Category Archives: Photography

Webbed Feet?

It’s time for Finding Beauty on Friday hosted by Claudia at Dipity Road

 

Aren’t the feathers on this duck beautiful?

~There are a lot of people here in Southern California that are checking to see if they are developing webbed feet. The storms that have blown through the Southland over the last few days are causing lots of havoc and closed roads and evacuations due to fast moving water or standing water or mud slides. We are all ready for a dry day…

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Six Little Ducks…

Six Little Ducks

Six Little Ducks that I once knew, fat ones, skinny ones, fair ones, too.
But the one little duck with the feather on his back
He ruled the others with a quack quack quack
He ruled the others with a quack quack quack

Down to the meadow they would go
Wibble Wobble Wibble Wobble to and fro
But the one little duck with the feather on his back
He ruled the others with a quack quack quack
He ruled the others with a quack quack quack!

Have a great Saturday everyone. I’m off for a 6 mile walk with my buddies, after which I’m kicking up my feet and watching the Sounders Soccer Game and then I’m going to a West coast wedding reception for a friend who got married on the East Coast in June. Thankfully it’s a very casual reception since we’re expecting the temps to be close to 90 degrees.

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Mosaic Monday~

 

A new weekly blog carnival starts today called Mosaic Monday. Mary at Little Red House is the hostess for this event. Click over to join in the fun!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Three or More Thursday!

Three or More Thursday is hosted by Tam at  the Gypsy’s Corner.

 

My three or more are all about Seabirds this week. Dear and I spent a lot of time at 4 different beaches on the South and Central coast of California this past weekend. These pelican and Godwit photos are from our early morning walk at Emma Wood State Beach in Ventura, California on Saturday morning.

To see more posts of Three or More visit Tam at the Gypsy’s Corner.

 

The First Dawn in November…

30 Days of Thanksgiving…I’m joining in with several bloggers who are posting what they are thankful for each day this month.

 

I’m so glad I stepped out past my front porch patio this morning and looked to the East. This is the first beautiful dawn of November. I was overjoyed to see it and I’m very thankful for God’s beautiful creation.

Santana Winds and Dry Brush

On Saturday morning Dear and I took a hike up from Sycamore Canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains to a Scenic area overlooking the Pacific Ocean near Pt. Mugu. We were struck with how dry the brush was and Dear commented on how easy it would be for a fire to spread through this type of brush. This is a collage I made of some of the dryness we hiked through. We are now having a Santana Wind event in Southern California and there is a large fire burning in the Angeles Forest East of Los Angeles. I’m sure the terrain there looks a lot  like this, too.

What are the Santana or Santa Ana Winds?

The Santana Winds or Santa Ana Winds, most common in the late summer and early fall, begin with dry air moving in from the interior of the U.S. towards Southern California. As this air flows down into the Los Angeles-Orange County Basin through the low gaps in the mountains (notably Cajon Pass on the east end of the San Gabriel Mountains and Soledad Pass south of Palmdale), it compresses and warms about five degrees Fahrenheit for every 1,000 feet that it descends. Though these winds are much cooler high in the mountains, they can become hot and dry and assume gale force when descending into the Los Angeles-Orange County Basin. They are often the source of air turbulence for aircraft approaching Los Angeles International Airport.

The original spelling of the of name of the winds is unclear, not to mention the origin. Although the winds have been commonly called Santa Ana Winds or Santa Anas, many argue that the original name is Santana Winds or Santanas. Both versions of the name have been used. The name Santana Winds is said to be traced to Spanish California when the winds were called Devil Winds due to their heat.  The reference book Los Angeles A to Z (by Leonard & Dale Pitt), credits the Santa Ana Canyon in Orange County as the origin of the name Santa Ana Winds, thereby arguing for the term Santa Anas.  This might be supported by early accounts which attributed the Santa Ana riverbed running through the canyon as the source of the winds. Another account placed the origin of Santa Ana Winds with an Associated Press correspondent stationed in Santa Ana who mistakenly began using Santa Ana Winds instead of Santana Winds in a 1901 dispatch.

Special credit for the research assistance of Librarian Nancy Smith of the Metropolitan Cooperative Library System Reference Center, Los Angeles Public Library.

I hope this is helpful information when you hear news about Santana winds in Southern California helping to spark fires.

After our hike through all this dryness we were rewarded with these glorious views of the Pacific Ocean…

 

We were blessed with a few cool days and now with the Santana Winds blowing in we’ll be seeing the temperature rise again this week.

Wherever you are and whatever your weather have a wonderful week.

Tremble before him, all the earth! The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved. Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let them say among the nations, “The Lord reigns! Let the sea resound, and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them! Then the trees of the forest will sing, they will sing for joy before the Lord for he comes to judge the earth. Give thanks to the Lord for he is good; his love endures forever. ~ 1 Chronicles 16:30-34

 

Dawn at Emma Wood State Beach

Dear and I attended church on Saturday evening this week so on Sunday morning we headed to Emma Wood State Beach in Ventura for an early morning walk.

We saw the sunrise.

The waves were beautiful to see and to hear.

As we walked closer to Surfer’s Point we began to see Surfers trying to catch the best waves.

There’s nothing like an early morning walk on the beach to set your mind on things above and to cause you to praise God’s mighty name and his power in creating the world we enjoy.

We shared the beach with lots of birds, the gulls, the godwits, the sanderlings, and the herons. That’s Dear enjoying the waves. And here’s a collage of some of the birds we viewed on this lovely Sunday morning.

“There is nothing like walking to get the feel of a country.  A fine landscape is like a piece of music; it must be taken at the right tempo.  Even a bicycle goes too fast.”
–   Paul Scott Mowrer

“The soverign invigorator of the body is exercise, and of all the exercises walking is the best.”
–   Thomas Jefferson

Hope you have a wonderful week.

 

Early Morning Walk at Emma Wood State Beach

Dear and I arrived for our Saturday walk early again this week and because the tide was too high to walk on our regular route we walked along the dunes in the opposite direction headed toward Surfer’s Point.

After we walked along the dunes we cut across them to the water. This rocky driftwood carpeting is not real easy on the ankles.

This had us scratching our heads wondering “what the heck is it or was it”?

We saw a lot of Godwits and Sanderlings.

This is a section of the beach where the Ventura river empties into the ocean. It was a favorite spot for these herons, seagulls, and godwits.

When we headed back to the dunes to get to our car we were thrilled to see this lone Heron posing for us.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again and again, we cannot exhaust beautiful views of God’s creation.

Bridging the Gap ~ Day 3

Today for Alice’s Bridging the Gap photo challenge I’m going into my archives and “across the pond” to show you a couple fun bridge memories from England.

In April of 2004 we took our daughter to Great Britain to follow the haunts of her favorite writers. This bridge over the River Wye is in the town of Bakewell close to Pemberly Chatsworth House, where parts of the new Pride and Prejudice movie were filmed.

Bakewell claims that Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice was written while she stayed at the Rutland Arms, although others claim that it was written while Jane Austen stayed at Haddon Hall. No matter where Jane Austen stayed, everyone agrees that Pride and Prejudice is based on the surrounding area with Lambton being the portrayal of Bakewell and Chatsworth House being the model for Pemberley.

This foot bridge is on the grounds of Blenheim Palace. That’s Katie and Dear on the bridge. In 2004 I knew nothing about bloggers or blogging. I so want to go back to Great Britain now that I blog. I think my photos would look a lot different from the perspective of a blogger! :0)

For more Bridging the Gap photos visit Alice at Iwasborn2crea8. This is a week long photo challenge but it is being considered for a one day a week challenge in the future. Consider joining in and showing us your bridges…