REDSTARTstudio

Here is a link to the BLAKE ESTATE ORAL HISTORY PROJECT pdf:

http://www.archive.org/details/blakeestateoral00riesrich

The oral history was conducted in 1986-1987 by the Regional Oral History Office. In addition to the interviews, the appendix has a selection of writings and articles that relate to the history of the estate and the garden.

I couldn’t resist including this photo that I shot on Xmas eve of the bridge which used to connect “La Casa Adelante” to “Quinta de Las Lilas”.

“La Casa Adelante” is of course Blake Garden. “Quinta de Las Lilas” was the home of Edwin Blake and is now a Carmelite Monestary.

Blake Garden -- Above the Redwood Grove -- 12/24/08

On December 21 we visited Crista Assad’s gallery at 4th & Clay with Heather and John. Here are a few shots of side of the gallery/warehouse building which is covered with graffiti.

A video shot at an alpine lake in the Sierras a few years ago. 1,000’s upon 1,000’s of tadpoles swimming in a vernal pool. Sound is originally from the “Wildcat Pre-mix” recorded along Wildcat Creek by Lauri while she was doing a field study and then later processed in the studio.

Some before and after images taken at Blake Garden. The photographs on the left are from February of 2008, and the photographs on the right were taken this morning. Note the huge dent in the blackberry area on the other side of the creek. I wish that I had taken an even earlier picture of the bridge area, as it was completely covered over with berries in the Fall of 2007, when the clearing began.

These photographs were taken yesterday, and today during the current rainfall. On Friday we discovered that the creek (where it is day-lighted in the garden at the top of the property near the gate) was filled with debris, and had been, over time, diverted around the debris. Volunteers and workstudy students had first cleared the area of thornless blackberries. Then the channel was cleared on Friday. It is currently raining and a least .25 inches of rain have fallen in the garden. Today we observed that the cleared channel is working, and it is filled.

In February of 2007, Lauri, John Slavonic and I hiked to Miner’s Tunnel on the S. Branch of the Yuba River. John brought along his rulers, the intention being to measure the tunnel. The movie is a short jpeg sequence of one of the rulers caught in an eddy. Click HERE to download the PDF documentation of the project.