Restoration Work at Potrero Creek at Rancho Sierra Vista in Newbury Park

For months, the National Park Service has coordinated, with the help of dozens of community volunteers and other organizations, native plant restoration at Potrero Creek at Rancho Sierra Vista in Newbury Park.

The creek is home to a young native oak woodland, along with milkweed visited by monarch butterflies and various other native plants used by dozens of local birds, insects and other wildlife. Volunteers have planted hundreds of plants grown from locally collected seed and watered hundreds of oak trees along the creek. You can see their work in this video. It will be interesting to see how the landscape changes over the coming decades as a result of this work.

To participate in other restoration events, including current work being done at Paramount Ranch, visit the Santa Monica Mountains Fund event signup page at www.eventbrite.com/o/santa-monica-mountains-fund-15433390756.

OVER 60 LOCAL AREA HIKES AND TRAILS IN VENTURA COUNTY AND ADJACENT AREAS

Healing Garden at Conejo Creek Park North in Thousand Oaks

The Healing Garden is located at the Lakeside Pavilion at Conejo Creek Park North behind the Thousand Oaks Library at 1379 E. Janss Road, Thousand Oaks. In response to the tragedy at the Borderline Bar and Grill on November 7, 2018, the City of Thousand Oaks and Conejo Recreation and Park District partnered to create this place in memory of the 12 lives lost in the Borderline Tragedy as a place where the community can reflect, grieve, remember and heal. The Healing Garden was dedicated on November 7, 2019.

Tortilla Flats Mural in Ventura

The Tortilla Flats Mural is located at the Figueroa Street underpass at the 101 freeway in Ventura. Created in 2008 by artists MB Hanrahan and Moses Mora, this public art project commemorates the community that lived here in and around westside Ventura in the 1920s to the 1950s, when it was displaced by the 101.

Earlier the Tortilla Flats area was known as Tiger Town, Spanish Town and/or Indian Town. The indigenous Chumash named the area "Shisholop."

(The Shisholop Village site at the south end of Figueroa Street - directly on the beach - was named City of Ventura Historic Landmark No. 18 in December 1975. Believed to have been a Chumash provincial capital, Shisholop was first settled shortly after A.D. 1000 and was visited in 1542 by Portuguese navigator Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo while on an exploratory expedition for Spain.)

The mural depicts a series of narratives of historically significant or interesting buildings and pictures of the varied cultural backgrounds in the area - Chumash, Mexican, Spanish, Asian, African American and European - which evolved into Ventura that we now know.

The images were selected from old photographs and were inspired by interviews with former residents.

The underpass is located next to Harbor Boulevard, where just across the street is Seaside Park and the Ventura County Fairgrounds.

More information at www.publicartinpublicplaces.info/public-art-tortilla-flats-2008-by-mb-hanrahan-and-moses-mora.

Counting Crows in the Conejo Valley and Nearby Communities

Counting crows. Maybe not literally, but figuratively, in the skies of the Conejo Valley, Simi Valley and beyond. We see the crows in the hundreds flying west in the morning and east in the evening ever so frequently here. These fellows were seen from the Conejo Valley Plaza, Moorpark and Janss Roads, the night of August 9, 2018.

Speaking of birds, the Conejo Valley Audubon Society hosts birding activities year-round.

Twenty Years of the Same Expression in an Eight MInute Video - Noah Kalina

Noah Kalina has taken a selfie of himself every day for the last 20 years, or 7,263 days, beginning January 11, 2000 to January 11, 2020 (and it is a work in process). Takes a lot of persistence to do something like this!

Noah was 19 years old when he started this endeavor. And he hasn't stopped! The project is called “Everyday.” Check out more of his work at noahkalina.com.

The Mullin Automotive Museum in Oxnard is a Ventura County Crown Jewel (Closing Its Doors February 10, 2024)

On January 17, 2024, the Mullin Automotive Museum announced it will be closing its doors on Saturday, February 10th, in light of the passing of Peter Mullin in September 2023. More information at THIS LINK.

The 46,000 square foot Mullin Automotive Museum in Downtown Oxnard is spectacular!

Open only a few days a month to the general public, this is one museum that is a MUST SEE. The autos, made by Bugatti, Voisin, Delahaye, Delage, Talbot-Labo, Hispano-Suiza, Renault, Peugeot and others, are works of art from the 1930s and 1940s, when autos were more than transportation. In addition to the autos, there are representative furnishings and works of art from the era on display.

Visit www.mullinautomotivemuseum.com and reserve a visit. The photos and video footage below are great but don't come anywhere close to a visit in person!

The museum will be reopening on November 6, 2020 after closure due to the pandemic.

Encounter with Three Deer in Thousand Oaks in August

Had a brief, peaceful encounter recently with these three deer in the Rancho Sierra Vista open space in Newbury Park this morning. I would stand there and stare back for hours if I could, but I had to move along. Hoping for their continued survival as we forged our way through an extreme mid-August heatwave during the COVID-19 pandemic. It's the little things like this that help keep my spirits up through these challenging times.