My traveling companion had never been to Castle Lake before. Since it’s only about 10 miles off of I-5 I decided to take him there. I had no idea how beautiful it was going to be, never having been there in May before. Chico was about 90 degrees so I wasn’t expecting snow and ice on Castle Lake. The temperature was nice at almost 70 degrees, but the view was a winter one.

Amazingly enough, we were the only ones there enjoying the above scenery. I’ll share one more picture of Castle Lake with you tomorrow. To get to Castle Lake, follow the signs to Lake Siskiyou and just before you get there you’ll see one pointing to the left saying “Castle Lake 8 miles.”

Posted on June 3rd, 2009 under nature, places. Tags: california, castle lake, clouds, mountains, skywatch, snow, spring, water, winter. Comments: 1

I’ve shown you pictures of Mt. Shasta from the east, north, west, and from on the mountain itself in prior entries. This photograph is from the South (on I-5). Unfortunately, the clouds covered the top. I love driving north on I-5 and viewing Mt. Shasta once past Redding.

Posted on June 2nd, 2009 under nature. Tags: california, mt. shasta. Comments: 1

On our way back from Chico I purchased about eight baskets of freshly picked strawberries from this field. We were north of Chico on Highway 99, probably near Los Molinos. They were amazingly good.

Posted on June 1st, 2009 under nature, places. Tags: california, food. Comments: 1

As I was driving home a bear lumbered across the street in front of my car. By the time I had parked he had wandered up to Ridge Road so I wandered after him. He seemed to like eating grass.

Posted on May 23rd, 2009 under nature. Tags: wildlife. Comments: 4

I took today’s photograph from the Computing Services building on the Southern Oregon University campus early last month. This is my view as I walk to class (from Central Hall to Taylor Hall) most days.

Posted on May 4th, 2009 under nature, only in ashland, places. Tags: buildings, grizzly peak, Southern Oregon University, spring. Comments Off on Grizzly Peak from the SOU campus

Southern Oregon University’s Plunkett Center sits on the corner of Mountain and Siskiyou. The building serves as the home of the foundation and alumni relations. A beautiful building in any season, my favorite is April when one of the two trees in front of it is always in bloom. The tree on the right of the building (center of this photograph) had yet to bloom when I took this picture in early April.

Posted on May 2nd, 2009 under nature, only in ashland, places. Tags: buildings, campus, Southern Oregon University, spring. Comments: 4

My daughter’s soccer team was getting beat pretty badly a couple Saturday’s ago. The weather was perfect though, and I started taking more pictures of the scenery than the game. This is from the lower soccer field at Ashland Middle School.

A different angle on the same field and same goal can be seen here.

Posted on April 28th, 2009 under nature, places. Tags: mountains, nature, sports, trees. Comments: 3

Last year my wife planted these flowers (six different kinds–only two and a bit of a third can be seen in this photograph) in the planter box on our deck. After a month or two they died, as flowers do, which was good actually. Normally we plant something and the deer eat them by the next morning. The deer didn’t touch these.

We did nothing to the planter box over the winter. The dead flowers remained. This spring they have all come back to life and have been giving us great visual pleasure for the past month plus. Incredible flowers these are–to be able to bounce back like this after sitting under snow and freezing temperatures all winter and at the same time not be tempting to the deer.

Posted on April 26th, 2009 under nature, places. Tags: flowers, home. Comments: 4

I probably should have waited another week or two to take this one as the leaves are just beginning to appear. In a few weeks this tree will be really green. Oh well. Here is what it looked like last fall.

Even the cemeteries are screaming new life at this time of year.

Posted on April 24th, 2009 under nature, only in ashland, places. Tags: cemetery, national register of historic places, spring, trees. Comments Off on Same tree, different season