Foothills Nature Preserve near Palo Alto, California with Saied: November 27, 2022

Gratitude for beautiful autumn day-after-Thanksgiving hike with my friend Saied.  Foothills Nature Preserve is near Palo Alto (where Stanford University is), and it appears to be on the ancestral land of the Muwekma Ohlone and Ramaush Ohlone people: https://www.smcoe.org/for-communities/indigenous-people-of-san-mateo-county.html

Click any image for larger view. Also, for some reason images are showing a bit brighter and sharper (upon click) after I upload, whereas they used to show a bit darker and with a sharpness true to what I was seeing on my own drive. Mysterious, but I am guessing (?) a new compression algorithm for Blogspot. 

Images copyright Casondra Sobieralski, 2022. Please credit for non-commercial use, contact for commercial use. 

Natalie Coffin Green Park, Ross California, with Rora: November 19, 2022

 Natalie Coffin Green is a good fall back plan because you can do many different hikes from the starting point, Phoenix Lake.  I tend to go there with my East Bay friends–particularly Saied, Christina, Jeanette–because it is a good half-way point between us. On this occasion, I scooped up my friend Rora who lives on the way.  The leaves were changing, which was a bit surprising considering how dry the trees have been.  (We do not get an intense saturation of color like on the East Coast, but the further inland you go, the more color you get.) It was reassuring to see more water in the reservoir this autumn than last.  

Click for larger images. 

Copyright Casondra Sobieralski 2022.

It was getting dark for this shot, and opening my camera to 2000 ISO still left me with some blur. (This was kinda surprising considering I have cranked the ISO up to 3000 in caves so dark I cannot see my own hands, and got great results.)

 But I like that this shot of trees starts hedging towards abstraction with the patches of color, not too sharp.  --like it would make a nice abstract painting if I had space to paint. 

But I don't, so if anyone wants to paint this and send me a snapshot, go for it. :)

 

Mussel Rock Beach, Daly City, California: November 5, 2022

 A quick walk on a rainy evening, en circuitous route to Trade Joe's...

(Cell phone camera on hand only.)

A drizzly path with a few California poppies

A quick walk in a light rain, Mother Ocean's intensity

Nevada City and Yuba River, Sierra Foothills, California with Rora: October 16-17, 2022

 My friend Rora and I realized that we never did anything for ourselves to celebrate phinishing our PhDs this summer. (We graduated from the same department.)

ROAD TRIP!!!

We went to Nevada City, Grass Valley including a short hike at Empire Mine State Park, and the Yuba River.  I found a great running trail right from where we stayed.  I could so live in Nevada City. There is an artsy enclave there, lots of filmmakers.  --but because it is in between San Francisco and Tahoe, with work from home it has become completely unaffordable to creatives and nonprofit sorts. Another town bites the dust to the techies. 

But it still is a lot of fun to visit!  --especially near Halloween.  (Rora and I were walking near a cemetery at night, and some humanoid figure wrapped in swaths of white fabric came out of the woods, like he was mid-mummification.  We ran.)

 And maybe as tech crashes, we can take it back.

(Cell phone photos only. Part of me wishes I'd had my DSLR hiking above the Yuba River, and part of me is glad I wasn't carrying the weight of my camera pack because the footing beneath me was precarious and dry, and I have really bad health insurance coverage right now! ;)

Power to the witches! (They can fly if they fall from a high trail.)

Nevada City public radio station

Empire Mine State Park

Yuba River

"Rora of the Rocks," in the Yuba River.  

Reminds me of a DaVinci painting, with space for cherubic babies to be added.

Natalie Coffin Green Park, Ross, California, mid-October 2022

 I went for a little hike on my own this day.  

These are just from my cell phone.  I have some very fun cell phone video of the woodpeckers in action on the nineteenth century house.  Not High Art, but entertaining, imo.

  Find the deer in these 2 images.

The old house, with woodpeckers.

Random Golden Gate Bridge Cell Phone Shots, San Francisco, California, 2022

 I am accumulating photos of the Golden Gate Bridge through the year on my cell phone...

Copyright Casondra Sobieralski 2022. Please contact the photographer for use permissions. 

Nicosia Valley Farms, West Marin, California: October 9, 2022

 I went to my favorite pumpkin patch with my friends Kelly and Saied.  Most of the pumpkin photos are on their phones. I got enthralled with the farm animals.  I have some amazing video footage of a goat snacking on hay!  --but it is too big to upload to the blog.  Please be patient while I edit it for YouTube.

Rabbit enjoying the shade in style...

Goat looking majestic eating what s/he is supposed to...

And then, as goats are prone to do, s/he decided my camera looked tastier...

Please forgive the sharp shadows, 

but how could I NOT include this fine little piggie on my page?

Sometimes you have to bend aesthetic appropriateness. 

[Video coming]