Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

California

Old Guys Rule

old-guys-rule.jpgWhen we visit Catalina Island (once or twice a year) we always shop along the main drag (Crescent Avenue) and some of the side streets and mini-malls. I like to get “Old Guys Rule” merchandise, since I pretty much identify with that thought process. OGR stuff is sold throughout Southern California, but is especially abundant on the island. damsel-ogr.jpgThere are Old Guys Rule t-shirts, license plates, coffee mugs, beer mugs, picture frames, towels, boxer shorts, hats and more.

Once in a while, an “Old Guys Rule” article will shrink (a lot of my stuff seems to shrink in the closet these days) and Damsel will appropriate it ’cause she likes the stuff too. It makes me feel good when she wears it since she lets me rule sometimes and I think it looks cute on her.

01 Jul 2007 by California Culture Travel

Whirligig

Whirligig is the nickname given to this Trailing African Daisy (osteospermum fruticosum). I snapped this picture last week at the Botanic Garden.

african-daisy.jpg

The Whirligig is a member of the Aster family, closely related to other mums and daisies with a single-tier of petals. It propagates well from cuttings and does well in the Southwestern United States. According to the Desert Tropicals website (Phoenix, AZ) this flower suffers in hotter climates like Phoenix, but is hardy when it comes to tolerating frost.

28 Jun 2007 by California Home & Garden Photography

Summer in the Botanic Garden

It’s really, really hard to pick a single image from the 125 pictures I took today in the South Coast Botanic Garden on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. I’ll show this collage of sixteen images, but none of them do justice to actually being in the garden.

garden-collage.jpg

I’ll post a couple of full-sized images later this week – they were all very beautiful.

23 Jun 2007 by California Home & Garden Photography

Devil Winds

thermometer.jpgYesterday marked the 148th anniversary of an astounding weather event.

California, like other regions, experiences occasional hot, dry winds; that is, when the air heats up due to downslope compressional heating. In Southern California these are called “Santa Ana winds,” while in Colorado, “Chinook winds” and in Bavaria, “Föhn winds.” In the deserts of North Africa, the Arabic word “Simoon” applies.

What causes these winds? Short answer: insolation, advection and the adiabatic heating process. Sorry, Al, you can’t blame this event on SUVs or carbon footprints.

June 17, 1859 – The only ‘simoon’ ever to occur in the United States
is reported by a United States Coast Survey vessel off Goleta. A
northwest wind brings scorching temperatures of 133 degrees between
1:00 and 2:00 that afternoon. Birds fall from the sky, crops shrivel
and cattle die under the shade of oak trees.

The record 133° temperature has been discredited since that time due to the thermometer having been in direct sunlight. However this vivid description from A History of the Aguajitos Ranch paints a picture that the temperature must have come very close to that:

Continue reading…

18 Jun 2007 by California Global Warming

Nature Walk

Today, we drove down to the Palos Verdes Peninsula to take a nature walk along a path preserved in a rustic canyon. I snapped this picture of a honey bee browsing for nectar in a field of daisies.

honey-bee.jpg

16 Jun 2007 by California Critters Photography

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