Tag Archives: California scenery

Photography Fun–A Weekly Challenge

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Not that I need a another thing to add to the to-do list…but I saw a blog that has a weekly photo challenge and I thought it might be fun to participate. This might only last a week–we’ll see. This week’s challenge by A Word in Your Ear is Clouds.  Without working very hard I could go back just a couple of weeks to find these photos that I took the day after I got my new lens from Santa.DSC_7396This is the field across the road from my house and the next one was taken just up the road.DSC_7384What is a sunset without clouds?DSC_5394 DSC_5422 DSC_5426 Notice the fog rolling over the hills–fog is just clouds on the ground, right? These sunset photos are taken from my barn looking to the west. The last photo, below, is another that I took from the field across the road.DSC_6828

 

Snowshoeing for the first time

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I love the mountains, but not in the winter. I am not a snow person–I have a hard enough time staying warm without any snow. My son and daughter-in-law live in the mountains and spend a lot of time enjoying the outdoors in all seasons. We joined them for snowshoeing the other day.

It was a beautiful day. I realized that, because I avoid the mountains in the winter, I never see this beauty in real life. All the views looked like calendar photos.DSC_7752DSC_7692This is Union Valley Reservoir in the El Dorado National Forest. No one else had been there since the last snowfall. DSC_7638There were huge expanses of untouched snow. Gorgeous.DSC_7712The snow had a sparkly crystalline surface which even Matt and Kaleena, who spend a lot of time here, said was unusual. blog 1-4 snowblog 1-4 snow copy   We had one experience which, fortunately, turned out OK, but could have been tragic. DSC_7643 Sam, one of M & K’s dogs, bounding ahead of us, fell through the ice into a creek. When he couldn’t get back on the surface he panicked and Matt had to rescue him. (You can see the photos in Rusty’s blog.)DSC_7667  Fortunately, among all of us we had spare socks and pants.  Also, fortunately, Sam wasn’t in the lake, but in a stream (although it was still waist high water).   DSC_7731 This was my first experience with snowshoes and it was Rusty’s first experience walking through the snow. He finally figured out that the snow was fluffy enough that he could sort of plow through and didn’t have to lift his feet all the way out of it. He was also obsessed by the sparkles in the snow. Look back at the other photos of him and you’ll see that he is just staring at the snow. (That’s a Border Collie thing–not staring at the snow, but obsessing over sparkles or shadows.)DSC_7735 DSC_7748 I took a lot of photos with my new lens but there is a lot to learn about photographing snow.  I have a hard time seeing the meter through the lens when I’m wearing sunglasses, and without the glasses I can’t make out what I am sort of seeing. So there was a lot of trial and error. Some were over-exposed, but there are enough decent photos for me to enjoy.DSC_7684

 

Rain

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Look at what we woke up to this morning. Rain! I know I won’t be so happy about it by February or so, but it is a welcome sight now. There are months of dust and dirt to wash off of plants and sheep and this will get the winter grass to start growing.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the beautiful sky across the road while I was taking the photo below…

 

 

…to use in a PowerPoint presentation I was preparing for a talk about Sustainable Fiber  in San Francisco tonight.

 

 

 

A gorgeous sky in the city too. This is the view from the Ferry Building before it started raining again.

Color Everywhere I Look

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It’s been awhile since I wrote a blog post–at least on paper…well, on on the computer. But you know what I mean. I write a lot of them in my head but they don’t always make it here. So I was looking at my latest photos to see which in-my-head blog post to put here and these are the things that caught my eye.

 The dye class that I taught last week.

The v-shawl class that I taught last week.

Socks that Jackie made for me but it hasn’t been the season to wear them.

The color wheel class that I taught at Lambtown on Sunday.

Georgia O’Keefe’s Purple Petunia which is now on the loom.

But when you think you’ve found the most fabulous colors of yarn, fiber, and dye, you walk outside  and see this:

 

A sunset from last week.

 

I think I need to find yarn in these colors.

 

 

April Showers Bring….

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Flannel bush, a native drought-tolerant CA species. I planted this behind the chicken house.

Yarrow, another drought-tolerant (read neglect-tolerant) species.

An incredibly fragrant rose. Hardy enough to have survived being dug up and replanted years ago and then suffer through seasons of aphids, little water, and pruning by someone who doesn’t know what she is doing.

I just planted this pink bottle-brush and will try to give it water during it’s first summer. After that it’s probably on it’s own, but the red variety I have near the barn has thrived with similar non-care. (Come to think of it, I think there is a leaky faucet near the red one.)

I love iris because they grow almost no matter what you do or don’t do to them. I have some fancy varieties that I got from my friend the iris farmer last year. I am embarrassed to say that I almost killed those by forgetting to plant them when I got them in the fall. They are in the ground and seem to be thriving but I was too late to expect them to bloom this year.

The clover is blooming now that it’s getting hot. In the foreground is one of the plants we just call foxtails. I think this one is Hare Barley but I’ll have to take my weed book to the pasture to know for sure.

I can’t remember the name of this one but it’s in the box at the end of my shop. I always think the plant is not doing well because the leaves are almost yellow, but   whatever I am not doing to it seems to be working. It has a lot of flowers every year. (This box does get some water.)

This is a Verbasum, a new plant that I just planted in a barrel near the shop. I was assured that it could live in the environment of heat and neglect. I saw that it flowered yesterday. Last night the flowers looked as though they had shriveled up, but they are open again this morning. Good plant.

I planted Walker’s Low Catmint in another barrel. I just put a leave of it under Ozzie’s nose and he doesn’t seem to care.

Annual ryegrass, a much more desirable grass, than the annuals that we call foxtails.

The locust tree is in full bloom and fills the air with its sweet fragrance.

Black Sheep Gathering Part 3

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We had such a good time at Black Sheep Gathering this year.

 

I never thought that I’d have fun “camping” in a parking lot but when it’s with the right people at the right event it’s a great time!

 

I’m used to seeing the Jacob horns, but I sure noticed when I saw this Angora goat’s horns.

Sunday evening I left for Bend to pick up a Blue Face Leicester (BFL) ram.

Here is the reception I had at Tumble Creek Farm.

 

 

 

 

Robina’s BFL ewes come when called.

 

We set up a pen outside so that my sheep could get out of the truck overnight. This morning we loaded Faulkner in the front of the truck bed with the Jacobs behind.

As much fun as I had this weekend I’m always glad to get back to California.

 

 

 

Jepson Prairie

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I wasn’t sure if I had missed most of the wildflower show at Jepson Prairie Reserve but I thought I’d go see this morning. Jepson Prairie is a natural area owned by the Solano Land Trust. The website says:

The reserve protects one of the best few remaining vernal-pool habitats, which are found only in the western United States and few other places in the world, as well as precious remnants of native bunchgrass prairie that once covered one-fourth of California.

Today’s weather is a bit crazy for May. The reserve is just about 10-15 miles southeast of our place and I was watching the black clouds as I got closer.  As I got out of the car I saw lightening and decided to wait it out for awhile (in the car). So I drove down the road through the reserve.

I can’t find my bird book so I’m going to count on my best birding friend (I was going to say Claire, but now there are more birding friends out there) to chime in here.

No that’s not snow in the background. It’s the hills that are drying out.

As green as it is in my pasture and in the surrounding farm land, the Central Valley would be a desert without water. So the prairie is drying out and I missed a lot of the wildflowers for the year, but not all.

The flowers that are blooming now are the ones that can handle the drying conditions. Now I don’t have the excuse of “I can’t find my wildflower book.” I used to know most of these flowers and now I can’t remember them. But I still enjoy them.

I think I remember this one –  Calochortus, Mariposa Lily.

Even the dry grass is pretty since I’m not worrying about foxtails here.

Here is the spectacular show. The rings of flowers around the lake change as the lake dries up later in the spring.

I think this is Gold Fields.

When you look closely you see another flower. Downingia comes from the recesses of my brain, but i don’t know if that is right.