Summer in February on SF Bay

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Believe it or not, it's 70° F. (or 20° C) here in the San Francisco Bay Area today! It's been like this for a week. Of course, we need rain, and it may be coming next week,but in the meantime, I'm certainly enjoying "summer in February" here. I'm back until June in Berkeley and have returned to my activities (playwriting, storytelling, book clubs, tennis, hiking and Spanish). I've even been weeding and pruning in the garden.I love the outdoor life here--a nice compliment to city life in Paris. Last Sunday, I attended the Warren Hellman Memorial Concert out at Ocean Beach in SF. He was the millionnaire financier who started the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass yearly music festival. Among the singers --for those of you who know about bluegrass music which I didn't--were Emmylou Harris, Boz Scraggs, Gillian Welch and the Old Crow Medecine Show. (see write-up of concert at http://www.baycitizen.org/blogs/culturefeed/warren-helllman-memorial-concert-ocean/

In case you didn't see it, my friend Tom just wrote this in his comment: "Warren Hellman was a delightful philantrophist and benefactor of many projects in the Bay Area but the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass concert was personally very close to his heart. He was a banjo player who played in a mildly well known group "The Wronglers" and over the 12 years of the concert it grew from a smallish event to a giant production every fall in Golden Gate Park. The concert now fills five venues in the Park for three days of Bluegrass and other fun music. Hellman has endowed it for another 10 or 15 years so it will continue..."

I'll soon be setting up my "HK's Letter from SF Bay", so stay tuned!



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Photos

cherry trees already in bloom
A friend has just written to say he thinks they're PLUM trees!

softball practice
girls across the street

HK and friends
at the Warren Hellman memorial concert

hoola hoops at concert
Has this become a new craze?

Comments

[Tom]

Summer in February
It is difficult to compare Paris in the winter to February in the Bay Area but they are about as wonderful places to spend time as possible. Warren Hellman was a delightful philantrophist and benefactor of many projects in the Bay Area but the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass concert was personally very close to his heart. He was a banjo player who played in a mildly well known group "The Wronglers" and over the 12 years of the concert it grew from a smallish event to a giant production every fall in Golden Gate Park. The concert now fills five venues in the Park for three days of Bluegrass and other fun music. Hellman has endowed it for another 10 or 15 years so it will continue. Neveretheless, don't leave Paris off your list of great places just because California has better weather and good bluegrass music.