Oh drat! I should have remembered that Six on Saturday is cancelled for Christmas! Well, here are mine anyway. I suppose I could have saved these and the next six for next week, but they are not so great anyway. I should get a better six for then.
. . . .
Christmas is a very important Holiday that is worthy of themed pictures. Unfortunately, I can not provide. The few pictures that I managed to get within the past few days simply do not qualify. Rain was a splendid event. I then went to San Jose on a wild goose chase. A neighbor gave me a very delightful Christmas gift when I returned. Ultimately, I got to work with the little Memorial Tree in Felton Covered Bridge Park.
(Rhody, incidentally, prompted me to add another abbreviated Six on Saturday immediately after these.)
1. Rain was sufficient to fill creeks early in the week. This is the San Lorenzo River under Felton Covered Bridge. San Jose gets gritty through summer, but should be rinsed now.
2. Clear blue sky lacked any scrap of the clouds that shared all their rain not so long ago. Although that San Jose skyline is not much to look at, the Diridon Station behind me is, which is why there are no trees to obscure the scenery. I should have taken pictures of it.
3. This old mural within the Diridon Station depicts how the Santa Clara Valley looked a very long time ago, with only a few oaks set sparsely over an otherwise empty chaparral.
4. Mexican fan palms are likely what most outsiders expect to encounter here. These are to the south of Arena Green Park where Los Gatos Creek flows into the Guadalupe River.
5. Back at home, I was pleased to procure several rhizomes of what I believe to be achira, Canna edulis, from a neighbor, along with a lot of seed! Canna rhizomes are edible, but achira rhizomes are the largest and tenderest. These are nearly as big as small potatoes.
6. Rain resumed and dissipated again before I pruned the little Memorial Tree in Felton Covered Bridge Park for winter. The last of the binding of the trunk was finally removed.
This is the link for Six on Saturday, for anyone else who would like to participate:
Tony Tomeo 
The mural is really neat, and it was great to see the memorial tree thriving. I hope the rain’s been a ‘good’ rain, and not resulted in the kind of problems we so often hear of — mudslides, for example. Now, I’m off to see Rhody!
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Natives of the Santa Clara Valley are fond of that mural, but no one can explain why. It is difficult to see from the floor, and not particularly interesting. In fact, it is rather weird, since no one knows what it depicts. Someone appears to be in a wedding dress, but no one else seems to be dressed for a wedding. The vehicle is primitive for a time when people were already driving cars. Nonetheless, we all like it.
The little Memorial Tree is happy and doing well. The biggest one year old branch that I pruned off of it (to the lower left of the canopy in the picture) was about five feet long, which is a bit better than average for the species. The pruning scraps were processed into cuttings. I doubt that many will take, but it will be nice if just a few survive. I have no idea of what to do with them, but will figure that out later.
Areas below the fire area were evacuated in response to the first rain, and the associated concern of debris flow. However, no such flows occurred. I do not know how extensive evacuation was in response to the recent rain, but since it was not broadcast extensively, it did not seem to be as extensive. However, a large homeless encampment on a flood plain in Santa Cruz flooded.
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Too bad you can’t have experienced the Santa Clara Valley looking the way it appears in the mural.
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I remember it while it was still idyllic in the early 1970s. Sometimes, I wish I did not. It saddens me to see what it has become while knowing what it was. My Pa remembers it in the 1950s, when Sunnyvale was a small town, which is why he avoids Sunnyvale when he comes here. His ancestors were here long before that.
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