-N- – Page 474 – Ink, Yarn & Beer

Prickly Pear

Prickly pear are everywhere in my area of California, dotting hillsides and roadsides. They are really quite beautiful – from a distance – but also a wonderful food source. The pears are sweet when ripe, with a deep red fruit. The paddles are also edible, but a bit bland, and are used in making nopales. To eat a prickly pear requires a prickly pear, a pair of gloves to pick what you want, and a fire or blow torch to remove the thorns, which are long and pointy. I don’t go out harvesting, but I always enjoy photographing these cacti. Oh, and before the pears show up, the flowers are really beautiful.

Lizard’s Mouth at Sunrise

Lizard’s Mouth is a promontory toward the eastern edge of the park, and as the sun rises in the west, it begins to glow.

Jimson Weed

These leaves are soft and fuzzy, a spot of green in a patch of dried grasses. I rather liked the pattern these leaves made in the field.

Things Show Up At The Wrong Time: How to Move Your Photos to a New Drive Using Lightroom

My main HD is getting full, so before leaving on vacation, I decided to move and back up my photos onto an external drive. And then I found this video! I should have searched before doing . . . and Terry White is one of my favorite experts on Photoshop. This is a bookmark for myself.

Autumn in the Valley (in July)

While this is a pretty bleak looking landscape, it also shows you how the heat of summer dries the winter grasses. One match, and whoosh! Too many fires already in California.