Having moved away from Berkeley, certain details of life in the quasi-city become more and more unbelievable. This particular abode seems to have been plucked from the pages of a fairy tale.
Category: California
Hiking the West
Having recently spent a great deal of time hiking the forests of New England, the broad, grassy, and only sparsely forested hills of California are seeming more and more alien in my memory. With the fluffy intrusion of some low-lying clouds, the whole experience is rendered otherworldly.
Guest Post: Alien Flora
Today’s guest post comes courtesy of Christopher Klemm, who took this photograph in Joshua Tree National Park.
Perch
On the rocks of Grizzly Peak, nothing resets your soul like seeing the hills and trees towering above the hazy sprawl of Oakland.
The Scary Door
With a campus as huge and old as Berkeley’s, it’s natural to expect that there would be some odd corners here and there. This particular back door, hiding in an out-of-the-way location at the back of Bowles Hall (and surrounded by creepy fences and trees) seems like the perfect place to hold the meetings of a secret society.
Purple Haze
The evening in the east bay is a magical time and place.
Cloud City
I believe I’ve commented before that San Francisco, once the clouds roll in, bears some resemblance to the Bespin’s cloud city, especially with Sutro tower poking out above everything else.
Berkeley’s Bells
Up in the top of UC Berkeley’s Campanile, the carillon is made up of these enormous bells. In their environment of steel and stone and bronze, the bells seem to resonate even when they’re silent.
More Than a Nose
Dollar Days at Golden Gate Fields: dollar beers, dollar hot dogs, dollar admissions. Delicious, preposterous revelry. And rivalry.
Mostly, I just love the dynamic sense of motion captured here. (And the texture differences between horse, grass, and dirt.)
Perfect Sunset
I love that time of the evening when the earth is dark but the sky is still blue with just hits of orange and red and the clouds have just a little pink hue.
Tree Tunnel
Driving into the canopy of trees on the way to Grizzly Peak means relief from all of the stress of work and life, and a moment with the beautiful roads of northern California. Today is my last day in Berkeley, and so I can’t think of a more fitting metaphor for finishing graduate school and moving away. On the Rimway, as in life, adventure is ahead.
Night Espresso
Looking down over an intersection in the dead of night reminds me of staring at a moment without time. No cars, no one rushing in and out of the coffee shop. Everything is still. The perfect subject, then, for a photograph.
Flower Cactus
Another shot from my recent trip to the UC Botanical Garden in Berkeley, thought this time from the new world desert area of the garden. This cactus featuring lots of brightly colored flowers really caught my eye among the rest of the cactuses.
American Hobbiton
Berkeley is an eclectic, bizarre place to look at homes. This particular alleyway, with its Middle-Earth-esque Old-World charm, it less than a block from UCB’s campus.
Roses are, well… sort of pink
Nestled away in the hills of Berkeley is the spectacular UC Botanical Garden. It contains a truly impressive collection of plants from around the world and is host to a wide variety of other critters. It turns out to be a very nice place to spend an afternoon (and I’ll definitely have to come back, I don’t think I caught everything!) to boot! This shot is from their collection of old roses.
Decaseconds 