Lion King

This great musical compliments the movie version. The costuming, music, singing and acting were great. We especially enjoyed the way animals were depicted by the use of costumes, puppetry, stilts, etc.

With all due praise to all the animals, we felt that Timon (Meerkat) and Pumbaa (Warthog) stole the show!

It was another great night out at the theatre in Sacramento.

♪♫ The Hills are alive…♪♫

...with the sound of gurgling ditch water?

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This is a story about Penryn Hills, Clark Tunnel, and irrigation canals.

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In Penryn Hills, a beautiful pastoral community in the Sierra Foothills, and in the surrounding area, large-scale irrigation is made possible by the building of irrigation canals that provide "ditch water" the year around. Until recently, I had never heard of "ditch water" -and maybe you haven't either ("back East," special irrigation canals are a rarity as Mother Nature keeps things pretty green during the Spring and Summer months).

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Today, we decided to take a hike up the hill and visit the source of Jossy's irrigation* water and check on Clark Tunnel (no [known] relation). This would be a 2-1/2 mile hike RT.

* Irrigation water is also known as "untreated," "non-potable," "raw" or "ditch" water.

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These canals are provided and maintained by the Placer County Water Agency. The source of this water, like in most areas of Northern California, is the snow and rain in the Sierra Mountains. There are over 2000 reservoirs in California and many -if not most- dam the rivers and streams which originate in the Sierras.

To reach the "tap" on the canal which provides Jossy's irrigation water, we first hike up (yes...mostly UP) Clark Tunnel Road, then scramble up a dirt road to the railroad tracks near the tunnel (see second photo), along the tracks for a few hundred yards, then up another somewhat treacherous dirt path to a place on the canal that has 3 taps or collectors -a filtered pipe that runs from the canal bed to a small cistern and then into the pipe which runs downhill to the property. You can see a typical tap in the last frame of the first photo.

Water that is not tapped off eventually ends up in a community that collects and purifies it for use as "tap" water.

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And the music? For those that live in the West, believe me, the sound of gurgling water in nature is music to our ears...

More P.O.I.s

Among all of the other things we love about living in Northern California is the proximity to so many beautiful and diverse places. On this blog we've already seen such places as Point Reyes, Lake Tahoe, San Francisco Bay, Santa Cruz, Reno, Grand Canyon...and now Sundial Bridge and Shasta Dam.

On a beautiful, sunny, Mothers' Day morning, we decided to drive to Redding (about 155 miles) and experience the Sundial Bridge. This is an actual working sundial sculpture on a walking bridge crossing the Sacramento River in Redding. The scenery, the sculpture, the nearly pristine river are all just beautiful -a wonderful way to spend a day. About 15 miles north of the city of Redding is Lake Shasta and, of course, a view of Mt. Shasta (you've all seen a pictorial of this mountain on cans of Shasta soft drinks...). The Shasta Dam is about 10 miles off the beaten path (that path being I-5) and is well worth the side-trip if you are passing through the area.

More information on these two points of interest (POI) can be Googled (of course).