That is fog coming over the western hills, a phenomenon very typical here. That fog extends out to the coast. Sometimes it comes over the valley where I live as high clouds that give us nice cool mornings. The clouds retreat by noon, leaving us with hot, sunny, dry afternoons. The coast near here will be socked in with fog all day, meantime. That’s why I love living here in the valley.
The fog hovers over those hills and feeds water to those trees. Some trees along the ridgeline, not this particular ridge line, but other ridges closer to the ocean, create their own rain by an adaptation that has their needles pulling water out of the fog. I’m told there is mud and sometimes running water below those pines even though, under other types of trees in the same vicinity, the ground is dry.
The trails in Rancho San Antonio lead up through those forests. There are little running creeks, wild turkeys, the occasional deer, and even mountain lion. There is also a petting farm nestled in the woods in the flat area accessible to children. They have calves and lambs I think. I’ve definitely heard roosters crowing.
The park is crowded every day. It is extremely popular for walking. We passed a few people today up on the mountain trails who were all looking at the wildflowers. There were purple ones and yellow ones and one exotic looking cream and lavender poppy shaped flower. Thistles were in crazy bloom in the exposed dry areas.
There are always remote-plane hobbyists on the bluff. I happened to catch one of the planes while it was landed. The pilot was quite handy with the maneuvers, evoking some wows from my husband.
I missed the moves because I was trying to get a nice shot of a bird. Wildlife is so hard to photograph! Why do the critters always move right when I’m just about to get focused? It must be personal.
I always love looking at this little farm house up on the hill. It is very far away, but I zoomed in a lot. I’ll also show a shot without the zoom so you can see where it was in relation to where I was standing.
Today there was a couple walking down the street. I thought that was nice.
Here is the distant shot. The little farmhouse is hard to see in both photos. It’s to the left of the big cluster of trees on the right, pretty much at the top of the hill.
I like to imagine what it would be like to live up there all alone with all that open space. They probably have a view of the bay, which is on the other side of that hill.
Nicci Carrera 