Tall grass at Moore Creek

Moore Creek Preserve, Santa Cruz, California

The grass is growing fast after all the rain we've had this winter (50 inches in Santa Cruz—more than 100 inches up in the mountains).

Swingin' in Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz, California

There's a great swing down near the bottom of the Arroyo Seco Canyon trail.

Still climbing

Santa Cruz, California

Garden in April

Santa Cruz, California

Public art: courage

UCSC barn, Santa Cruz, California

Garden in March

Santa Cruz, California

San Lorenzo River Bridge

Santa Cruz, California

Stop

San Juan Bautista, California

Sunny and Green

After a week of rain and mudslides in Santa Cruz, it's nice to have a sunny weekend.

UC Santa Cruz Farm, Santa Cruz, California

Although we've had lots of rain this winter, California is still dry country. While the reservoirs are full, groundwater aquifers are still overdrawn, and they don't recharge instantly. We can hope for regular rainy winters, but we need to plan for more drought conditions. Anyone who thinks the drought is over for good is fooling themselves.

Waves in Santa Cruz

Huge swells at Steamer Lane this morning. This is a small cove called the Toilet Bowl. On calmer days, daring swimmers jump off the cliff into the swirling waters between waves and climb up the opposite wall to get out. Not today though.

Santa Cruz, California

In the afternoon, a huge swell of humanity descended on downtown Santa Cruz to hope for a more positive future.

Santa Cruz, California

Green hills and water

We've had a lot of rain over the past week. They call it the Pineapple Express. The gentle hills near Watsonville are much greener than usual, but we've had a number of mudslides in the steeper parts of the Santa Cruz Mountains. And lots of water in the fields and rivers.

Watsonville, California

near Watsonville, California

Watsonville, California

Hills

Route 46 near Bakersfield, California

Route 46 near Bakersfield, California

Shadows

Santa Cruz, California

Last walk of 2016, overlooking the last beach on West Cliff Drive before Natural Bridges Beach.

Privilege

Santa Cruz, California

St. Thomas harbor

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands
(Click photograph to see a larger image.)

I've been exploring the collections at the Library of Congress again, and I discovered this panoramic view of the harbor and town in St. Thomas, taken in 1922, just a couple of years before my mother was born (and only five years after the Virgin Islands became part of the United States). She grew up in town, just up the street from the columned church near the left side of this picture (the St. Thomas Reformed Church).

Moore Creek Preserve

This is probably my current favorite place to run or hike. Moore Creek is on the western edge of Santa Cruz. It's a city park but also an active cattle ranch. On a clear day, you can see across Monterey Bay all the way to Monterey.

Moore Creek Preserve, Santa Cruz, California

Today, the fog rolled in like a giant wave, obscuring the ocean. This picture seemed to call for black and white.

Moore Creek Preserve, Santa Cruz, California

Compost

Santa Cruz, California

Orange

This week I'm feeling... orange?

Santa Cruz, California

See also Pumpkin Time from a year ago, when I thought this election season was funny.

Día de Muertos, ciudad de muertos

I don't think Argentina celebrates Día de Muertos, but La Recoleta Cemetery is a gigantic city of the dead in downtown Buenos Aires. Eva Perón is probably the most famous resident. It's easy to get lost in there.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Buenos Aires, Argentina

This is the view down one of the streets at La Recoleta Cemetery.

More public art: UCSC barn, Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz, California

 The banana slug is the mascot of UC Santa Cruz, and it showed up on the arts billboard in August.

Santa Cruz, California

This electrical box near UCSC also sports some banana slugs.