Eighth Anniversary

 

For Nicole's Friday Face Off - broken, raw beauty in the face of devastation

Today marks the eighth anniversary of the Tubbs Fire that in the very early hours of October 9th, 2017 raced through parts of my town and turned entire neighborhoods to ashes. One of those neighborhoods was our old one. We weren't living there anymore at that time - we had moved to our current home five years before the fires - but the devastation and the anxious-filled days following that fateful night are still very vivid in my memory.

I didn't really want to write about this until I saw that today's prompt over at Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date is "fire" - too much of a coincidence for me to ignore.

These are the remains of the Brookdale House, our old home.

We had lived 11 years in this house and we had been very happy in it. Here Kaefer grew from a three-year old to a teenager, important years in our book. Some of our neighbors were more than just neighbors, they had become friends. The husband of the lovely couple across the street had become Kaefer's substitute grandpa. Not much was left of their home.

The couple next to us often barbecued in their backyard and the most delicious flavors were wafting over to our yard. More than a few times they invited us over and revealed some of their "cooking secrets". I am so glad that both Kaefer and I were able to say goodbye to the husband a few days before he died (this was a couple years before the fires). During the night of the fire, his wife (now a widow) thankfully wasn't at home, but staying at her daughter's home in Tahoe. She never returned. 

Some neighbors moved to other neighborhoods or towns, others rebuilt. The good connection that we had with all of them unfortunately didn't last. Every now and then I see some of them, but the bond has certainly loosened.

I went up to the burnt out neighborhood right after the fires twice. Once, to see some of my old neighbors and the other time to take Kaefer up there. She was already studying at UC Davis at the time of the fire. When we got the permission to enter the property, we went to what used to be our backyard. And here a little miracle happened - I found one of the small concrete Japanese pagodas that I had forgotten when we moved because they had been covered by ivy. It had survived the inferno!

A Hike Along the Ridge

 

My friend Kris and I often walk or hike together in our regional parks. Dogs are allowed here, so she can bring Zoey who is a very well behaved older dog. This morning we decided to hike in Sonoma Valley Park, but instead of taking the popular shady paved path we opted for Cougar Trail up the ridge.

That trail starts right at the parking lot and meanders among trees up the hill. In October 2017 the park heavily burned in the Nuns Fire. It had been closed for weeks after that, but when we hiked there in April 2018, it was already far into its way to recovery. You can read about that here.

Most of the old trees were left in the park. They offer a great habitat for wildlife. Especially the once almost completely burned parts were now heavily populated by Acorn Woodpeckers.

Can you see the deer next to the trail?

Halfway up close to the "cranberry pond" we enjoyed the fantastic view over this area. This was the first time on our hike that Kris and I said to each other how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful place (we said that several more times this morning).

We stopped every now and then just to take in the trees and the green of the hill. That color will vanish soon when it will get warmer and there won't be anymore rain until the fall.

We hiked up to the ridge - it was warming up, but thankfully most of the trail is in the shade of the trees.

Up at the ridge the trail evens out - a very pleasant hike. Of course there are crooked trees - always a favorite photo subject of mine. Darling Zoey agreed to show her face after I told her about Nicole's Friday Face Off.

We found a bench where we stopped for a few minutes to give Zoey some water and we had a refreshing drink ourselves as well as some apple slices - and we enjoyed the view.

In this area there were a lot of dead and burnt trees. Fascinating!

I especially liked the Lace Lichen - isn't it very decorative? Beside the smaller holes, this tree had a big hole.

Of course I had to check whether anything was in there. You bet!

Some fungi that looked like dried up Turkey Tails were at the lower part of the stump and there were acorns in the holes as well.

Kris discovered this tree:

Interesting and fascinating bark:

And I couldn't help it, I had to take a photo through this tree. It was definitely calling out to me.

A week before when I was here with the park's birding group there were way more wildflowers to see. Most of them were already gone by now. We could still see a few Blue Dicks (Dipterostemom capitatus) and also some Sky Lupines (no picture).

But we saw this little guy, a California Ringlet (Coenonympha tullia california).

Eventually we stopped to eat our sandwiches and give Zoey a well deserved treat until we decided to go back the same trail and not hike down to the paved path in the valley. It was the right decision - the trail through the forest was so beautiful.

This tree seemd to give us a wink as a goodbye when we finally descended to the parking lot.

Déjà Vu

Many of you have sent me emails, messages through Facebook and Instagram or commented on my last blogpost asking how we are doing in our current wildfire. Thank you so much for thinking of us and checking in. So here's a brief update.

We are still home and we even have power. With that we belong to the lucky ones because many are without power and even more had to evacuate. The wildfire started last week at The Geysers, a very large geothermal field. The fire, called the Kincade Fire, quickly spread, threatening Geyserville and the beautiful Alexander Valley. On top of the large fire there were extremely strong winds in the forecast for the following weekend. Last Saturday morning at approx. 11:00 the massive mandatory evacuations started and so far about 186,000 people have been evacuated - the biggest evacuation ever in the history of Sonoma County. Everything has been very organized - the evacuations were ordered in phases, beginning with the towns of Healdsburg and Windsor which are closest to the fire. They quickly were extended to the west of the county to the coast which is a huge area, much of it densely forested with small towns and villages in between as well as vineyards and only small winding roads - a nightmare if people had to get out there with no time and in panic. Then even the Northwestern part of Santa Rosa was evacuated.

The night from Saturday to Sunday was restless and intense with constantly new Nixle alerts coming in. I got up shortly after 4:00 am since the fire was getting too close for comfort. We had already packed the car on Saturday and were ready to leave any minute if we had to.

So far we have stayed put since our area is not under mandatory evacuation order. We are on alert and a bit on edge. The air quality has become very poor since the smoke is making its way down here. We have the air filter running inside and only go outside if necessary, wearing N95 maks. The winds over the weekend were wild and scary as predicted with the result that the fire doubled in size and is only 5% contained. Today, with winds having died down and expected to pick up again tomorrow, the firefighters are aggressively attacking the wildfire and I hope they will be successful. We are deeply thankful for the endless and tireless efforts of our firefighters and first responders - they are the true heroes.

This is a very bad déjà vu of the October 2017 wildfires when entire neighborhoods in Santa Rosa burnt down. Many of the rebuilt homes or houses currently under construction are in the mandatory evacuation areas. I can't even begin to imagine how these people must feel right now.

How Green was My Valley

No, this is not a post about a family of Welsh coal miners, but about a hike we did in April in one of our regional parks, Sonoma Valley.

Sonoma Valley Regional Park was smack in the middle of the October fires - this was the Nuns Fire - and almost completely burned. It was closed for weeks and weeks after the fire and only opened at the end of 2017. When we went there in April we were prepared to see a lot of damage, but we were in for quite a wonderful surprise - a green valley.

While there were scorched tree stumps and burned tree bark, the fresh green color of the vegetation was what really struck. Nature was recovering for sure! The park looked healthy even though it was quite clear that an inferno had taken place only six months before.

People came out in crowds to enjoy this beautiful gem between Sonoma and Santa Rosa.

As expected there was wildflower galore - and this was only the beginning of it.

We first walked through the valley - an easy stroll - but we decided to go up into the forest for our way back, a much more hilly and strenuous hike.

And as you can see, the forest didn't look too good. A lot of the madrones and manzanitas were charred, but the good news is that they didn't die and will probably recover. When we got closer it was amazing to look at the bark of the trees.

The fire was not able to destroy these beautiful trees. It is breathtaking to witness how nature heals itself and how fast it springs back to life. While it will take a while until the entire park will have recovered completely, it is so encouraging to see how everything comes back to life. Just a little stumble along the way...

Not so much for us humans, though. There were still burnt down sites that hadn't been cleaned up, even six months after the fire. Over and over again we are shown the dimension of this disaster.

It's so much easier and encouraging to look at nature.

But despite the earthquakes, wildfires and following landslides I love where I live. I don't think I'd like to live anywhere else right now.