McClure's Beach, Point Reyes, California with Saied: August 13, 2023

 My most reliable hiking and local adventure buddy Saied moved back to SoCal in 2024, sniff. 

                                                

                                                                                         

kelp

I caputured some amazing video of this kelp swaying in the eddying sea, but I am almost out of space on my Google drive. Eventually I will upload to Vimeo and post a link...

anenome

kelp with anenome

moon jelly

albatross, sea gull, and tiny people in the background

                                         

                                         

                                         

                                                     

Sonoma State Beach, Sonoma California with Jeanette: August 8, 2023

Pretty algae

 algae

This appears to be a seal skin. In 1812, the Russians settled here on the Sonoma Coast to hunt seal for their pelts. By 1820, they had killed them all by overhunting. (They repopulated over time, it appears.) Though the Russians treated their indigenous hosts better than the Spanish (who massacred half of our indigenous population and enslaved the rest), it wasn't all roses. History is here: https://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/449/files/FortRossSHPFinalWebLayout113018.pdf 

Indigenous Pomo perspective: https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/tribal-leader-scorns-russian-lawmakers-tale-of-fort-ross-history/ 

 Kelp stetched over a rock

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.