Qun-icy not so icy today.

In my December 8 post, I mistakenly spelled my home town Qunicy instead of Quincy. Intending to post a correction on December 11, two things happened. First, since the week of December 7 - 11 was incredibly icy, I decided to let the mistake stand. Qun-icy. I'm not sure how to pronounce it. Second, I accidentally posted my explanation on the wrong blog. So, here's a good place to suggest you check out the blog of the Quincy Writers Group. Now, a few more photos from last spring. As I post these I'm thinking about several e. e. cummings poems having to do with spring, especially one that begins "O sweet spontaneous earth...." Remember, you can click on any of these images to see a full-screen view. Happy Holidays - remember, the real "reason for the season" is the fact that Earth's axis is tilted 23.5 degrees off perpendicular to the plane of our orbit. Does that spoil it for you? For me and Galileo, it makes it more exciting.

Skipping Winter

An afterthought about my recent post of Dutchman's Pipevine: One thing I love about the Sierra is that I get to experience several seasons on any given day just by changing elevation. Last Saturday, I left my relatively mild (by winter standards) home in Qunicy for a trip up to around 6,500' on Claremont Mountain to catch a Christmas tree. It was MUCH colder up there and very icy, reminding me of the dangers to the unaware.
In the opposite direction - from my perspective as one who was raised in New England - I feel that the lower foothills, say below 2,000', really don't experience winter. When the snow starts to fly around Quincy and higher, it is more often than not rainy at the lower elevations and the golden hills quickly become green. When we in Quincy are experiencing the "dead" of winter, the first spring wildflowers are blooming on Table Mountain and Bidwell Park, and as far as I am concerned it's spring. Today began as the coldest day of the winter so far with many locales reporting temperatures below zero degrees Fahrenheit. Kind of gives me the urge to go down toward Chico to look for wildflowers. I know it gives others the urge to head for the Tahoe area for skiing. The great thing about the Sierra is that you can do both in the same week!

A Foothill Favorite

Another in a series of avoidances of winter. Just got nearly a foot of snow and my mind is still in spring and early summer. Memories are made of this. I really like snow and winter; I just don't like taking pictures at this time of year. I don't know why. Maybe because it's cold!

A Summer Favorite

Sorting my Bugs

Celebrating getting a new laptop by sorting and transferring some photos. I remember fondly the moment, after several months of seeking wildflower photo ops, of realizing that the frequent "intrusions" of bugs in these photos were not intrusions at all but a subject every bit as exciting as the flowers. So now I am building bug folders for future reference. Next spring, when I resume my favorite season for photography, I'll seek out "bug photo ops." I wonder if I'll discover new flowers. This connectivity is entirely appropriate in that the flowering plants evolved in concert with their insect and bird pollinators. Somehow the flowers are popular subjects for art and photography, as are the birds, but the bugs often get a bad rap. I hope my photography will help to change that. How can anyone deny the beauty of the goldenrod crab spider or the red milkweed beetle pictured here?

Transition

I feel like I'm in the "in-between" season, still struggling to find photo "ops." The fall colors are mostly gone - or, I should say, the reds, oranges, yellows, etc., have merged into browns, and most deciduous trees and bushes have already shed. We had our first snow on 11/21, but it was a light coating, and I haven't yet discovered photogenic snow scenes. So, until the next snow comes, possibly burying the last vestiges of herbaceous plants and shrubs, I'll be watching for "winter readiness," that is, nuts and other types of seeds, and signs of the plants' and animals' winter survival plans. This cat-o-nine tail I have watched weekly ever since spring when it first emerged from a roadside ditch a mile north of the Greenville Y. Left photo taken in mid-October and the right in mid-November. I'm also thinking about paying more attention to clouds. I love clouds, but, for some reason, have not taken up photographing them.

Apple Fest 2009

We had a great time on Sunday, October 25, at the annual Apple Fest at Dawn Institue, around 12 miles north of Quincy. Music provided by BLT and miscellaneous friends, bring your own apples or pick from what remained in the Institute's orchard, and make fresh-squeezed apple juice, great potluck lunch, and a great opportunity for people photos and nature photos. Nature photos here include one of my favorite angles on bigleaf maple, three piles of bear poop - from among at least 50 in the orchard, lichen on a rock, and a back-lit apple leaf - on the tree that produced "the big apple" featured in my last post. Check out this event in 2010. No neon signs, no "rides," very little traffic, nothing to buy, just plain old fun with neighbors and guests.
. One of these guys "marches to a different accordion."