One of the reasons for returning to Crimea, beyond wanting to see my family, was the desire to get to the Black Sea. It's about an hour from our flat by bus. A local company runs buses twice a day and, for a reasonable fee of 200 rubles per person, we are taken to Nova Federovka, a beach town on the western shore of the peninsula. It's not much of a beach town ... the services are third rate and the beach is ... well, the beach isn't something to write home about. It's not well maintained and the water, as the summer advances, gets progressively worse. As I noted yesterday, people here are selfish and greedy and that translates to the water as well. They go to the bathroom in it, throw their garbage in it and treat it like it's their personal sewer. It's not too bad in June and July but by August the water is almost impossible to use. And, we get massive jellyfish blooms as the water warms which makes it even less inviting. So July is our month and, so far, it's been a big bust. The weather isn't cooperating at all. We've not been all that warm so far and it's been windy ... a nasty on-shore wind that stirs up the water (and the dirt) and creates large waves. Not conducive to swimming. So we wind up sitting on the beach and freezing. We've only been once so far and that wasn't pleasant.We wanted to go yesterday but it was very cold and windy and today is the same. We're hoping next week gets warmer but we're fast losing confidence. This may be a bad summer for the beach ... that happens sometimes.
Humboldt Redwoods
They are the most majestic of trees. Not as large as the Sequoia but much more beautiful. Their habitat is limited to a few places along the California coast where the air is misty and cool. They like altitude and the strong sun. They have few enemies other than man and his greed. Fortunately, the remaining groves are protected ... for now.
I found this marvelous specimen in the Humboldt forest in Northern California. You can drive through the forest on state route 254, the Avenue of the Giants. There are several thousand large trees there but this one stood out. It was on the road and easy to find but what made it special are these massive burls. They tell of a life of insult ... of attacks large and small and of the tree's defense. Burls form around damage, protecting the tree from further harm. So this tree has withstood some serious assaults but it's still standing, proud and defiant. It must be very old, maybe 600 years, judging from it's size. And beautiful in it's majesty. I'm glad I made it's acquaintance and hope to visit again in the future.
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| Humboldt Redwoods - 16mm(1.6 crop),f/11,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0 |
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