August 29, 2007 at 5:23 pm
by bruce
· Filed under general, events
For the second year, Friends of the Gardens (FOG), fundraising group for the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens, is preparing for its Bird House Project Silent Auction.
Like last year, FOG prepared a few dozen wooden birdhouses, 9 x 9 inches, painted them white and handed them to local artists to decorate. The creations were amazing. And this year’s flights of fancy won’t disappoint. Best of all, from Sept. 1 to Oct. 30, you can check them out at the Gardens, place a “silent” bid and hope you win one of these masterpieces — some by famous local artists. Last year FOG raised $4,000. Here’s a sneak peak at some of the 2007 entries:
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August 27, 2007 at 8:15 pm
by nancy
· Filed under general, attractions, events, history
It’s the end of summer, kids are headed back to school, and Fall is in the air. Labor Day weekend has become the time to celebrate summer’s end. Whether it’s day or evening - or you’re inside or out - this weekend brings lots family fun and celebration. So come out and enjoy the fun!
- Paul Bunyan Days - Logging show and competions with $10K in prizes, including axe throw, chain saw, hand chop, and pole climb. Labor Day Parade, including a kiddie parade, an historic walking tour, beer fest, BBQ, ugly dog contest, craft fair - fun for all ages in the streets of Fort Bragg.
- Mendocino Theatre Company presents, Rachel Archuletta’s one woman show, “Do The Voices in My Head Bother You”.
- Sculptor John Fisher is creating a life-sized sculpture from a Texas limestone block weighing ten tons at the Mendocino Art Center, now through September 29.
- Visit Albion-Little River artists on the 15th Annual Studio Discovery Tour along scenic Highway 1.
- Gloriana Musical Theatre continues with their presentation of Cole Porter’s, “Anything Goes”.
(More details on our Current Events page.)
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August 24, 2007 at 9:27 pm
by dff
· Filed under general, hikes, walks, birding, parks
Our weather has been spectacular lately, and so Bruce and I decided to go check out the Stornetta Ranch Preserve near Point Arena yesterday. It’s a good thing, too, because the fog was back today. The Preserve was donated to the BLM only two years ago, and you can even still find the, uh, remnants of the dairy cattle along the way. It’s easy to get there, since it’s just a couple of miles north of the city of Point Arena. Turn off Highway One onto Lighthouse Road, and go west for 1.4 miles. As the road approaches the ocean, it veers around to the right. At this point, there’s a turnout on the left for the Preserve. Pass through the turnstile, and head off to the south. You’re about at the middle of the 1200-acre preserve when you enter it of Lighthouse Road. You’ll find coastal headlands with scrub pines, and a beautiful coastline with islands and sea stacks. The coastline is very interesting, too, with many patterns in the sandstone. (It’s less than ten miles to the geological oddities of Bowling Ball Beach.)
The big island just off the coast has a wonderful arch, and it’s covered with black cormorants. As you continue to the south, you’ll find wide rocky beaches that are perfect for abalone divers. We even passed by a sinkhole, about 30 feet across and 15 feet deep, set a hundred feet back from the edge of the cliff. We continued on to the south, because we had a goal in mind: the waterfall that drops into the ocean. The waterfall is at the south end of the preserve, next to the old Coast Guard LORAN station.
When you first pass through the turnstile, you can see the buildings off in the distance, about a mile away. This is an easy walk, since it’s flat the entire way except where you cross a small creek.
The waterfall comes from a simple year-round creek that drops about 25 feet into the water. When we stood at the top, it didn’t seem that high. Once I walked around to the opposite point, I could get a better sense of the size with Bruce there.
After returning from the waterfall, we followed Lighthouse Road to the end — but the Point Arena Lighthouse was missing. I must have missed the demolition of the lighthouse in the newspaper, or maybe it was just the fog that draped the point (but nothing else around) obscuring it. It’s really a beautiful lighthouse, and it has a first-order Fresnel lens.
Since we couldn’t see anything, we headed back to Highway One, and went north a few more miles to Miner Hole Road. This dirt road leads out to the ocean, and there are trails leading over to Manchester Beach. The trail was marked Closed, so we left. This road runs along the big open field where the Arctic Tundra Swans hang out during their migration. I don’t know if you could see them any better here than from Highway One, but it’s possible. I’ll let you know when the swans return.
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August 22, 2007 at 5:03 pm
by dff
· Filed under general, walks, favorites, parks, gardens
Regardless of how busy I am, I always find the time during August to go admire the Dahlia Garden out at the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens. They have dozens of different varieties of dahlias, some of which you will not believe actually are dahlias. If you at all find them interesting, go see these – they are at their peak now!
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August 21, 2007 at 7:49 pm
by nancy
· Filed under events, gardens
This weekend, August 24-26, Mendocino County will showcase its leadership role in organic and sustainable farming with tours of ten unique sites during Pure Mendocino. Included are Stanford Inn in Mendocino and The Apple Farm in Philo, both leaders in organic farming for over 20 years. Visitors can elect to visit one or all ten farms. Begining with an all-organic dinner on Friday evening, activities include wine and food samples, and demonstrations and talks about organic and sustainable living. All proceeds benefit the Mendocino Cancer Resource Centers in the Mendocino village and Ukiah. For more information, call 800-449-6483.
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