Friday, December 22, 2017

Fall & Winter Celebrations in the East Bay Hills

We celebrated Thanksgiving with our friends and grandson's Michigan grandparents, Carol and John. Thanks to John's photography, we have a photo of Erick, Erika, Michael, Stanton and me ready to dig into our turkey dinner.


Knowing that we are puzzle people, Carol and John, had a photo of our Thanksgiving table made into a jigsaw puzzle as a Christmas gift.  We were delighted. It will be an especially fun one to work on.


The next cause for celebrating was Stanton's first birthday, December 7.  What amazing changes a year can bring!

I made it to 12 months; I deserve this sticker.
He'll be walking on his own soon.
He's already climbing stairs.
The kitchen Chaos Monkey
(credit to Erick for the photo)

Adventures in self-feeding

No birthday celebration is complete without a cake.

A homemade carrot cake
On December 17, we had our Manzanita Christmas celebration.

Our holiday door wreath
Gingerbread cookies
(after removal of a dozen or so for gifts and some serious munching)
Stanton views the tree - from a safe distance.
Mom & dad watch Stanton explore his play garden 
An enthusiastic response from Stanton
We all got presents, but there's no doubt about who had the most fun.
(credit to Erick for the photo)
On the 18th, it was off to Michigan for the threesome, and a chance for Stanton to experience snow for the first time.

A bit like his reaction to a new finger food...
(credit to John for the photo)
Our home is unusually quiet right now.  Erick and I are getting some things done around the house. For example, Erick set up his Christmas gift weather station.  If you want to know what the weather is like on the front side of our house, you can find out on via the Weather Underground's Montclair-Manzanita Station. (https://www.wunderground.com/weather/us/ca/canyon/KCAORIND72)

Our weather station
And we finally finished this one:

Puzzle 24
A holiday dinner with friends Valerie and Michael, and golden retrievers Greg & Lana:

Their tree
Greg & Lana chilling out
The dinner table, complete with Christmas Crackers



Some Solistice day photos:

Our Chrismas tree at sunset
Lights in the dining room
Our trees:
The little tree downstairs
Tree on the main floor

Flora, fauna and more scenery:


Christmas cacti actually blooming for Christmas 

Geranium looking very Christmasy
Manzanita in bloom Christmas Eve

Bumblebee visiting Manzanita
Migrating pigeons at rest
Crane (for neighbor's tree removal work)
 & plane (above the tree on the right)
Nearly full super moon, December 1
Full supermoon, December 3
Sunset with rain on the way
One sunset, three different times - December 22, 2017:





Wishing you all the blessings of the season.





Friday, November 10, 2017

Changing Seasons in the East Bay

September to November brought the change from fire season to rainy season. We won't soon forget fire season and the devastating Wine Country fires about 50 miles north of us. The rain is especially welcome this year.

A September heat wave was one of several. August - October tend to be the hottest, driest months in the Bay Area.

September post-heatwave sunset - Bay side
September post-heatwave sunset - Canyon side
A September sunset before the smoky haze blew in
Crescent moon over the bay - September
There were plenty of opportunities for photos of smoky haze.

September smoky haze from fires to the North
First traces of the smoky haze from the Wine Country fires
- Mt. Diablo barely visible, mid-October
Smoky haze in the morning mid-October
Sun behind smoky haze bay side - mid-October
Afternoon sun through the haze bay side - mid-October
Hazy bay side near sunset
Heavy haze in the canyon -
we had several days of bad air quality
A blazing sunrise thanks to the haze
Sunrise canyon side - mid October
Sunrise over the ridge - mid-October
Toward the end of October, the wetter season began.

Return of the mists in the canyon
Rain approaching - bay side
Rain approaching - canyon side

And now it's November.  The rains are back.

Geraniums are loving it
Other views from the East Bay hills.

I took this photo for the unusual clouds,
and got the airplane as a bonus
Harvest moon - October
Hunter's moon - November
As the days got shorter with later sunrises, I got this series one morning.

Sunrise reflected in picture frames on the dining room wall
Morning star at sunrise
Sunrise with clouds near Mt. Diablo
And while the seasons changed, our grandson got a couple of months older.

At the beach in September
At 10 months


At 11 months 

Some other creatures around the place.

Buddies
Sunny & Ziggy

I think he's taking a cat nap
Dragon

A regular visitor beneath our bird feeder 

We kept up our jigsaw puzzle hobby.

Puzzle 21
Puzzle 22
Puzzle 23
We nearly went crazy with this one because,
unknown to us, there were 4 missing pieces - a mystery.