Elegant in gold and red

Once again, the "Weddings & 15 Años For Less" dress shop has drawn me in by the colors displayed in its window. Previous displays have been pink and red. But the elegant gold and red of the current display really caught my eye. I have to admire the person who dresses up this window.

Eureka!

I don't know much about panning for gold except that one of our state's football teams is named after the gold rush era in and around '49. I did learn yesterday, however, that we still have gold "dredging" up here in these parts... In the Azusa Canyon, about forty miles north of Downey, up where the 605 and the 210 freeways meet, people hike into the hills to the streams and rivers to pan for their chance to strike it rich.

When someone dredges,* they take out part of the river and make a small hole damming it up with larger rocks. They wade in the pool and pan through the silt and sand, not forgetting to look under the larger rocks they've unearthed.

Here is what it looks like after someone has dredged out an area. The water has almost gone, but the hole is still there.


*as told to me yesterday.

Gold-plated fountain?

The fountain at Downey Landing is a pretty typical fountain — until you happen to pass it at sunset.

The golden years

Here I go again; taking pictures of things from before my years on this earth. There is something about seeing something so obviously pre-dating my existence that makes me appreciate my time more. Along one of the many streets we rode this morning during our bike ride, I saw this old pickup truck. One that most people love to see others driving but would hate the maintenance themselves.