Fires in the Region

People from around the world have been asking us about fires in Los Angeles. We have had very little rain this season and the winds were much gustier than normal winter winds. It's a bad combination.

Locally we had strong winds on Tuesday and the next day

I could see trees down (local park shown here).

Our neighbors' tree lost some limbs.

We covered our ears and watched people work to clean it up. 

It was a bit smoky and hazy, but it has not been having a significant impact on our days.

That's about it. It is hard to feel lucky when we know people who are not. We are looking for ways to be helpful (donate requested items, donate money) and maybe even foster a dog.

Beautiful Winter Walk

 

Both the baby and I love going for walks.

Trees on Campus

 

Pomona College offers this image of
Stover Walk as a background for video calls.

There was significant loss from January's wind storm.

Very large holes appeared,

followed by newly planted trees.

It will be a while before there is full shade again, but it was nice to see progress.

Sad Post

 

before (from google maps)

now

Maybe the one on the left fell? But I was sorry to see the loss, especially at the beginning of summer.

One Last Cleveland Post

water!

more water!
annual hydrant flushing

I saw this house in the neighborhood

and found out later it was being used to
represent LeBron James' coach's house.

very nice sidewalk stamp

I have so many pictures of this view and I keep taking more!

Spring

I got to see a little bit of snow.

There were even a few flakes falling when I arrived.

Mostly I got all the beauty of spring without any challenges of winter.

So many beautiful trees!

So many different kids of daffodils

National Look Up at the Sky Day

I celebrated!

I hope it is not cheating if I looked at the sky through the trees.

 

New Season

 I love the spring flowers in our yard.

I love the new leaves on the trees, too!

So small, but it gives me hope.

Our new tree is growing!

Such a beautiful shade of green.

Powerless

 Or maybe I should have titled the post Powerful. I complained that the water in the swimming pool was too hot (sorry, Dad) and then a windstorm came through town and knocked the power out all over, including to the heater for the swimming pool. Be careful what you ask for.

Even though we were without power I was able to
make a cup of coffee with a kettle on the gas stove.

We have some hand-cranked flashlights but I was

happy to be able to use our solar lantern.

Our generous neighbor rushed out and got a generator in the morning and brought over a cord for our refrigerator! I was lucky that I had not gone the store on Friday as originally planned so nothing was lost.

What was lost were a tremendous number of trees. At some point I had to stop checking out the neighborhood because it was overwhelming.

Food in the Neighborhood

 

My favorite mulberry trees have been trimmed
and I cannot reach the fruit.

It falls to the ground and makes a mess.

Recently I found a tree with low branches,
but most of the fruit was not ripe.

That's ok because I can go back in a few days.