Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Omar Khayýam at Russian Ridge
A Walk in the midst of Wild Flowers
"Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,
A flask of Wine, a Book of Verse--and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness--
And Wildnerness is Paradise enow."
---Omar Khayýam, Persian Poet, Astronomer (1048-1123*) Translated by Edward Fitzgerald
*1131, according to some sources.
Bush Lupine at Russian Ridge
Picnic on the Grass
Russian Ridge, Wild Flowers I
Russian Ridge, Wild Flowers II
Russian Ridge, Wild Flowers III
JHL and I went to look at wild flowers at Russian Ridge, high up in the peninsula, near the crossing of Skyline Boulevard and Page mill Road. It was a lovely day, unusually warm. But the breeze blowing from the Pacific about 6 miles away made our hike quite enjoyable. It was clear enough to look to the east and see Hoover Tower in the Stanford Campus and, further on, the outline of the Dumbarton Bridge. To the west we could catch glimpses of the ocean near Half Moon Bay.
The display of flowers was not spectacular. Perhaps it would take another week or two for them to appear in force. We looked at some. The photographs are limited in what they depict because I did not carry a telephoto/macro lens.
There was no singing, and the book was "California Spring Wild Flowers" by Philip A. Munz but we had bread (Foccacia), wine--a German Riesling, risotto with shrimps; butternut squash sauteed with pine nuts and fresh sage (learned to make this flavorful dish from my friend Arani Sinha); fruits....and dark chocolate. One could ask for nothing more. For a few hours all was well with the world.
"Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,
A flask of Wine, a Book of Verse--and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness--
And Wildnerness is Paradise enow."
---Omar Khayýam, Persian Poet, Astronomer (1048-1123*) Translated by Edward Fitzgerald
*1131, according to some sources.
Bush Lupine at Russian Ridge
Picnic on the Grass
Russian Ridge, Wild Flowers I
Russian Ridge, Wild Flowers II
Russian Ridge, Wild Flowers III
JHL and I went to look at wild flowers at Russian Ridge, high up in the peninsula, near the crossing of Skyline Boulevard and Page mill Road. It was a lovely day, unusually warm. But the breeze blowing from the Pacific about 6 miles away made our hike quite enjoyable. It was clear enough to look to the east and see Hoover Tower in the Stanford Campus and, further on, the outline of the Dumbarton Bridge. To the west we could catch glimpses of the ocean near Half Moon Bay.
The display of flowers was not spectacular. Perhaps it would take another week or two for them to appear in force. We looked at some. The photographs are limited in what they depict because I did not carry a telephoto/macro lens.
There was no singing, and the book was "California Spring Wild Flowers" by Philip A. Munz but we had bread (Foccacia), wine--a German Riesling, risotto with shrimps; butternut squash sauteed with pine nuts and fresh sage (learned to make this flavorful dish from my friend Arani Sinha); fruits....and dark chocolate. One could ask for nothing more. For a few hours all was well with the world.
