East Santa Margarita Lake Drought Spring

Today being an Easter vacation Tuesday I had no classes to contend with and thus I went out to East Santa Margarita Lake with my brother by another mother, Big Mike. There I observed many beautiful things and felt myself unwind from my hectic life. I also got some meaningful prayer-time accomplished out in nature. It was nice reconnecting with a place I used to visit weekly for years as I "found" myself and healed on the inside. However, it was a bit disconcerting to notice all the manifestations of the ongoing drought despite this being April with its now-mythological showers alleged to bring May flowers.The fuel load out there is crazy in places and much dry heavy fuels and ladder fuels were to be seen in abundance.
Check out HERE what I found in the path during this walk. 

Purple Lupine

Gnarled old oak tree.

Note dead standing digger pine and dead or browning standing oaks.

Tequila getting a sip...

I'm a sucker for ruins.

Looking back along the southern footbridge over the swamp.

Tequila strongly dislike bridges of all sorts but took this one on and won.

Looking back along the northern footbridge over the swampy riparian area.

Note the dead reed stands in this easternmost extension of a partially-dry Santa Margarita Lake.

A foundation is all that remains of this once-farmsite.

Path to the root cellar

A devilish design for a hole in concrete.

I wonder function this building once served.

In the background is some of the most awesome-looking fuel-loading I have ever seen.

Note all the dead-brownness.

The purple lupine and brown oak fuels look incongruous.

One of the most magnificent oaks I have ever observed.

All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

For The Love of Jade

Earlier this evening up-and-coming local jade hunter-diver and carver-artist Drew Arnold shared his passion for jade with the Santa Lucia Rockhounds of San Luis Obispo County at their April club meeting in Templeton, CA. Below is a photographic record of his most excellent impassioned presentation. The jade you see with him are his own finds hand-crafted by him into their current form. I like passionate people like Drew who are kindred spirits who know what they like and go after it without reservation. It is people like us who I am trying to get into our meetings this year to give presentations at our meetings in order to spice things up by dialing up the passion quotient. Rock clubs need to keep it real or else risk going extinct like the dinosaurs.

Drew in Q&A form after his talk with past president of the Orcutt Mineral Society Wayne Mills to the left of Drew.

All photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved)

Another Ejyafjallajökull Stunner

An online response to my previous post mentioned my favorite volcano images of all time came from the 2008 Chaitén volcano. Upon checking this blog it occurred to me that I never previously an image from that eruption. I then proceeded to look for one to share here and found many from which to choose which are all wonderful. However, in the process of that search I also found this image from the 2010 eruption of Iceland's Ejyafjallajökull volcano which was in aforementioned previous post here. This images is pretty much as good as the previous one. I like the composition despite it not being as sharp which is due to the haziness caused by the volcanic ash in the air. Image courtesy of UPI.

Awesometacular Volcanic Beauty

This is my second-most favorite volcanic eruption image of all time. This image is of Iceland's Ejyafjallajökull erupting in 2010 which paralyzed air traffic across the North Atlantic and Europe for many weeks. Numero uno on my list is an image from Chili's Chaitén eruption in 2008 which also showed nighttime volcanic lightning bolts scattered throughout the plinian eruptive ash column.
This image by Sigurdur Hrafn Stefnisson. 

Picture of the Day - Kiler Canyon Calcite

While exploring the upper hillside section of the vale in which is located Kiler Canyon Farm this morning I came across this nice assemblage of cracked-open Calcite. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).