Photos

Our cat’s 2nd preferred winter sleeping area. #caturday

a tuxedo cat loafing in the middle of random objects including a Python refebcd book, a box, and a basket

Snow Geese flying overhead at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge. #fujifilm

3 snow geeze flying above in triangular formation below cloudy skies. they have white bodies with black wing tips

Here’s a Red Tail Hawk from today’s visit to the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge.

underside of a mottled red tail hawk, soaring in a cloudy sky.

Chef’s treat: caramel scrapings from the pan!

caramel drippings on a silicone sheet with the candy thermometer near by.

Done. Just need to salt the caramel in 30 minutes.

a parchment lined pan of fresh poured caramel. The pan is atop a grate and a cuttingboard.

Almost done making the caramel. Just needs to hit 250°F

a candy thermometer in a 4 qt sauce pan of almost done caramel colored caramel. At about 230°F

The 2013 Dresden Christmas Market. Guaranteed to make you cheerful no matter how cold it is.

dark evening at the Dresden Christmas Market with a lit up buildings, trees, the tops of sales shacks and a crowd of people

A ravenous Yellow Rumped Warbler visited our grapes again. Eat up, little bird!

a grey bird with yellow patches investigates a clump of dessicated grapes

My RaspberryShake detected the M6.4 earthquake in Ferndale, CA. Sounds like a lot of important infrastructure damage, like the main bridge into town is cracked and closed, but not injuries. I didn’t feel it. #RaspberryShake #earthquake

earthquake signal

Frankfurt International last June. I knew there’d be no shortage of 747s there but was still gobsmacked by their numbers.

A Lufthansa 747 at the gate and a 747 taxiing behind it. Mulitudes of intersecting contrails mark up the hazy blue sky

This Yellow Rumped Warbler (Audubon’s) is yet another bird feasting on our raisins. Yesterday’s Ruby Crowned Kinglet might actually be an Orange-crowned Warbler. No bars on its wings! 🤷‍♂️

yellow patched neck & chest, this warbler is looking for the perfect raisin on the ground.

Tried the first “Phat Tyre” ale I bottled. It’s good! The batch can use one more week to bottle condition.

Black Butte peak and Black Butte butte. Mostly greenstone/metabasalt at the snowy peak and basalt at the buttes around Black Butte Lake.

a distant snowy peak on the left and a vertical butte on the right. multiple power lines cross the view.

Ruby Crowned Kinglet (update on 12/17: more likely a Orange-crowned Warbler, as the Kinglet has bars on its wings, this one — the Warbler — does not). Such a lovely chirpy & frenetic bird.

yellowish bird perched atop a clump of raisinsa yellowish bird with a ruby color patch on its head, perched on a grape vine

Today’s moon.

Relatively rare morning where my car door was slightly stuck due to frost.

I am super excited to now have the XF70-300mm telephoto lens. I’ll no longer feel crazy constrained taking pictures of birds and aircraft (mainly). Bonus that it is rather good at close range for macro.

Western Mockingbird foraging for raisins in our backyard.

grey and white mockingbird under bunches of raisins

Pizza night!

a hand with a pizza cutter slicing a thick crust pizza with salami, shallot, olives, cheese, and tomato sauce.

Rain in California. You got to love it after months of hazy blue sky.

Rain drops dripping from an awning and a grape vine with dark, almost black, dessicated grapes. Vibrant native vegetation is slightly blurred in the background.

#Caturday

Standing black & white tuxedo cat, head tilted down but eyes looking up in a super serious pose.

Beer is bottled and now to hope nothing got contaminated during the process. This is so much work. It’s hard to justify it to myself at times.

A quick Mars + the Moon shot

mars and the moon in a dark sky. mars looks like a star to the bottom left of the full extremely bright moon

First roast of the winter!

medium rare sliced roast beef with caramelized brussels sprouts and golden brown, crispy popovers

Yellow Rumped Warbler in the grapes this time!

a warbler with slight yellow on the chest. Sits on a grape vine amidst red and green grspe leaves, it looks to the camera.

Got a Kinglet in one place for a few moments!

a small yellow Kinglet bird with white eyeliner abd white wing bars. it is peering at a cluster of grapes amongst grape leaves.

Close up of the pea sized hail and frost. The hail didn’t melt overnight!

pea sized hail on bark with a frosty seedling. A finger for scale.

First major frosty morning here.

within a residential area, frost on a roof, car, and the ground with palm trees in the distance

Pea sized hail in Orland!!

Some kind of Kinglet, maybe a Ruby Crown Kinglet, in the grapes this time. Was moving fast as birds do.

a yellowish Kinglet bird in a geape vine surrounded by grapes.