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Views of and from Our Land in Templeton, California

Today my husband stopped at our Templeton house, got out of his car, and locked his keys in. So I drove over to our property there to help him out. I grabbed my camera, because I don’t get over there very often and I like to photograph our trees, herbs, flowers, and anything interesting I see when I visit. I always photograph the views of our neighbors’ properties from our land — especially at sunset.

I parked at the bottom of our rather treacherous driveway by our peculiar-looking gate. I walked around the large puddle which forms during every rain, and up the hill to the house. It was about 6 PM when I got there.

We live in wine country. You may notice that all our neighbors are wineries that have vineyards around them. We only have one neglected grape vine. We also have some neglected fruits trees, only some of which still bear. We grow a great crop of weeds every year on our almost fourteen acres. I won’t show you all the photos I took on this mid-March afternoon, but I’ll show you some of them. Enjoy.

#1 A Neighbor’s Oaks and Vineyard

This is the view across our back fence of a neighboring vineyard. It's really across the street, but the street never shows when I take the photo from here. The slopes hide it. None of what you see here is on our own land. 

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#2 Looking Across Neighboring Vineyards to the Highway

You see the stake of the fence dividing my property line from my neighbor's property. It's designed to keep the deer out of the vineyards. Those grapes belong to at least two neighboring wineries. Another vineyard is across the highway, along with two tasting rooms. 

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#3 Sunset Over the Croad Vineyards and Tasting Room

I took this looking west over my side fence. Some of this vineyard can be seen above in Photo 2. This is my favorite place on the property to take sunset photos. 

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#4 Peach Blossoms

Although this old peach tree's fruit is not very good,  it still has pretty blossoms. It's been there during all the approximately 25 years we've owned the property. 

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#5 Our Mystery Tree

I noticed this tree next to a giant coyote brush shrub last week when I was on the land. I can't figure out what it is. I'd love someone's opinion. The twigs are reddish. I may have to wait until it flowers to get more clues. 

  1. I agree with you, Kim. A lot of small trees and shrubs have this coloring and leaf shape. Flowers and fruits provide much more information. I’ll have to wait to see if it flowers. Toyan is native, so it could be that.

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#6 Divided Irises

What's special about these irises? They are survivors. This entire fenced plot was dug up by heavy equipment to replace our leach field. It used to be our garden when the irises were planted years ago. When the machines had finished destroying everything I had planted, I never expected to see these irises again. But here they are in approximately the same location -- just farther apart than they used to be. 

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#7 The Remains of Fallen Pine Trees

Many of our pine trees fell this year as the result of the long drought. In the background you can see the uprooted root ball of one tree that's on its side. In the foreground is a tree in the process of being cut and removed. 

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#8 My Husband Driving Down the Hill

Our driveway is so rutted now it's treacherous and I don't want to drive up that hill. That's why I parked near the road today and walked up.  I have almost finished walking back down. My husband is driving down toward the gate. My car is waiting just outside the gate. 

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#9 Reflection in Puddle

I love reflections. This puddle near the beginning of our driveway is reflecting the sky and trees above. It has rained the past two days, but stopped most of today. 

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#10 Cars Meeting Near the Gate

My husband is crossing the puddle. My car is just past the gate. I went to my car after I took a few more photos of the pine tree on the left. Hubby went home. I went to another photo shoot at one of my favorite vineyards on the way home. It's the best place for sunset photos. 

I hope you enjoyed this photo journal of my walk around the property. Which photos did you like best?

All photos are © B. Radisavljevic

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  1. I think my favorite picture out of the entire lot was the puddle picture. But, I think I loved the story about why you took each picture more.

    Awesome!

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