On The Beach

On a cloudy day at Ventura back in November, I was interested in what had washed up with the previous high tide. There was nothing spectacular but here's what I found. The light was very flat so the pictures don't have as much definition as I'd like.

Seabirds

Here is a picture of some type of seabird coming in to land, and a couple of pictures of a very friendly gull. These were taken on or near the pier in Santa Barbara.

Santa Barbara

It was less than 2 degrees Fahrenheit (that's about -17 C) and snowing this morning, so I thought I'd post some warmer pictures from our California vacation. We spent a day in Santa Barbara, near the waterfront, and it was very pretty.

A working, traveling replica of the Columbus ship Niña was moored and we went aboard, so here are a couple of pictures. I can't imagine how so many sailors made their home on a ship this size for so long.

And finally, I found the following lamppost intriguing. I'm guessing that all the spikes on top are to stop the birds from landing on it. The birds will be the subject of another post.

Christmas Lights

One of the great American Christmas traditions is to decorate your house with lights. And, like everything, some people really get into it. When I was dropping my kid off this evening I noticed the following house, so I brought my camera when I picked him up. They even had Christmas music playing!

Unexpected Snow

The forecast last night was for a 50% chance of snow showers. So far there's at least a foot of fresh snow on the ground, and on the deck too.

Ojai

I just got back from a few days in the Los Angeles area visiting my wife's family, where (except for one day of rain) we had fairly nice weather - I'll be posting pictures from this trip over the next few weeks. It was quite a shock to go from t-shirts and this, taken on our last day there at Ojai:

To this, which greeted me at the car at Denver International Airport upon arrival:

Ice

We had some freezing fog and drizzle over the last couple of days but the sun came out again this morning. I love winter - it may be cold but it's the most beautiful season of the year.