Winter is here!

So why are the spring flowers starting?


14 Feb - magnolia, Santa Clara.

It has been raining HEAPs here, which is fantastic. We might even make our expected rainfall for the month. Doesn't mean we are out of drought but it is nice that it keeps raining (except when I am out in it). It got me nice and soggy yesterday at the farmers' market, then after keeping my runners dry for most of the day I didn't see a huge puddle in a carpark (I was watching the crazy cars) and soaked both feet and my pants halfway up my legs. Now I usually don't do half measures in anything but this time I am glad I did!

Anyway, it is lovely to get some rain - about 50mm since Saturday I think. It's hard to tell with my large yoghurt pot rain gauge.

I guess I should've figured there'd be some rain when I saw lovely threatening clouds like these



It was a sunset though, not a sunrise. Not much of a warning for the poor old shepherd!

Day 1 - A drive to Big Sur

Over Christmas and New Year, DH had some time off. He brought home a cold for Christmas and passed it on to me, thanks ever so, still suffering the effects 3 weeks later...

Anyway, since he had this time off, we decided to go for a drive down the coast. We had been told the drive along the Big Sur coastline is a great deal of fun, if you don't get carsick. Sounded exactly like my sort of road!

So off we zoomed. Traffic was not as bad as I expected for New Year's Eve. Soon enough we had passed through Monterey and bypassed Carmel-by-Sea.



Soon the coastline started getting lumpy and bumpy and a bit more exciting. So did the road, well at least it began to wiggle more but was no more lumpy bumpy.



We stopped at the first bridge.



Mr Grumpy had not had lunch and things were looking grim. A snack bar and an apple helped but lunch was needed and lunch was not available.

We drove further, over many bridges and around many corners. Whiz, whiz, whiz! The road is mostly cut into the side of a very steep sided hill, though around the part where you go past the Big Sur visitor center, it swings inland for a bit. (And thank heavens for a bakery where DH got some sustenance.)


130,000 acres of Big Sur burned in June/July. Massive wildfire. The hill in the background of this pic is representative of what remains. The countryside looks so rugged there - any rain that falls will wash away whatever topsoil remains. It will be interesting to see how much of it regenerates and how well it regenerates.



Alas we had started our drive rather late and the sun fell low in the sky waaay too early for us.


We stopped for afternoon tea at one place but the cafe had already packed up for the day and the restaurant was pricey. I rather liked this driftwood sculpture of a bird.

We did get rather a number of shots (ahem!)



of the coast around and after sunset.



It is gorgeous.



I drove the next however many miles to Ragged Point in the dark, missing out on many spectacular views. Alas I did not make it to the 55mph speed limit very often - 45mph was more prudent, especially given the amount of roadwork happening along the way, with lanes not marked in any way shape or form. Staying on the road involved taking a punt and pointing the car at the middle of the darkest bits. I may love my corners but I also want to arrive at my destination in one piece.

This road is one of the Great Coast Drives. It certainly compares with the Great Ocean Road back 'ome. I think it was built with a similar goal to the Great Ocean Road - that of job creation. Tourism of course followed but really the road was created to provide jobs. It is an amazing drive and we will have to do it again, when it isn't dark. LOL

Hooray for Solstice!

Yesterday was the winter Solstice. Gosh, today we gain less than a whole second here in San Jose.

Dec 20, 2008 7:18 AM 4:53 PM 9h 35m 21s − 04s 12:05 PM 29.3° 147.163
Dec 21, 2008 7:18 AM 4:54 PM 9h 35m 20s < 1s 12:06 PM 29.3° 147.154

I usually try to get a pic of sunrise and sunset on the shortest day. Ooops, missed sunrise, but here's sunset. It started well:


but didn't redden up much at all, sorta just fizzled:


But it was indeed a sunset - it could've been wet and dull - and we got to see it in town. More on going to town later!

A year ago, we were in Canada on a train! I never posted those pics - shall have to remedy that :-)

Sunset, Nebraska

At last we come to the end of the trip pics for Nebraska. Having bored you all witless, any remaining readers can switch off at the sight of sunset over the prairie.










Oddly, no matter how fast I drove (75mph is fast by Oz legal standards), I could not keep up with sunset! It got away from me on the I80. So did the clouds. They were going south at least as fast as I was on the highway (65mph). Those were clouds in a hurry!

Next time I go to Nebraska, I hope to go to Omaha and meet persons who know who they are ;-) Of course if our upcoming train trip goes ahead, we have to pass through Omaha on the way out and on the way back. The train stops in Omaha at 10:30pm on the way west (back) and at Ridiculous Hour (6:14am) on the way east. Ouch!

September Sunset

Ah, the days are getting shorter now - a week past equinox, though we still have lots of daylight to lose. It's been an interesting week - bright sunny and clear for a goodly lot of it.

When I looked up out of our study on Thursday (we have these clerestory windows that make our place look three stories high), I saw this:


Glorious blue sky and a tinge of autumn at the top of the tree.
(you are lucky - I removed the ENORMOUS bird poo splattered down the window. I get to see it every time cos there is NO way I am finding a ladder that long just to clean it off)

Then enough cloud shows up to make sunset fabulous.




Can you tell that sunset is my favourite part of the day? Sunrise is good too, at least in winter, but really sunrise is hard to cope with for most of the year. I'm awake for most sunsets :-)

Painting without pictures - Colorado sunset

Today was a dull day - very little sun as a front was passing by. But oh boy, did sunset make up for it!

Imagine showers falling from one band of heavy cloud. The rain is the sort that don't reach the ground. Earlier in the day, such showers had looked like a grey longhaired tabby cat's fur. But now?

A band of brilliant orange fire stretched across the sky. Filaments of flame dangled and wavered, dancing in the breeze up high beneath the clouds. Everything all around was tinted orange.

To the west of the fire were bands and speckles of pale orange.

The fire cat moved northwards, clearing, leaving the mackerel spotting of the clouds to light up in their turn. Brilliant yellows, oranges and reds, stripes, spots, streaked with deep blue cloud, patches of bright blue sky, puffs of teensy little cumulus.

Totally brilliant. Oh for a camera! But then you would be bombarded with a hundred pictures showing the slow changes in colour.