Saturday, April 3, 2010

Beautiful Azusa Canyon

We spent Tuesday-Friday at my Mom's house in Azusa, California.
Her house backs right up against the foothills of Azusa Canyon,
and we continued to be blessed with beautiful weather. We had
clear sunny days, it was warm without being too hot, and I
enjoyed a few short hikes in the canyon:



When I was a kid growing up in this area in the 60's and 70's, a
huge part of the San Gabriel Valley in So. Cal was undeveloped
like this, and while many of these parks still exist, back in
the older days the natural land was much more vast.

My friends and I spent our summers birdwatching, catching
crickets, grasshoppers, lizards, snakes, and frogs. We used to
ride our bicycles for miles and miles around, and when I see
land like this it puts me at the very doorstep of Heaven.

It is wonderful to see that right in the middle of LA County,
places like this continue to exist, even though they are smaller.

Hummingbirds are attracted to the feeders in the back yard, and
they don't seem to mind if I get very close to them:



Whenever I visit there, a lot of my old friends who still live in
the area come by to see me, and we spent several days
reminiscing, having dinner, and partying a bit like we used to.

Peace be with you.

12 comments:

  1. Great photos Joe! You have a good eye!
    I love humming birds. We also have a feeder right outside our kitchen window. I can watch them forever.
    As crowded as everyone things California is, it really isn't. Only around LA, San Diego, and San Francisco. The rest of the state is pretty much wide open. And it's huge of course.
    Glad you are having such a nice trip!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Beautiful photos as always. Hummingbirds are possibly my favorite animal. They just seem to embody joy. I love the first and second pictures of it especially.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Your photography leaves me speechless.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The pics with the lizard and hummingbird are wonderful! I'd love to see a real live humminbird one day :D I'm glad the weather was so beautiful and that you had fun hiking in that canyon!! It's surreal..!

    ReplyDelete
  5. the hummingbird is so lovely.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sounds like a good time in lovely surroundings! Great hummingbird shots.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks, ya'll, and Happy Easter!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hey Joe,
    Sunday morning there will be something for you at my blog!
    pat

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wow! Those are some awesome pics! I really love the flower.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Beautiful. We've put our feeder out here in middle GA but not many birds yet.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I'm always looking out for new hikes in So Cal. I'm going to have to give the canyon a try.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Toca...back in my day, Diamond Bar was always a great place to enjoy the wilderness.
    So was Puddingstone Lake and Galster Park.
    Ah, those were the days...

    ReplyDelete