Long walkway with these little water jets - very peaceful.
Built on a hill-spectacular views
Lots of unifying themes. One of these was that almost all the building stone was travertine marble, quarried outside Rome. They took something like 100 large freighters just to carry the marble. Most of the blocks of marble were 30 x 30', which is supposed to be about the area one person can occupy without feeling crowded by the next person. In other cases the peices are 60 x 60, 15 x 15 or even 7.5 x 7.5".Here, the 'picture' you see is simply a large piece of travertine with a different finish to it:
There's a long winding path downhill past the buildings , ending with this circular garden:
Really discombobulated nude:
If this were on a newsstand, wouldn't it be pretty lascivious? The gut looks sort of bored---
Mission San Juan Capistrano:
These missions, of course, are mostly all working congregations; they work around the tourists very nicely.
The above is new; this is the original chapel, levelled by an earthquake in 1812. California has been having earthquakes for a long time...
The Mission is famous for the migrating swallows, who always used to arrive back somewhere around St Joseph's Day, March 19. Nowadays the swallows stay out at the edge of town, this part being all built up.
Sailplanes.
They have several date plantations. Date shakes are excellent!
One of the trees. There's a lot to it; they grow about 50 female trees and 1 male tree, per acre, and hand-fertilize the female parts twice a week during the season. In the wild, the trees rely on the wind - very poor yield. On top of that, the date seeds are not very good at growing new trees; they mainly reproduce by offshoots. It takes about 10 years for the shoot to grow a new root system and another 10 for it to start to bear.
There's a long winding path downhill past the buildings , ending with this circular garden:
Really discombobulated nude:
If this were on a newsstand, wouldn't it be pretty lascivious? The gut looks sort of bored---
Mission San Juan Capistrano:
These missions, of course, are mostly all working congregations; they work around the tourists very nicely.
The above is new; this is the original chapel, levelled by an earthquake in 1812. California has been having earthquakes for a long time...
The Mission is famous for the migrating swallows, who always used to arrive back somewhere around St Joseph's Day, March 19. Nowadays the swallows stay out at the edge of town, this part being all built up.
Over the mountains, to Indio/Palm Springs/Palm Desert/Desert Springs/etc; they seem to have run out of names.
Sailplanes.
They have several date plantations. Date shakes are excellent!
One of the trees. There's a lot to it; they grow about 50 female trees and 1 male tree, per acre, and hand-fertilize the female parts twice a week during the season. In the wild, the trees rely on the wind - very poor yield. On top of that, the date seeds are not very good at growing new trees; they mainly reproduce by offshoots. It takes about 10 years for the shoot to grow a new root system and another 10 for it to start to bear.The trees need the equivalent of 100" of rain/year, and temperatures above 100 degrees. These trees came mostly from Algeria. The native California Fan Palms have bear tiny fruits, with pits about 1/4" in size.
They have a lot of windmills; we took a tour.
A LOT if windmills (of course, that's a misnomer, since they aren't actually mills - they don't grind anything. They are wind-driven generators. But anyway).
They are big, and they put them in rows.
The guide was pretty full of facts and stuff-there's a lot on the internet; http://www.awea.org/ is one site. The old windmills were basically flat surfaces that the wind pushed around. The modern blades are airfoils that develop lift - much more sophisticated.
There are about 6 or 7 generations of them out there by now. Barb has one of the earlier, smaller ones.
The blades are big. This is a truck-driven trailer, and it holds two blades; some of the blades are so big a semi can tote only one. And yes, three blades is the right number; more, and they interfere with each other's wind.
The nacelle, which contains equipment to sense the wind strength and direction, so's to point the thing in the right direction and to shut it down if the wind is too weak or too strong. Also the generator, etc.
A LOT if windmills (of course, that's a misnomer, since they aren't actually mills - they don't grind anything. They are wind-driven generators. But anyway).They are big, and they put them in rows.
The guide was pretty full of facts and stuff-there's a lot on the internet; http://www.awea.org/ is one site. The old windmills were basically flat surfaces that the wind pushed around. The modern blades are airfoils that develop lift - much more sophisticated.
There are about 6 or 7 generations of them out there by now. Barb has one of the earlier, smaller ones.
The blades are big. This is a truck-driven trailer, and it holds two blades; some of the blades are so big a semi can tote only one. And yes, three blades is the right number; more, and they interfere with each other's wind.By the way, the haze is due to a bunch of fires that hit the California coast just as we were leaving for the desert. The air pollution followed us when the wind changed.
The nacelle, which contains equipment to sense the wind strength and direction, so's to point the thing in the right direction and to shut it down if the wind is too weak or too strong. Also the generator, etc.All the generators feed their power into a seperate facility run by Florida Power and Light, of all things. They take the power from each generaor, add them up in the proper phase and voltage, and ship it all to California Edison for distribution.
Yes, the wind can be too strong. Then you get something like this. Actually, the generator can overheat and melt the blades:
This is a natural-gas fired power plant that they use to make up for when the wind isn't blowing. The one plant generates as much as a couple of hundred windmills.
Yes, the wind can be too strong. Then you get something like this. Actually, the generator can overheat and melt the blades:
This is a natural-gas fired power plant that they use to make up for when the wind isn't blowing. The one plant generates as much as a couple of hundred windmills.
That's one problem with these wind-generators: they need a lot of real estate. According to figures I got, to generate 1 Gigawatt of power, which is in the neighborhood of what new coal or nuclear plants put out, would take on the order of 23 square miles of land covered with gnerators. They have to be separated laterally by 1/2 a diameter, and downwind by 8-10 diameters. Plus, of course, you have to be where there's a lot of wind. And, no Senator Kennedy telling you can't put them up because they'll spoil his view.
Over in Utah - a large field full of photovoltaic solar arrays. Another story; they do share the problem that they need a lot of real estate to generate the power. Focussing solar-power arrays need less real estate but have other problems.
Next, the Moorten Botanical garden - rather small, but neat. The Moorten family established it for their own amusement, and it seemed a shame not to do something with it. Lots of cactus all crowded together; is there such a thing as an arid rain-forest?
This is called a Crested Berry Cactus.
Stepylia
Sandpaper Plant.
Over in Utah - a large field full of photovoltaic solar arrays. Another story; they do share the problem that they need a lot of real estate to generate the power. Focussing solar-power arrays need less real estate but have other problems.
Next, the Moorten Botanical garden - rather small, but neat. The Moorten family established it for their own amusement, and it seemed a shame not to do something with it. Lots of cactus all crowded together; is there such a thing as an arid rain-forest?
This is called a Crested Berry Cactus. Stepylia
Sandpaper Plant.
The coyote is fake.
Then onward, to some canyons
Owned by the Agua Caliente Indians. Their tribal center:
Palom Canyon
These are California Fan Palms. If you don't trim them, they get pretty shaggy.
The Fan Palm leaves.
There is actually a watercourse in teh canyn - pretty small, until there's a cloudburst.
The Indians are putting up some huts of the kind they used to live in.
Evening - moon over the Canyon.
Then onward, to some canyons
Owned by the Agua Caliente Indians. Their tribal center:
Palom Canyon
These are California Fan Palms. If you don't trim them, they get pretty shaggy.
The Fan Palm leaves.
There is actually a watercourse in teh canyn - pretty small, until there's a cloudburst.
The Indians are putting up some huts of the kind they used to live in.
Evening - moon over the Canyon.
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