Daley Ranch Trail

Tanya on Daley Ranch Trail

Very early in the new year, 2010, we have been hiking on the trails of the big Daley Ranch Park--one of the City of Escondido's nice parks.

This park is mostly chaparral-covered dry mountains.

Several easy hiking trails take you up into what feels like quiet, remote countryside--but in reality the park is just a few minutes away from busy Escondido streets.

You can see from the summer dress in the photo--the Daley Ranch park in very warm even in mid-winter. In the summer it is just plain hot!

...

Dixon Lake Park

Dixon Lake Park is a wonderful nature preserve, one of the few that are left. The unique thing about it is that it is very large and the trails are long and non-paved, which is good for exercising your feet. There is one trail that is still paved but it is rapidly growing into a state of disrepair.

The landscape is a typical California desert with not much variety but even so the scenery changes now and then and occasionally you see a stunning distant views of the valley below. The hills are barren and rocky and plant species are not numerous.

The trail is favoured by mountain bikers and horse riders, which is understandable since it's about the only unpaved long trails in this city.

This is truly a jewel of Escondido.

New opera

Well, it so happened I became an opera buff. I kind of liked them before but now I pulled out the old records and checked out videos from the library.

On New Year's Eve I've got the package in the mail: my very own first opera on DVD. I got Simon Boccanegra. I started watching today and I liked it the second time even better than the first time, which was a VHS tape from the library.

Wonderful performance, fantastic music, all the actors are not only great singers but also superb actors, which is not a common case on opera stage (just look at pavarotti, for example).

This opera by Verdi is not very known yet it is one of his most if not the most dramatic operas composed. Great story. No wonder Verdi wanted to get back to it after the failed early attempts.

Bravo!