recent flight over our fair city. You can see the Sundial Bridge looking somewhat translucent. Click on the image to enlarge it. And we have a very high resolution version if you want it. We often see aerial views of Redding looking West, like the more common image from the Stillwater Business Park site seen below. From the North, we look very much like the River City we are, along with a commercial district to the East.
And speaking of commercial property, click on the Stillwater image to see a flyover of our nascent civic business park, replete with cheesy voiceover. Be sure to call us if you know any good candidate businesses we might invite here. We can get them hooked up for a killer deal. The seller is in no position to argue with any offer, shall we say. Call (530) 244 7603
- Click on the image for a flyover
Increased local thunderstorm activity was predicted
Here’s another massive supercell image from yesterday over Lassen.
It seems to me we’ve had a notable increase in the quantity and size of local thunderstorms. I have no scientific basis for my observation. It just seems to be the case.
Science predicts a measurable increase of water vapor in the atmosphere per every degree of climate warming, and so an increase in thunderstorm activity would naturally follow. Here’s a Science Daily article from 2007 predicting localized thunderstorm increases. Whether or not you choose to believe the science predicting global climate warming, you might want to get ready for more frequent and violent thunderstorms around here. Evidently.
Thirsty Hummingbird examines fountain
Photographing the Perseid Meteor Shower
Notice the title says “photographing,” and not “photographs of” the annual Perseid Meteor shower. Well, I may have gotten one shot of a small one. No matter. It was a beautiful night for stargazing.
I only went into my back yard. I was surprised at how clearly visible the Milky Way was, even in the city.
There were plenty of meteors. But it was like fishing in a boat when fish are jumping all around you, but not biting. Then, I think I got one. Over at the upper right.
I was reminded of a Hawkwind lyric.
Our legends tell we came from a seed
That traveled at a whirlwind speed
‘Till it came to rest upon this land
That once was green
And is now all sand
That buried us up to our eyes
And made us watchers of the skies
‘Till shadow wings
Came for our sight
And left us to conspire with night
It’s Really Redding.
.
When the going gets hot, the hot go to the coast
Sometimes it can get just a bit too warm, too many days in a row, over the course of summer in Redding, and that’s when it’s time to consider heading for the coast. Only 150 scenic miles away, the Northcoast provides welcome dose of fog and seaview. Just the cure for a late summer meltdown.
The road over the hill past the Redwood Curtain offers lovely river canyon views, and you arrive in what might as well be a different country. Certainly, a different climate zone. The complete contrast provides a quick reset to the senses. In Redding, we are blessed with choices. Rivers, redwoods, mountains, ocean, all within range. It’s not Really Redding, but its not that far either.
If Redding was New York, the Northcoast would be our Hamptons.
Shasta Dam 1942
This is one the very earliest color photographs of the dam, a technological feat for the time. The level of detail in the film seems much finer than typical contemporary digital images. The photography was taken in 1942 while Shasta Dam was still very much under construction. This image is from the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Farm Security Administration – Office of War Information Collection, and is available at the link in high resolution. All this work was taking place in the middle of World War II. It’s fascinating to see. That was a lot of concrete! It was an ambitious project. Not the same angle, and not the same level of detail, but it looks like this 68 years later:
The Squire Room
Warning to all married dudes about the Squire Room!
If you use your plastic, your credit card statement will read “Thunderbird Lounge.” There is no Thunderbird Lounge in Redding, but there is a Thunderbird Lodge right next to the Squire Room, which is exactly the sort of place in downtown Redding where, if you’re a mack daddy, you might be hooking up with a Craigslist “masseuse.”
Because I’m such a playa, TL has been all up in my mobile phone and email and bank accounts and DNA signature since long before Elin Nordegren Woods decided to take a 3-iron to hubby Tiger’s well-deserving dome. To make matters worse, TL was out of town on the date that the the damning credit card charge posted.
I had to call the Squire Room on speaker phone and ask my man if they were in any way affiliated with Thunderbird Lodge, and if that explained that nasty $38 “Thunderbird Lounge” charge on my VISA, which coincidentally is about what you might expect to be charged for a room at the Thunderbird Lodge.
My man on the speaker phone is like, “Uh huh. Same owner.”
Mmmfuuuck. Not cool, my man. Not cool.
Yelp review by Buzz Fledderjohn, in whose Palo Cedro yard I am not allowed. Photos by Skip Murphy.
