03/11 - Albany Hill

12 of us were treated to a guided tour of Albany Hill Park with Margot Cunningham (a member of the Albany Parks and Recreation staff as well as a lead volunteer in the restoration of the native habitats on Albany Hill). This was a short walk (about 1.25 mi) with lots of stops to look, listen and learn. Thanks to Elaine for arranging this special outing.

After the tour, Delia invited us to eat our lunches in her garden. It has been a long while since the Wednesday folks were there an there have been lots of changes in the 10 years they have been working on the back yard. It was wonderful to look at and talk about the plants and how the garden has developed over the years.

https://www.flickr.com/gp/momcat_ksw/19J3Fd

Here is a repeat of some of the links I put in the hike announcement:

The Friends of Albany Hill (check the plant list on the Plants tab)
https://friendsofalbanyhill.org/history-of-friends-of-albany-hill/

For History of the fight to keep the hill as open space and a page of related resources:
https://tendancienthill.org/history-of-albany-hill/

and a bit about the cross and associated controversy:
http://albanyhill4all.weebly.com/faq.html

03/04 - Walnut Creek Open Space

This was a day that felt more like May than March...bright and clear, high 70's with a gentle breeze. The grass is still mostly green, but drying already where the soil is thin. There were very few flowers. But in places the buttercups were thick. The few fiddlenecks were taller than the ones we saw last week at Rockville Hills, but still stunted. There were a few patches of mustard. That was about it for bloom except for a few bunches of CA poppies. But green grass and new leaves provided a wide variety of colors. There were a dozen of us if you count Oscar. We made a CCW loop of about 3.7 miles from the Whitecliff TH.

https://www.flickr.com/gp/momcat_ksw/LN7868