Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Sandy Weather Update


Two inches, so far, and still coming down. . .

No high winds -- and they say the snow will turn to rain by this afternoon.

I did the obligatory "walk barefoot in the first snow and you'll have good health all year."

What a change from a few days ago.

Wait! There's still a bit of autumn gold!
 
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Sandy Weather

 
As the past few day have been severely overcast and I haven't taken any good pictures, I'll use this post for what will most likely be the last of the autumn colors.

It began to rain last night ...


All this pretty color is being stripped from the trees.

We are just on the edge of Hurricane Sandy's influence --  but we are prepared should there be a power outage.
 
Yesterday afternoon, the rain changed to a snow-ish sort of precipitation  -- a good time to sit by the fire with the dogs.

Stay safe, all of you who are in Sandy's path!
 
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Monday, October 29, 2012

California Landscape...with Tortoise


I was enchanted by many of the houses I saw in Ca;ifornia -- the houses and their beautiful landscaping.

A Japanese influence?

The California Blue Jay is different from our eastern variety -- but no less attractive.

 Some of the plants, like this bottle-brush tree, were familiar to me from my childhood in Florida.

This charming bungalow had an unusual pet roaming the front yard...

The big tortoise moved with surprising speed..,

And he wanted to know if we'd brought him a treat.
 The bay was nearby...


With a lovely long sidewalk to follow

 And a most venerable tree.
 

Kinda idyllic...

Love the blue bricks in this wall... And this wonderful Blue Atlas Cedar below. . .

There was quite a lot that was unexpected in the California landscape.  I grabbed this shot from the car . . .

I'm not done with California yet. . .
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Sunday, October 28, 2012