From The Beach

What sparks joy? Two beach visits in the same day, one in the morning and one as the sun set.

No whales or dolphins I’m sad to report; but it was still a gorgeous spring morning in SoCal.

Later, the ocean was wild and loud and exhilarating.

A close up pic of the holes in the coastal beach bluff, where I sat during high tide.

Sunset surf sesh. The line of surfers parallel the horizon.

All photo credit to Enchanted Seashells.

Hello Kitty Sunset 🎀 | Pink Pink Pink

Or cotton candy pink. A trivial confession about me…I’ve never actually eaten cotton candy. I’ve seen it made at the fair but I never had any desire to taste it. I do love Hello Kitty, though, and she speaks to me:

“Once upon a time, there was a princess.” — Hello Kitty

Last night’s sunset was breathtaking to experience. The sky colors were pure Hello Kitty pink.

I didn’t make it to the beach in time to see the full sunset drop into the horizon, but I went outside in the garden to appreciate all of the resplendent Hello Kitty pink gloriousness.

The Calm Before The Storm

Last night’s sunset…

I’ve been getting calls and texts from the insurance company about filing claims about (future) storm damage, SDGE is calling and texting alerts about storm preparations and being ready for the power to go out, so I guess Hurricane Hilary is SERIOUS about visiting my little beachy town.

An emergency preparedness spokesperson said that we should not underestimate the impact of this storm, and called it possibly “the worst we’ve seen”.

If his prediction is correct, this beautiful sunset is going to be replaced by lots of sky water and high winds.

It’s supposed to start raining in the afternoon, so I better focus on removing a few more windchimes before the real action kicks off on Sunday.

Tropical Sky Colors

Looking west from the deck, the vibrant sunset is reminiscent of my favorite passionfruit and mango shave ice.

Rain might actually fall in a couple of days from Tropical Storm Hilary, the reason for those beautiful clouds. A new weather forecast says it might turn into a hurricane which would definitely bring stronger winds along with sky water. We would only feel the remnants–Baja California would bear the brunt–but I’d be really happy for the rain!

The new moon, under 1% illuminated, turns skies dark tonight as we anticipate the second full moon at the end of August.

Cotton Candy Clouds

Last night’s pink cotton candy clouds. It was really quite spectacular.

So much beauty if you look for it.

Moon Perched on Power Lines

I walked to the beach and back, about a six-mile round trip, and captured this quirky pic with my phone of the almost Supermoon over Agua Hedionda Lagoon.

Sunday’s full moon will bring the biggest and brightest of the year so far. December 3rd’s Full Cold Moon is the only supermoon of 2017.

A supermoon occurs when a full moon coincides with the perigee of the moon’s orbital cycle. A perigee is the point at which the moon moves closest to Earth during orbit. Because the orbit is not a perfect circle, this means the moon typically sits anywhere between 252,000 and 226,000 miles from Earth. That’s a difference of 26,000 miles—longer than the entire circumference of the Earth.
(www.newsweek.com/supermoon-2017-full-cold-moon-728118)

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Heavenly Sky in SoCal

Tonight’s sunset was so effing glorious that for the first time in years, I saw people stopped in their tracks, looking up at the sky instead of down at their phones. It was like an episode of Twilight Zone, all heads tilted up staring at the beauty of sundown.

It was a shared moment of humanity; there were murmurs of “Oh my goodness, did you see that?” leaning on their cars in the Marshall’s parking lot, doing nothing but absorbing the beauty of the universe.

Time stood still for all of us for the duration of the last visible rays of the sun.

“Wow, that was amazing”, was the consensus.

Apparently, there’s still a glimmer of hope for us.

These are raw, unretouched photos from my iPhone.

Mother Nature, I raise a glass to your magnificence. It’s truly humbling.

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Sunset On A Heavenly California Horizon

A photographic essay. Southern California. End of November. Big surf. Late afternoon.

It’s so cool to showcase this amazing Carlsbad sunset.sunset1

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A glorious ending to a spectacular day. Happy December!