Update as of Saturday, Nov. 10: Mitzi and Chelsea, Home Birth (1977 Berkeley). Kathleen Goodwin from California Trip, has been selected by Black & White Magazine for a gold award in the Photojournalism category of the magazine’s Single Image Contest. Altogether 5493 images were received, and Kathleen said she feels “truly honored to have reached the top of such a tall pyramid.” The issue of Black & White featuring award winners will arrive on newsstands the last week of November.

Surf, Rocks, Mountains, Rocky Point ©Richard Blair

More than 200 people showed up Sunday at the Inverness Park home of photographer Richard Blair and his writer/photographer wife Kathleen Goodwin. The occasion was a party to celebrate the release of their new book California Trip.

To quote from the book’s jacket, “The authors of the best-selling Point Reyes Visions have expanded their horizons to encompass the entirety of California…. Traveling thousands of miles throughout the state, they have captured its spirit with photographs that range from surfers, farmworkers, and movie stars to exquisite pictures of California’s deserts and mountains…. From the hippies and protests of the sixties to California today, the authors were there with camera and a reporter’s notebook, recording vivid details of California’s unique place in the world.”

Sunday’s guests at the Blair-Goodwin home on Inverness Ridge got a taste of that variety. Inside the home was spread a feast of shellfish and prawns, meat and poultry, salads, pasta and pastry. In the garden, guests sampled a table of California wines while on the other side of the house, some guests sat quietly at the edge of a forest and gazed out to sea at the Farallon Islands.

Meanwhile in the couple’s studio next to the house, an East Bay band named The RaveUps blasted out stunning renditions of releases by John Lee Hooker, The Animals, and other heavies while one crowd of guests danced up a sweat.

El Capitan, Clearing storm, 1971 Yosemite Valley ©Richard Blair

Richard, who grew up in New York, was a park photographer at Yosemite in the early 1970s and received an award from the Secretary of the Interior for photographing a rescue on El Capitan.

Kathleen, who celebrated her 60th birthday, as well as the book, Sunday, was born in South Africa and was a newspaper writer there. Unhappy with South Africa’s then-policy of racial apartheid, she moved to San Francisco in 1974.

California Trip is now for sale for $49.95 in stores around West Marin, which are listed at pointreyesvisions.com. Information on ordering is also available at that address or by calling 415 663-1615.

Book-signing talk-and-slide shows are scheduled for: 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov.14, at The Depot Bookstore and Cafe, 87 Throckmorton Avenue, Mill Valley, (415) 383- 2665; and at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov.29, at Copperfield’s Books, 40 Kentucky St. in Petaluma, (707) 762-0563.

Lush Stream, Pfeiffer State Beach ©Richard Blair

Water Tower, Mendocino ©Richard Blair

Abandoned Drive-In with Plowed Field Central Valley ©Richard Blair

October’s final weekend provided a reminder of why many of us have chosen to live in West Marin. With sunny skies Saturday and Sunday, temperatures were comfortable even along the Pacific and Tomales Bay. On Monday, the weather turned chilly, and fog still blanketed the coast on Tuesday and Wednesday. With Standard Time scheduled to begin Sunday and the shortest day of the year only six weeks off, the season of darkness will soon be upon us.

Barbecuing oysters beside Tomales Bay in Inverness, Molly Milner, who operates an oyster bar on the deck at Barnaby’s restaurant, held an end-of-the-season party Saturday, with oysters at half price. I alone ate a dozen. A folk-rock band entertained diners, some of whom were surprised when the bandleader urged them to join a heretofore-unheard-of cause: saving aberrant red variations of (normally black) Frisian horses in Europe.

It seemed to be a weekend for eating throughout West Marin. County and volunteer firefighters held a pancake breakfast in the Point Reyes Station firehouse Sunday morning to raise money for the West Marin Disaster Preparedness Council. In the foreground (from left): Donna Larkin of Inverness Park, Phillip McKee (back to camera), Tony Ragona of Point Reyes Station, and Heather Sundberg of Point Reyes Station.

Mike Meszaros, former chief of the Inverness Volunteer Fire Department, cooks eggs in the Point Reyes Station firehouse for Matt Gallagher of Point Reyes Station during the annual event.

Outside the pancake breakfast, firefighters tear apart a car to demonstrate how the Jaws of Life are used to free a victim trapped in a wreck. “Jaws of Life” (a trademark of Hale Products Inc.) is not just one single tool but a set of several types of piston-rod hydraulic tools, including cutters, spreaders and rams. In the background, a rescue basket hangs from a fire engine’s hoist.

While West Marin residents watched rescue demonstrations and ate pancakes at the Point Reyes Station firehouse, dozens of motorcyclists, enjoying the last Sunday of October, roared down Highway 1 a block away.

This photo exhibition in progress focuses on the variety of nature that can be seen from the two acres in Point Reyes Station where I live.

In his book The Natural History of the Point Reyes Peninsula, biologist Jules Evens of Point Reyes Station writes: “The Coast Miwok and the Pomo, who inhabited these shores for at least 5,000 years, were tideland collectors, acorn gatherers, and game hunters who survived and measured time by the seasonal abundance of food. For those early people each season, counted by phases of the moon, brought its own sustenance. One moon was for gathering herbs; one marked the return of the ducks; another marked their departure. On the bright full moon of midwinter, hunting could be difficult.”

Here is a look at what can be seen at this time of year.

A Buckeye butterfly lands on a chrysanthemum outside my cabin Sunday.

This week’s gibbous moon was waxing, and October’s full moon will be Friday night. A gibbous moon is one that’s not full, but more than half its facing hemisphere is illuminated. Since childhood I have been fascinated by being able to see the moon’s topography along its terminator, the boundary between the illuminated and unilluminated hemispheres. At upper left, the dark, mile-deep crater shaped like a five-pointed star is 69-mile-wide Crater Gassendi. The light area immediately below the crater is the Mare Humorum, Moist Sea, formed by lava 3.9 billion years ago. This photo, like most on my blog, was shot with a $270 Kodak EasyShare camera, which came with a 10-power zoom. Newer models cost less and have a 12-power zoom.

A young blacktail buck next to my cabin just before recent rains turned grass green.

A Lesser goldfinch eating buds on my rosemary bush. Lesser goldfinches eat seeds, flower buds, and berries. Point Reyes Station ornithologist Rich Stallcup, who identified the finch in the photo, this week told me, “Lesser goldfinches… are way less common than American goldfinches in West Marin during summer. There is an upward pulse in their numbers in the fall. Then both species withdraw a bit inland for the winter.”

A Western fence lizard suns herself outside my cabin. Western fence lizards eat insects and spiders, and they, in turn, are eaten by birds and snakes, which typically catch them while they’re sunning themselves.

Members of the Marin County Farm on Tuesday hosted their annual V.I.P. Luncheon for local officials that work with the agricultural community. The event was held at vineyard owner Hank Corda’s deer camp off San Antonio Road. At left in black shirt and black apron is chef Daniel DeLong.

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Chileno Valley beef and poultry rancher Mike Gale, president of the Farm Bureau, told the guests that the elegant fare they were eating was all produced by Marin County agriculture. Sitting in front of Gale (in white shirt) is county Agricultural Commissioner Stacy Carlson. Also on hand was county Fire Chief Ken Massucco.

Marin County Supervisor Judy Arnold, who represents the Novato area, attended, as did Supervisor Charles McGlashan, who represents Southern Marin. Supervisor Steve Kinsey, who represents West Marin where the bulk of the county’s agricultural is located, did not attend but was represented by aide Liza Crosse. Many Farm Bureau members are unhappy with Supervisor’s Kinsey’s support for parts of a new Countywide Plan that would make provisions for establishing public trails on ranchland and would limit housing for ranch families to 4,000 square feet.

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Attorney Gary Giacomini of Woodacre (in dark glasses and cap), formerly represented West Marin on the Marin County Board of Supervisors. When host Hank Corda spoke to the approximately 50 people present, he praised Giacomini for protecting agriculture throughout his 24 years in office. Behind Giacomini, Marin County Sheriff Bob Doyle listens to a story.

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Vineyard owner Hank Corda (at right) chatting with guests at his deer camp. The Corda family has owned the ranchland where the deer camp is located since 1936, he said.
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Bob Berner, executive director of Marin Agricultural Land Trust (at right), was one of several guests representing nonprofits ranging from the Marin Farmers Market to the Marin Humane Society.

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Margaret Grade and Daniel DeLong (left and right) of Manka’s restaurant catered the V.I.P. Luncheon with help from chef Denis Bold. The fare ran a gourmet gamut from goat-burger appetizers (from Evans goats on Point Reyes) to pork loin (from Bagley-Cunninghame hogs in Tomales) to apple pastry with whipped cream (from Gale apples in Chileno Valley). A storm-caused fire severely damaged Manka’s Inverness Lodge and Restaurant Dec. 27, but Grade said she hopes to reopen next year.

Two red-tailed hawks above my cabin, part of a family group of four. Biologist Jules Evans of Point Reyes Station notes this time of year is also the height of the coast’s hawk migration, which can best be seen at Hawk Hill on the Marin Headlands. For those who haven’t been there before, here are directions. While southbound on Highway 101, take the last Sausalito exit before the Golden Gate Bridge, turn left a short distance, and then turn right onto Conzelman Road. Go a ways and then watch for the sign for Hawk Hill.

Although this is the height of the hawk migration, which includes red-tailed and red-shouldered hawks along with falcons and turkey vultures, the migration can be seen throughout the fall at Hawk Hill. The hill is so named because migrating hawks, falcons, and vultures reconnoiter above it before crossing the Golden Gate, which is why so many hawks can be seen circling there. Biologist Evans notes that not all members of these species are migratory. Some are year-round residents of West Marin.

Chief Anita Tyrrell Brown parks at Bolinas’ new firehouse. The new station, which replaces one that was not earthquake safe, had been in the works for more than eight years. It has now been in use for almost a week. Scores of people showed up Sunday for a grand-opening party for the firehouse and adjoining medical clinic.

Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey Sunday told a grand-opening crowd that community clinics are a key to providing the United States with universal health care.

Retired Dr. John Doss of Bolinas and (balancing on a concrete bar) photographer Art Rogers of Point Reyes Station. The new Bolinas Clinic is in the background. To the left is the south side of the new firehouse.

Supervisor Steve Kinsey described the firehouse-clinic project as an example of cooperation between county government, which provided about $450,000, and the community of Bolinas.

The new clinic, part of the nonprofit Coastal Health Alliance, went into service last week. Handling the front desk is Sharon Lee.

Bolinas resident Mark Buell, who played a key role in fundraising, happily addressed Sunday’s throng. The firehouse and clinic project cost approximately $6.57 million.

Kim Bender of Bolinas, who has been directing the fundraising, reported half the money came from public sources and half from private and community sources. Public sources: Bolinas Fire Protection District parcel tax, $1.73 million; California Health Facilities Finance Administration (CHA), $750,000; County of Marin, $442,000; Fire Protection District operating funds, $237,000; other state and county grants, $108,000. Private and community sources: individuals, $1.2 million; Marin Community Foundation, $1 million; Fire Protection District bonds, $555,000; CHA mortgage, $300,000; Tides Foundation, $200,000; other foundations, $50,000.

Fundraising is still underway to repay $550,000 in loans, Bender said. Checks can be sent to Bolinas Firehouse & Clinic Project, Box 126, Bolinas, California, 94924. Contributions can also be made online at the project’s website.

Photographer Art Rogers (on a ladder at upper right) arranges Sunday’s crowd at the Bolinas Firehouse and Clinic opening before taking a portrait for his Point Reyes Family Album. While he is best known in West Marin for that collection of photos, he achieved international recognition four years ago when he photographed 50 women lying naked on Love Field in Point Reyes Station, spelling out PEACE with their bodies. Sunday he declined a suggestion to have the crowd take off their clothes, lie down, and spell out FIRE.

Tom Peters, president of Marin Community Foundation, congratulated Bolinas residents for working together to create the firehouse and clinic project. The foundation has donated $1 million. The new complex is on Mesa Road.

In the lee of the new firehouse, the Fireflies (pictured), Bolinas Stinson School Singers, and Don Tshoot The Piano Player entertained the grand-opening-party crowd.

Among those listening to Sunday’s speakers was Dr. Michael Witte, medical director of the Coastal Health Alliance, which operates the clinic in Bolinas as well as clinics in Point Reyes Station and Stinson Beach. The Bolinas Clinic previously operated out of a tiny office on Wharf Road.

New firehouse with four fire engines in its bays. The firehouse, which will eventually be equipped for an ambulance, includes dormitory rooms, a meeting room, offices, a dayroom and kitchen, and facilities for washing firefighters’ contaminated garb.

My houseguest’s tiny Bichon Havanese mix becomes acquainted with one of my resident raccoons. The raccoon could see the elderly dog better than the dog could see her, but neither could smell the other through the glass pane of my dining-room window, so both soon lost interest in each other.

A former neighbor, who through no fault of her own had to abruptly move out of a home on Tomasini Canyon Road, is staying at my cabin for a few weeks as she prepares to move into a new home in Santa Rosa. My houseguest, Linda Petersen, previously lived in Puerto Rico 21 years where she acquired a now-14-year-old Bichon Havanese mix, which is also staying in my cabin.

Havanese, which are related to Pekinese, were originally bred in Havana, Cuba, and this particular pup weighs less than five pounds. Sebastian is almost deaf and almost blind but still has a keen sense of smell. That’s not necessarily a good combination, for whenever the dog gets lost, it follows its nose, as long as its nose is pointing downhill.

My houseguest Linda Petersen with Sebastian the dog at the mouth of the Russian River. Ten years ago, Linda’s daughter Saskia found Sebastian hunting for garbage in the streets of a densely packed suburb of San Juan.

Linda is a horsewoman, and a day or two after she moved in, she went for a ride in the Point Reyes National Seashore and left Sebastian in my care. No problem. The old dog sleeps most of the time. After working at my computer for a while, however, I thought it best to check up on Sebastian and discovered to my dismay that he had slipped out my kitchen door and was nowhere to be seen.

I searched around my house and a neighbor’s. No Sebastian. I then drove over to Tomasini Canyon Road to see if the dog had returned to his old home. Still no Sebastian. By now I was worried that the blind-and-deaf old dog would wander onto Highway 1 where it might be too small for a motorist to see it, so I drove up and down the highway, but still no Sebastian.

As I drove back up Campolindo Road to search my hill further, I surprised an unusually large red fox that skedaddled onto neighbor Jess Santana’s property. A short ways further up the road, I spotted another neighbor, Carol Waxman, and asked her if she had seen a small dog wandering around.

As it turned out, Carol had seen Sebastian only two or three minutes earlier and took me to the place. “He ran off the road right here,” she said, pointing to the spot where I had just seen the fox disappear. That was alarming because Sebastian is far smaller than a jackrabbit and is no match for a fox.

Frantically, I crawled under nearby barbed-wire fences and through thickets of willows to look for the dog while Carol took over my search along Highway 1. The more time went by, the more I worried about the fox getting a hold of Sebastian.

And then suddenly there he was, at the edge of Jess’s driveway heading toward the home of another neighbor, George Grimm. The dog was clearly lost and seemed as happy to see me as I was to see him. As for the fox, it was probably pleased just to have me out of its thicket.

By now Sebastian has had several uneventful encounters with the wildlife on my hill although it’s not clear how much he was aware any of them.

Two blacktail fawns watch Sebastian trot past them down my driveway too blind to see them. (Photo by Linda Petersen)

State Senator Carol Midgen (center) on Sunday afternoon lent her support to a crowd of more than 50 people, who were protesting the Point Reyes National Seashore’s beginning to kill off its fallow and axis deer herds. The park began shooting deer last month, along with giving contraceptive injections to some does. The shooting has temporarily stopped but is scheduled to resume in the spring. Midgen told the group that shooting deer to eliminate the herds is unacceptable to members of the public in this region. She offered to cut red tape with State Fish and Game to facilitate the additional use of contraception to control herd sizes.