Now that I have been watching a few other blogs for three months, I notice that some people write some very interesting or at least entertaining articles about topic that are not directly related to the main topic of their respective blogs. Most are just like old fashioned slide shows (remember those?) with cool pictures from around the neighborhood, travels, home projects, or whatever might be interesting. I have not done this yet; but I happen to have a bit of free time at the moment, so thought that I would post these three pictures of the historic Felton Covered Bridge. Although I am technically from Los Gatos, my home is in the Santa Cruz Mountains between Los Gatos and Felton. I also have history in Felton, since my grandparents and my Pa used to live here.
In an attempt to keep this post relevant to horticulture, I should mention that the trees to the right of the Felton Covered Bridge are a colony of the common box elders that suddenly died this past year. ( https://tonytomeo.wordpress.com/2017/10/04/what-is-killing-the-box-elders/ )We still do not know what killed them so suddenly. Perhaps later I can post pictures of this same area when it was flooded. I just do not have that file here right now.
This is the southwestern of the four sidelight windows on the Felton Covered Bridge. If crossing from the end in the upper picture, it would be on the left side toward the far end. It is the best window in the house. Rhody to the lower right might be mistaken for a rodent ( https://tonytomeo.wordpress.com/2017/10/14/rhody/ ). My parents have a picture from about 1970 of my older sister (from War of the Worlds – https://tonytomeo.wordpress.com/2017/10/03/war-of-the-worlds/ ), my younger brother and and I looking out of this window. My brother and I were just tykes at the time, and were to short to see out of the window, so we were standing on the lower rail. Our sister was pointing at something in the distance.
This is the view from that same window. That wet thing below is the San Lorenzo River. The black spots in that wet thing below are ducks. Once the rain starts, the San Lorenzo River really looks more like river than a creek. This last spring, in the San Lorenzo River right below the Bridge, we scattered the ashes of a good friend, Steven Ralls, with whom I went to Oklahoma (to the right in the illustration – https://tonytomeo.wordpress.com/2017/11/19/oklahoma/ ). Most of the vegetation out there is native. The trees straight ahead are common cottonwoods. However, the tree to the left is a weeping willow. No one knows how it got there.
Hey, this was fun. Maybe I will post more pictures on those memes later. I don’t know what a meme is, but I suppose I could figure it out.
Tony Tomeo 
Seeing that wonderful bridge reminds me of the film „Bridges of Madison County“ with Clint Eastwood. Interesting blog and love the photos.
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Oh! Mr. Eastwood was my neighbor when I lived in town! He is quite elderly now. He lives in Monterey County, but owns several properties around Los Gatos.
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Wow, I am impressed
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I think he got them a long time ago, before real estate got so crazy.
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An interesting post. Why are these bridges covered? And is it something peculiar to this area?
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You know, that is an interesting question. In New England, they are covered to keep them from frosting, and to keep horses from getting spooked when they are so high over the water. However, in our area, we do not have the nasty frosts. We get only light frosts. I think it was covered because the people who built it did not know much about the weather, and also because the main structure is already there in the suspension of the bridge. It does not take much to put walls and a roof over the truss. This bridge is supposed to be the tallest, and I also think that is just because of how the truss was built. It was not documented probably because it was not important at the time.
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Thanks. I love covered bridges. We have two left in North Carolina. I’m not quite sure why, but every time I see one it reminds me of my parents. But then again, most everything does . . .
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What an interesting story of your history and good times with family. Covered bridges are so much fun to see. There is one about 6 miles from here, in an area where many of our plain (Amish and Mennonite) neighbors live and I like to go walk across it. The best time is when some plain folks come along and drive their buggies over it, with the horse hooves sounds and steel wheels across the wooden floor.
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Most of my friends drove their hot rods across the Felton Covered Bridge back when I was a baby, but it was closed to vehicular traffic as long as I can remember.
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Ours is still in good shape and allows cars and buggies. It’s a fun thing, and still useful. And pretty.
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Reblogged this on Tony Tomeo and commented:
Ha! This old article shows how less uptight I was about blogging three years ago.
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