Sunday, November 6, 2016

In Honor of Paul

We are only 16 miles from the University of California, Davis Campus, an agricultural college with a famed medical school. In looking for a hike for the day we found the UC Davis Arboretum and were invited to "stroll through the peaceful 'Arb' along the 3.5-mile loop" that follows one of the state's oldest reservoirs, dug in the 1860's, that forms the southeastern border of the beautiful campus. My brother Paul loved plants and had a degree in horticulture from Purdue University.

We also thought about Oliver and Sheri Huang, Vian's parents, who went to medical school at Davis. Perhaps the young Vivian walked along the very paths we strolled on today. What inspiring gardens!

View down Putah Creek.  Putah is the name of the First Nations People that lived here.

Frederick pointing out a red flowering shrub. If you click on the picture to enlarge it you will also see the red flowering tree behind the golden ginko tree on the left.

Mallard ducks on the creek. See the ducks, Maura?

There are themed gardens all along the creek - Australian Collection, California Foothill Collection, Desert Collection, East Asian Collection, California Native Plants, the Oak Grove and the Redwood Grove, etc.

A collection of cairns near the Desert Collection.

In the Redwood Grove.

Nathan, look at the turtle! (and the green "pond scum"!)

In the Oak Grove, the largest section in area, was this sculpture created by UC Davis landscape architecture student, John Gainey, as part of his senior project. It is called - Listening to Oaks. John created this sculpture using branches from a heritage valley oak tree in the Arboretum that recently died. Valley oak trees are native to this site and can live for hundreds of years.

We met this interesting man, Dan, in the Oak Grove. We had much in common and much to talk about. He had lived in the Boston area and in Alaska. We enjoyed visiting with him and hearing about his experiences on Kodiak Island.

Today's hike:
Length - 4.31 miles
Duration - 2 hours, 45 minutes
Elevation gain - 80 feet (8 floors on the Fitbit)

1 comment:

  1. Maura carefully looked at each picture but preferred the duck picture the most. You picked wisely. Nathan cannot be torn away from his cars to look just now.

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