Sky Supplement: The Trees of Monterey

Looks like we have one more day of bonus ‘Monterey vacation’ content left. And it’s great, as long as you like watching trees grow!

White Dead Tree Against Blue Sky Stippled With Clouds

I know nothing about trees. But that’s a pretty dead tree. And also a pretty, dead tree.

Tree With Funky Bunched Leaves Against Grey Sea And Sky

And I’d be willing to bet that this is alive, although I’m not sure it’s a tree.

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Dog of the Day: Leal the Australian Shepherd

Leal is a gorgeous floofy twelve-year old Australian shepherd who looks and acts about three. May we all be so young for so long!

Incidentally, his name is, at least according to his human, a Teutonic word meaning ‘one who brings joy’. I choose to believe this, because it fits him so well.

Tricolor Blue Merle Australian Shepherd With A Ridiculously Fluffy Chest Sitting And Smiling

That’s the fluffiest chest I’ve seen since the last San Francisco Pride Parade!

Tricolor Blue Merle Australian Shepherd Leaning Against A Woman's Legs

And he’s a leaner, too.

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Sea Supplement: Smiling Harbor Seals from Monterey Bay

Another bonus post from my vacations of yesteryear: some pictures of adorable basking harbor seals from Monterey Bay. I can’t believe I didn’t post these silly sea-dogs before. I have no excuses. Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa.

Young Harbor Seal Basking On A Rock, Grinning, And Covering Her Mouth With Her Flipper

That face! (This is a young one, they get darker as they get older.)

Two Harbor Seals On A Rock In The Monterey Bay

I had a really really long lens. They could see me, but I was just a little moving dot over on the shore.

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Dog of the Day: Boxer Mix Puppy

Not sure about age or breed, except that he’s totally adorable and is still a puppy. Might be a boxer mix? Ran into him at the SPCA, less than a day before he was adopted.

Boxer Mix Puppy Scratching Himself On A Dog Bed

He sat down and stared deliberately at me and looked pathetic and itched. Like, “Look, I’ll even show you RIGHT where to scratch me…”

Boxer Mix Puppy Staring Off Into Space

Yes, there were two of them. So much cute, all in one place.

Puppy Sniffing Window

Our first through-the-window nose shot!

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Sunday Switchup: Sand

Patterns in the sand have always had a fascination for me, and I’ve taken hundreds of pictures of them. The first picture I ever developed — black and white, real film, real darkroom, real developer stains on my fingers — was a photo of ripples in silver-and-black sand, when I was twelve years old. It was gorgeous, and unfortunately lost in one of my many moves, sometime in my teenage years. I’ve been trying to take another one as nice since then, with rather incosnsitent results.

These in particular all came from a couple of trips I made to the Monterey/Carmel/Big Sur area. They might be worth clicking on: there’s a lot of detail there that you can’t see from the smaller images.

Black Wave-Marks On Grey Sand

It just depends on the sand and the lighting how marked wave-marks can get.

Grey Water-Marks On Light Grey Sand

There are rather a lot of different colors of sand around Monterey.

Wave Marks On Tan Sand

The patterns are often quite light, hard to see.

Long Dark-Amber Seaweed On A Wave-Marked Beach

Sometimes the seaweed makes interesting patterns too.

Seaweed That Looks Like Trees On A Beach

Looks like a tropical beach, doesn’t it? Until you realize those trees are only a few inches tall…

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Bonus Birderday!

In addition to today’s normal caturday supplement, I was going through my old pictures and found a bunch of pictures I took down in Monterey back in 2013 that I’ve been meaning to post and didn’t, so I’m doing a bonus post or two. Today: birds.

Incidentally, at least the latter two may be worth clicking on, since (in my opinion, anyway) they’re even prettier with more detail.

Silhouette Of Bird Perched On Dead Twig

Taken at dusk. I bet there’s someone out there who could identify this based on just the beak, but it sure isn’t me.

Brown Pelican Flying, With Wing Feather Detail

Brown Pelican. I find bird wings endlessly fascinating.

Brown Pelican Flying Towards The Camera

Those beaks are really something too.

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Caturday Supplement: Grey Kitty

A little outing for a little grey kitty.

Grey And White Cat On A Leash Sitting In Someone's Lap

I think the leash was a precaution. They brought a crate, so I doubt they take him out walking.

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Dog of the Day: Miller the Old English Sheepdog

Miller isn’t old! And Miller isn’t English. Also, Miller has never met any sheep. But, to be fair, Miller is in fact a dog, and one out of four isn’t bad. On a physics test. For a dog.

PS: I think Miller is friends with Bumper, as is nearly every Old English sheepdog that I have run into in San Francisco.

Grey And White Old English Sheepdog Sitting And Looking Happy

Someone got a buzz cut. I love shaggy Old English pups, but they’re a lot easier to keep neat when they’re cut like this.

Grey And White Old English Sheepdog Sitting And Shaking Hands With A Woman

He was very happy to show off his trick.

Grey And White Old English Sheepdog Sitting And Holding Hands With A Woman

Our second dog in a week or so that likes having his paw held.

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Triple Dog Day: Elizabeth, Pink, and Pony the French Bulldogs

Okay, let me share with you the note I took on these three:

Grandma: Elizabeth 7 Pink mom (white) Pony f 11 mo

Now you know as much as I do. A very hesitant guess: Elizabeth, the grandmother of the group, is (possibly) the black-but-greying one on the left, and is (perhaps) 7. Pink, the mother, may be the one who is 7, but is probably less than 7 and more than 11 months, and is probably the white one in the middle. That would leave Pony as the fawn one on the right, who would be also female and 11 months old.

Alternatively, Elizabeth might be the 7 pink dogs, Mom might be my mom, and there might be an 11-month-old white pony in one of my pictures that I haven’t noticed yet.

Three French Bulldogs, One White, One Fawn, One Black

The dark one, who we’ll call Elizabeth, sat in that shadow the entire time.

Three French Bulldogs, One White, One Fawn, One Black

I wish HDR was just a little more advanced, because if you could see details in the shadows I’d absolutely love this shot.

Three French Bulldogs, One White, One Fawn, One Black

There! Now you can see Elizabeth’s face.

White French Bulldog With Black Diamonds Over Eyes

Is anyone else reminded of this? Or possibly this?

Fawn French Bulldog Sticking Out Her Tongue With Forehead Wrinkles

The most concerned forehead-wrinkles EVER.

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DoggiEvent: WIGGLE WAGGLE WALK!

It seems that Alameda, home of Dozer, Moose, and lots of wildflowers, is also home to a dog-related event that I had never heard of before, the Friends of the Alameda Animal Shelter’s awesomely-named Wiggle Waggle Walk. According to the blurb, it includes music, “entertainment, pet contests, a doggie fashion show, pet adoptions, exhibitions, and […] a one or two mile long scenic walk along the San Francisco Bay.” And of course it is a fundraiser to raise money so the Alameda Animal Shelter can save even more animals next year.

They even won a ‘Beast of the Bay‘ from the Bay Woof newspaper for last year’s walk, for Best Canine Sporting Event.

Sunday, June 28th, 11 AM to 1 PM. Hope to see you there!

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