∞

Last night's rising moon, near the horizon, through a whole lot of atmosphere and some wispy clouds #Moon

A yellow-orange glowing moon where some of the darker maria can be seen as splotches. There's a shape kind of like a dog wearing oversized sunglasses. Or so my partner says. There's a vague hint of glowing clouds in front of the moon.

∞

My wife started seeds today. Lots of peppers, tomatoes, and Japanese eggplant. Spring is coming.

A seed starter tray with a grow lamp turned on. A thermometer reads 70.5° in front of the tray
∞

Today I juiced & heat pasteurized about 20 pounds of backyard mandarins for breakfast juice. Quite the bounty this year. Here’s a photo of one compost bucket filled with some of the remains #HomeOrchard #Yarden

A small 1/4 gallon (maybe?) plastic bucket full of bright orange mandarin skins, pith, seeds, and pulp. It’s sitting in front of a sliding glass door, against cabinets on a linoleum floor with a speckled leaf pattern.
∞

Today we stumbled across some magnificent Sandhill Cranes. These badasses were right off the side of a California state highway #SandhillCrane #BirdPhotography #Birds #Fujifilm #SOoC

Nine Sandhill Cranes in a shallow pond, slowly walking to the left. All the surrounding vegetation is brown. The large birds, with viciously sharp bills, have bright red on their foreheads. Their feathers are white to brown with a bit of rust red on the wing feathers.

∞

I better prune my fruit trees & grapes today. The trees are already a few weeks away from flowering #HomeOrchard #Yarden

∞

At the refuge yesterday, we spotted a Bald Eagle nest and suddenly both eagles swooped down and flew low along a pond, disturbing a whole lot of Snow Geese

#BaldEagle #SnowGoose #Birds #BirdPhotography #SacramentoWildlifeRefuge #Fujifilm #SOoCA Bald Eagle Nest is visible high up in a eucalytpus tree. It's massive, maybe the size of a VW bug. A bald eagle is exiting the nest, with its wings stretched out.A bald eagle soars along a pond, showing off its prominent white head and tail, with some grassy islands and snow geese floating away a short distance along a shore.A whole bunch of snow geese, maybe several dozen, are flying upwards after being disturbed by a couple of bald eagles. They were resting on land where there's some green vegetation but beyond it's all brown along with the trees. The black tips of the snow geese are prominent. There's some other geese mixed in of unknown species.

∞

A moment of calm.

Lesser Goldfinch at the refuge today #LesserGoldFinch #Birds #BirdPhotography #SacramentoWildlifeRefuge #Fujifilm #SOoC

A yellow bodied and gray winged lesser gold finch, in sunlit profile view, facing to the right. It is on a bunch of long stemmed, brown, hive-shaped dried seed heads. The backgroud is completely blurred out.

∞

Tule fog is back in time for the geomagnetic storm. I shouldn’t of jinxed myself earlier #NorCal #CAWx

A foggy residential neighborhood with about a quarter mile visibility. The end of the street is barely visible about 5 houses down.

∞

This Orange-crowned Warbler was flitting between our backyard nectarine and grapevines, snatching gnats that had beacons made of sunlight shining off their bug wings

#Yarden #HomeOrchard #OrangeCrownedWarbler #Birds #BirdPhotography #Fujifilm #SOoC

A very yellow Orange Crowned Warbler is perched on a tiny dormant stem of a grape vine almost as thick as the bird is round (maybe 2-3 inches). The bird is looking to the left, with something reflecting in its eye. The grapevine’s bark is splitting off. The background is completely blurred.

∞

Short Flight Factor 777-2 v. 2 for X-Plane 12 Review

Wherein Ryan mostly gripes but then recommends other aircraft without those gripes #Aviation #XPlane12 #FlightSim

∞

Nass geworden (Got Wet) #FotoVorschlag #VancouverAt Stanley Park, Vancouver, with copper sculpture of modestly dressed, cross legged, senior lady, with bunned hair and big sun glasses, that has had her nails painted violet and looks like she's crying because of the rain drops

∞

May 2, 2025: Lufthansa B747-8 (D-ABYM) SFO-FRA (Frankfurt, Germany)
#HumpDay #B747 #Aviation #AvGeek #PlaneSpotting #FujifilmA Boeing 747, owned and operated by Lufthansa, taxies at SFO to 28L. Its at an angle, but the sun is fully illuminating its right side. It is set against buildings and brown hills of South San Francisco. The bay in front is a bit choppy and the photo was taken somewhere above powerlines, as they are visible at the bottom edge of the photo.

∞

December 14, 2025: Emirates A380-8 (A6-EUF), SFO-DXB (Dubai), using 28R  #ThickTailTuesday #A6EUF #A380 #PlaneSpotting #AvGeek #Aviation #Fujifilm

An Airbus 380 is nose-on to the camera, showings its clearly thick tail reaching high above the ground. Its nose gear is turning so it is about to leave the taxiway for a runway. The sky is hazy yet still tinted blue. The bay in front of the runways is calm.

∞

‘Kartonagen’ (Cardboard boxes) #FotoVorschlag #CatA orange cat is in a box outside a dumpster on blacktop. It is upside-down and open with korean lettering on it along with a tree graphic.

∞

#SilentSunday #SacramentoWildlifeRefuge #Fujifilm

Dozens of blackbirds are evenly perched in four leafless, dormant trees against a hazy blue sky. Some of the birds may be starlings as they more brown than black,

∞

Today we went to Black Butte Lake and the pelicans were there! This is at the forebay, where a whole lot of water is being released into Stony Creek (tributary of the Sacramento River) mostly in case of future rain & snow melt #AmericanWhitePelican #BlackButteReservoir

Four pelicans floating in some what turbulent water, mostly in shadow, though the back of the neck and wings are lit up by sun. They are big birds!

∞

FlightFactor’s 777 version 2 for X-Plane models nearly everything using their own code. This means their Electronic Flight Book is critical for pre-flight weight & balance. I detest the EFBs clunky, opinionated, & inefficient manner. With the free Zibo 737-8,  I can start-up fast & get flying with no fuss.

FlightFactor, in the pursuit of perfection, overrides a lot stuff that X-Plane can natively take care of. Once I submitted a bug report for incorrect fuel flow via standard X-Plane endpoints (datarefs) compared to the 777's EICAS readouts. The fix was to override X-Plane's fuel flow simulation output!

So basically, the plane gets simulated twice per unit time, with X-Plane's simulation largely being ignored except for maybe physical airflow dynamics. For some reason this deeply offends me, and it probably shouldn’t. I'm weird.

#XPlane #FlightSim

∞

December 27, 2025: this American Bushtit was perched for an unusually long time, perhaps soaking in the sun’s morning energy like humans do coffee or tea

#AmericanBushtit #SacramentoWildlifeRefuge #Birds #BirdPhotography #Fujifilm #SOoCAn American Bushtit sits perched on a narrow branch. It is looking with beady black eyes slightly up and to the right, fully illuminated by the sun. Its face has brown and the rest of its orb-like body is a light tan. Its tail feathers stick out straight behind it.

∞

This morning, my wife caught early sunlight slowly lighting up our citrus trees #Yarden #HomeOrchard

A mandarin tree and a Valencia orange tree catch early sunlight, illuminating a strip of oranges and foliage with a bright yellow glow. The sky is clear and a eucalyptus tree in the distance is fully lit.
∞

December 17, 2025: At sunrise, a container ship and a helicopter that's coming in for a landing on the Waterfront, Vancouver #Vancouver #Fujifilm #SOoCA sunrise lit container ship, with its east-facing side lit up and the rest in shadows. There are clouds looming on the mountainous horizon over Vancouver habor waters, including a group of birds flying in front of the clouds. Large cranes are also illuminated from one side. A helicopter is just above the cranes, approaching a nearby landing pad.