The guard dog at work
No need to regale you with tales of the of the guard dog at the old estate. Even at breakfast, Bertie the Border Terrier is to be found doing his thing, in this case keeping a watchful eye on a passing lizard.
The ‘Guard Dog on Duty’ signs go up later today.
The state flower blooms
It’s wild poppy flowering time and none is finer than California’s sparkling yellow variant, the state flower no less.
My super secret source disclosed the location of a new outbreak down the road, so I shot off to snap these, which I hope you enjoy.
It’s just your money, that’s all
Bought for several million dollars by the State of California a couple of years ago, the Piedras Blancas motel has, needless to add, stood abandoned ever since, with a forlorn government sign warning the owners (you and me) not to trespass. Well, as I paid for a slice of this place (though no one asked me first), I can trespass all I want and proceeded to do so with impugnity yesterday during a drive up Pacific Coast Highway.
You can see a QTVR of the old motel I made 30 months ago here. It does not look any different today, though the crooks in Sacramento have added a sign telling everyone they bought the place with money stolen from taxpayers to ‘preserve the pristine views’ or some such rot. Strange how there’s another 75 miles of better views to be had free on the way to Carmel from Cambria as you leave the now blighted motel.
More sordid data on the extent of this theft of taxpayers’ money appear here.
Here’s another – and I’ll bet you in 10 years time it will look far worse:
A simple reminder of the nine most dangerous words in the English language: “I’m from the government and I’m here to help”.
Not exactly planned
I was driving up California’s finest road today, in search of elephant seals, but was distracted by a bunch (covey? clan? cult?) of wind surfers intent on doing their thing on this blustery afternoon. Given that the Pacific rarely gets above 60F, all these chaps come equipped with rubber suits. Indeed, some look as if they were born in them!
I approached the beach where the surfers were only to find it covered with elephant seals. You make your own luck. A couple of quick snaps of the rubber-suited set (keeping the exposure short to preserve the highlights) and then a far friendlier ‘hullo’ to the somewhat chubbier lot lolling on the beach. I guess 65F is paradise for these denizens of the Pacific.
As my 5D and a few lenses are always in the trunk, there’s no need to remember to ‘always carry a camera’. The surfer snaps reminded me that I must clean the 5D’s sensor – a rare bugaboo in a near perfect tool. The blobs in the huge expanse of sky were retouched in LR2 before publication. You can just see the internal reflection in the sky, as the lens was aimed almost directly into the sun.
Remembering the old days
With the season-opening Australian Formula One race today, it seems only appropriate to celebrate the ‘business end’ of some 80 years ago, in the shape of the dash and wheel on a classic Bugatti.
Made back in the days when men were men …. and women were men!
The brakes were no less refined and just as beautiful:
And in case you thought pre-selector gearboxes were the latest and greatest in racing technology, Bugatti had that down in 1930 ….
