My cat Allie gave me this adorable card for Mother's Day
Now a paragraph by Elizabeth Gilbert (also childless by choice) in her fascinating book Committed:
"But I was also deeply touched when I met a renowned photographer, now in her sixties, who made this simple comment to me on the subject of children: 'I never had 'em, honey. And I never missed 'em.' "
When I arrived to buy a delicious scone at Babette café on Thursday morning, I saw a falcon televised on the Berkeley Art Museum's huge outside screen usually used to promote upcoming films. This was a live screening of a peregrine falcon hatching her 3 eggs atop the campus campanile a short distance away. A news photographer and a naturalist had set up below. The photographer quietly took my picture.
BERKELEY, CA – APRIL 25: Visitor Taya Monfried, left, talks with Allen Fish, right, the director of the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory in front of a large screen on the side of the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive as it shows a live stream of a peregrine falcon nest atop the Campanile on Thursday, April 25, 2019, in Berkeley, Calif. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
I gazed at the vivid screen with a group of students, amazed that this was happening in real time. Then
I took advantage of the situation to ask Allen Fish about a falcon (?) that had been roosting on a redwood tree
outside my kitchen window. When I described the bird's appearance he identified it as a Cooper's hawk.
Here's the article on the event that appeared in the San Jose Mercury News on April 26th. Excuse the ad spaces.
To see the mother falcon and chicks live right now, scroll down to the video on Berkeleyside.
BERKELEY — Standing in front of a large TV screen near the UC Berkeley campus Thursday morning, over a dozen people waited patiently. Suddenly, there’s a loud burst of cheers.
They catch their first glimpse of a white fur ball skillfully tucked under Annie’s spotted belly. It was one of two baby falcons born to Annie and Grinnell about 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. Wednesday. A third one was awaiting his or her entrance into the world.
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Annie and Grinnell are the celebrated peregrine falcon pair that have been nesting atop UC Berkeley’s 307-foot Campanile bell tower since 2017. But it’s the first time nest cameras have filmed Annie and her family up close.
The UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive couldn’t be more thrilled to lend their screen for curious passers-by to watch a live broadcast of Annie and Grinnell’s growing family. It would not only make Berkeley residents aware of their feathered co-inhabitants, but also give them a chance to witness the recovery of a species that was once severely declining.
Thanks to the use of DDT pesticide in the mid-1900s, peregrine falcon numbers declined.
BERKELEY, CA – APRIL 25: Pedestrians view a large screen on the side of the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive as it shows a live stream of a peregrine falcon nest atop the Campanile on Thursday, April 25, 2019, in Berkeley, Calif. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
“After 1948, their eggshells reduced to nearly 20 percent of their thickness,” said Allen Fish, director of the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory. DDT was banned in 1972.
While the screen was roughly a mile away from the tower where the birds actually nest, the small crowd remained undeterred. They rejoiced once again. This time a chestnut-red egg, slightly smaller than a chicken egg, became visible. It has a cracked ring and a chick is likely to emerge soon.
Alen Moe, a Berkeley resident, was watching the live-streaming in amazement.
“We know them because we have cameras on them,” he said. “Witnessing the very intimate life of these peregrines is awesome.”
Those following continuous live-streaming from the nest cameras saw Annie nibble on the broken eggshells yesterday.
“She needs the calcium,” said Mary Malec, a volunteer nest monitor with Easy Bay Regional Park District, who began watching the breeding pair in Campanile since the fall of 2016.
“We knew there was no substrate up there … no place for them to nest,” she said.
This is not the first time the pair has mated. In 2017, Annie laid three eggs in a small, soaking wet sandbag. Malec got federal, state and university permission to erect a functional home for Annie and Grinnell. Nothing fancy: a 2×2 potting tray filled with gravel set up inside a wooden nest box. She transferred the eggs into the new home and Annie took to it immediately. Sure enough, they’re still using this home in 2019.
Once the chicks are around three and a half weeks old, they will be tagged so that researchers can keep track of them.
Peregrine falcons pair for life and lay three to five eggs each year. Once laid, it takes nearly 33 to 34 days for the chicks to hatch. During this time, both the male and female take turns to incubate the egg. But it’s the male that hunts and brings her food. Pigeons and a few other birds are their most common meal.
Around noon, the crowd witnessed Annie feeding her two chicks their first meal. While the chicks squealed, Annie pulled out tiny morsels of pigeon meat for the hungry babies.
The crowd continued to wait patiently for the third chick to emerge.
“I really want to see the hatching,” said Molly Pinder, a sophomore student at UC Berkeley. ” I’m used to seeing hawks really high in the sky and I’ve never really seen them up close.”
When we arrived Saturday evening for our Passover Seder at Dean's sister Ricki's, we knew that Easter was on Sunday, so we weren't too surprised to see the table beautifully decorated to represent both holidays. As noted before, we are a multi denominational family so we are accustomed to having two celebrations for the price of one.
We were greeted with this stunning centerpiece of pastel roses and pale lilies with various dyed and chocolate Easter eggs nestled beneath, all symbols of spring.
Another view
Also on the table was the traditional Seder plate consisting of a lamb shank bone, maror (bitter herbs represented by parsley and saltwater), haroset that Ricki made with apples, walnuts and cinnamon, and a vegetable (beets). Next to each place setting was a Haggadah, the booklet that is read during every Seder.
Here is a plate of matzo next to a large bowl of haroset surrounded by chocolate Easter eggs!!
Above is another view of our schizophrenic table. Here you can see the red wine that's drunk four times during the Seder to symbolize freedom, and some artistically placed chocolate Easter eggs with the Seder plate behind them.
All this might seem slightly sacrilegious but it sure is fun, and remember, "We Are All One."
Around mid January the travel bug bit me. I had no major trips planned but I wanted to get away for a few days. We had been to Carmel and Monterey many times, I was tired of Calistoga and Palm Springs, and when Dean was playing softball tournaments we had driven to the Central Coast and Santa Barbara. I envisioned something new.
A view of the Santa Ynez mountains near Santa Barbara from Dean's van (c1994)
I checked my book shelf and pulled out Karen Brown's guide to Charming Inns and Itineraries in California. Karen Brown recently closed her business and took down her web sight which I had consulted often over the years. She always came up with good ideas, especially in Italy. A special favorite was the Masseria Marzalossa in Puglia.
This time I decided on a short trip up the coast through the Anderson Valley and north to Mendocino, and I waited until April. What luck! After the winter rains the hillsides were amazingly green and the streams and rivers were flowing.
Just after Boonville, we spotted these spectacular blooming cherry trees at Scharffenberger Winery and stopped for a picnic and tasting of their sparkling wines. Our vacation had officially begun!
In Mendocino we located our B&B—the Agate Cove Inn—and then browsed around the charming little town in a light drizzle.
Water towers like the one above dot the landscape and add to the Mendocino charm.
We had a super meal at the old victorian Café Beaujolais. I remember when Margaret Fox opened the restaurant and published her Café Beaujolais Cookbook . I finally made it up there, and though she sold the restaurant years ago, the new owners have maintained her level of excellence and she is often spotted dining there. We had an amazing salad that consisted of three smallish heads of romaine lettuce artfully presented in a creamy dressing followed by wonderful duck in a light orange sauce. Too bad we forgot a camera!
We arrived to this view in the breakfast room of the Agate Cove Inn. It was a pleasure to linger over breakfast searching for whales in the cove. A few days before they had spotted baby whales playing among the nearby rocks after a storm. We weren't so lucky.
Russian Gulch State Park on a cool, windy spring day
Here's a short video of the sink hole in Russian Gulch
We wandered for hours in the notable Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens, rated fifth in the nation.
I loved this wooden " bench" wth the high far end.
Our favorite sculpture in the gardens
Next we headed to Fort Bragg for fish and chips at Sea Pal cafe in Noyo Harbor on the Noyo river. We shared our delicious, crusty lunch with enormous seagulls. Other than that, Fort Bragg was a disappointment, except for the farmer's market held inside until May. We just stumbled upon it. Where else can you find a legendary blind accordionist accompanying produce shopping.
I loved this metal moon at the entrance to Luna Restaurant in Mendocino
Heading back to Berkeley, we stopped at Hendy Woods State Park and were greeted by the ranger who had just heard that her colleague had spotted tracks of a mother and baby mountain lion. The cub, who had been walking alongside the mother, was estimated to be two months old. The rangers were overjoyed that the lions were reproducing in the park, so we hurried in and found the prints on mud-slurry covered concrete next to the picnic tables. As you can see, this was an ideal situation for preserving animal tracks!
Then we took a trail through the magnificent redwood forest
We concluded our road trip by getting lost on our way out of the woods. We finally located Hwy 128 which meandered through gorgeous green Anderson Valley and we celebrated with more wine tasting at Handley and Navarro Wineries. I'm waving goodbye at Handley vineyards.
While hitchhiking through Switzerland one summer after college in the '60s, my friend Susan and I found a perfect spot for dinner in a classic Swiss chalet, and we ordered my favorite, Swiss fondue. I probably ordered beer since this was before my wine drinking days. Then to complete the meal and add a bit of green, we ordered salade Niçoise from the menu. We thought that sounded like a perfect meal...
The fondue arrived first and we dunked chunks of bread into the delicious molten mass of emmenthaler and gruyere cheese with our fondue forks. We were having a fine time until the salad arrived. A few patrons stared at our table and snickered and soon the whole restaurant was pointing and laughing at us. We were embarrassed, to say the least and we couldn't figure out what the problem was. Is there a taboo on eating cheese fondue with the classic french composed salad? We could no longer enjoy our meal and we soon left the restaurant confused and humiliated.
In the intervening years I've tried to solve the mystery of the salade niçoise-swiss fondue faux-pas. I've asked around and studied up on the subject but have always come away empty handed. If there are any of you out there who could shed light on this, I would love to hear an explanation. In the meantime, I have never again ordered this combo, which still sounds perfectly matched to me. Who wants to get laughed at during dinner?
