spiral-house

Whaling Ships and Sanctuary

A few more days for reflection on this rapidly closing year.

I write facing the body of water pictured on my screen, Whalers Cove - now thankfully known as Shelter Cove - at the southern end of Sausalito, a tiny nook in the San Francisco Bay.

Whaling ships took shelter here for almost 200 years.  Fresh water still comes from the same prized springs that supplied the whalers. Barges loaded with barrels ferried our water across the Bay to the tiny (but dry) settlement that was to become San Francisco.  

The winds that blow from the sea blow over the ridge and drop down on the water spreading it in all directions.  The sun and the moon rise over Angel Island and the low East Bay hills. Sunrise lights up the back wall of my studio and colors the large open sky.  Some pilings remain from ship building wharves (taken out by a severe northerly I hear).  These pilings provide me with many hours of delight as they are a gathering place for many sea birds. 

Welcome

My blog is about a little speck of beach in a small town on the edge of the great Bay of San Francisco. Each morning, cup of tea in hand, I greet and am greeted by the land and sea birds that visit and make this place their home. I write about what inspires and informs me in my life and in my work as an architect and landscape/permaculture designer. I hope you enjoy reading it.