Berkeley Hills.
Well, not much to do today, unless I take Kaye’s van. I took my car in for service (I’ve put about 19,000 mile on since buying it, and and almost 16,000 miles since on this journey). I’ll take a walk in a bit, around Berkeley, and my car should be ready around 3:30 or 4, but I’ll stay the night, and head straight down to Claremont tomorrow.
After I dropped off my car, Kaye picked me up, we did a chore, and we went back to Stuart Street, where Kaye worked and I sat and napped a little, and then it was time to get the car, a little earlier than expected, actually.
After I got the car, which was newly washed and nice and clean, and which has been flawless so far, and not even any of those annoying little cabin noises, like a vibration, or buzz, or rattle that you can never figure out. Then I drove around a little, heading into the Berkeley Hills, which remind me of Laurel Canyon, but also any number of other beautiful areas like this, with large and lovely houses high into the hills, pretty private with fences or thick and high bushes, and great views atop the mountainside. Some lovely houses, both in town, but especially in the hills.
The Berkeley Rose Garden certainly is something, and definitely a centerpiece, and impressive, I might add. It’s designed almost as a Roman or Greek amphitheater, with circular rows of rosebeds stepping down, tier by tier, into the lower garden. There were plenty of roses still in bloom, but overall, the garden lacked what it would have in full flowering season, with so many varieties of rose in full bloom. It was still great looking though.
I wandered around and down the multi-tiered rose garden, into the center below, and from there the garden sort of fades into the adjoining park, Codornices Park (but how to pronounce it?), which has some nice trails, uphill, but then, thankfully, downhill, and when going uphill, exiting into the heights of the Berkeley hills homes.
After leaving the park and rose garden, I headed for the botanical gardens in Tilden Park, further into the Berkshire Hills, and along a nice (mild) winding mountain north-east of Kaye. Tilden is a big regional park crossing Richmond. Kensington, Berkeley, and Oakland, and more. It’s really nice up there, and very rural. Having spaces like this is part of the advantage of living in Berkeley and the area, as well as many other great features of these towns, despite the fact that they’re run down in many respects.
The botanical gardens were closed, just as I got there, around 5… but the drive there was very nice. I went back to Kaye, we ordered some dinner and watched the last episode of “Fallout,” an interesting and sort of cute science fiction series on Amazon. Now have to wait for season 2.