Reflection Redux

Between the fog and the high water from last week's rain, there were some interesting scenes at West Davis Pond yesterday.  I expect these ink blot patterns to be here for a while, so I'll continue to experiment with them.  I think reflection redux could just as easily apply to the lousy photo mood I'm in right now though.  It's my usual problem.  Every photo I take or look at seems like something I've already seen.  Like there's no original photo left to take.  I know it's just a mood, because I've been here before.  Many times!  I'm trying to work through it, and I'm determined to post everyday even though I'm not in the mood...just to let myself experiment and take a lot of shots each day.

The Wood Ducks

The Wood Ducks are back and so is our fog!  Thick this morning, but not so thick that I could sneak up on the ducks at the south end of the pond.  This was my only shot of them.  Full of mystery, don't you think?! :)

Fall in the Walnut Orchard

Here's the companion photo to yesterday's almond orchard.  That photo inspired me to drive my old orchard loop through Winters.  Very different lighting, but then our weather has cleared.  The walnut trees are a lot bigger, and all have that huge graft at the bottom.  All the harvesting went on last month, so now is the time to get fresh walnuts, if you're a fan of them like I am.  They're a great source of Omega-3, but not that stable, so if you do buy walnuts it's really important to buy this year's crop, and to store them in the freezer to preserve their freshness.  And while I'm venturing into food blogger territory, I would also advice soaking them overnight in salt water.  This will deactivate enzyme-inhibitors which sometimes make nuts hard for people to digest.  Enjoy!  :)

Fall in the Almond Orchard

Driving to Woodland the other morning, I just couldn't help but admire the color and saturation of this almond orchard.  And this is going to sound a little silly, but one of the things I'm proud of from my 2 1/2 years living here is that I can tell one orchard from another.  Almonds are related to the apricot family; they flower and leaf out early in the spring.  They seem to hold their leaves the longest too, but they don't grow nearly as big as the walnut trees.   I have to take a back road route to drive through the orchards and I guess I've never driven this way so late in the fall.  So glad I did!  Love, love, love this color!

Parking Under the Gingko Tree

On a rainy fall day
In midtown Sacramento.
A very pretty proposition.
(Yes, it is still fall here!)

The car parked
in front of me
was completely covered
in gingko leaves.
It looked like
a parade float.
At first I thought
it hadn't moved all week,
but now I'm thinking
maybe
it had only been there for
a day...or two.
I sure wish
I could have
photographed
from the inside
of that car!

This photo was made
after my windshield wipers
pushed all the leaves
and water
to one side.

West Davis Pond

Ok, maybe it's a bit much to look at.  Sort of mesmerizing though. 

More Rain Today

I learned a new weather term this week, "atmospheric river".  It sounds bad, but we ended up getting a lot less rain than I was imagining.  Probably an inch or two a day, and only five or six inches in all.  No flooding here, but West Davis Pond is as high as I've seen it, with all the little islands underwater.  More rain in the forecast for today and tomorrow.  I'm enjoying monitoring the pond levels...with my camera :)

This Year's Growth

Here's another view of the new growth at the top of a persimmon tree,
including some hard to reach persimmons.  So pretty.

The Drying Room

The process of making hoshigaki begins with peeling and stringing the persimmons.  Ideally they dry outside first for a while, but this process is very dependent on the weather.  Only one stand of newly peeled persimmons was outside when I visited.  This drying room was the intermediate step.  The door was open and a fan was running, and when I got here, each persimmon was being individually worked by hand.  After they dry here for a while they move to a third room which was much more temperature-controlled.  There the persimmons lose their orange color completely, and when they're done they look like they're coated in sugar.  The finished hoshigaki is very sweet and chewy; not tough like a dried apricot, more like a gum drop. 

Persimmon Tree

Otow Orchard is generations old, and the trees are so pretty.  They have this great gnarled old look to them, but they're neatly trimmed each season, and the year's new branches come out stick straight.  With the beautiful orange persimmons it just makes for such a great abstract. 

Otow Orchard

Otow Orchard produces and sells a lot more than just persimmons and hoshigaki over the course of the year including seasonal vegetables, although they seem to primarily be a fruit producing orchard.  I got a chance to walk around the orchard and of course the persimmons stood out, because of their beautiful fall color.  I'm told that last week the trees were all covered with these bright orange leaves.  Yesterday most of the trees were bare; only a few were still holding their leaves. 

Hoshigaki

I'm very excited about this series of photos from Otow Orchard ("Oh Toe") in Granite Bay.  I've dried persimmons at my house using a food dehydrator, but it's nothing like the process used here.  Hoshigaki literally means dried persimmon, and at Otow Orchard they preserve the Japanese art of drying whole persimmons.  It's a time-consuming process with each persimmon peeled, hung, and then massaged, and rotated every few days for three to six weeks.  A real delicacy!  You can expect to see more persimmon photos in the coming days...

Linear

This great cloud pattern stretched across Sacramento yesterday afternoon.  A precursor to today's rain. It reminds me of a show going on at the Viewpoint Gallery right now called Linear.  All the photos in the show consist of horizontal lines within three themes: water, sky, or linear, which was basically anything not water or sky.  Clouds in the show really did look like lines; these clouds are much "fluffier", but the linear pattern is still really cool.

Sharing a Quiet Moment

While all the other koi fish in the pond swam aimlessly about, this handsome golden fish tried hard to make eye contact; he kept sticking his forehead right out of the water.  I think he was smiling at me!

Japanese Tea Garden

It was back to the airport in San Francisco today, but not before a little sightseeing.  Here is the pagoda at the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park.