March Daisies

How can you not like daisies this time of year? This year March did come in as a lion and left like a lamb--in mellow sunshine.

Got tomatoes from Navlet's, so here's hoping for a bomber crop this summer.

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Spring's a Comin'

On beautiful early March day I weeded our garden. When I came upon this flower, the "weed" begged not to be pulled. It so enhanced our lush hill in the back I felt the least I could do would be to capture it's essence....before dumping it into my green barrel.

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Yosemite Snow

Well, at least my blog two posts ago showed I was quite prepared for a winter snow at Yosemite. Just as we headed for breakfast at 8am on Wednesday, snowflakes gently descended upon Yosemite Village. An hour later we left the diner to pack up and leave, only to find the snow 7 inches on our car.

What a wondrous site. We were so enthralled with the sites, we took another two hours to sight-see a winter Yosemite. Our guest from Hawaii always had a wish to visit Yosemite. In the previous two days he had seen the grandeur that his mother used to talk about her honeymoon over 75 years ago. So he had his wish satisfied. However, he had never seen snow fall. Like a child whose wish was fulfilled by a white Christmas, he became ecstatic at living a second lifelong wish.

BTW, this is El Capitan, in winter storm, 2011.

Here's Where I've Been

Hi everyone,

My mystery place was Yosemite. Late the first evening we stopped by the SE end of the roadside and just enjoyed the unseasonably large water falling, due to an early snow melt.
You'll want to stick around for my second installment, which contrasts with the near-spring weather you see here.
See me soon,

Sent from Wei's iPhone

Practicing for the Snow Country

This picture is a teaser to encourage you to guess where we're going next. Yes, it's to the mountains, where, we hope, will be some snow. Wanna guess where?

Hope there's not too much snow! I'm too old to be crouching down where it is frigid and wet.

Will fill you in when we return.

Still Another Delectable Sashimi Dish

Hard to eat something so beautiful. But eat we did. Finished everything, including the Shiso garnish and wasabi sauce. What you can't see is the wasabi mixed in the soy sauce. Made-from-Scratch wasabi has an indescribably delicious texture. Yes, I wish you were here.....

Solstice Lunar Eclipse

This was the lunar eclipse to watch. Hasn't happened like this in over four hundred years. Full Moon, Elilpse, and Winter Solstice, all rolled into one. What a gorgeous sight it was going to be. Except for one tiny problem.

Clouds covered us. At the beginning of the eclipse, we hardly saw the outline of the Moon. And by 11:15pm I gave up and went inside. While on the computer my younger son came over to let me know the clouds started parting, and the eclipse was, indeed, visible. What serendipity. 

I rushed outside to see cloud cover, but at least I could see the shadow of the earth starting to cover our lunar orb. I rushed back inside for my telephoto DLSR, tripod and cable release. I set up everything and tested for exposure. My exposures were on the money, as I had two other, rather miserable, attempts in past years. But this year, as my older son reminded me, was different. Not only was it a soltace lunar eclipse, it was just after a rain storm in winter. There would be hardly any particulate matter (dust) in the air. The clarity of the shots might be the best I would ever see. He was right.

And then the clouds parted. I didn't have to raise my hands like Moses to part the heavens. It just happened....

The above picture is not astronomically correct. I took about 200 images, and picked the best to sequence. The sequence is not correct by time, and neither is the trajectory of the Moon. Not with a 200mm. The image is just a digital collage that shows the sequence of the moon entering, and then remaining in earth's shadows. I was too cold, nursing a cold, to remain until the moon would come out of its neighbor's shadow.

I'll tweak the images later, but I wanted to share the wonder I had with this sight of a lifetime.

What a Great Deli

 

We're at our all-time favorite deli.

Brent's sign on Sepulveda in Northridge, CA.

 

Brent's delivery truck are brightly designed with their delicacies. You just want to take the deli items off the truck and start eating.

Even if you're hungry, there still seems to be items still on the plate after you've finished the humungous sandwiches. See the next post on the 3" high Black Pastrami Reuben.

Beauty in an Office

I'm fidgeting in a dentist's office, waiting my turn. The time passes by sooooo slowly. Fortunately there are some peaceful, comforting scenes that occupy me. 

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Autumn Leaves

Summer's gone. And Autumn's about to go. But not without letting us know there's gorgeous color just before cold rain pelts down on us.

Downtown Clayton, CA

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