Nothing But ...

No pictures.
Normal weather!
No snakes!
No airplanes!
No visitors!

Just leftover food. Just cutting grass. Just conserving fuel. Just reading books. Just knitting hats and socks. Just checking other people's blogs.

Remembering why we observe Memorial Day!

Heat

Is It August Already?
I don't mind the hot summers here. OK, once it gets over 95' it can stop. But four days over 100', in May, enough already!
I would prefer not to use the home's AC unless I really need it, depending on the delta breeze to keep us cool-ish.
The heat put an end to the flowers of spring that tried to bloom a bit more. I will need to do some re-planting very soon. I was out there in the early morning, cleaning up some areas, filling a ninety gallon toter with yard waste, not suitable for my rolling composter.
The good news is that the raspberries have begun to produce and we get a bowl of fruit daily.

Gray Lodge and Snakes

I've had a number of first time visitors to our area in the last couple of years. In order to show them what this area is all about, one of our destinations is Gray Lodge Nature Preserve. I wrote about it before. I've visited in all seasons and I always discover something new and interesting.
Although Mosker had grown up here, this spring had been her first visit. It was also the first time that I had encountered snakes there. I don't know enough about them not to get creep-ed when they pass on the path in front of me. That's not good! So after all this time here I decided to learn a bit more, it's silly, after all, to get spooked by a few ounces of muscle.
When I took my cousins there, from a snake-less land, I fully hoped to show them local fauna. Off in the distance we saw a raccoon. We saw a deer. I had nearly given up when one of them saw the gopher snake across the path. No rattle! No triangle head! Good! We watched it. We photographed it. We filmed it. We watched it travel across the path and disappear into brush.
Mission accomplished!

U-2

Lately I've been posting about different interesting airplanes, so here's another one. There were two playing around the sky the day I shot this image.
They are painted dark to make them difficult to see at night. They are fast and maneuver well. Funny thing is, they can't land without ground assistance. There is no landing gear on the wing, so they will tip over unless the ground crew snaps portable wing tips with wheels on them. Every time they land!

Deja Vue

Fontonelli's Restaurant, in the old mining town of Grass Valley, has a lovely outdoor eating area. They also have their very own patio cat. Fat cat, by the way. It strolls over to check out the newly arrived diners and then meanders off to do cat things. Such as resting in the sun on a wall, after which it's time for a long refreshing drink from her personal water fountain.

Including the spots, this reminded me of our own Alani drinking from my fountain pump while balancing on the rim.

SR-71

This is a decommissioned, original stealth, plane. It was awesome to see, and hear, in flight.

Access to see it is limited, I try to take visitors to see it, as it's very special.

I took a young friend recently to walk around. I was surprised how very curious she was about the details. (She even found an operating flap on the body.)

Western Yellow-Bellied Racer

They're back! Watch your step. Just because its bite is not poisonous doesn't mean the bite won't hurt.

KC-135

These awesome flying machines don't live here any more. Their job is to refill other airplanes during flight. The nozzle, stinger, is visible near its tail. This day I paid a lot of attention to them as they seemed to fly and fly and fly.
Now I know that was the day they moved across the country to South Carolina, and the whole fleet, but two, was in flight. Those two flew away on Friday with a proper military send-off.
They'd been part of our landscape, sky-scape, for more than thirty years.
I'm sorry to see them gone.