Sky Watch Friday #44

Once again we would like to thank our hosts: Klaus, Ivar, Fishing Guy, Sandy, Wren and Louise. Without them there would be no Sky Watch.


And once again I am turning to my daughter, Kathryn, for photographs. She took these in Pacific Grove, California, where every year at this time there appears a carpet of purple ice plant. Combined with the water and the beautiful blue skies, it makes a fantastic picture. If you see a small person in any of the photos, that would be my youngest grandson.

A beautiful day in Pacific Grove.


A path through the purple carpet.


Watching the boats in Monterey Bay.


Somewhere in this purple carpet you might find my grandson.


And she had one made into a jig saw puzzle for me for Mothers' Day.


You may be able to tell on this one that the purple continues for a couple of miles, along the shore of the Bay.

Pacific Grove

Pacific Grove, California is a lovely small town on Monterey Bay. It has a very beautiful rocky shore line. To your left, on my sideboard, is a photograph of waves crashing on a rock. I took that in Pacific Grove.

Each April or May, the entire shore line becomes a purple carpet of flowers. I believe they are called ice flowers. Don't know the proper name. They are not native to California soil, but this import has become part of the scene, all along the coast. Pacific Grove is famous for the purple carpet along Monterey Bay. It stretches for four miles. It seems to have become a family tradition to have a picture of Isaac among them each year. These, of course, are my daughter's pictures.


Pacific Grove is also famous for Steinbeck's Cannery Row, now a tourist attraction, known throughout the world.


At one end of the Row sits the Monterey Bay Aquarium, a fabulous place, and an absolute must see for tourists, and a leisure time spot visited frequently by locals. If you visit, plan to return to the aquarium a few days in a row. You will never be able to view all of its truly fascinating exhibits in one day.


As you may have guessed, I really love the aquarium.

These pictures are from their computer site, not from my own album.



At the other end of town, up the hill, is the butterfly sanctuary and educational center. Like Cape May, Pacific Grove is a monarch butterfly destination during their annual migration to Mexico. In Pacific Grove, the monarch is indeed king. They hold an annual monarch parade, in which small children march, wearing huge butterfly wings and headdresses . There is also a large iron butterfly statue on the shore of the bay. You'll recognize the sign from my post a couple of days ago.



My youngest daughter's wedding took place in Pacific Grove, at the Old Whaling Station gardens. It is a charming little building, set in really beautiful gardens. The weather cooperated perfectly. Their wedding took place out of doors. When they went inside following the ceremony, their friends whisked away the chairs and set up tables on the patio. There was plenty of room for dancing, which went on into the night, under a full moon. Perfect.




So, you see, I have sentimental attachment to the town, as well as admiring its many charms.


Unfortunately, this is not the ideal time to visit there. The air quality is very bad and I'm told that ash from the many forest fires is falling on homes and gardens everywhere. The beautiful Big Sur country nearby is burning. We can only pray for rain and lots of it. Ironic, when not all that far away, people are praying the rain will stop and they can start trying to recover from the flood waters.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OK - My daughter, Kathryn has read this post,and informs me that both the Old Whaling Station and the Aquarium are really not in Pacific Grove, but in Monterey. They are close to the border of the two, so I was under the impression that they were in Pacific Grove.

TRIVIA

When I was in the fifth grade, in about 1943, Miss Henderson distributed books to the class and told us we would be reading Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Evangeline. Miss H. read a few lines in her wavery, dramatic way. I ignored her voice, shut it out, and read on by myself. I was hooked. I took the book home that night, and read the whole poem - all the many pages of it. At that age, I was pretty much over-dramatic myself. What else could I do? I set out to write a similar epic. It was much longer and more romantic than Mr. L.'s poem. It was also a pathetic imitation, but I wallowed in it for a while, as only a ten year old girl can. Eventually, I did realize that mine was rubbish, but I've always remembered Mr. L.'s Prologue, which is lovely. (See yesterday's post.)

----------------------------------------------

All of this recollection of days gone by started me wondering how accurate my memory is concerning the old neighborhood and school. My childhood friend, Jack, has already corrected me on some things I have mis-remembered of more recent history.

I went to Scroogle. (Scroogle, for those unfamiliar, is Google, without cookies or search-term records, and with access log deleted within 48 hours.)

Aren't computers wonderful? (sometimes) I learned all kinds of things about my school and my old home town:

There's a place there now called Indian Rock Park. I wonder if it's near the woods where Jack and I used to find arrow heads.

There's a Swedish log cabin near Darby Creek, circa 1654, which may be the oldest in North America.

Thomas Garrett, for whom my school was named, was a famed abolitionist who lived there before 1822, and then went on to Wilmington where he was Station Master at the last stop on the Underground Rail Road.

And my old school was built on ground once used for a prison where prisoners had been murdered and buried in unmarked graves. Later there was an orphanage there where another murder occurred. So today, there are tales of hauntings on the property.

What fun! I'll have to explore further.
And all this thanks to Scroogle.

-----------------------------------------------

And one more thing - more in keeping with the Merry Month of May -

This is the annual picture of Isaac, sitting amidst the purple ice plant in
Pacific Grove. It makes a beautiful carpet of flowers every year about
this time.
Kitty may post these pictures too. They are hers, after all. But I don't think she'll mind too much if Grandmom posts them as well.