Ocean Beach

The west side of San Francisco slopes down to the ocean in rolling sand dunes, now stabilized by the endless residential blocks of the Richmond and Sunset neighborhoods.  The sandy beach is all that remains of the original system, cut off from the city by the Great Highway and the impressive recurved seawall built to keep the Great Highway where it was built.

AERIAL VIEW

This is a complicated beach that has experienced long cycles of erosion at one end or the other for the past century.  Climate and wind patterns shift sediment back and forth as they do on most beaches, but there are also interesting dynamics related to the availability of sand from offshore deposits at the mouth of the bay (USGS Field Trip Report, ASBPA 2005).  The beach is doing well at the north end but there have been serious erosion problems at the south end down near Sloat Avenue for many years and there have been recent efforts to nourish the beach at that area.

The O'Shaugnessy Seawall at the north end is often held up as an example of a successful seawall - although I suspect what it really shows is that seawalls work best, and have the least impact, where the beach in front of them is stable or building.  It is a substantially built structure which means it may continue to protect the Great Highway even if the beach were to go away or sea level were to rise.  For the time being, it provides a nice promenade with easy access to the wonderful beach.

a new year's eve dinner

A little table for six on New Year's Eve.

Silver chargers and glass plates have 

clock faces nestled between them.

Ready for champagne.

Silver and gold ribbon curls 

provide a festive touch.

Mini silver frames are used as place cards.

We are all ready to welcome 2013!

A silver pedestal dish holds poppers for midnight.

Party hats and horns await guests.

Tick, tock, midnight will be here soon!

All is well with candle light

A few scattered ornaments complete the tablescape.

An elegant dinner is in the making.

Claudia will soon be here.

An easy design for New Year's!

Silver, glasses and plates are vintage, 

chargers are from Sur la Table, 

napkins and table cloth are from Home Goods 

and napkin ring is from Target.  

All set!  Here's how I started....

I used 8 x 10 copies of clock faces.

And, these simple glass plates....

Hello, 2013!

PS  I also used the glass plates here at my Halloween dinner.

ciao! Fabiana

Drakes Beach

The southerly hook of Point Reyes forms Drakes Bay (after Sir Francis).  Drakes Beach lies along its northern shore and is an elegant curve of high bluffs, broken by a few small barriers and a couple of larger spits.

AERIAL VIEW

I believe the bluffs are Miocene siltstones and sandstones of the Purisma Formation.  There is a wonderful planed-off platform at the base of the cliffs.  Wave-cut platforms - shore platforms, more generally - have generated plenty of research and speculation.  I suspect this one reflects some combination of modern waves, historic uplift?, and lithologic variation - but that's mainly a guess.  The sun was setting and we had to get back to the city for dinner - so much for more exploration.

Point Reyes

Point Reyes is separated geographically from the rest of the Northern California coast by Bolinas Lagoon, the Olema Valley, and Tomales Bay.  It is separated geologically by the San Andreas Fault, which bisects all three of these features.  That means Point Reyes is on the Pacific Plate and heading north relative to most of northern California, which is still attached to North America.  It's geolgoic affiliation is really with the coast much farther south - and ultimately with rocks that belong in Southern California.  The headland of Point Reyes is Cretaceous granite, much of the peninsula is Miocene sediments, and much of the west side is mantled in both ancient and modern sand dunes.

The beach on the ocean side consists of a long strand of coarse sand extending north from the headland. It's backed by dunes and low bluffs cut into much older dunes.  The aerial shows the dunes climbing southeastward up the long western slope, which says something about the prevailing winds.

AERIAL VIEW

The dunes are largely stabilized by non-native European beach grass and Ice Plant.  Dunes are like meandering rivers and receding coastal bluffs - they are supposed to erode.  And if they can't - due to levees or seawalls or invasive vegetation, the landscape and the ecology begins to change.  The ice plant was beautiful in its winter colors -- even if there was far too much of it! 

a beautiful gingerbread house

This year, the Balboa Bay Club had a few gingerbread houses on display, and I wanted to share some of the sweet details with you.

Ciao!

Fabiana

Happy New Year To Me

5'11"/6'. Ekstrom bamboo fins. Mad thanks to Hank Warner, RK and Carl. Now if the weather and waves would cooperate, I'll have a ride report. Please note the 'lawn' in the Skip Frye post a week or so back as compared to it in this one. It's been raining.