December was so wet that by its end we had overcome the shortfall of rain which had dogged the early part of autumn. But January, though it brought an abundance of cloudy days, brought little precipitation. Now, once again we are well behind the normal seasonal accumulation of moisture. A couple of weeks ago, on my visit to the south end of town, I took a picture of part of Oroville Lake, which is well below any level that would bring comfort to those dependent on its stored water-- which means a great many central valley farmers, and the customers for their products. I have posted that picture in
found_objects. Found: A Bunch of Dirt!While little rain has fallen in the valley this month, there has been no lack of fog. I have not been down into it, but I did get those pictures of its advance up the mountains a couple of weeks ago. I am posting two of them now. These are moderately large, so they are behind a cut. Eventually, I intend post even larger files of these, and a few others, in an album at Webshots.
This is the scene looking southeast over the canyon of the west branch of the Feather River and the Sierra foothills above Oroville, late in the afternoon, when the fog was beginning to lift and drift up the mountains.
Bare Oaks and Rising Fog
Looking southwest across the lower Paradise Ridge, the land is studded with small oaks. Late in the afternoon, the fog is beginning to envelope the trees as it rises up the arroyos. As I took this picture, I could smell the damp air preceding the fog as it displaced the dryer mountain air. Within a few minutes, this scene was lost in grey.
I was pleased that several of the pictures I took that day turned out reasonably well. Since it is likely to be some time before I can get around to posting them at Webshots, I may decide to post a few more of them here, in diminished size, of course. We shall see. For now, we (meaning I) shall sleep.