One misty moisty morning

We woke up early and headed off into the foggy morning and drove up.

Up and above and into a new world.

The fog seems like ocean.  The mountains become islands.  The distant Monterey peninsula becomes an exotic faraway island.

Finally, winter is here

We are finally getting some rain.  Days and days and days of it.  There is water in the creek again, thank goodness.  Rain drums on the rooftop.  (And, leaks — Greg heard a strange drip this morning.  Yup, a leak right above his head.  Thankfully, we have a canopy so it hadn’t reached our bed yet.  So, as Spring is approaching, we are finally in the depths of winter here in Boulder Creek.

Our current rainfall total is 20″.  That’s up significantly from my last report of about 16″.  And, the weather report is showing rain for days!  It’s all good news for the drought although, we are still very far behind where we should be water-wise for the 2nd year in a row.  Last year, we had around 30″ and that’s just about 3/4 of what we should get in a normal winter.    If it stopped raining right now, we’d be about the same as the dryest year on record (going back to 1888) which happened in 1976.  Contrast that to our highest rain year ever which was 100″ of rain in one year.  More typical is 50-70″ of rain in a year.

Anyway, let it rain, let it rain, let it rain.  But, in the back of my mind is always that too much rain, too quickly causes landslides and trees to come down and we don’t need that either.  Not to be picky but can we have lots of rain but not too much!

The rain brings out some local wildlife that I haven’t seen in weeks.

Full Moon

Fullest of all moons
Dangling over my head
Glowing mystery

©2009, Liza Lee Miller
All Rights Reserved.

Moon over Boulder Creek

It’s a terrible picture, I know.  You can’t take a decent handheld shot of the moon.  I know this.  And yet, it compelled me.  And, honestly, I kind of like the results.  If it hadn’t been so cold, I’d have run back out with my tripod and taken a decent shot of it.  But, this is what I got.  I love the ethereal quality of the branches.  It was a beautiful night.

Fall is peeking around the corner

Summer hangs on
Tenacious, sticky, lingering
Draining, irritating, aggravating

Bring on Fall
Creep in, cool air
Relaxing, refreshing, relieving

You are not my friend, Summer Heat
I prefer a temperate day
with an edge of chill in the air

Bring it on, Fall
We’re waiting with bated breath
We welcome you.