My habit has been to schedule Roaming Zen alternately on Saturdays and Sundays, as some of the regulars had trouble making one or other of those days. Without that, if I had decided to do the last roam on Sunday, it would have been a day of endless blue skies, and far less wind.
These are the kind of days that remind me what a privilege it is to live in San Francisco. I had begun the day with a wedding – my third of the year – officiating for a great young couple in front of their families, in the middle of the redwoods at Roberts Regional Park, up in the east bay hills (just across Skyline from a place where I officiated a wedding about eighteen months ago). It was cool in the trees, but the light was amazing (and too hard to capture on my phone, so I am looking forward to seeing the official photos). It was a light-hearted but touching occasion, and joyfully informal.
Having dropped off the rental car I had used to get me up there, I ended up walking most of the afternoon – from Union Square to MOMA, and the wonderfully absorbing JR Chronicles, to the newly reopened Transbay park, past our Monday sitting location, and back from Mission Creek to the Castro.
On Monday morning, with little motivation needed since the skies were already blue, I took a ride around the city, from the park to the Presidio, Seacliff to Land’s End, with the glorious views coming down to Ocean Beach, and back via Golden Gate Heights (where the previous, solstice-flavoured roam had ended – though if it had been as clear and warm then, we would have lingered on Grand View longer) and a final challenging climb up Medical Center way, past the trails the next roam will follow. While the Monday morning commute was in full effect, some parts of the city were blessedly peaceful and traffic-free.
Shade was a sought-after commodity come the lunch-time sit; we shared our usual place under the olive tree with a posse of toddlers and their carers, who barely added to the overall hubbub of the city. I was actually glad of the shelter and the breeze as the hour wore on. I realised that next week will be our second anniversary of offering the sit, so if you are local and have ever thought about joining us, it would be a perfect time to do that.
The light was too complex for the iPhone…
My little altar set-up in the midst of the redwoods.
Such clouds as there were reflected in yet another SOMA high-rise.
Blue skies and bougainvilla in the Mission.
Riding these roads on Monday morning, I remembered seeing these pictures from their construction less than a hundred years ago (thanks to OpenSFHistory.org as so often)
Shundo David Haye 
