Sometimes you have to say goodbye.

I hiked 6 miles in hiking shoes in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains this morning without incident. Back at the trailhead, I changed to town shoes and went about running errands. In the Farmer's Market parking lot, my dear old Birkenstocks met a painted right-turn arrow and turned into a banana peel.

*splat*. Luckily, not ¡Boom!

It's the first storm of the season and rain was collecting in murky puddles, so my pants legs, and my shirt sleeves, and the seat of my pants soaked up tire residue, asphalt dust, and whatever natural particles were swimming there, as I rolled around into position to stand up. 

Now what? I'd come there to buy a turkey hind quarter. Could I proceed in my soggy clothes? I was a mess.

I could and I did and when I got home, I tossed these old friends in the trash bin.

¡Boom!

Edmund de Waal at the Huntington

Visited Edmund de Waal's installation(s) at the Huntington Gardens and Museum yesterday.

This was the last display we visited and it is a haunting one.

Joan

323-828-8334 

Just learned a cool thing

My camping cookset has a trick that has escaped me until now.

The short pot has this indentation around the bottom.

The bottom fits perfectly into the rim of the taller pot. 

Voilà! The pots stack!
The wider pot becomes a lid and allows me to heat a second food at the same time.

How have I missed this feature all these years? 

Desert Guitar

When I first spotted this feature in the desert south of Bakersfield I thought it was a mirage.

Looking West of the Grapevine

Gorman's burned hillsides

I hope these burned hillsides near Gorman can withstand the forecasted El Niño rains and produce a multitude of wildflowers. 

What looks a little like a pinhole capture is really a windshield capture, focused on the raindrops. 

Yosemite Conservation Heritage Center

A young visitor set up a tea party in the YCHC.