I’ve had an influx of beautiful books lately, so I thought I’d share this simple pleasure with you.

I was shopping at Target a couple of weeks ago when this book caught my eye:

First the pretty cover and then the enticing title: A Book That Takes Its Time: An Unhurried Adventure in Creative Mindfulness. I picked it up to flip through and found that each page was unique. Thoughtfully written pieces were interspersed with happy illustrations and interactive goodies, such as tear out “Notecards for your beautiful moments jar.” The clincher that made me drop it into my basket—it is “a flow book.” (Flow is a magazine I’ve heard of but not yet seen in person. Since flow is my word of the year, my reticular activating system is constantly bringing it to my attention!)

I’m taking my time going through this book, savoring the simple pleasures within. On the back cover, it’s described as “A mindfulness retreat between two covers….” It has sections on kindness (to yourself and others), creativity, learning and more, as well as writing prompts, mini-journals, postcards, and decorative papers. I can see it sitting on a coffee table, available to browse through at whim. This was an impulse buy, but well worth the price.

The other beautiful books came to me by way of a contest! Rizzoli Books sponsored a giveaway on Instagram recently, and I won! The books arrived Friday. They’re all beautiful, and I know I’ll spend many happy hours browsing through them. 

 Two were of particular interest to me: Gardens of Style, by Janelle McCulloch, and Paris in Stride, by Jessie Kanelos Weiner and Sarah Moroz. Janelle writes and photographs the most beautiful books, and I’ve read her blog A Library of Design for several years. I claim her as a blogging acquaintance and hope to meet her someday as she sometimes visits Florida. 

Paris in Stride comes at just the right time, as I will be joining Laure Ferlita on her sketching tour in Paris in October! Paris in Stride is subtitled “an insider’s walking guide,” and is arranged by arrondissements, so I think it’s going to be helpful in planning our visit. Plus it’s charmingly illustrated in watercolor! (The books also came with a watercolor of the Eiffel Tour as seen below left.)

Gentle readers, let us finish up the Birds and Blooms and Winding Roads trip with some delicious food and a visit to the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens. (See part one here, part two here, and part three here.) Click on the photos if you'd like to see them bigger.

The food was some of the best I’ve ever eaten—we shared the hard cider French toast and the bacon and mushroom hash.

In addition to serving people, they are dog-friendly with a special menu just for their canine guests: the Stop, Drop & Drool menu, and there’s a special room where you can eat with your pet. (Luna would have lost her mind with joy.)

After we waddled walked to our car, we headed just up the road to the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens: “47 acres of botanical bliss fronting the Pacific Ocean.” This garden was voted 5^th best garden in the United States by USA Today’s “10 Best” Reader’s Choice Awards.

I could tell you about the blooming rhododendrons; the succulent and Mediterranean gardens; the walk by the sea where we watched in fascination as waves curled and broke, dashing themselves against rocks; the hummingbirds darting here and there...but instead I’ll let my photos show, not tell.

Where will your next everyday adventure take you?

Part Three of the Birds, Blooms, and Winding Roads Tour. Part one is here, part two is here. Click on photo to make it bigger.

One of our winding roads led us to Point Arena Lighthouse. Originally erected in 1870, it was destroyed by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and rebuilt two years later. It’s the tallest lighthouse on the West Coast (115 feet), and you can climb to the top. (One other lighthouse, Pigeon Point, is the same height, but it’s not open to the public to climb.)

The area around Point Arena Lighthouse was spectacularly photogenic. We glanced at the lighthouse itself, snapped its photo, and spent the rest of our time there stalking birds and taking pictures of wildflowers, seals, and tossing waves.

You can stay in the lightkeepers’ houses—I would love to do that. The views would be spectacular. 

I was going to lump the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens into this post, but I think I’ll save it for later. You’re not tired of vacation photos yet, are you? (Don’t answer that!) 

“An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered.”

—Gilbert K. Chesterson

The second day of our road trip dawned overcast, and it drizzled off and on as we headed out. I didn’t mind, because I enjoy the novelty of wearing a jacket!

After that, we headed south through the Avenue of the Giants, a 31-mile road running parallel to Highway 101, through Humboldt Redwoods State Park. Humboldt is the largest remaining old-growth redwood forest in the world, and one of California’s largest and oldest state parks. Avenue of the Giants is called one of the finest forest drives in the world—you’ll get no argument from me.

An old-growth or ancient forest has the following characteristics: trees of all ages; may layers of canopy (the uppermost branchy layer); large, standing dead trees, known as snags; large downed logs; large fallen logs in streams; and trees aged over 200 years. The redwoods growing in this area are Coast Redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens)—they’re not the oldest, but they are believed to be the tallest, growing up to 370 feet tall. Coast redwoods only grow naturally in a 40-mile wide by 450-mile long strip from southern Oregon to southern Monterey County in California.

       

The redwood forest is an ideal place to learn about the interconnectedness of life. During a redwood’s lifespan, 1,700 species of plants and animals depend on it. After it dies, 600 species live on a snag, and 4,000 live on or in a downed log.

Redwoods are so large that the base of the tree, the stem, and the crown each lives in a different climactic zone. There are two types of needles, depending on the conditions where they live on the tree.

We took short walks at the Drury Cheney Grove and the Founders Grove. Because of the slightly drizzly weather, we saw few people, and we didn’t hear any birds or other creatures. The woods were hushed and damp and cool.

I learned a cool new word: “windthrow”—the blowing over of trees, and leading cause of redwood death. When the older trees die and blow down, the younger trees have a chance to grow.

In fact, we were forced to detour from the Avenue of the Giants because a tree fell and blocked the road!

We wrapped up the day with a cold and windy sunset on the beach by our hotel in Fort Bragg.

Next up: a lighthouse, a light station, and a botanical garden by the sea. Read about the first part of this trip here.