California represents a place of great wealth, freedom, and prosperity. It is a Garden of…
Looking at a map Pacific Grove, California appears as nothing more than a speck, located on the Monterey Peninsula and nestled between Monterey and Pebble Beach. One could miss this tiny town with the blink of an eye. It is here one day I found Perkins Park a place giving me solace, and granting me the freedom to reflect on how life use to be.…
Mary Austin wrote a novel called “Land of Little Rain” that depicts death valley and the surrounding desert. The landscape of the story is no doubt a desert; sand dunes, small shrubs, will grass, blistering heat, scavengers and very little water. Although the desert can be easily described, Austin goes to great lengths to show the relationships between the subtle changes in the landscape, behavioral patterns of animals, and even the way plant life grows around the landscape. For example, she describes and almost personifies the way that the dunes are blown up on themselves that eventually form a shield that protect the grasses and shrubs that grow behind the dunes.Austin takes a blunt picture of the landscape and shapes and sharpens it into a fluid ecosystem. She shows the vibrance of life that exists in the so-called death valley.! !…
Place is the centerpiece of Kathleen Norris’ memoir, Dakota: A Spiritual Geography. This textual map is an eloquent gathering of herself as she explores her inheritance and her faith in a small town in western South Dakota. The land she captures on the pages of this aptly named ‘geography’ lives, breathes, transforms. But Dakota is not for the romantic seeking a nostalgic reconnection with the earth.…
Urbanism at its eclectic finest exists in the city of San Francisco. The name itself brings to mind its many sociocultural icons. The Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, Fisherman’s Wharf, Chinatown, and Alcatraz Island are unique to San Francisco yet do not define the city. From a tiny missionary village to wild west frontier town to love-ins and gay pride to world-class city characterize San Francisco as a distinctive metropolis. Environmentally, San Francisco is far from ideal. At the tip of the peninsula on San Francisco Bay, surrounded on three sides by water, San Francisco is windy most of the time. It has moderately cool temperatures year round and is plagued by dense fog, steep hills, and earthquakes. In spite of this San Francisco has…
It's hard to not know anything about me because I'm pretty much an open book. But if I had to think of something that most people wouldn't know about me it would be that I was born and raised in Hilo. All my life I lived in Hilo up until my freshman year when I moved to Kona. Right now I'm currently a senior attending Konawaena High School. With that being said, I lived on the Kona side for about 4 years now. The main reason for me moving to this side was because both my parents have jobs out here. My dad, being a manager had already been working out on this side as well as on the Hilo side. My mom on the other hand, got a job promotion that had to be taken in Kona.…
I celebrate with others who love wilderness the beauty and power of the things it contains. Each of us who has spent time there can conjure images and sensations that seem all the more hauntingly real for having engraved themselves so indelibly on our memories. Such memories may be uniquely our own, but they are also familiar enough be to be instantly recognizable to others. Remember this? The torrents of mist shoot out from the base of a great waterfall in the depths of a Sierra canyon, the tiny droplets cooling your face as you listen to the roar of the water and gaze up toward the sky through a rainbow that hovers just out of reach. Remember this too: looking out across a desert canyon in the evening air, the only sound a lone raven calling in the distance, the rock walls dropping away into a chasm so deep that its bottom all but vanishes as you squint into the amber light of the setting sun. And this: the moment beside the trail as you sit on a sandstone ledge, your boots damp with the morning dew while you take in the rich smell of the pines, and the small red fox—or maybe for you it was a raccoon or a coyote or a deer—that suddenly ambles across your path, stopping for a long moment to gaze in your direction with cautious indifference before…
The city that I come from is not a representation of who I am. Pomona, California is known for it’s high crime rights, and all around gang violence. It is troublesome not to fall through the cracks when the temptation is all around my community. Growing accustom to this environment makes it that much easier to fall a victim into this lifestyle. At the age of 15, for the first time in my life, I experienced a retaliation drive by up the street from where I sleep, the place I call home. That night I heard a total of five gunshots, and was later informed the gun shots left two family friends paralyzed. One is now paralyzed from the neck down, and the other from the waist down. The two victims were sisters, and were not the main target. The shots…
One of the main issues that the book, "Ecology of Fear," discussed about were the inherent dangers and problems that suburbanization imposed upon the landscape of Southern California. Although suburbanization in theory and in reality did create abundant benefits to a great mass of people, especially to those who wanted to avoid the daily nuisances of urban city life, its negative consequences were quite grave indeed. Suburbanization led to a complete eradication to the natural landscape of many areas in California. The book's vivid accounts of how the lush, green landscape was bulldozed just to build tracts of homes were a painful reminder of the beauty that…
"We were honored to be asked to develop the Urban Wilderness vignette as part of the Garden Masters Exposition. We have centered the design on the tension between the beauty of the vast outdoor spaces in California and how to bring that same feeling into a smaller urban garden," said Josh Rosenthal, President of Eco Minded Solutions.…
Joshua National Park is located in southern California. It’s nearly 800,000 acres spans over two of North America’s great deserts, the Mojave and the Colorado. What I found really interesting while reading about this park is that it has two totally opposite ecosystems determined by the several mountain ranges and their elevation. While the Colorado desert is below 3,000 feet, it is very dry and is host to the most drought tolerant perennial in North America, the creosote bush. The Mojave desert however, located at a higher elevation, is cooler and wetter and is the only home to the Joshua tree, hence the parks given name. It’s pretty amazing how these two deserts can appear to look so dry and lifeless until you get up close and can see all the wildflowers and vegetation that patiently waited on rain to grow. With temperature’s so hot in the daytime, the animal life hide in whatever shade they can and scurry around at night when it’s cooler. A sense of peace and tranquility, as well as beauty, is what my husband described.…
Two days, six hours, eleven minutes, and twenty-two….twenty-three seconds. Charlie keeps track of how long she’s been in San Francisco, California since the moment her feet touched the ground. At first, she only conversed with people when asking for directions, but today was different. It was her third day in San Francisco, and she was ready to try and make friends. It was easy enough to start a conversation, she got compliments as she walked down the road about her styles, tattoos, piercings, and more. Instead of just lowering her head and rushing off, she was going to smile and say thank you before she attempted to speak with…
On February thirteenth I took a trip to the Tenderloin neighborhood in San Francisco in order to volunteer at the Saint Anthony Foundation dining hall. I checked in with the coordinator and met with the staff and other volunteers before getting briefed on my duties for the night. I was tasked to help set up the emergency shelter for the night for the less fortunate. I welcomed each guest that walks in through the doors and hand each and every one of them a warm blanket. After each guest was accounted for by the coordinator and received a blanket, I was then tasked to help serve dinner with the other volunteers; I was on line duty, mainly responsible for asking each guest what would they like on their plate: The choices that were available were rice, pork and beans, mushrooms and beans, and steamed vegetables. After dinner was…
In his essay entitled “Gardenland, Sacramento, California,” Michael Nava recounts his experience of growing up in a remote, mid-twentieth century neighborhood of Sacramento. Nava gradually shifts his focus toward more uniquely personal themes and demonstrates how the place where he grew up influenced the person he has become. In this way, the form of the essay outlines its focus as Nava follows an obvious and steady progression toward the presentation of his microcosmic experience of Gardenland. While he begins with a rather dull and impersonal description of the physical surroundings, Nava presents imagery that later serves to deepen the reader’s emotional involvement in the story. There are many instances throughout the essay where Nava uses the place as a metaphorical representation of his own personality. His presentation of Gardenland demonstrates the effect that his social and physical environment had on his growth as an individual.…
The town of San Diego lays near the shores of Lake Bai, surrounded by fields of grew sugar, rice, coffee, and fruit. From the topmost view of the town one would see a beautiful collage of Nipa, tile, zinc, and palm roofs, each separate house recognized among their orchards and gardens by a distinguishing tree or sign posted. A river wrapped itself around the city; making a barrier to the distant mountains. Nature had been a resident on the land far before any man had stepped foot upon it, gathered around San Diego is a dense forest with century old trees, enormous rocks velvet in moss, and local legends of evil spirits.…