Carmel Valley - Pioneer Cemetery

Nearly all those who have driven westbound on Hiway 56 have not noticed that tucked on a hillside behind the St. Terese of Carmel Catholic Church lies a little cemetery established by the Sisters of Mercy.

On this May Gray morning I decided to check it out.  A prefect place to maintain Social Distancing requirements.

Two nuns came to then McGonigle Valley to provide nursing care to the McGonigle family.  The cemetery resides on a part of the 1000 acres given to the nuns as part of their Sisters of Mercy mission.  Their mission founded what is now Mercy Hospital in San Diego.

To raise money to support their hospital they sold off all but 10 acres of their land holdings.  That land, including the cemetery, is now St. Therese of Carmel and the Norte Dame Academy.

To gain entrance to the cemetery pass through the arch on the west side of the church.  The Stations of the Cross are beyond the arch.

At station 8 is an iron gate at the top of the stairway.  Two sets of stairs are provided on the hillside to the entrance.

.

The cemetery is divided with the Catholic sites on the west and the Protestant sites on the east.  There are just a few markers on the overgrown berm of the Protestant graves.

A cement marker with an illegible metal plate attached is the grave of Miles and Virginia Standish.  Legend is he was a descendant of Miles Standish, named as captain of the Plymouth in 1621.

There are 11 graves recorded on the Protestant side with one unknown grave.

The Catholic side is better maintained with 34 marked sites.  There are more recent grave sites that are more frequently visited.

 .

 .

Only these 45 graves are marked of the known 83 burials recorded.  There may be over 100 burials performed here.  The original wooden crosses were destroyed by a wildfire.  The known graves are now marked with plain white crosses. 

The pepper trees offer shade and an inviting place to wander. 

. 

The Rangel couple are buried one above the other, rather than side-to-side. 

A visitor of Roy Gutierrez looks to have shared a beer with him.  

Social distancing was pretty easy.  I never saw another person and only the traffic on Hiway 56 for company.

I hope you were able to get out for a bit today too.  Above all Stay Safe!
.

Happy 50th Earth Day

Earth Day marks 45 days sine we returned from Mexico to the restrictions in San Diego.  It also marks the easement of some restrictions, which I’ll mention in a bit.  But first how we spent the last three weeks of home confinement.

Fran finished her jigsaw puzzle ...

and spent some time getting the pieces organized to start another one.

It was decided to remove the wallpaper from the kitchen.  Anyone who has ever done it knows this can be a time consuming project.

I used a wallpaper perforation tool to score the wallpaper, followed by a 25% fabric softener solution to loosen the paste.

Then just spackle, sand and seal with a coat of primer.

Fran wants to select the counter tops before deciding on a paint color.

Part of the kitchen freshen up included restaining the cabinets.

It took a lot of sandpaper and time.  I’m not thrilled with the results and if I do this again I’d paint instead of stain.

Now back to Earth Day 2020, the day when San Diego released restrictions on local neighborhood parks.  A full list of parks opened is on the city’s website HERE.

Both our parks, Western Hills and Tecolote Canyon are now open.  Social distances need to be maintained and parking lots remain closed, but at least we can get out.  Mission Bay remains closed.

But also on the list of open parks is Liberty Station, which is the only open park along the water.  We loaded up our bikes and headed there.  The parking lots are all closed, but there is ample street parking.

The bike path is wide and fairly empty, that’s Fran on the bike ahead of me.

The Bayshore Bikeway is also open, which allowed us to ride thru Spanish Landing with only a couple other bikers on the bike path, to the San Diego Harbor.

The Disney Wonder is still docked downtown.  There were a few people along the harbor, but still easy to maintain distance.

We turned back at the Mega Yacht Basin.

It was definitely a very nice outing for us with postcard-perfect San Diego weather!

In anticipation of the golf courses reopening soon, Fran likes to take a few practice swings in the backyard with the whiffle balls.

I’m limiting my exposure to Corona by drinking the 7oz bottles.

Stay Safe!  y LAVE SUS MANOS!

Cabin Fever - Covid-19 Stay Home Orders

One of the things I like best about living in San Diego, it’s a lifestyle that is best lived outdoors.  At least that was the case prior to Covid-19.

We returned from Mexico to find all our city parks closed!  Mission Bay does not have a single boat, jogger, biker in the park.

All parking lots are closed and manned to insure compliance, all beaches parks are closed per an executive order by the mayor.

This is true of all City of San Diego parks, even our little Western Hills Park and our Tecolote Canyon.

How are we handling our ‘House Arrest’?  Fran has no golf or tennis!  I have new hiking boot and no place to use them!  Other than a sever case of Cabin Fever, we’ll get by.

I ordered a new camera to replace my beloved Canon G16, which now has a broken lens.

I chose a Panasonic FZ80. It’s a little bulkier, but about the same weight, and a lot more features – most of which I’ll never use.

I’ve run out of weeds to pull in the back yard!, but have the garden seeded.  Beans, corn, tomatoes, peppers will all be sprouting soon.

Strawberries are producing now.

As is the Asian Pear.

There’s Limes and Lemons toward the end of their season, but blooms mean more are on the way.

 .

Oranges, and more oranges!, will we ever run out of oranges????  It was a banner year.

The Apple Tree bolted this year, a bit confused with the early spring.  Tons of little apples, apple sauce?

Artichoke is looking healthy.

And lots of blooms on the dwarf Mandarin.

With rain predicted for the coming week, we’ll be inside.  Fran has a jigsaw puzzle to work on.  I’ve not the patience for it.

She’s spending quality time becoming one with the piano.

My wine cellar is still pretty well stocked.  But I’m out of tequila, that’s probably a good thing :)

When not sitting outside watching the garden grow, I’m taking online Spanish lessons with Duolingo and learning the features of the new camera.

Supplies are fine, we did a Costco run before heading south.  Back when TP was not a hoarded item.

I always pick up a fresh bottle of hand sanitizer before a trip to Mexico.  Also keep one in the RV and a small one for my daypack.  I've two packages of Nitrile gloves, a heavy duty set for the garage and this lighter set normally in the RV.  My N95 mask is leftover from traveling with the wildfires in Montana.

As of today all employees and all patrons of a store must be gloved and masked.  All stores must limit the number of shoppers to allow for safe-distancing.  I have the mask and we made one for Fran from my bandanna that's usually in my daypack.

Grocery stores ravaged while we were gone.  We returned to empty shelves and short supplies.  Our pantry is pretty well stocked so we’re good for a few more weeks.

I might be fluent in Spanish by then, and Fran sounding like Billy Joel on the keyboard.

On a fun note I’ve put up a little contribution to the Covid-19 Bear Hunt.

 .

If you want to learn a bit more about Covid-19 here's a good video from the Yale School of Medicine.  It mentions the importance of hand washing and sanitizing to breakdown the structure of the virus.

Hunker Down, Stay Safe and Lave sus Manos!