Orchard Trails

Posted on December 6, 2016 by Robin

It’s dry enough now to ride my bike Across the Road. I take Ginny to try and wear her out a bit. Yesterday I took a different route and decided to veer off the road that borders a walnut orchard. I don’t know why I haven’t done that before–veering off the road. Maybe because at other times of the year it’s muddy or weedy (including puncture vine, also known as goats’ head that puncture tires and dog feet) or being harvested. Or because I’m not the sort of person that goes off the trail.

Maybe it’s that I am not a big fan of orchards in this area. Almond orchards seem to be taking over the valley and the landscapes that I love are hidden once the orchard has been in a couple of years.

Anyway, it was beautiful view from within the orchard.

Peaceful.

Colorful.

Orderly.

However, I still love the broad landscape that is outside the orchard. This is one of the few black walnut trees remaining around the fields.

The mountains are almost obscured by the young almond orchard that is across the big canal but at least I can still see the sunset.

Random Thoughts in Photos

Posted on January 27, 2016 by Robin

Seen while driving in town the other day… lumber pattern I liked the patterns of the wood. I especially noticed the part that doesn’t show up very well here but the bottom right where the heartwood (I think) makes the half circles. Weaving ideas.Also while driving. I was on Pedrick Road east of Dixon. I really wanted a photo of the snow-covered Sierras. It’s been awhile since we’ve had that view. The lens on the phone makes the mountains too far away for that shot, but I like seeing the train.In this shot too.I may have shown this photo before, but I like this sunset view. It makes the mud and swampy “lake” worthwhile.And speaking of lots of water, this was a result of the last storm that came through. This is a very old fig tree that the kids used to play in a long time ago. Note the steps and the treehouse platform. The roots of this tree have been rotten for some time and the dogs often found something to bark at in the hole in the trunk. giraffe sculpture I’ll bet you didn’t know that we had giraffes in Solano County. These two are about a mile from here where I take Ginny to herding lessons.And while we’re talking about herding, this is Ginny working “her flock” at home.

Photos in my Pocket

Posted on September 29, 2014 by Robin

What do I mean by Photos in my Pocket? From my phone, of course. These are photos I took in the last couple of days that I took only because I just happened to have the phone with me.This is the time of year when the dallisgrass gets away from me. The sheep can’t keep up as it gets taller and coarser. In addition the seed heads get sticky from a fungus and then adhere to the sheep. This is one of the BFL-cross March lambs. Cascade wearing dallisgrass.Yearling ewe named Ears. Everyone recognizes this spider that I saw when I opened the lid of the garbage toter. We’ve had some beautiful sunsets the last few days. And in the shop… handspun warp …this is a warp made of yarn in my stash, most of which my mom spun years ago. The weft is Jacob yarn.

Glorious Evening

Posted on August 29, 2014 by Robin

No words needed.

Road Trip – Day 3 – Grand Tetons

Posted on June 21, 2014 by Robin

Morning of the third day.This is the Snake River near where we camped. We were on the road to Primary Destination #1, Grand Teton National Park. Moose is the headquarters and main visitor center for the Park. We found a campsite and chose a place to hike.We purchased the necessary supplies. That’s Bear Spray on the right. Yikes! These warnings were everywhere you look – at trailheads, in restrooms, on brochures. OK. I believe…But it won’t happen to me? Right? (Read the fine print on this–that’s scary.) We chose the Hermitage Point trail, about 9.5 miles. Here’s a view across Jackson Lake. The hardest thing about writing this blog is choosing only a few photos.The stunning Arrowleaf Balsamroot was everywhere.On the trail.I don’t think National Geographic will be calling me anytime soon, but it was fun to try and get wildlife photos. I think I do better with flowers because I can get closer and they don’t move. But maybe this isn’t bad considering that my longest lens is only 135 mm. Ruffed grouse, according to my bird book. These tent caterpillars were everywhere. They eat all the leaves in the area of their tents and can be quite devastating when in large quantities. I didn’t see any swans in Swan Lake, but there were plenty of geese… …and a sandhill crane.

We were less than a mile from the end of our hike and nearing dusk when we came upon this in the trail.OK. Time for 2 photos and then retreat. This is an enhanced closeup of the photo above. The signs all say that the bear is supposed to go away. She didn’t. We backed up and Dan fumbled with the bear spray. I had read the instructions while he was driving but I don’t think he paid attention. “Flip off the orange safety catch with your thumb and then position it in spray position. No, point it at the bear, not us…” Did you know that you have only 4 seconds of spray in one of those cans? Not like the wasp spray we have around here. The bear approached a little more and we retreated more. We were less than a mile to the end of the trail and I really didn’t want to go back. Then we saw other people coming up the trail towards us. These were 3 kids (well, college age) who we had seen on the trail before. It turns out that they didn’t have a map with them and had taken a wrong turn to a dead-end trail, backtracked, and were running to make up time back to headquarters. They were thankful that we stopped them or they would have been running straight at the bear. When we saw a cub come out from behind a log and it was evident that this mama bear was not going to retreat we turned around and started walking the other way. It added only about another two miles to the hike for an 11.5 mile day. (Is this over-dramatic to those of you who live in bear country? I’m sure that I have hiked in bear country before, but I’ve never seen them. The difference is that these animals are not as wary of people as they would be other places–which is great if you want a deer or grouse photo, but not so much an animal with big teeth and claws.) Sunset over Jackson Lake.

Backpacking at the Lost Coast – Day 2

Posted on April 21, 2014 by Robin

The goal for this morning was to hike south to Miller Flat where we would spend the night. After we set up camp I did some more exploring. Walking another mile or so was no problem once I was able to ditch the pack. The scenery and flowers were spectacular.Wild iris.As I’ve said in other posts the poison oak can be very pretty although its definitely best to avoid it.

Back at camp there was no shortage of wildlife, although I wasn’t able to do much about photographing sea lions or a river otter with my 40mm lens. (I tried, but won’t bore you with those photos where you have to know which speck is the subject animal.) Kaleena was photographing one of her favorite flowers right next to camp and was about to step over a log when she saw this: It eventually slithered under the log. Maybe the beach is a safer trek.My kids could be active-wear models.This made me nervous. Matt wanted to get photos of the surf as it rolled in under his camera.Another great dinner. This time it was mac and cheese with fresh veggies followed by s’mores with your choice of graham crackers or fresh apple slices or both.Of course there was always trail mix for snacking.

Sunset on the beach. The colors of the sky and ocean changed to pinks and greens as the sun went down. My tent at dusk. (Rainfly necessary this night.)

Across the Road at Sunset

Posted on January 6, 2014 by Robin

I took these photos with my i-phone last week. As I was looking into the phone I didn’t think that the phone’s camera was catching the brilliance of the sunset. I snapped them anyway, but then forgot about it. It was only when I saw the photos on my computer that I realized how amazing that camera is.

Red & Green in October

Posted on October 16, 2013 by Robin

I put the rams in with the ewes on October 1. This is Day 16 so it’s time to change the marker. The ewe’s heat cycle averages 17 days. If one of the previously marked ewes is remarked then I know that she wasn’t bred in the first cycle. If multiple ewes are remarked I may have a ram fertility problem. I changed the markers for all four rams from red to green. Hendrix was not very happy about being tied up.

All he wanted was to get back to the ewe in heat. The young ram, now named Santana, (second from right) wasn’t put in with the ewes until October 7 but several ewes have been marked. As I was working with the sheep I heard geese honking. It’s that time of year.And here is the gorgeous evening sky.

Photography Fun–A Weekly Challenge

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Robin

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.This is the field across the road from my house and the next one was taken just up the road.What is a sunset without clouds? 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.

Color Everywhere I Look

Posted on October 18, 2012 by Robin

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.