Moving Day

I have packed up and moved to a new site! Please visit me at

http://www.gailhorvath.com/imported-20101206003429/

Gone Fishing

Well, not really.

While thoroughly enjoying my new blogging efforts, I have not been so happy using Blogger. As a result I am building a new "platform" that will hopefully satisfy my desire for greater ease at storytelling and communication. I will be back before the New Year. In the meantime Happy Holidays to y'all!

Secrets of Lobos Creek

You might easily recognize this sweet spot on Baker Beach where people and their four legged friends come to play, where Lobos Creek leans west to join the great Pacific, carving artful and fluid patterns across the sand.

But... did you ever follow the creek back toward its source, tracing its short dive under the sands and hear its sound resurfacing in the densely vegetated creek bed? A barely visible footpath follows the creek along a cyclone fence surrounding the Baker Beach Water Treatment Plant...past an other-worldly Chinese palace...into a small yet strikingly peaceful maiden hair covered forest.

Did you know that Lobos Creek is the last free running year round stream in San Francisco, and continues to supply the Presidio with near 1 million gallons of water per day? It is also said that Lobos Creek was the childhood home and playground of Ansel Adams.

Lobos Creek

 vine covered giant

First signs of winter?

cherry blossom / Golden Gate Park

Global wierding?

Dodging the early morning rain in the arboretum at Golden Gate Park my daughter and I spotted this scrappy pink cherry blossom. While many of you are enjoying your first snow of the season we in San Francisco have trees trying to open up to the spring even as they shed the last of their autumn leaves.

Although I am blessed to live in a land where blossoms arrive year round, I instinctively look for the first true signs of the seasons — being from Ohio where the seasons are clearly defined. Having questioned the subtle seasons year to year in California I begin to track the differences, the anamolies. Those of us from the Midwest always feel that in this place the spring comes too soon. But when it comes to the cherry tree blossoms, the earliest arrival I have on photo record is the end of January 2006. More commonly we see them flower Feb through April. Does this concern you?

One Aspect of Power

Transamerica Redwood Park

Consider how even the most formidable and iconic structure willfully bends to the stroke of water's gentle touch.

Pointing the Way

Tree Arrow / Embarcadero Four

Have you noticed how often our experience is shaped by expectations? How many times have you heard (or sighed) "I've got to get out of town to connect to nature"? When I head out in the morning I expect to engage with nature, always curious to see what magical way it might show up.

Which way are you heading?

It's Fall

I have been walking the same daily to-and-fro path for over 6 years. In downtown San Francisco most fallen leaves scuttle across the concrete with no place to land...there are few receptive plots of open earth where they can happily return into mulch. However, for those of us who stroll the sidewalks with open eyes, there is an October expectation of change—captive color, transitional patterns and beauty. I have come to know the advent of fall by the first leaves that vie for my attention. Here is this year's "first leaf of fall" winner, escorted by a stray feather from a parrot of telegraph hill.