{"id":21445,"date":"2013-10-21T23:12:52","date_gmt":"2013-10-22T07:12:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sparselysageandtimely.com\/blog\/?p=21445"},"modified":"2023-12-17T15:21:45","modified_gmt":"2023-12-17T23:21:45","slug":"the-fall-of-nicasio-and-point-reyes-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/?p=21445","title":{"rendered":"The Fall of Nicasio and Point Reyes Station"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I was a student at Stanford, I once received an ominous message<\/strong> in the mail. Scrawled on the back of an otherwise blank postcard were the words: “THE FALL IS IN FOR YOU.”<\/p>\n

What was the threat all about? I had no idea. Ten minutes went by before I remembered trying to buy a copy of Albert Camus’ novel The Fall<\/em> at Kepler’s Books more than a month earlier. The bookstore had been sold out but offered to order a copy for me. Apparently it had finally come in.<\/p>\n

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Fall colors along the driveway to Heidrun Meadery in Point Reyes Station Sunday.<\/em><\/p>\n

Fall is a gaily colored but bittersweet season. <\/strong>Its foliage is beautiful, but it also heralds the coming of winter. Perhaps because of this dichotomy, Fall has always had particular significance for me.<\/p>\n

The first poem I ever wrote concerned Fall. My second-grade teacher assigned our class to write a poem about Autumn, and I came up with: “Autumn is the same as Fall. Autumn should not come at all, for when it’s Fall it is a rule all of us go back to school.” No doubt the teacher was offended.<\/p>\n

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Cows graze on the Dolcini Ranch at Four Corners north of Nicasio Square Sunday<\/em>.<\/p>\n

West Marin in Fall may not be able to match the colors in New England<\/strong>, but it nonetheless has its own share of spectacular countryside.<\/p>\n

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Canada geese on Nicasio Reservoir across Nicasio Valley Road from the Dolcini Ranch<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Marin Municipal Water District in 1961 erected Seeger Dam<\/strong> on Nicasio Creek, creating Nicasio Reservoir. The reservoir inundated part of the old Nicasio Valley Road, including this bridge, so a new alignment was built to the east.<\/p>\n

MMWD’s seven reservoirs collectively are currently at 64 percent of capacity compared to 75 percent at this date last year. Sixty-six percent is average. Nicasio Reservoir looks especially low now that the old bridge has reemerged.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Even the centerline of the old Nicasio Valley Road is now visible on the reservoir’s bottom.<\/em><\/p>\n

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A stand of colorful trees between the reservoir and the Nicasio School campus.<\/em><\/p>\n

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A short distance further south lies Nicasio Vally Farms’ Pumpkin Patch, seen here on Monday. Every harvest season, especially on Saturdays and Sundays, hundreds of families pick through the crop looking for squash to carve into jack-o’-lanterns<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Horses just south of Nicasio Square seem quite blas\u00e9 about the splendor at their stable<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A tree in the redwoods still further south catches a ray of sunlight while vines of poison oak frame the scene in red.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Fog begins to roll in off the ocean Sunday as the afternoon turns to dusk at Nicasio Reservoir.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A gaggle of geese take flight, probably to flap over Mitchell cabin on their evening commute to Point Reyes<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Because of Fall’s significance for me, this year as always I assembled a cornucopia in Mitchell cabin. It’s a symbol of the bounty of the harvest, and may you too be blessed with the horn of plenty this harvest season<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was a student at Stanford, I once received an ominous message in the mail. Scrawled on the back of an otherwise blank postcard were the words: “THE FALL IS IN FOR YOU.” What was the threat all about? I had no idea. Ten minutes went by before I remembered trying to buy a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":623,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,10,11],"tags":[655,657,38,656,244],"class_list":["post-21445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photography","category-west-marin-nature","category-wildlife","tag-cornucopia","tag-heidrun-meadery","tag-nicasio-reservoir","tag-nicasio-vallley-farms-pumpkin-patch","tag-seeger-dam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/623"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21445"}],"version-history":[{"count":56,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40382,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21445\/revisions\/40382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}