![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAIVwVQaZpASv1vYFD1nPPYY7jIFjiPu_VWvjRnjrI5Camb2JsoWzTquxlbhUbln2CY7cTGRqptTNJuwY1Po2MQ5uCJSyvuCY_h_kRgr9KTfZE4d2tjA7EEvNgKR0gReiN7Zxc3AskLeaH/w231-h320/sunrise.jpg)
On my way to the beach, I used to buy a "lunch" of golden raisins at the tiny organic food store (in those days it was called a "natural food" store) in Montara and then spend the afternoon walking and taking in the extraordinary multi-sensorial experience of feeling part of the ocean, clouds, sky, horizon, wind, sun, fog, gulls, killdeer, sanderlings, sandpipers, crows, sea lions, seals, orcas, whales, blue-sailed jellyfish, kelp, sand fleas, broken shells, driftwood, agates, chaparral-covered coast hills to the east, coastal plants growing on the bluffs and in the distinctively golden sand, all not far from eucalyptus groves and straw-flower fields.
Sometimes when it was sunny but windy and cool, I would dig a bed for myself in the warm sand of that steep-sloped beach and sleep and dream.
It would be almost 15 years before this experience of loving and being loved by a place would show itself in paintings. During the time when I lived within weekend afternoon driving distance of Montara Beach, I was not drawing or painting at all but working with brightly colored carpet warp, making small colorful tapestry-like images using a macrame technique.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAwWdWcJGlcN3hxfSzq1tfJ4BJY5uQhf_V4jlxdM1TMHVHnGJbS5Kf-U2VRf7bcoIkeWnQJlfU0sbrElFg-7QOD67cyml_A5mx2OL4NbZhD6NoqrP9l0FNSmMb2vaJuuq6Qlf5Ivs9XS7-/w320-h240/montara+beach.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3uFND0EGMVJzZhgQbVy4kdVfSWuBo6DJMvAmHhu5aef1kJQjqUYBxGERDYl04AeX8Ue8HSsiq6IJtFpsbk5ED07x_118g-YRAuLb_cjugoBw-TEElT2ZDhJSUbIRcWv0QazKtzsMc994P/w240-h320/eucalyptus+trees.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAwWdWcJGlcN3hxfSzq1tfJ4BJY5uQhf_V4jlxdM1TMHVHnGJbS5Kf-U2VRf7bcoIkeWnQJlfU0sbrElFg-7QOD67cyml_A5mx2OL4NbZhD6NoqrP9l0FNSmMb2vaJuuq6Qlf5Ivs9XS7-/w320-h240/montara+beach.jpg)
(the photos are from an online album of splendid photos of the northern California coast by Daniel Wolf-Root that I found while looking for images of Montara)
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