1929-2002
Clayton F Bloomfield
Go placidly amid the
noise and haste.
No doubt the universe
is unfolding as it
should.
Wisdom on a Memorial Bench in Santa Cruz
Mural off Lafayette Street in Santa Clara
I was running an errand when I saw this painting on a wall between two buildings out of the corner of my eye. Pleasant surprise.
Santa Cruz
Really Old Door
The first parish in California was a small church built of adobe in San Jose. Over time, it was rebuilt after earthquakes and fires and eventually became the Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph in downtown San Jose.
The story goes that at some point, Spain, which had taken control of the Ohlone land that is now San Jose, shipped over a church door to be used by the San Jose parish in some capacity. The door had come from a 12th century medieval church in Europe.
When it was decided to build a second church location in San Jose, it was constructed in 1872, called St. Patrick parish, and used that medieval door that Spain had sent over for the entrance. That church also eventually suffered from various earthquakes and fires so that it is now a newer building and called Our Lady of La Vang Parish in downtown San Jose.
The 1906 earthquake, however, destroyed the original church building, among many other buildings in the area. That’s when a San Jose resident named Paul Mason took the old door from the rubble and debris of the St. Patrick church.
Paul Mason had married the oldest daughter of his business partner, Charles Lefranc. Lefranc had created the first winery in California using French grapes instead of the Spanish grapes that the missionaries had brought over and spread as they colonized California. That first French style grape winery is now a park in San Jose, California. Back to 1906… The big earthquake had also damaged the wine cellar that Paul Mason had at his winery in the hills of Saratoga overlooking San Jose. When the new wine cellar building opened back up in 1907, it had some nice old doors from the 12th century.
Lefranc and Mason went on to become well known winemakers who helped to develop the California wine business. While the San Jose winery that Lefranc had started is now a park in a residential neighborhood, the winery that Mason opened in the hills of Saratoga stands today and is known as the Mountain Winery. It is a beautiful place where concerts and weddings and special events are held. When you look at the stage, with the old stone wine cellar building on it as a backdrop, and you see that door that famous musicians use to walk out on to the stage, you are looking at a very old door. It is a door that once hung at the St. Patrick church, and traveled by ship, and had hung in Europe, having been touched by unknown numbers of people in churches and on stage and in life, since it was made in the 1100’s. That is a pretty neat door.
I was very excited to touch it. If you end up at the Mountain Winery, I highly recommend noticing the old door on the stage and thinking about its history for a bit.
Uvas Reservoir
This photo was taken from “inside” the Uvas Reservoir just before last week’s rain. many things are interesting about this and about the time spent standing “in” there, thinking. One neat thing about this was this tree stump. The dam was built in 1957 and this tree has presumably been submerged ever since. Or, at least, most of the time ever since. Maybe it was exposed in other droughts? Certainly it was submerged every time I had happened to ever visit the reservoir here in the Santa Clara County Park. Either way, this tree was once a tree along Uvas Creek before there was a reservoir about it. This tree has been sitting under water for most of 64 years, brushing up against fish and snails and water molecules for decades.
Pinnacles National Park
Do you see that large exposed rock? Once upon a time, nearly 23 million years ago, that was a lava flow. A whole lot of hot lava came flowing out of volcanos that happened to be situated on a fault, a crack in the Earth’s crust, where the west side of the fault moved north slowly but surely in fits and starts punctuated by earthquakes in California. Today, this now solid rock is in northern California, less than 90 miles by car south of San Jose. The volcanoes themselves, mountains made of softer rock, have eroded away leaving these giant hardened and ancient lava flows to stand out and be explored and appreciated. What about the rest of the volcano flows that happened to land on the east side of that fault millions of years ago? Well, those hardened flows are in southern California, 195 miles away near Los Angeles.
Yes, that giant rock pictured, and there is a WHOLE lot more not pictured – the lava flow area was huge from several volcanos, has traveled north 195 miles since it formed from cooling lava, along with much of coastal California. I told my children that in a few million years more, it will only take a couple of minutes to drive to Pinnacles National Park from San Jose.
Morgan Hill
When driving through Morgan Hill, or walking around in its downtown area, I have been noticing more and more color. I really enjoy the color and these new to me discoveries.
Watsonville History Mural
I came across this mural on an adventure in Watsonville, near the Monterey Bay.
It is called “Watsonville History Mural” by artists Ome Garcia and Paul De Worken. (https://www.artscouncilsc.org/teaching-artist-directory/ome-garcia/, https://www.artscouncilsc.org/teaching-artist-directory/paul-de-worken/)
Shoes
Sure, we have all seen shoes on a wire. These ones amused me because I just did not expect them out next to the Guadalupe Reservoir. It would be a bit of a walk or drive without shoes from where these ones hang near San Jose.
CalFire Fire Station Mural
I really like this mural. I had seen it once on social media and wondered where it was. I tried searching for it online with no luck and keeping my eyes open for weeks. Recently, I went for a drive just to get out of the house for a bit. While driving back towards home through Morgan Hill, I saw it! So excited! The search, the wait, the find… so many things go in to pleasure.
I learned that it was designed by Morgan Hill Art School (www.morganhillartschool.org) and, I believe, painted by volunteers. Some great location icons are in the mural, too. In addition to the firefighters, you will see Lick Observatory atop Mt. Hamilton, the Box atop Mt. Umunhum, and the Beacon atop Mt. Diablo.
I am glad that I do not need to be a firefighter and so grateful that there are firefighters protecting us.