Traveling to southern California last week, we stopped so I could take some pictures of a typical California landscape, rolling hills dotted with oaks. This area near Santa Barbara doesn’t have many oaks. This is looking to the east. The other side has the mountains that flank the coast, and those have oak trees.
Cachuma Lake near Bradbury DamCachuma Lake, Santa Barbara
Here is a picture of the coastal mountains, which are right across the freeway from the above shot.
Santa Ynez Mountains
You can see very different vegetation. The coastal mountains get water from the fog. A little bit inland, and it dries out. The more inland you go, well, the drier it is.
Of course, when you arrive in La Jolla, which is in San Diego County, it looks like this. Water, water, everywhere, and desalination, too.
La Jolla, California, on a foggy late afternoon/evening
I have some links to share. The first is a very interesting interactive government link on climate change that lets you look at predictions in any region in the USA.
In deference to one of my blog followers, El Niño does not always produce more rain. (El Niño is a warm tide along the western coast. The last big one produced a huge amount of rain, enough that our family all went out to watch the water crest one of our big dams.)
Back to the treasure trove of photos. I liked the tree and took a picture. Then I tagged it as a favorite, again, on gut feel. Looking at it today, I see I like the vertical lines and whites in the tree, steam and clouds.
Castle Geyser has the largest cone and may be the oldest of all geysers in the basin. Its eruption pattern has changed considerably throughout its recorded history. Castle is currently erupting about every 10 – 12 hours. A water eruption frequently reaches 90 feet (27m) and lasts about 20 minutes. The water phase is followed by a noisy steam phase lasting 30 – 40 minutes.
I was startled when I came upon this. I don’t research places much before I go. I like to be surprised. We approached Castle Geyser from the other side, coming uphill. The geyser was above us. The steaming white cone is so weird. I felt like I was on another planet.
Yellowstone makes you realize what the Earth is like another planet, if you look beneath the surface! As a park ranger once said, “Yellowstone is a window into the Earth.”
Today’s picture is another one from the treasure trove of Yellowstone National Park. For those of you who are not yet signed up for my newsletter, I encourage you to sign up. You can just leave a comment or click in the left frame to be taken to a sign-up form. In each newsletter, which I’ll now do quarterly, there is an original recipe and an artistic rendition of a photo, plus news.
Yesterday I spoke with a marketing consultant who encouraged me to keep doing the newsletter, though she said it was okay to drop back to quarterly. I don’t have a lot of new releases because it takes me a while to write a book. Right now my average is two books a year, and since I write in two different genres, that’s one book per year, per genre. To my relief, the marketing consultant did not consider this production rate a huge problem. But in-between, the newsletter is a place to connect with you and give you some behind-the-scenes things, maybe some writing excerpts from my work in progress, and, like I said, most importantly, an original recipe! And a pretty picture. I know you get them here, but I try to provide something even more special in the newsletter.
Why, with so much information available on the Internet, did I hire a marketing consultant for half an hour? Well, there’s a lot of advice out there, and I found myself overwhelmed. I was concerned that I was wasting time and money, and that there were more effective places to concentrate both of these precious resources. I was correct about their being higher-leveraged ways to concentrate my resources, but I was also validated in what I’m doing from a social media standpoint. This validation encourages me to keep up the work.
A half-hour consultation with a marketing expert was remarkably effective. I could not believe how much I was able to pack in. She took a look at my website, my blog, my Facebook page, and my Goodreads account while we were talking. She also answered about 40 questions. The consultant, Rebecca Berus, not only is a trained marketing specialist, she has a background in the publishing industry, at a publisher and an agency. I provide this name as a help; I’m not getting anything from Rebecca. I just thought this post begged the question, Who was the consultant?
Okay, here is today’s photo. I call it Red Biscuit, but I don’t know why. It’s actually yellow. I think it was an effect of my sunglasses. I guess I’ll call it Yellow Biscuit, now that I’m home wearing computer glasses. (The photo was taken in Biscuit Basin.)
Yellow Biscuit, Biscuit Basin, Yellowstone National Park
Oh, it was so pretty that day! I’m really appreciating these photos now that I’m glued to my keyboard.
Upper Geyser basin, Yellowstone National Park
We just made most of the reservations for our next road trip. Planning a trip is so fun. Instead of driving 8 hours the first day to Gold Beach Oregon, the grueling segment we had planned, we’re going to drive 4 hours to Trinidad California, then 6 hours to Bandon Oregon. We found really cute places to stay. We spent a lot of time booking Portland, which is super expensive. We finally found a reasonable place and also learned a lot about Portland sights and activities. I really wanted to experience being able to walk around, go to cafes and restaurants, and soak up the atmosphere. Plus we learned they have an amazing and huge Japanese garden right in the middle of the city! I can’t wait to photograph the gardens, parks, and river.
Planning really is half the fun of a trip. Now that I’ve seen where we’ll be staying and have perused the areas and maps in the process of making reservations, I’ve already begun having the next experience.
Hope you’re having a peaceful, happy, and/or exciting (in a good way) weekend.
I’m sorry I have been so silent lately. I am up against a deadline and I have a lot left to go! However, I have a treasure trove of photographs that I saved up for just such an occasion, which after all, I did know was coming. As the clock ticks inexorably on toward my looming deadline, please enjoy some lovely photos from Yellowstone National Park.
Hot mud
I enhanced that. Here is the original. I can’t decide which one I like more. Which do you like more?
I had to get a picture of this artist painting Yellowstone Falls. And then of course, I had to share it.
Artist at Artist’s Point Yellowstone
I figured out how to put all my links for my blog review tour in one place. I call it my V8 moment!
I don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner! All the links are here and the tour runs 10 more days. Each blog stop that you visit and enter gets you another chance to win the raffle for a signed copy of Love Caters All. Plus you can see all the reviews!
The wildflowers on our hiking adventure near Jackson Lake in Grand Teton National Park were wonderful.
Lupine
I kept pausing to take photos, which really slowed us down!
Mules ear
I tried to work fast, though, so I wouldn’t slow down our progress too much. I managed to capture this bee.
I liked the quaking aspen behind these flowers.
Sulphur buckwheat, I think, the white ones
There was a lot of thunder in the distance, making us hurry to beat the storm. The clouds made a dramatic backdrop for photography, though.
Tree drama
These marshes are around in multiple places providing habitat for many species of plant and animal.
Christian Lake
Now that I’m home, I’m really glad I made the effort to take a lot of pictures. I can remember it so clearly. I hope you enjoy them too. Have a great day!
I talked my hubs into going to the Bear and Wolf Museum in West Yellowstone. I don’t like seeing animals caged, but the museum does a lot of good, and I wanted to see a Grizzly bear in a safe setting.
I love wolves, always have. Look at these cuties.
I invite you to watch this beautiful, inspiring, and educational video about how the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park regenerated the entire ecosystem and even changed the rivers.
There were bald eagles too, but my photos didn’t turn out.
They are building a new area for river otters and beavers, which are once again (thanks to wolves) a big part of the Yellowstone ecosystem. The museum is great for children.
Nicci Carrera 