The first thing I think about when I hear the name San Clemente is “The Western White House.” But that was during Richard Nixon’s presidency which dates me–and by the way, his sprawling beachfront estate was on the market for $65 million last year. I don’t know if it sold. San Clemente is a city in Orange County, California with a population of 64,000, less than 75 miles (120 km) from my home in Culver City.
I met friends at Union Station in downtown Los Angeles to hop on the Amtrak train for the journey to the San Clemente Pier. Our first order of business was to eat lunch–always the most important element of any adventure for me. Breakfast or dinner are also acceptable.
We sat at the end table on the corner overhanging the ocean–like being on a cruise ship!
View of the coastline looking south towards San Diego
I liked the contrast of the red umbrellas against the blue sky and ocean
This bird was getting impatient: “Where’s my take-out order?”
Are we in Fiji or Southern California?
Some nice cloud formations that day to make an interesting background for the palm trees
When I arrived home that evening I felt like I’d been on a week’s vacation. Always good to get out of town even if it’s for a few hours.
Today I was at LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art). This artwork by Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008) caught my eye. I immediately thought WOW! The cats would love this piece. They could jump around in all the open boxes and scratch their claws on the cardboard. I guess everything is in the eye of the beholder as I have to admit I never really appreciated Rauschenberg’s art before! I wonder if he lived with cats? I should build something like this for Freddie and Frankie!
As I am a fan of the band Queen and Freddie Mercury, I recently saw the movie Bohemian Rhapsody about their rise to fame. When Queen became famous, I was amused to learn that Freddie bought a mansion large enough that each of his many felines could have their own individual rooms! That made me love Freddie even more. And if you should be wondering, yes, my Gentle Giant cat Freddie is named for him. (Don’t get any ideas, boys. All three of us have to share the same bedroom.)
pictures-of-cats.org
Lastly, but by no means the least important, a million thanks to the brave firefighters who risked their lives to rescue animals along with humans during the recent and ongoing horrendous fires in California. This photo says it all!
As this is the 100th Feline Friday post (woo hoo!) I was going to hire a band. But with everything going on in California and the world and my personal life this past few weeks, I decided that a quiet, unobtrusive recognition was just fine! Thank you all for hanging in there!
Without going into all the details, I was on a mission to walk around the Venice Canals and Beach. I took the Culver City Bus #1 which travels along Washington Blvd. Starting out in Culver City around 10:30am the sun had not yet broken through. This is known as June Gloom which in the past several years has seeped into Gray May. Until last year I had never know this condition to last all day but now there are indeed some days when the skies stubbornly stay murky with the sun only struggling to show through. Not very often, but nevertheless it is one more new weather event.
As if the drizzling rain and chilly temps weren’t already bad enough, I discovered that the canals are being dredged by the City of LA for some kind of maintenance or refurbishment project. As you can see, the boats are beached and thousands or maybe hundreds of thousands, of shelled animals have died on the shores.
I can’t find any information about when the project will be completed. But right now is not the time for a walking tour!
Fortunately, in the past I’ve taken plenty of picturesque photos of the picturesque canals. So on this day I decided to concentrate on the details. This fence is a creative way to recycle wood.
This pink flamingo fence always amuses me. I think the rust spots add to the charm.
There isn’t much bird life out and about on the canals right now as I imagine much of the food supply has disappeared. I waited for quite a while to see if Mother Duck would give her ducklings a swimming lesson but evidently the murky water wasn’t inviting enough. The water level is normally halfway up the second layer of stone slabs.
I hope this egret was able to scrape up some lunch.
This cat obviously wasn’t worrying about where lunch was coming from.
This cactus has a nice fur coat to keep him warm on a June Gloom day!
Mr. Ant on the top photo was probably looking for some sweet morsel. The brown tubes, past their peak, look as beautiful to me as the fresh green ones.
Garden gate. I was just using my macro lens at this point so some day I’ll get a shot of the whole gate. But this detail of the top is fascinating in itself.
Some random flowers growing in front yards.
I wish I had taken more care to get the middle flower in focus but I didn’t realize how beautiful this was until I saw it on the computer screen.
Another well-fed feline, king of his domain.
My question is, which came first… the red geraniums or the red fence posts?
You never know what you are going to find when you look. One of the things I love about photography… it makes me pay attention to the details.
I interpret this as “I am a Miss who is Understood”… but you can be negative if you want!
Ten days later: we are experiencing higher temperatures once again and the sun is emerging in the afternoons from the morning grunge. But weird weather indeed… we never know what to expect anymore.
All photos and content copyright roslyn m wilkins. Please feel free to pass along this post via email or social media, but if you wish to use some of our images or text outside of the context of this blog, either give full credit to myself and link to One Good Life in Los Angeles, or contact us for proper usage. Thanks!
All photos and content copyright roslyn m wilkins. Please feel free to pass along this post via email or social media, but if you wish to use some of our images or text outside of the context of this blog, either give full credit to myself and link to One Good Life in Los Angeles, or contact us for proper usage. Thanks!
RMW: the blog 