Another photo from the visit to a friend’s family farm. Here you can see the empty field from yesterday beyond the small cultivated area. Tom is gathering lettuce, basil, carrots, chard, cebollas and other delicious goodies while Judy and I wandered around shooting pictures, trying to get some good shots. At heart, I am a farm / country girl, and being out here was (pardon the pun) food for the soul.
Yesterday afternoon I did a lot of sewing and running around to the point I so tired of the house and machines and tasks that the best thing to do was run away.
I do that a lot.
At about 5 p.m. I decided to snag the Canon G7X Mark II as all I wanted was a point and shoot and a brisk hike along a trail with trees and rocks and bugs and poison oak. It was perfect! The hills beyond the little canyon where the trail is were still covered with golds and lavender from this past winter’s rain, and alongside the trail was a profusion of mustard, monkey flower, salvia, penstemon, sunflowers and a number of flowers I don’t know. For two hours I ran around, ignoring my wifely duties of dinner (we had leftovers, so J. was fine!) and getting my mind elsewhere.
Too easy to forget about the natural world when the unnatural one demands so much time. The shade, light, sun, shadows, were not simple to get in a photo, and the colors just got burnt out in the glare or lost in the dark. In the end, a black and white with lots of subtlety seemed the best way to express the beauty of the hike.
Most of December 2021 saw rain and cold weather – at last! It doesn’t change the drought situation here in California, but it does help. I hope the bits of green here will soon spread over the hills, which have been dead and brown for far too long. Rain in the single-digit percentage points shows up on the weather forecast, but with the climate situation it is impossible to predict anything.
This is from the Chumash Trial area near my house. It is the same area where I spotted the Acorn Woodpecker in yesterday’s photo. I love this area because of the wonderful oak trees down this trail. Sadly, many were lost in the Woolley Fire (I think that is the one) from a few years ago that swept through this area.
One of the fun things about digital images, or digitized film images, is the playing around in post and creating presets. This one I rather like – it gives a sense of the softness that new growth brings to the world. Spring is coming, early of course in my neck of the woods, and the rains are the reason for the rainy season.
Etc.
Finally a day that is freezing (for SoCal!) or pouring cats and dogs . . . I managed to get out for a hike today down Chumash Trail nearby. It is filled with old-growth oak trees, and it has been a bit since I have been there as the plague and other things limited some of my activities. It felt so good to be outdoors at last!
The trail itself is easy, mostly flat. The problem is that you really cannot go scrambling around the hills as poison oak is not your friend. This can limit where you decide to wander.
As it is midweek, no one was out. But birds and bees and gnats were – and so were a small herd of deer that went bounding through the wood. Sadly, I wasn’t quick enough to catch them on my camera. But, I was lucky to catch this woodpecker, high up in a telephone pole full of acorns cached there by the local acorn woodpeckers!
Woodpeckers are pretty hard to miss – tat, tat, tat! I had no idea what kind this one was at all, so I followed this ink to learn a bit more. I didn’t know there are 15 kinds in my neighborhood. What made this particular one interesting was there was no red to be easily found on his head. His position hid the top of his head, which is where the small bit of red is to be found on the bird. Most woodpeckers have a very noticeable red top or breast or throat, but this one was not at all the usual ones I have been able to see. I had my Nikon z6ii with the excellent 24-200 lens attached, and I had to be quick to catch this guy – even though I was far below, he was canny enough to realize 2 legs, human, time to flee!
I may be wrong. but I am pretty sure this guy is an Acorn Woodpecker . . . he just wasn’t inclined to show me who he really is.
It’s January 14, 6:30 in the evening. At 5 pm a brush fire started 3 miles from our house. It was 87F this afternoon, with more heat to come, and winds 30-50 mph. The wind is pushing it in our direction. There is a 4-6 lane freeway between the fire site and our house, and multiples of houses. All it takes is a few sparks blown on the wind, and all hell can break loose.
I am not happy. No rain except a shower in 4 months. Global warming, of course, does not exist, and all this is “weather”. Here is the twitter link: https://twitter.com/VCFD+
Ink, Yarn & Beer 