Showing posts with label Rancho Camulos (Ramona Days). Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rancho Camulos (Ramona Days). Show all posts

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Ramona Epic #35: Return to Camulos (Part 3)

For this final part I just wanted to show some of the insides of the rancho. I really didn't do that during my first time I presented this rancho many months back. This is the south veranda. In the tradition of our fictional world of Ramona a lot of the story took place here. Ramona's room is on the other side, but the priest's quarters would have been behind me. I moved around rather quickly in the video because of the people near by, but you do get to see all of this.
If you were able to do down the stairs in front of the picture above and turn left, then you would be able to see this furnace as you open the door. This is not from that perspective because I came to this a different way, but it is what is down there.Turning around from the above I was in the living room.
This is further north of the adobe. The Cocina (kitchen) consisted of three rooms. My memory is a little weak here, but it seems to me they washed clothes in one of the rooms here. Looking at the walls. Again, my memory is weak here, but I think there was some oven connected that would have lead any smoke up this opening and then outside.The Northride quake of 1994 did serious damage to much of Rancho Camulos. I have seen pictures of how badly it was damaged here. There have been serious repairs to this place, but they did do the repairs with adobe materials to keep with how it was originally made.
The video shows a lot more of what is around these areas. I put it together a month or two ago and cut out a lot of things in the editing. As I watched it recently there were a couple of parts I think I could have fine-tuned a little better. In any case, it should give you an idea of a small part of what you might see at the Ramona Days.

Ramona Epic #35: Ramona Days at Rancho Camulos (Youtube Version)

A few links:

My original Rancho Camulos Blogs.

Ramona Days at the official Rancho Camulos site.

Santa Clarita Valley in Pictures. This links to some of the old pictures of the place.

The background music used in the video is called Modern Jazz Samba taken from Incompetech.com and can be found HERE.

Friday, December 16, 2011

Ramona Epic #35: Return to Camulos (Part 2)

In the previous post I showed how they reenact parts of the play. This is a continuation of that, but do you see the window on the far right?This window became part of the Ramona tradition in that it is now considered where her room was.Peeking into the window.Where she would have slept in the fictional world. There is an old anecdote that says that some uninvited tourist came into the house and laid down on the bed claiming something like, "I am at where Ramona slept." Some of the dancers that perform at the play showed up to do a few dances.I have one more blog on this place that shows some more of the insides of the adobe.

Ramona Epic #35: Ramona Days at Rancho Camulos (Youtube Version)

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Ramona Epic #35: Return to Camulos (Part 1)

Earlier in the series I presented my original trip to Rancho Camulos. After that original trip I came back during their annual Ramona Days event that takes place at the beginning of November. They celebrate the rancho as the "Home of Ramona". Everything from people portraying characters fictional and real, vignettes of the play, viewings of the 1910 film, tours of the rancho, Ramona experts give talks, dancing, food, venders, etc. Since I think I did an okay job of covering the rancho last time I just want to give you an idea of what it is like being there during this celebration.

The day I went the weather conditions were not as good as I would have liked. The sun was out, but there was some wind and clouds in the air. It was just a time of the year that I did not like the lighting I was getting from the sun. The following picture is actually later in the day right before I left.I came in and parked. At that moment there was a tracktor set up to take people from the parking lot in to where you can get tickets to go in. It was a nice ride in and I got to see other parts of the rancho that I had not seen before.

The interesting thing is I heard a man talking about the filming locations of the 1910 film with other people I was riding in with. I was actually kind of shocked to hear someone talking about that. I was thinking, "There are people here that are really into that?"The guy that is cut off to the left is the one who talking about that. I did not know it at the time, but that is Hugh Munro Neely. He is a filmmaker and is on staff at The Mary Pickford Institute for Film Education. He gave a great introduction to the screening(s) of the 1910 film. When I finally heard him speak I then realized, "Okay, that makes sense". See, even though I talk about film locations all the time, I realize that this is something that most people in the everyday world have very little interest in.
This is the restored carriage from the Del Valle family. There was a "Mr. and Mrs. Del Valle" around talking about the past. I talked to "Mr. Del Valle" briefly.
Of course, the water fountain and the chapel. You will notice the venders were all out there selling a variety of things.
Another look at the fountain and chapel.
As I mentioned, parts of the play are shown. This is a scene with Felipe and the Senora. The guy playing Felipe is Dennis Anderson who actually played this role in the 1970's. He is the artistic director for the play these days. In the real world, he is married to the woman you see, Kathi Anderson, who does play the Senora in the play. I'll continue this in the next blog.

Ramona Epic #35: Ramona Days at Rancho Camulos (Youtube Version)