Dang! Water!

dang-water

Over the last 24 hours, we got 4 inches / 10 cm. of rain.  Here, the soil is clay, and drainage is very poor.  As well, the infrastructure for handling massive amounts of water is not the best because we don’t get rain.

Rain?  What’s that?

We haven’t seen much in the past 6 years!  In our own back yard, we were flooded, literally, with inches of water creeping ever closer to the back patio doors.  Finally, Josh took a submersible pump and hooked it up; we pumped out about 1800 gallons based on a 2-hour run with 900 gallons / hour (about 3600 l. / hour).  He ran a hose from the back yard to the corner of the sidewalk, and the water poured into the street.  And this was in the dark of the night . . . 

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So, what do we get out of massive rain besides mudslides, flood damage, fallen trees, tipped-over fire trucks, and general chaos?  Greenery!  New flowers!  Mossy rocks!  Mud!

And to celebrate – and explore – I returned to the park I went to last weekend, different cameras in hand.  Just in a week’s time, new growth is more than evident – buds are now tiny, bright leaves; the water in the creek is a bit higher.  There were little changes, too, such as the mossy rocks are greener than before, more palm trees are dead(ish) – for which I say, “Hooray!” – and little mushrooms coming up from under the fallen leaves.

Mushrooms in the Leaves

And more rain is on the way!

 

Raindrops & Thorns

Raindrops & Thorns

Another shot taken with Kodak UltraMax 400 and the Olympus XA4.  I don’t know if it is me, or the camera, or the film, or a combination, but I don’t think the sharpness is quite where I would like it to be.  Despite that, I think this is a helluva a great little camera – so quick and easy to use.  Maybe I’ll pick up the XA later on as it is a true rangefinder, not a zone-focusing one as is the XA4.  What I do like about the XA4 is the wider angle, and the ability to do some macro work with a point-and-shoot sized film camera.

Parker Lake

 

Parker LakeWe hiked from the high desert with its low-growing plants into the alpine environment of the eastern Sierra Nevadas in California.  Scrub gave way to aspens and pine, and soon we came upon the goal of this hike:  a pristine, crystalline lake.  If you look closely to the mountain in the “V” you will see the mountain stream and waterfalls which feed into Parker Lake.  A two-mile hike at a high altitude (9000 ft?) was worth it all!  Click to enlarge!