November 22, 2015: Leaf Tour of My Neighborhood, Walnut Creek, California

These are just from my cell phone, but as a matter of slice-of-life sharing rather than Art...

Kevin and I went to the Sierra foothills (Grass Valley, Nevada City) the weekend before for leaf time, but it turns out where I live is far enough inland for some color, a week later. 

November 7, 2015: Asilomar State Beach, California with Alex, Ananya and Fereshtah

All images copyright Casondra Sobieralski. Use by permission.


Big Sur Half Marathon, which was actually in Monterey, was November 8.  I was working my way back from a "slightly building disc" pinching my L4 nerve root from:

 sitting too much at work and in wretched 3 hour, 10 mph traffic jams while breathing dragon flames of frustration from my nose 
+ rushing while carrying my bike and heavy backpack stuffed with my lunch, dinner, homework, hard drives and sports gear (i.e. the contents of my car trunk) up/down long flights of steps to catch the train on days I couldn't face the traffic jams 
+ a 14 hour plane ride and carrying too much video equipment all day for 3 weeks, then another 14 hour plane ride 
+ and TONS O' STRESS...

... til OOOPS!  There goes L4!  Benched for 3 weeks, gentle slow cross training for another month-- it was quite frustrating.   Commuter life in the Bay Area -- I managed to avoid it for 20 years.  But the housing prices have become so over-the-top extreme, I've been pushed out to the soulless 'burbs til the next major earthquake scares off the latest wave of techies here for The Gold Rush, Episode III.   --or until I leave the Bay Area, whichever comes first.  

So unfortunately, I was not in racing shape yet.  Instead I played Support Crew for my ol' friend (since 11th grade) and usual racing buddy Alex, and my new friends through Alex, Ananya and Fareshteh.  

To relax (what's that?) the night before the race, we went to the monarch butterfly sanctuary in Pacific Grove (the bugs were too fast for me to photograph well) and then Asilomar State Beach to catch the early sunset.   Ahhhh, Mother Ocean, soothe meeeee!  

CLICK to view LARGE IMAGE / for soothing.

Architecture at Asilomar, designed by Julia Morgan. For those of you outside NoCal, she is one of our most famous architects from the Arts and Crafts movement of the early twentieth century, and one of the first well-known women architects. A student of Bernard Maybeck, she designed many buildings in Berkeley (where she earned her Civil Engineering degree), including our Beaux Arts swimming pool.   Her crowning achievement, though, was William Randolph Hearst's castle in San Simeon.  I still have not toured the castle!  --though I stayed in the haunted guest house once. Hey Kevin, can we make this our next road trip?  ;)

Cliche Hallmark photo

"Yum, tasty surfers looking like seals in their wetsuits," says Lono the shark...

Lines and colors

Film shoot lit by the sunset

Alex and his friend Ananya. Fereshteh went exploring and we lost her at that moment...

Alex's feet lit by the setting sun

October 24, 2015: Otow Persimmon Farm with Kevin, Roseville, California... and a Pumpkin Patch Down the Road

All images copyright Casondra Sobieralski 2015


It was chocolate persimmon season! And vodka persimmon season!  Chocolate persimmons have a note of chocolate flavor, and they grow that way. They have flecks of brown color inside.  

Vodka persimmons are the result of a human-guided process.  For some reason [maybe because they are yellow rather than orange? city slicker is clueless], this type of persimmon does not attract as many pollinators, so the farmers put a spoonful of vodka at the stem.  This sweetens the persimmon as it ripens.

Otow is also famous for their dried persimmons, too.  The practice an artisan family process handed down from Japan. These amazing fruits are ready in January, but we caught an early stage of the process.  These are my most artistic photos from summer or fall 2015, so I hope you  enjoy them!  CLICK ON IMAGES TO VIEW THEM ***BIG***!  Some great textures...

At the pumpkin patch, Kevin supported by GOATS!

And a few days later, those pumpkins became...

October 10, 2015: Tarantula Mating Season on Mount Diablo with Kevin

These tarantula images are open for use, not copyrighted. 

These shots are just from my cell phone, for sharing rather than artistic purposes.

It was that wonderful time of year, tarantula mating season!  It was a record good year, too, as we made the acquaintance of EIGHT stunning tarantulas!

A bit about our tradition:

When I first met Kevin, he invited me on his very special male bonding ritual.  Ever year in late September through October now (the season is shifting later with the draught), the male tarantulas make their way to find mates.  

It is an arduous journey.  The guys risk getting eaten by birds, falling victim to the tarantula wasps that lay their eggs *in* the tarantulas under their skin, and getting squashed by SUVs.  (One year we saw four squashed ones. Poor little guys!)  And after ALL THAT, the females can say, "GET LOST, SUCKER!" Ouch.

So Kevin, empathetic creature that he is, helps the guys out by taking them to the female burrows.  He cannot influence the females' will, but he can lessen the dangers along the way.

If the tarantulas are feeling cranky, they let you know.  They have two lines of defense before they will bite you, so like rattlesnakes they really are quite courteous.  First they arch their thorax if they don't want to be bothered.  If you don't heed that, they "shoot" their course hairs into you, sort of like porcupines.  The hairs reputedly itch. This has never happened to us because if the arachnids arch, you simply tip your hat and bid them a good day. Mostly they are quite docile and social, though.

I have some cell phone video, too, if anyone wants to see that, but I am haven trouble getting it off my Galaxy phone.  My phone does not play nicely with my Mac. 

 This is a female burrow, about the size of a quarter. 

August 8, 2015:  Olompali State Park Bat Night with Ruah in Navato, California

The park service didn't serve s'mores as advertised, but we had sooo much fun learning about bats and making bat crafts!  (Kevin loved his bat mask.)  I loved the animation of dancing bats singing about, "Echo, echo, echo-lloooo-cuuuuu-tion..."  Fascinating history to this park, too.  Miwoks lived there 6000 years ago, then it was a 19th century estate, then a commune where the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Starship baked bread that was sold in a co-op in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco (obviously, in the '60s).

(Somewhere back in 2013 I have a post that shows all this...)

Bat night, though --- Ruah and I made a splash because we got all decked out and Goth-y while everyone else was dressed more "REI."  The median age for this event was about--- seven.   Sometimes, ya gotta take your "inner child" out to play!!!!    ;)

Pictured is the bat educator.  She rehabilitates injured bats.  Those bats star in her demos. 

August 1, 2015: Las Trampas East Bay Regional Park with Julie

All images copyright Casondra Sobieralski.  Yes, that means all the Russians that my analytics show follow my blog, too.  howdy, neighbors!


Just a sunny hike with nice views, patterns, and webs.   Click for larger detailed versions.