What a beautiful boy! He was almost completely camouflaged, resting in the cool grass, enjoying a late afternoon snack. Those antlers are magnificent, aren’t they?
I could have stayed there for hours, watching him in silence, but I had to go. He didn’t seem too concerned and kept eating and eating.
It has come to the attention of my brain that I seem to write a lot about weather.
Sun, heat, rain, hail, snow, clouds, fog…I wonder if that’s because there’s really so little weather here in SoCal. For a majority of the time, it’s sunny and warm. Or sunny and hot. Or sunny with drought-like conditions. This isn’t me being critical of our weather; I’ve simply reflected upon how much of a weather watcher I am.
From the monsoonal–like deluge
that transformed a dry river bed into a not-so-dry river bed
to a beautiful sunset.
I was driving on a favorite street — do you have a favorite street? Mine is one that offers a breath-taking view of San Gorgonio and San Jacinto, mountains to the north of me. They received several feet of new snow during the same winter storm.
This sight is so beyond magnificent, it literally took away my breath for several seconds.
Hand to heart, as I was snapping a few photos of the snow covered mountains, one of my most special songs came on the radio, Fleetwood Mac’s Landslide, with the iconic lyrics, “And I saw my reflection in the snow-covered hills –‘Til the landslide brought me down.”
A mindful moment of perfection.
I love Stevie Nick’s live performances.
Mother Nature gifted us with rain, wind, hail, snow, and surf.
Yesterday was so windy, it almost knocked me over. Trees and power lines were down all along the coast.
I think it’s astonishing that I can see these mountains sixty to eighty miles away when I stand in the middle of my street right in front of my house. I live exactly three miles away from the Pacific Ocean. It’s a bit hazy and the camera lens is trying as hard as it can to capture the snow capped hills.
After walking up nearly fifty steps to the very top of my garden, this is the view facing east to either Palomar Mountain or Mount Laguna (I can’t tell the difference) where they had about a foot of snow.
The power lines are actually quite far away; they seem closer than they actually are.
These apartments are an ugly blight on the landscape, ruining the mountain pic. This city has zero sense about the value of open space.
I would love to drive up to Mammoth Mountain to ski ‘cos I hear they received eight to ten feet of new snow in the Sierra Nevada, but I had a bad experience driving to Snow Summit and have never been able to shake the fear. I had taken my son skiing for his thirteenth birthday and we had a really fun day together but on the way back home, my brakes went out and we almost crashed. REALLY! Actually, we ran off the road at a Ranger’s Station and we’re lucky to be alive. Highway Patrol arrived and we were towed to San Bernadino and the shop was able to repair whatever brake issue caused the malfunction and we drove home. Ever since then, I’ve been too afraid to drive to the mountains. That was about the closest to death I’ve ever been and it traumatized me. Not my Angel Boy though; he’s fearless, and that’s the way it should be.
After the rain, our beautiful ocean is still a little agitated, and the next storm’s clouds loom on the horizon…
Thank you, Mother Nature.
#ThrowbackThursday
One of my favorite places to camp and hike.
Love the rocks #JoshuaTree
There are amazing all-season hikes to the top of Mount San Jacinto near Palm Springs high above Coachella Valley.
San Jacinto Peak is 10,834 ft. and was known to Cahuilla Indians as I a kitch (or Aya Kaich), meaning “smooth cliffs”.
The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway hike is the less strenuous option. My son and his friend climbed all the way up and it’s not easy, but taking the tram (which is SUPER SUPER scary) is a perfect way to enjoy what John Muir referred to as “The view from San Jacinto is the most sublime spectacle to be found anywhere on this earth!”
We see beauty all around.
I especially love the contrast of these stark white branches against the blue sky.
…is right here, hiking in the desert.
#WordlessWednesday
One of my favorite places on earth, and yes, the water really is that beautiful turquoise color.
McWay Falls is an 80-foot-tall waterfall on the coast of Big Sur in central California that flows year-round into the Pacific Ocean from McWay Creek in Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, about thirty-seven miles south of Carmel.
During high tide, it’s a tidefall, a waterfall that empties directly into the ocean.
The waterfall poured directly into the ocean until a massive fire, landslide, and highway reconstruction project near the area in 1983-84 filled the cove with enough material to form a sandy beach several dozen feet out.
The falls, creek, and canyon are named after Christopher McWay, an early settler and farmer from New York state who arrived in the area with his son Christopher Jr. around 1874.
The park itself is named after Julia Pfeiffer Burns (1868-1928), a local and legendary early pioneer and resident who impressed Helen Brown and had run a ranch in McWay canyon with her husband, John B. Burns.
#WordlessWednesday
Pinnacles National Park is an American national park protecting a mountainous area located east of the Salinas Valley in Central California, eighty miles southeast of San Jose.
Could the sky have been any more blue?
#WordlessWednesday
Cool Canyon hike. Anza-Borrego desert, California. #WordlessWednesday
A pic from a camping trip to Yellowstone in 2013.
I wish I was there right now; It looks so refreshing, doesn’t it?
#wordlesswednesday
