.37 inches of rain for LA…a fine morning for a foggy hike, though it was dicey footing on the steep trail when I was caught by a cloudburst. The rain exposed some of the fascinatingly complex geology of the canyon, including big chunks of the (famous?) Nichols Diorite. The native plants were refreshed by the velvet fog — as you can see, and hear, in my video.

“Till The Clouds Roll By” — P.G. Wodehouse, Jerome Kern (1915) Sung by Mel Torme

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Gd18MMvoFV0LlE14waSzUka_Vtd4zZe-/view?usp=drivesdk

Wodehouse, the lyricist, lived here in the 1930s. He rented Billy Haines’s fabulously decorated Hollywood pied-a-terre at 1710 N. Stanley Ave, two blocks from the mouth of Nichols Canyon. (When P.G. returned to Blighty, Talullah B. took over the lease.) So Wodehouse and his wife had intimacy with this canyon, and its breezes and fragrances — though if he ever hiked up, I’m sure it was in a sedan chair with a folding drinks-table in the door. The lush neighborhood has been — is — popular with English ex-pats, including David Hockney.