The Fire Area

The roads through the devastation of the Douglas Complex fires are finally open.  Two miles from our house, the fire has raged since July 26. Today, we took a long hike, and it was incredible.  The carnage of the forest is spotty in some areas, complete obliteration in others. 

 Still some hot spots puff smoke, as in the center of this photo.

Bracken ferns are popping up already after the rains. 

This tree might make it. Many trees were burned from underneath like this.

One tall tree on a burnt hillside is still green. A parent tree for the future.

Desolate horrific landscape goes along the road for 15 miles.

They are pulling a lot of the dead trees out for logs, putting the branches in piles.  They smell incredibly good.

I think this guy was gone way before the fire, but finding this antlered skull was very fitting for the scene.  

Once green and beautiful, a small stand of green firs is all that remains on this hillside.

Trees burned all the way to the ground and some kept burning below the ground, leaving big black holes, they are eerie looking.

A large tree hole with red Oregon grape sprouting up all around.

Rainy Wednesday

Nice evening sky!

The frog pond is about a third full, thanks to recent rains.  

Gratuitous Lester picture.

The Big Strawberry Mystery

My big overflowing raised bed full of strawberry plants has produced berries all summer long, except when there was too much smoke from the forest fires, then they slowed down.  Once the air cleared a bit, they started making flowers and green berries again, but where are the ripe ones?  We pondered this mystery.

One day I saw pieces of ripe red strawberries littered all over the back yard.  Birds? Rodents? Anybody's guess.

But then we saw this around the side of the pond, and we knew the answer.....

Raccoons!! How funny. Perfect little hand prints all over the place!

Pretty with a little rain

Fog on the hills to our north around noon.

Pond and pampas grass

 

Pond getting more rain water

Plants look beautiful after a shower

Tiny little rainbow

The fading rainbow is barely visible in the lower right.

But the rain clouds are quite visible.

Cloudy and rainy Saturday

I just never get tired of the sky here!

Nice rain!

Today rain was predicted, so we watched the radar and saw it make landfall at the coast about 11:00 am. It arrived here around 3:00 and we got over a third of an inch by 4:00. The air smells incredibly fresh. Take that, smoldering fires! 

Trusty weather station

The view almost obscured by rain to the east...

Thick clouds to the west as the storm keeps coming in.

There are hills back there, we just can't see them!

Rain between us and the hills to the north

Hummingbird photo bomb. 

(Hint, he's in the middle of the lower of three branches.)

It's not a good picture of him, but I was taking CLOUD photos!

After a little rain

The view to the east looks like a painting!

The view to the southwest

And south. The hills are not on fire, just bright clouds!

Pretty Cloud Capitol

I'm pretty sure Glendale's topography is some kind of magical cloud factory, every day brings another display of outrageously dramatic ones.

Pretty clouds but no rain.

It's 8:15 Sunday night and 62 degrees outside. It was nice all day, not hot, not cold, not windy, not rainy. It only got up to 82 for a high, the perfect temperature. 

Below:  trusty weather station hard at work as clouds fly by.

Cloudy Sunday morning

It's 7:30 a.m. and we are not usually up at this hour.  Who knew it would be so pretty!  Our closest hill has a fat cloud sitting on top and our far hills are barely visible.  Will it rain? Naaaahhhhh. The National Weather Service gives it a 30% chance.

Looking north toward the close hill.

Looking northwest

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Night views in Glendale

It was another beautiful day in Glendale, hot and clear, perfect. 

Tonight, moon and cobalt blue sky that I love so much.

Just when we thought it was safe....

We opened our windows last night, but the house filled with smoke. Note the haze between the hills below. The Douglas Complex is 100% contained, but the interior of the containment will smolder until fall rains.  

Frog pond is almost dry again.

Another perfect day

It's another gorgeous day here in Glendale, not a cloud in the sky! It's 87 degrees at 12:30 in the afternoon, just right for anything we want to do outside, maybe lunch in the shade with the kitties. We'll have sandwiches, they prefer grasshoppers.

Over 90 today!

Glendale is now hot in the day and cold at night.  It got down to 45 degrees at 6:30 this morning, and yet today around 3:00 in the afternoon, it climbed to 91!  That's a huge difference.  Beautiful blue sky and a few gusts of wind to 14 MPH this afternoon, a very nice day indeed to do yard work.  (In the shade.) One of my little praying mantis buddies was watching me work, they always seem curious about me, and I am curious about them

Our view to the north, nice hill and NO smoke!

This tiny rose just keeps putting out flowers, it is only about six inches tall!

Look closely....

Tiny amount of rain is better than none!

This cloud yielded 0.01 inch of rain today. Big woo.

Almost no smoke!

Today reached 84 degrees around 2:00 in the afternoon, with little gusts of wind all afternoon, from 3-9 miles per hour.  Nice!

Late afternoon:  birds and luminous clouds

Love the cobalt colored sky with the bright white cloud!

This evening:  all pastels...

and a few wisps of grey smoke from the smoldering fire.

Clouds and sunset

Star Trek shuttle craft has found a habitable Class M planet. :-)

Below:  redwood and sunflowers with glowing sky