Taylor Mountain Regional Park

A new park opened near my house last weekend. It's an 1100 acre urban edge open space preserve. In addition to the expansive views in almost every direction, it has grazing cattle. The park provides a habitat for a variety of wildlife and bird species, and spring wildflowers.
Two ranch roads are multi-use trails, with a pedestrian connector between them. They both originate from the parking lot off Kawana Springs Terrace. The Eastern Route is quite steep. At the top of the Western Route is a view of the Santa Rosa Plain. Connect over to the Eastern Route and continue up to the top of the mountain for a panoramic view at 1000 ft.

Rock Garden

Western Route

A Younger followup

Whoa, that's some high alcohol beer! Good thing it is only being served in 10 oz glasses for $4.50. This beer is expensive to make. It's very hoppy and delicious. That's my official review. I know nothing about beer other than the hops play a big part in the flavor. I love IPAs, porters, and Belgian ales and don't drink those American, Dutch, Canadian or Mexican beers (with the exception of Negro Modelo.)

The pub was seriously packed as usual, even at 3:30 in the afternoon. People of all ages with dogs and babies on leashes and in strollers occupied every bar stool and table inside and the benches in the outside patio. They have the best pizza, salads and friendliest staff. It's the only recession proof place in town and luckily a 10 minute bike ride away. Cheers!

FOMO

FOMO. That's an acronym for a new phrase I've been hearing a lot lately amongst my social friends. It stands for Fear Of Missing Out, wanting to be everywhere in fear of missing a certain song played at a concert, or a special guest sitting in with your favorite band or some other event where something magical happened. Sometimes these things are leaked through the grapevine, or posted on FaceBook, but unless you are on top of it, you could miss out. Lately, I'm CAT Can't Afford To. I have to pick and choose what's really important to me now that I'm self employed.

Today however, I'm FOMO because I'm going to go taste a special beer that not many people will have the opportunity to do. The Russian River Brewing Company has a very rare beer in extreme limited release called Pliny the Younger, and there are only 14 days to be able to taste it. I've never had it before, but they release it every year in February. As Natalie said in the Press Democrat article, "because that's when people expect it."
I've had Pliny the Elder and it is good, incredibly good. This one is the Younger. The article in the local newspaper on the day of its release was all it took for me to become FOMO. It's worth a read. This brewery has 6 beers in the list of the 100 Best. Pliny the Younger is #3.

A post from Natalie's blog in December (she's the co-owner of the pub with her husband):

We are releasing Younger at our pub in Santa Rosa on February 4th. When the pub receives it's allocation, those kegs will be allocated to last for exactly 2 weeks. Therefore, we may run out at the pub each day, but will have more the following day for 2 weeks. It will be available in 10 oz. glasses only- no growlers or bottles to go. This will allow more beer enthusiasts like you, as well as our regular customers, to enjoy some Younger this year! And we won't see it on Ebay!

Well according to her blog yesterday, it did make it to eBay, one single bottle. Someone smuggled it out in a container of some sort. I don't know whether it was pulled because the seller was threatened with legal action, or if someone was stupid enough to buy it, but it's not listed anymore, so don't waste your time looking for it.

Spring in February

Today we have 16mph wind gusts, so I thought it would be a great day to start a blog! I thought I'd talk about the weather since that seems to be a popular generic topic that is being discussed these days. The situation in Egypt is another topic, but I'll stay with weather for right now.

I had really been enjoying the spring weather and absence of fog that we've had in Northern Cal recently as a majority of the country was buried under record breaking amounts of snow, taking one brutal beating after another. I felt somewhat guilty out on the bike path in 80° weather while my 81 year old mother's frozen water pipes in NM were making her life miserable. The skies have been crystal clear at night; makes me wish I had a telescope like the one we had one in our back yard when I was a child growing up in NM, but that's another story about having an astronomer for a father.

The yellow blossoms of the acacia are the first sign that allergy season is coming. The yellow mustard blankets the already green hillsides from the winter rain. The fruit-less trees are budding: flowering plums, cherries, and my favorite Crepe Myrtle which bloom for over 100 days! The crocus, hyacinth, and tulip bulbs are poking though the adobe clay and the freesias will soon follow. The delicate paper white narcissus are almost finished, they always come up by January if not in time for Christmas. I noticed other types of daffodils in the county are already up. Spring is definitely the most beautiful season here, or maybe it's Fall that I love the most. I love the flowers of Spring, I love the colors of Fall, the crispness in the air, and the warm weather.

The birds are hatching from their nests in the eaves. I saw about 10 baby finches (I think that's what they were) in my Vitex tree yesterday. I kept hearing this beautiful song and couldn't figure out where it was coming from. They were so tiny, I almost missed them!

I know this great weather isn't going to last, and I'm expecting us to get our share of the wrath from global warming to put an end to this sunshine. Actually we are expecting some significant rainfall this weekend, as if we didn't get enough of that in December and January. When the snow in the Sierras starts melting, we will have lots of water, or so we pray.

I don't understand how people think that global warming isn't real. For some, I think that the actual words cause the disbelief. Cold and warm are opposites. When the cold is extreme as it has been, and it was all summer in California 2010, I guess some people can't get past the definitions. Do all Republicans really think it's a scam?

For those who are lacking knowledge in the science field, the warming is referring to the temperature of the planet which is rising, causing the glaciers to melt, which in turn is putting more moisture in the air, which causes the air to be heavier and makes the storms more violent. The clouds collide, the water falls from the sky as rain, snow, hail and sleet and causes a lot of damage when it comes in huge doses. I'm no science major, but I don't think the increases in hurricanes and blizzards are coincidental.
Luckily we're all entitled to our opinions in this country, unlike Egypt.

There has been recent talk among scientists of the "Superstorm" that is going to hit California at some point in the future. They can't predict when, but they do predict that it will drop 10 feet of water in the central valley and flood a good part of the state. Yes, that is feet. Those living on higher ground will be safe, but they might want to think about getting a boat. I live between the Sierras and the ocean, so maybe the mountains will dam the water and send it south to the LA basin where they really need it.
Check out the song "Hatfield" by Widespread Panic, the reprise is "make rain for LA" based on a true story about Charles Hatfield, the Rain Maker who was actually paid money to make rain. It did rain after he built a tower and released his special mixture into the air. It's a great song.