Fields of Gold, Black Mountain Ranch, upper Ojai, California

Driving the windy highway 150 into Ojai is always an adventure. This two-lane road is so familiar to Jim and me after 28 years that even the pungent oily smell from Santa Paula creek near Thomas Aquinas College presents a unique welcome. We curve around windswept ridges, citrus and avocado groves and expansive horse ranches.

In upper Ojai, the Black Mountain Ranch is ablaze with color, shapes and forms. The mustard plants, orchard trees and Coast Live Oak trees form a stunning horticultural canvas.

Only 80 miles from our Glendale home, Ojai, nestled in the Los Padres National Forest, is a retreat from congested city life. Each year, we come in late April and join family and friends to watch “The Ojai” tennis tournament.

Ojai is a haven for artists, musicians and those seeking a healthy lifestyle. But lesser known is the oldest amateur tennis tournament in America (114 years) that’s played in this Mayberry-esque town. Tennis matches include PAC-12, community and independent college, junior competition, and open tennis play.

Tennis legends Billie Jean King, Arthur Ashe, Stan Smith, Tracy Austin and the Bryan brothers have all played here. Libbey Park, shaded by mighty oaks in the middle of town, hosts the major tennis action and dozens of courts all the way to Ventura are also used.

This tournament is so steeped in tradition that the “Tea Tent” opens promptly at 3 p.m. Tea is poured into china cups from an elegant sterling server for all who stop in. One lump or two? A slice of lemon? Women adorned in floral dresses stand ready with platters loaded with Oreos, maple, lemon creme, shortcake, and chocolate chip cookies. Fans reconnect around outside tables and discuss their favorite plays of the day while sipping tea.

We love “The Ojai” and my memories of the years here don’t fade easily.  Nor do the back of my white slacks with the green tinge from the freshly painted bleachers at Libbey Park.

We’ll return next year, stay at the Lavender Inn’s cottage, take an early morning hike up Shelf Road Trail with Christy and PJ and then watch the matches, cheering for the winners and the runner-ups as they receive their green and white ribboned medals flanked amidst pots of yellow chrysanthemums.  And yes, I’ll wear white slacks again. After all, that’s part of the tradition too.

Yongfoo Elite Bar, Shanghai, China. Photo by Carl Werts

Guest photographer Carl Werts has been a friend since our time at the Pasadena Athletic Club in the 1980’s.  He’s an avid mountaineer and has enjoyed rock, ice and high altitude alpine climbing in France, New Zealand, Bolivia, Mexico, and Nepal. He’s summited Mt. McKinley in Alaska and Ama Dablam in the Himalaya, capturing images along the way.

The balance, harmony, and light of this photograph caught my attention when I saw it hanging in Carl’s dental office. Intrigued, I wondered what mysteries lay behind those graceful curtains. Carl kindly agreed to share the photograph and its story with “Wondrous Nature”.

Two years ago, Carl travelled to Suqain, China with other dentists, doctors, and nurses to provide care to the poor, elderly, and infirmed. Besides providing humanitarian clinical care, they visited special needs schools providing donations, gifts, and toys. “Trips like these allow us to see and experience the world through a different lens while we share our skills with those less fortunate,” Carl said.

On the last night of the trip, Carl arranged to meet a patient who lived and worked in Shanghai and asked to see a part of the city that tourists might not normally see — that place was Yongfoo Elite bar.

This exotic bar, restaurant, place for meetings, weddings and other social gatherings is housed in an old consular residence on Yongfu Lu in the former French Concession. “Several little private gardens, guest houses and shrines are all tucked in around a sprawling estate, as exotically landscaped with décor as in this image,” said Carl. Yongfoo Elite is “tropical but not quite, hints of walls with old framing, the Buddha statue, the big barrel pot with light illuminating, the overall lighting and color.  To me just a very cool image.”

Carl began taking photos in high school with a new SLR camera. He resumed photography in dental school in Washington, D.C. During his mountaineering time, he became an avid photographer since so many people were interested in his photos of far off (and high up) places.

This “cool Image” was taken with a Canon EOS Rebel T3. Namaste, Carl!

Tulips, Descanso Gardens, La Cañada, California

Spring arrived early in Southern California thanks to unseasonably high temperatures and the tulips unfurled their colorful pennants into full bloom at Descanso Gardens.  I often walk in the Gardens and am dazzled by the floral frenzy. Thousands of tulips blaze a patchwork of Purple Lord, Zurel, Orange Monarch and other bright colors along the walking paths.

I saw my first tulips in Pella, Iowa, a small city founded by a group of Dutch who immigrated to America for religious freedom in the mid-1800’s.  They brought their families, their belongings and, of course, their beloved tulips.  When we would visit grandma who had a farm in Knoxville, a favorite drive was to nearby Pella with its windmills, maypoles, and fields of tulips in the town square.

Although tulips are associated with the Netherlands, they actually originated in the mountainous regions of Central Asia. The sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Emperor Suleiman, grew tulips in his Constantinople gardens. The turban-shaped tulips so intrigued his Austrian ambassador that he sent bulbs and seeds to the Vienna Imperial Gardens in 1554.

Eventually, a Dutch botanic garden acquired tulips from Vienna in the late 1500’s. These new and beautiful flowers prompted a Dutch hybridizer and investor movement. Rare tulip type bulbs were sold for as much as 3,000 guilders a bulb, the equivalent today of $1,500. Many Dutch cashed in their families’ valuables to buy bulbs and enter the “tulipomania” trade. Huge sums of money were made, but in 1637 the tulip market crashed when buyers no longer would pay the exorbitant prices.

The Dutch steadily built a production and export business and the Netherlands now produce nine billion tulip bulbs annually, exporting seven billion.

Thanks to the Dutch, I can spend a leisurely hour strolling and watching magnificent tulips sway in the breeze on their long slender stalks. Oh — and did I mention the daffodils, cherry blossoms, lilacs, poppies, and wisteria?

Cat at Tom’s Pan German Bakery, Nuevo Arenal, Costa Rica

While driving in northwestern Costa Rica a few years ago, we stopped at Tom’s German bakery for a confectionary break. Yes, you heard right!  A popular German bakery flourishes in Nuevo Arenal, a tropical melting pot of local Ticos, Europeans, Americans and Canadians.

A foamy cappuccino, Strudel and cinnamon rolls were a welcome treat after days of hearty arroz, meat and black beans meals. We sat at a table on the outdoor patio with other travelers recounting our adventures in this lush land.

Two tables over, this sweet-faced cat was curled up on a cushioned chair snoozing totally undisturbed by our chatter. The calico catching a few winks called out to me — pure “Pura Vida!”

We came to Costa Rica to enjoy its beauty, spot colorful birds, hear the howler monkeys, zip line the rain forest’s canopy, cruise for crocodiles, ride horses, river raft, and immerse ourselves in the culture.

But now this sleeping cat enchanted me.  Some things are the same all over the world. A snooze is a snooze no matter whatever country you are in.  A time for quiet, rest, relaxation, peace. The furry feline reminded me there’s always time to kick back and while away the time sipping coffee and swapping stories…or to take a catnap. “To sleep, perchance to dream.”

Palm Canyon, Palm Springs, California

On a visit to Palm Springs in early January, we hiked in the Indian Canyons.  Years ago, we visited the lush canyons with our Oregon friends and were drawn back to their beauty and serenity.

Centuries ago, the trio of Palm, Andreas, and Murray canyons, with their abundant supply of water, plants and animals, were home to the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians. Rock art, irrigation ditches and food preparation areas still exist in these canyons.

We walked, often silently, along the 15-mile Palm Canyon trail among groves of palm trees and rocky gorges surrounded by the stark Sonoran desert.

Palm Canyon has the world’s largest stand of California Fan Palm trees (Washingtonia filifera), the only palm native to the western United States. Fan-shaped fronds spread from the top of the tree and layers of dusty, dead fronds hang down against the trunk, giving it the moniker “petticoat” palm. These fronds form a protective area, providing habitat and shelter for birds, insects and small rodents.

The original California Fan Palm oases were important gathering and habitation sites and were indicative of important springs, usually located along earthquake faults.  Black “berries” with a brown seed surrounded by a sweet pulp grow abundantly on the palms and provided food for native Americans.

The lands are sacred to today’s Indians and the solitude of walking along the windy, dusty trail gave us time to connect with the natural flow and beauty of Palm Canyon.