Okay, I admit it...I love my home state of California. Yes it has its faults, but it has so many more awesome positives! California is a long, lanky drink of water [although water is a topic of some debate in some areas of the state]. The northern-most part of this sunshine state is vastly different in character than its southern tip. It takes the better part of a day to go from tip to top. The state has, within its borders, access to the Pacific Ocean, high mountains, desert, vast agricultural valleys, forests, lakes, huge cities and bitty towns. It has the ridiculousness of Hollywood and the no-nonsense down home feel of Ukiah.
A couple weeks ago my husband and I went with other family members and spent a day in Lassen National Forest both to just enjoy an incredibly beautiful Fall day and also to bring home fresh Christmas trees [you can, with a permit, get your tree from Lassen]. From the Forest website:
The Lassen National Forest lies at the heart of one of the most fascinating areas of California, called the Crossroads. Here the granite of the Sierra Nevada, the lava of the Cascades and the Modoc Plateau, and the sagebrush of the Great Basin meet and blend.
It was indeed a gorgeous day and, as is my habit, my camera went along. Following are some of my photos from the day. [Oh, you may be wondering where I've been the past 30 days or so - I've just completed an artwork commission that took many hours and somewhere in the neighborhood of 15,000 little Moroccan ceramic tiles. I will be sharing that experience in a 3-part series soon here at Mosaic Mandalas.]
You can see what a clear day we had. It was the Saturday after Thanksgiving and we chose Nature over the mall.
Thank you for the lovely images and nice reminder of Lassen--one of my favorite places as a child, when we spent two weeks in the cabins by Lake Manzanita every summer. The lake was allowed to return to its natural state, and all the cabins are gone now...but Lassen will always be a place of amazing, changing natural beauty -- and happy memories.
Posted by: ArtTileMosaics | 12/11/2011 at 06:20 AM