A Visit From the Copyright Trolls: How Rumblefish & Google Monetize Other People’s Property

July 27, 2012

The video in question Read the rest of this entry »


Nervous Nellies Kick Kids Off Dennis the Menace Park Locomotive: Victory Over Fun Now Complete

July 17, 2012

Kiss it goodbye, kids

Nothing sums up the changing attitudes toward safety and security in this country better than the decline and fall of Monterey’s Dennis the Menace Park. Read the rest of this entry »


Small Fire Near Limekiln Creek

July 5, 2012

We’ve been getting questions about why so many firetrucks and dozers have been headed south through Big Sur with lights and sirens ablaze this evening. They are on their way to the Limekiln Creek area where a small fire was reported around 4:30 this afternoon. Read the rest of this entry »


Wildflower of the Week: Opium Poppies

June 30, 2012

Papaver somniferum, the opium poppy, in one of its many guises (Photo: publicphoto.org)

We’re making opium poppies our Wildflower of the Week due to an article on page 11 of this week’s Carmel Pine Cone concerning an alert Carmel police officer who discovered an opium poppy growing on a city easement along the side of a Carmel street. The offending plant, you’ll be glad to know, was seized before it could further damage the town’s moral character. After the plant tested positive for morphine, down at the station, it was renditioned to a federal crime lab for “further analysis.” The article concludes by noting that “it’s unknown who planted the illegal poppy.” Your tax dollars at work. Read the rest of this entry »


Garrapata State Park to Stay Open

June 28, 2012

Soberanes Pt. at Garrapata State Park

Update: State Parks has announced that, all possible benefits having been milked from this particular piece of political theater, no parks will actually close on Sunday. Sure couldn’t have seen that one coming!

The Monterey Peninsula Regional Park District and the Big Sur Land Trust have agreed to take over emptying the garbage cans and servicing the porta-pots at Garrapata State Park (which is about all the services the park currently receives from State Parks), meaning the Park, which had been scheduled to “close” Sunday, will now remain officially open. Read the rest of this entry »


Pinnacles Picnic

June 24, 2012

A sunny Sunday that’s not too hot. Perfect day to grab some food and drink, a pair of binoculars and a climbing rope, then head to Pinnacles National Monument.

Among the crags Read the rest of this entry »


Garrapata State Park “Closing” Next Weekend

June 23, 2012

Garrapata State Park is scheduled to close next Sunday, July 1

When Gov. Brown announced plans last year to save $22 million by closing 70 of California’s State Parks, it was immediately obvious that it wasn’t really about the $22 million. Read the rest of this entry »


Wildflower of the Week: Globe Lily

June 8, 2012

Globe Lilies, AKA Fairy Lanterns (Calochortus albus) growing along the Kirk Creek Trail. Read the rest of this entry »


Wildflower of the Week: Scarlet Bugler

May 16, 2012

Scarlet Bugler (Penstemon centranthifolius) blooming on the lower slopes of Devil’s Peak in the Ventana Wilderness.

Attention-grabbing stalks of Scarlet Bugler are currently blooming throughout the drier and hotter parts of the Santa Lucia Mountains, making it a natural choice for Wildflower of the Week. Read the rest of this entry »


White Redwood Resurrection

May 15, 2012

For many, many years the banks of this precipitous South Coast stream were the home of the tallest white redwood (that we knew of anyway) to be found anywhere in the Santa Lucia Mountains. We’re not going to take sides in the argument over exactly how tall it was. Estimates range from 30 to 50 feet (which may have to do with the uppermost portion dying off somewhere along the line). Either way, this was a white redwood of genuinely tree-like proportions. A far cry from the more typical white redwood shrubs and saplings. Read the rest of this entry »