Slices of Blue Sky

A blog about food, history, data visualization, and more

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Farms, Making Food

Tracking Olive Oil from Grove to Glass, Part 1 — Visiting an Olive Grove

October 17, 2017 No Comments
Olives on the tree in Longview Ranch olive grove

(Disclosure: I received a discount on the International Food Blogger Conference (IFBC) registration fee in exchange for writing three posts about my experiences at the conference. All opinions are my own.) This is part 1 of a 2-part series on a visit to an olive grove and olive oil processing facility in Yolo County, California.  The second […]

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California History

The Otis House: When Wilshire Boulevard was Mansion Row in Los Angeles

May 30, 2017 2 Comments
Harrison Grey Otis residence on Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles (demolished)

I was browsing through the amazing digital archives of the New York Public Library recently, looking for fun stuff to pin to my Slices of Blue Sky Pinterest boards, and I ran across an old postcard from Los Angeles that caught my attention. The photo isn’t much — it’s a pretty big Spanish-style house — […]

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California History

A Vintage Postcard of UC Berkeley Shows Long Lost Buildings

April 2, 2016 2 Comments

I find it easy to get lost in the New York Public Library’s Digital Collections, which contain hundreds of thousands of images and a massive collection of menus. One recent morning I was looking for something and stumbled into a large ‘box’ of early 20th century postcards from the Detroit Publishing Company. While browsing through […]

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Book Reviews, California History

Book Review: “Wilshire Boulevard: Grand Concourse of Los Angeles” by Kevin Roderick

October 25, 2015 1 Comment

Wilshire Boulevard: Grand Concourse of Los Angeles, by Kevin Roderick (with research by J. Eric Lynxwiler) has been on my list for many years and I finally read it last month. On my handful of visits to Los Angeles, I have probably driven the  entire length of Wilshire Boulevard, covering a lot of the same […]

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California History

How and When Did Golden Gate Become the “Official” Name?

September 23, 2012 No Comments

During the research for my previous post about the Golden Gate, I wondered how and when the Golden Gate become the “official” name.  What was the process for naming things in the 19th century? Did Fremont’s map for the U.S. Senate give “official” status to the name? Did the U.S. Government have a standing panel […]

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Art, California History

Celebrating the Golden Gate Bridge’s 75th at Fort Point

September 9, 2012 No Comments
Golden Gate Bridge and Orange Ship

Blood was running International Orange in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2012 because its most famous structure, the Golden Gate Bridge, turned 75 in May.  Celebrations and commemorations are all over the place, including a multi-artist show called International Orange at Fort Point National Historical Site.*  In the historic 19th century fort, sixteen artists […]

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California History, Nature

Why Eucalyptus Trees Cover the East Bay Hills

July 17, 2010 5 Comments
juvenile-red-shouldered-hawk-in-eucalyptus-tree-from-margle-savage-on-flickr

(Updated 11/27/16: fixed broken links, changed photo) During the long summer days, the hills to the east of San Francisco Bay (Alameda and Contra Costa County) are wonderful places to walk — not too hot and with remarkable views to the east, west, and north (until the fog rolls in, and then it’s grey in […]

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California Travel, Farms, Gardening

A visit to Berkeley’s Edible Schoolyard

May 17, 2010 No Comments

The Edible Schoolyard, an educational garden and kitchen at Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Berkeley, California, has been my path, so to speak, twice recently. The first time was a cover story in the East Bay Express. The second was an actual visit to the garden, my first visit ever. I wrote a […]

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Slices of Blue Sky

A blog about food, history, data visualization, and more

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