One of very many Western Blue Birds at Lynch Canyon Open Space Park, Northern California. Lots of Blue Bird nest boxes there! 
Apple
On our hike last Saturday, a few drifting swarms of bugs were along the trail. Probably mosquitoes but I didn’t dare walk through them to find out 📷 #MBApr
Poor critter lost its tail! This was also the first lizard I’ve seen this year so it has had a rough start after hibernation 📷#MBApr 
I’ve had a lot of gardening to do with sharp implements so finally got my TDAP booster. I’m ready for a sore arm.
I think this is the “Big Al” Allosaurus skeleton at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, MT. Nice spine (backbones)! 📷 #MBApr 
I love the layers of light in this photo of me taking photos in the desert near Death Valley 📷 #MBApr 
Mid-March 2024 at the Donner Summit rest area (east-bound). I suppose once the building was dug out, ice formed in the alcove as heat warmed the snow’s bottom (ceiling in this case). Pretty neat. 📷 #MBApr 
We’re planting only one row this year. Just tomatoes, various peppers, basil, and an overwintered thyme. All prepped, just need to plant! #gardening 
A slightly early birthday present to me: a Sonos Move 2. Sounds very good! It’ll be great keeping me from the odd anxiety of silence and listening to food chewing 😆 📷 #MBApr 
Gotta have a bit of the flâneur spirit to partake in street photography. Or you’d miss a random dog-dog encounter in San Francisco. 📷#MBApr 
A gorgeous Barrel Cactus from Joshua Tree National Park 📷 #MBApr 
In X-Plane 12, I finally managed to get the 747-200 (modeled by Felis) up to cruise with only minor passenger discomfort. Had a little trouble with the auto-throttle. I’m still loving the Yawman Arrow controller #XPlane12 #macOS #YawmanArrow #FlightSimulator 
I installed my first Sharkbite plumbing fixture and it’s kinda magic how easy & low stress it was. Anyway, the ridiculous hosebib setup is why no one should let me do plumbing. Listen, I learned a lot from this low-stakes project! 📷 #MBApr 
Here’s a windy 2019 August day at Coyote Point, just south of San Francisco International Airport. Some activities: plane spotting, kitesurfing, and cosplay (two of these I was not expecting) 📷 #MBApr 
Ever played with Guinness themed cards at Lassen National Park? Eight years ago, we did! 📷 #MBApr 
Pear flowers! This year our two Asian pear trees bloomed simultaneously. Good bet they cross pollinated 📷 #MBApr 
I’m going to try participating in micro.blog’s April photo challenge. So each day in April I’ll post one photo based on a word given by micro.blog. I’ve skipped the last few challenges.
This big espresso toy at Eddie World in Beatty, Nevada, is ridiculously complex! #MBApr
I never appreciated how electric ovens do not exhaust heat like gas ovens. This new oven of ours (with induction cooktop) will be nice during the summer. For the induction, there’s been a learning curve. Mostly that heat is instant and boiling is FAST. Using a pressure cooker is crazy efficient.
My watch today basically told me to breathe. There was no good reason for the surge of adrenaline at the start of a Teams call. If it weren’t for a beta blocker, my HR would have easily climbed above 120 BPM and I’d been hosed the rest of the day above 90. I’m unusually tired though.
Death Valley Road Trip Part 7
Monday, March 25, 2024
This is the last post in this Death Valley photo log. After the short hike at Mosaic Canyon, it began to rain pretty decently, so we headed back to Furnace Creek.
See Part 1 or Part 2 or Part 3 or Part 4 or Part 5 or Part 6
Did you think that you’d get through this series of photos without an airplane? Hah! Here’s a Piper PA-11 Cub Special, reg. N78659, a the Furnace Creek Airport L06:
At Furnace Creek, you can witness the ants of Great-tailed Grackles. Never seen these loudmouth birds before:
Furnace Creek, which is well irrigated with a golf course, has rabbits:
A Say’s Phoebe. A new to us bird, just off Airport Road there’s a path to a bird watching platform overlooking a pond at the Furnace Creek Golf Course:
The sun managed to shine just a bit on some distant mountains. I was thankful I had my telephoto lens:
Sometimes you get unexpectedly striking photos on random road next to an abandoned lot..:
And that was the end of the trip. I’ll forego posting about the trip back home, since pretty much only the Clown Motel was worth posting about. But if you come to or leave Death Valley via Beatty, Nevada, I do recommend a stop by EddieWorld for unique candy (and so much more). Thanks for sticking it out!
See Part 1 or Part 2 or Part 3 or Part 4 or Part 5 or Part 6
Death Valley Road Trip Part 6
Sunday, March 24, 2024
This is a slightly shorter post today for just Mosaic Canyon.
See Part 1 or Part 2 or Part 3 or Part 4 or Part 5
We finally visited Mosaic Canyon, which is pretty great for megabreccia:
Mosaic Canyon is also well known for smaller breccia (the “Mosaic", in my opinion!) and smooth dolomite or what most would consider to be marble:
A closer view of the cream colored Noonday Dolomite. Plenty here for a geologist to chat your ear off about ;-):
Pretty rapidly the canyon broadens as the rocks become marine sedimentary or metasedimentary rocks and thus far more erodible than dolomite:
After gazing at the amazing erosional surfaces in the sedimentary rock face, one must negotiate steep and smooth dolomite by sliding down it:
And that’s a wrap for Mosaic Canyon. Maybe one more part in this series‽
Death Valley Road Trip Part 5
Saturday, March 23, 2024
Most of the second full day at Death Valley!
See Part 1 or Part 2 or Part 3 or Part 4
The next day we drove up to Ubehebe Crater. This northern part of the park was painted yellow in Desert Sunflowers bloom:
There were other flowers too, like this striking Notch-leaved phacelia:
And some Browneyes or Browneyed Primrose (Chylismia claviformis):
The volcanic Ubehebe Crater with person (me) for scale. My wife shot with a Fujifilm X100V camera using a film simulation that’s similar to Kodachrome 64:
Here’s what I was gazing at through my Fujifilm X-T5 using the more saturated Velvia film simulation to really make the colors pop:
Here’s the volcanic crater from the top at the north side:
And at the same place, a nice vista of the surrounding northern-most part of Death Valley:
We headed back south, so we took an opportunity to pull over to gaze at some incredible mountains:
Uh-oh. A collection of shoes. What could this mean‽:
The Mesquite Sand Dunes. Clearly, the dunes are famous for gladly taking shoes and socks that people remove and forget (‽) about. Kind people must collect them hoping that the footwear will be reunited with their owners (or someone desperate for footwear):
Mesquite Dunes and faulted mountains:
That’s it for today. Stay tuned for Part 6.
Death Valley Road Trip Part 4
Friday, March 22, 2024
Following the lake at Badwater, we went reversed course to the north.
See Part 1 or Part 2 or Part 3 or Part 5
The one-way driving loop for “Artist’s Palette” show-cases up-close Death Valley’s colorful, and VERY faulted geology (holy cow! look for the dissimilarly colored rock abutting each other):
Lots of volcanic rocks of varying colors at this overlook:
Very near from the above view, a bit to the south, and there’s another stunning landscape heavily dissected by canyons. The sun briefly peaked through the clouds:
Meanwhile, at Death Valley to the west of us… still pretty dusty but also sun-kissed. Time to leave this cloud provided shade for a little more sun!:
Back on the road to another part of Death Valley:
Zabriskie Point. It’s easy to see why this is a popular place. It’s just ridiculously photogenic. Apparently this area used to be mined for Borax, but I couldn’t discern signs of that:
Turn your head from the south and to the west, and suddenly steeply dipping rock and red bluffs named Red Cathedral…:
The day concluded, we went back to Furnace Creek — the dark green spot on the left. On the right, the palms are on the property of a fancy looking resort:
Stay tuned for Part 5, which may be the last in the series. See Part 1 or Part 2 or Part 3 or Part 5
Death Valley Road Trip Part 3
Thursday, March 21, 2024
Continuing from the Stove-Pipe Wells village, we went to an actual Stove-Pipe Well just to the north.
See Part 1 or Part 2 or Part 4 or Part 5
Here’s an actual Stove-Pipe Well and its historical marker. Visitors have apparently placed glass fragments and pretty rocks along its ledges:
While we were there we had a crow beg us for food (you may have seen this posted earlier):
We then headed south toward Badwater. We were hoping to visit the Salt Creek Boardwalk for potential pupfish sightings, but it was destroyed by floods. Instead first visited Mustard Canyon near the Borax Works:
We continued driving south toward Badwater, where the rare and quickly vanishing lake still laps ancient shorelines! For some reason people were wading in the lake at the Badwater Basin trail area:
Here’s a closer view of the shallow lake near Badwater Basin. We’re not sure what is creating the green tinge. Something is reflecting green somewhere in the lake’s water or lake bed.
And even closer:
Needless to say, Devils Golf Course was quite underwater. But you can still see some interesting mineralization along the shore:
Of course, we had to take a video of the lake:
Okay. We did more that day but this seems like a good place to dock for the night. I’ll leave it at that!
Part 4 to come in a day or so. See Part 1 or Part 2 or Part 4 or Part 5
For the first time both our Asian pear trees are in full bloom! They can pollinate each other so this is very good of news. No Death Valley photos tonight
Death Valley Road Trip Part 2
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Tonight I’ve a quick post of our drive into Death Valley.
See Part 1 or Part 3 or Part 4 or Part 5
On California State Route 190, west of Panamint Valley and then Death Valley, is the Father Crowley Vista Point of Rainbow Canyon. The wind was howling through the canyon and gushing out over the vista point:
Here’s Rainbow Canyon:
Just down the road is another overlook but of the Panamint Valley. It was just as windy:
It was a very clear day so we could see the Panamint Dunes (I think) in the northern Panamint Valley:
We continued into the Panamint Valley and got a preview of what’s to come in Death Valley:
And here we were, Stove-Pipe Wells. Someone (me) didn’t get the offline Apple Maps ;-) Stay tuned for part 3:
Rainbow Canyon near Death Valley
At Death Valley, a Crow Apparently Begs
Conical perforated metal strainers are pretty great for pulpy food compared to fine mesh wire strainers (impossible to clean!). We just juiced all our backyard-grown Meyer lemons, got 8 cups. Now the juice has been heat pasteurized, portioned, and frozen for summer lemonade. 
Daylight Saving Time means more energy use. The heat pump works harder w/hour longer low temps before sunrise. In summer, later sunset means the ambient air temperature won’t drop so windows must stay closed longer. I’ll be in bed during daylight, with the heat pump cooling longer to sleeping temp.