Photos by seanaohara : on the map, in Google Earth (KML)

Spirit Rock Meditation Center

merci beaucoup !

Great shot of Naked Ladies, Amaryllis belladonna, a South African native that modestly naturalizes here in California.

Gorgeous

VOTED!

Beautiful specimen! Are you a member of The Mediterranean Garden Society? I've often wondered if there were members in Chile. Sean O. hortulus aptus

A windswept Monterey Cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa) covered in a non-parasitic lichen, Trentepohlia aurea var. polycarpa, which is rich in beta carotene, giving it a bright orange color.

We really enjoyed our stay at Rio Villa Resorts in Monte Rio.

A memorial for Nicholas Green, a five-year old Bodega Bay resident killed in Ital in 1994 (see nicholasgreen.org)

This little known landmark will soon be the centerpiece of a mediterranean climate garden. The Palmatum garden provides a background, with a blooming Silk Floss Tree (Chorisia speciosa).

See also The Mediterranean Garden Society

Here is an article about this fountain from the Oakland Tribune archives (our thanks to the Oakland History Room of the Oakland Library).

Bird Font with Word of Verse Misspelled Kindliest Landmark from Random Rambles in the Eastbay, by E.G.Fitzhamon, May 15th 1927, Oakland Tribune

Most bountiful and kindliest of all landmarks and objects set up in Oakland’s delightfully sylvan little park adjacent to Lake Merritt is the pleasing bird-fountain donated by Mrs. Daniel E. Easterbrook in 1914.

This attractive work in high relief, credited to Petrelli, distinguished sculptor at Florence, said to have been carved from pure white Carrara marble; though after thirteen years of exposure it may not seem so to the casual park stroller.

In the most famous old Italian gardens may be found a deep and cool well of choice drinking water. Above ground is set up a handsomely sculptured and beautiful Carrara well-casement or top.

It is one of these works of art that the Easterbrook bird-fountain in Lakeside Park represents. Possibly it is a replica of some noted well-casement. But, instead of being open at the top, it has there a shallow dish nearly three across. Around that is a heavy and handsomely carved marble rim.

On that broad rim wild birds alight before drinking and bathing. Fresh water flows from a little nubbin at the center of the shallow disk.

FONT ENGRAVED

Park Gardeners long in service tell how Mrs. Easterbrook pleaded for turning low the McElroy fountain at certain times of the day, so that wild birds might have brief opportunities to drink and bathe. That led up to her presenting to Oakland, through former Mayor Frank Howard, this attractive bird-fountain. Around the font is engraved this Latin inscription:

SITIEUTES VENITE AD FONTEM VOBIS OBVIAM VENIET LAETA MULTITIDO

From “SITIEUTES” park strollers who know their Latin may reasonably assume that the engraver was some American workman who did not. Otherwise Mrs. Easterbrook’s handsome offering would not have been marred.

Substituting “SITIENTES,” plural of “sitiens,” meaning thirsty, the inscription can be translated:

Come, thirsty ones, to the fountain set out in the open for you. Let the joyous multitudes come.

Another pleasing piece credited to the same Floretine maestro, Petrelli, adorns the art collection Mrs. Easterbrook and her late husband gathered during several wanderings through famed art centers of Europe. It is a replica, fourteen inches high, of the never excelled “Venus de Milo.”

TRAVELED WIDELY

In the southwest of England, famed for Devon cattle, rich pastures, fragrant whitethorn hedges and singing bullfinches, the Easterbrook family is counted among those of wealth and position. Thence came Daniel Easterbrook to California nearly half a century ago, found here a bride, and made an artistic and hospitable home in Oakland. They frequently traveled to England, France, Italy, and as far east as St. Petersburg and as far north as the fjords of Norway during thirty-one years together.

Mrs. Easterbrook and her late husband were patrons of Fabiola Hospital. She had been its recording secretary and a director throughout twenty-seven consecutive years. Other philanthropic works called to them.

In early history of the Home club of Oakland they also played a prominent part. Mrs. Easterbrook was its president for six years and still belongs. It often has been said of her that she has more warm personal friends than anyone else around this city.

She loves her Oakland and Eastbay. But she loves birds, too. It was to them that she gave the beautiful marble fountain rather than to the city of Oakland, she declares.

www.berkeleyrowingclub.org