Ring of Fire Eclipse 2012

Last evening's eclipse created crescent-shapes from the sunlight shining through the tree leaves (a pinhole camera effect). The light in the sky was an eerie gray. The next one like this will take place in 2023.

Amgen Tour of California Bike Race - Walnut Creek, CA 2012

These racers whooshed by so fast I could barely see them either in the camera viewfinder or in real life. Keith, who knows bikes and racing (among other things) like an encyclopedia, says this year's Amgen Tour (the biggest bike race in the nation) is not thrilling because the hardest part is near the end, so everyone's hanging back in a clump, saving their energy for the final push. The same front-runner every day also makes for slightly unexciting results. Still, they went up Mt. Diablo for the first time ever this year and that's exciting.

Here's the four frontrunners from Tuesday this week, and then the big cluster zipped by me on Oak Grove Road, turning onto Ygnacio and heading towards Clayton and the mountain. Then on to (drumroll please) Livermore—highway surrounded by dried grass, cattle and windmills. Today: Bakersfield.

These four were ahead by eight or nine minutes, yet everyone caught up within a few miles later.

 

Bike races are exciting things and I'm glad the Tour came to town.

Shell Ridge - Spring 2012

Lots of greenery but no creek—too dry this year. Plenty of ground squirrels, cows, red-winged blackbirds, finches, hawks and one Western Bluebird (rare).

Psychedelic

I'd like a pair of pants with this color combination.