Golden Apples

After the rain and hail on Thanksgiving, it's time to collect a few golden delicious apples, leaving windfall for the deer and other creatures.

Sky Aflame

Ready for New Life

Busker's Payment

The Willits farmers' market moved indoors this month, changing the light but not the spirit.

Happy Halloween

More colorful neighbors in aqua, plum, and orange.

Redwood in Autumn Rain

Neighbors in Aqua

Goat Milk?

All American Bounty

It is the season for every kind of beautiful squash at the local Farmers' Market.

Sunflower Shadows

County Fair Fowl

Vintage Autos at the Roots of Motive Power Festival

Baled Grass at Forest's Edge

Albion Village Store Abstraction

Fog and Lichen

It may look gloomy, but coastal fog offers the pause that refreshes in these hot summer days.

Navarro Beach in Fog

The beach at the mouth of the Navarro River, engulfed by fog, offers refuge for campers escaping the inland heat. Part of the State Parks system, the property includes an old inn, awaiting restoration. Out in the river on partially submerged tree trunks, one cormorant tries to sun himself among his fellows.

Flat-Faced Hedge

I nearly didn't see the picket gate, near Ft. Bragg, California.

Bright Borscht

One of my favorite soups, when prepared by Ardella's Diner.

Viewshed Encroachment

Can't hardly see the forest for the trees...

The Road Home

A section of the road to my Mom's house, where I've seen a mountain lion a couple of times. The biggest trees were logged out of here a decade or two ago, leaving younger redwoods to filter the late day sunlight.

Lunch

A journey to Ft. Bragg took me to the friendly Headlands Cafe for lunch one day.

Water Works

I've been curious for years about this facility on the east side of US101 down in Ukiah. I took the tiny "River St." exit last time, to give it a closer look. I suppose I hoped for a little more deco detail, but a fresh coat of paint would do it a world of good - maybe a darker contrast on those moldings. The monumental lettering deeply satisfies. It probably houses a pump to draw water from the nearby Russian River.

Tenacity

I can be pretty pessimistic about the chances of humanity surviving another hundred years. But I also notice how tenacious many other, older lifeforms are, even in the most challenging circumstances. The earth will express itself, one way or another, with or without us.

Happy Solstice Eve

On a quick getaway while the clothes dried at the laundromat, I explored a road I'd never gone up before. It crossed the crest of a ridge at an open field, offering late day light with a view.

Farm Fresh?

You never know what fresh things you'll find on display at the Farmer's Market.

Apple Leaves in the Rain

I often run brief fantasy scenarios in my head, perhaps as a result of not watching TV, but more likely just a mental "quirk" of mine. The scenarios almost always involve choices to be made in response to some kind of supernatural reduction in resources. Some examples:

- If you could only have one kind of tree to take on a spaceship to colonize another planet where nothing else yet exists, what would it be specifically?

- If you were to enter into a Brigadoon-like village for the rest of your life - separated from modern technology and materials, and would be imbued with a specialty skill/occupation to contribute, what would it be?

- If you were allowed just a dozen books to keep you company in isolated confinement for a year, what would they be?

I think my answer to the first scenario would be apple trees, specifically Rhode Island Greenings.