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Saturday, April 15, 2006
Where have all the flowers gone? 
| | Last year the mountains were covered with wildflowers — especially orange poppies and blue lupins. This year there are almost none of either, although the mountains and valleys are perhaps the greenest they've been in many years. |
| | This year we're Ireland, I guess. |
| | Last year we had huge rains early in the winter, in late December and January. (That was when the tragic mudslides happened.) This year we had almost no rain through February, then almost constant rain through March and April. The tour we took two days ago was on one of the clearest days I've ever seen here, ever — and a welcome break from the rains (which came back with a vengeance yesterday and will possibly return today as well). From Figueroa Mountain, we could look across the Santa Ynez Mountains and see the Pacific Ocean, and the Channel Islands in the distance, with hardly any dimming from haze. It was a perfect day to hit the road. |
| | We had a great trip, but the lack of flowers was a disappoint ment. I just hope that the late winter rains just mean a later blooming season, and not a year without flowers. Maybe a reader who knows more than I do can volunteer some information about that. |
| | In any case, the mountains are still beautiful. East of Figueroa Mountain, there is still snow atop San Rafael Mountain, and — a hundred miles the the east — skiing on Mt. Baldy, overlooking Los Angeles. |
| | In fact, I'm thinking of taking a trip to Mt. Baldy tomorrow with the kid. We'll see. |
| | Oh, for what it's worth, the Figueroa loop, which heads north from Los Olivos on Figueroa Mountain Road and returns by Happy Canyon Road (along which that green picture above was taken), runs past Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch. The ranch is to the left (northwest) of Figueroa Mountain Road, just before it leaves the flats and winds up toward Figueroa Mountain itself. Here it is on a Google Map. |
| | The nearest landmark is Zaca Mountain, a triangular peak to the northeast. Most of the pictures in both sets were taken near Zaca Mountain on Figueroa Mountain Road. |
| | One more thing. Take a look at this picture of Figueroa Mountain Road (with Zaca Mountain in the background and the Jackson Ranch beyond that), taken with my Nikon Coolpix 5700 on April 2, 2005. Then look at the series that follows (beginning here), shot on April 13, 2006 with a new Olympus SP-350 that I got for my wife a few weeks ago. What we have with these is not only a test of two cameras, but of composition as well. |
| | The Coolpix 5700 is a 5-megapixel high-end compact prosumer model introduced in May 2002. I've had it since April 2004, when I got it cheap after the model was discontinued. The SP-350 is a new 8-megapixel point-and-shoot that is a compromise between small size plus legible controls (which my wife wants) and picture quality plus wide range of shooting options (which I want in a spare camera I can also put in my pocket). |
| | Curious to know what folks think of the difference in performance between the two, at least in this one setting. |
Tax wax
| | The headline is just a fun pun. I only noticed a minute ago today was April 15. |
| | For many years the procrastinator in me dreaded this date. But then I married an organized person who already had a first-rate tax guy. Since then I've also hired a bookkeeper, who my wife also found for me. In addition to bringing immeasurable ease into my life (because, to put it mildly, I suck at keeping track of anything, much less accounting for it), this frees me to procrastinate about many other things instead. Like, for example, blogging about all the things I'll probably never blog about. |
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