January 31st - Heermann's Gull

I'm pretty sure this is a Heermann's Gull. They are prettier, in my opinion, than the standard gull that is seen around here. They also seem to be coming around more often. :)

Happy end of the month! Yay, the challenge is over! Now, what to pick for my final h2h photo?!?

January 30th - On Top of the World

I had a doctor appointment today (I'm getting better, no worries!), and this is part of the view from the parking lot. Nothing like living on top of the world, eh? :)

January 29th - Monterey Bay Kayaks

I almost lost it today. I deleted three pictures off of my memory stick that were from yesterday, or thought that was what I was doing, and my computer deleted the entire folder! It doesn't put it in the recycle bin, for some reason. (I guess because it's a different drive?) Luckily, I found a recovery software program online, quickly, and it worked to get all of today's pictures back!! It was actually so easy and worked so well, I was quite impressed! The one I bought is called, "CardRecovery."

Anyway, today's shot is of Monterey Bay Kayaks. You can buy (and most probably, rent) kayaks there, and I'm sure they give lessons, too. Directly behind it is the beach from my shot on day 2.

January 28th - Sweet Pea

I wasn't feeling well again, today, so here's another sweet pea for you from my garden. Sorry. I took it at twilight, so that's why the background is so blue. It's actually gray brick. I like this shot, because the sweet pea flower looks like a dragon, to me. :)

January 27th - Poisonous Mushroom

Look what I found under a tree, today! I found it in Carmel Valley, while taking photos of horses. I couldn't get close enough to the horses to get a decent shot, but when I turned around, this huge mushroom (a good 5-6 inches across, at least!) was shouting at me, "Take my picture, take my picture!" :)

January 26th - Mal's Market

This is Mal's Market, in Seaside, Ca. They claim they have the best sandwiches in town. They are pretty good, but I prefer to get sandwiches at Hilltop Market in Pacific Grove. Yum!! :)

The signs in the door read, "Don't be afraid that your life will end, be afraid that it will never begin." and, "We cannot choose the things that will happen to us, but we can choose the attitude we will take toward anything that happens. So much of fate depends on your attitude." (I'm actually not 100% sure on that second one, it was a bit hard to read, even in the full size photo.)

I remember, as a kid, going in there and getting 3 candy bars and a soda for $1.00. Wow, time's have sure changed, haven't they? ;)

January 25th - Odd One Out

Not much to say today. More rain. Dreary, actually. :P
I took this at Roberts Lake in Seaside, Ca. The rain was coming down really hard when I shot this. I don't know if it's very evident in the shot, or not, though.

January 24th - Luv Flower

I love the rain, and apparently, I'm not the only one! :) Look at the center of the flower...see the heart?

January 23rd - John Denver

I went to the butterfly sanctuary again today, and found this. :) He died here, in Pacific Grove, so this is a tribute to him, I suppose. For this photo, I am standing in the walkway to the sanctuary, and behind the bench is a hotel. The planters on either side of the bench are rather short, and it's open on either side of them, so nothing is being blocked, even though it looks like it. :)

January 22nd - Sweet Pea

It rained almost all night last night, and I am not feeling well today, so I took another shot from my garden. This is a sweet pea flower, and it smells so good! :) Cliche, or what?! They bloom around here pretty much year 'round.

Sorry about the blurry leaf on the top, but I loved the droplets on the stem so much I just had to choose this one.

January 21st - Look what I found!

This is what I saw at school today:


So, of course I had to stop to take pictures:

I mean, look how many flowers there were! And this is only one tiny part of what was there!

I found a red one among all the yellow:

There were some tiny purple ones, too. They're hard to see among all the vast yellow-ness! I thought it was so pretty, I just had to share it! :)

January 20th - Salinas River State Beach

This is next to the Salinas River State Beach, in Moss Landing, Ca. If I'm not mistaken, this is part of the Elkhorn Slough, but I'm not really sure of that. I just loved this scene. However, I think it could have turned out better. Oh, well.

January 19th - Seagull in flight

I'm sorry today's picture isn't a very good one. I love the gull, but the wires have got to go. I just didn't have time today, so had to go with the best of what I was able to get, unfortunately. :P

January 18th - Fuschia Gooseberry

This is a native plant called a Fuschia Gooseberry. It's got some serious thorns, but hummingbirds love it! It flowers in winter through to spring, and then gets berries. However, this one, which is in my front yard, has yet to get any berries. My hubby planted this underneath my daughters window. I suppose it's in preparation for her teen years (yet to come!). ;)

January 17th - Twinsies

I call this one, "Twinsies," because it looks like a very unusual mirror image. :)
I think the blimp is around because the AT&T National Pro-Am is starting soon.



This one is a bonus, because I had a really hard time choosing today. :) The boats in the background are a fishing boat and a Coast Guard Fire Rescue boat, I believe.

January 16th - Red Wing Blackbird

I saw this guy at Lake El Estero, today, in Monterey. I like their call. He's a cute little fella, ain't he? :)

January 15th - Big Sur Coastline

A shot of the Big Sur coastline, here for you, today. Enjoy.

January 14th - Colton Hall

This is Colton Hall, on Pacific St. in Monterey. According to the sign out front, "California's Constitutional Convention was held in this newly completed building between September 1st, and October 13th, 1849, leading to California becoming the 31st state."

January 13th - Jogger

Cool! I caught him with both feet off the ground. :)

January 12th - Canadian Goose

Here is a Canadian Goose that was at Lake El Estero, today. I think they're very pretty birds. Notice how you can see clear through it's nostrils!

I especially like this image, because I didn't have to crop it or anything. I only adjusted the levels a bit in Photoshop, and boosted the saturation a tad. I usually crop my images, so getting a good composition that doesn't need cropping is a real bonus, for me! ;)

January 11th - Monarch

I went to the Monarch Grove Sanctuary in Pacific Grove, Ca., today. "Butterfly Town, USA." The monarchs come here, one of 300 micro climates in the state, to overwinter. They've endeared themselves to the townspeople in a remarkable way. Just about everywhere you go in P.G. you can see a monarch butterfly in some form or another. They're so pretty. It's been difficult for me to get a good shot of one, because they mostly like to stay up high, in the trees. They form these amazing clusters that look like they are just dripping from the branches. From a distance, they make it look as though the branch of the tree is dead because they're brown on the outside; but when it warms up, they start to flutter around and then you can really tell what they are. It's pretty cool.

January 10th - Convent

This is a convent off of Hwy 1, just past Rio Rd. in Carmel, Ca. Isn't it pretty? They've got a fantastic ocean view. Where I was standing was on the side of the freeway, and directly behind me is a beach.
That leads me to today's bonus picture. A Wave!! Wow! ;)

January 9th - Happy boat

Happy boat! How can you not take a picture of a boat that is grinning at you so wonderfully?!

January 8th - Asilomar Beach Sunset Panography

I found myself back in the general area of Ocean View Blvd. today, as the sun was setting. I got a great shot of the (very unattractive) foghorn, but when I saw how little of the sunset my camera was getting, I decided to do a panography instead. This is at the beach at Asilomar, in Pacific Grove. It's a huge tourist spot. There's a great wooden walkway for people, so they stay out of the marine sanctuary habitat and don't disturb the plants and animals there.
I know I've shown a lot of beach photos so far, and I will try harder to get other things in, but this was just too pretty. :) This is 13 different images! I love pano's! :)

I also drove down Cannery Row today, and it's changed a lot over the past couple of years. I thought it would make a good alternate photo, so here it is:

There are three overhead walkways here, two are fairly new. At the very end of the block is the Monterey Bay Aquarium. In between the two adult pedestrians, you can see the Portola sign. It's the old canning logo from Cannery Row's heyday.

January 7th - Ocean View Blvd.

Here is a view from, you guessed it, Ocean View Blvd. The waves were ginormous today! I went there with every intention of taking a photo of a golf course or the lighthouse, but this one just screamed at me, "Post me! Post me!" :D
Enjoy.

January 6th - Season's End....

For the last few years, there has been an ice skating rink in Monterey at the Custom House Plaza. Well, the season for it is over, so they were taking it down today. In the top left you can see some of the ice they've already removed from the rink. Top right is a guy scraping the melted portions off of the frozen portion. And the bottom (my favorite) is a shovel sitting on the ice.

You can also see the layers in the ice where they froze it then added water, and refroze it, etc. I love the layers. I tried to get a shot of the sun shining through the ice, showing how blue it was (it was so cool!), but they didn't turn out right, unfortunately. :(

I hope you all enjoy today's tryptich. :D



Because there was interest, here is a picture of the Custom House Plaza. This is the back end, the ice skating rink is to my right, and you can see the ice melting into the grate around the fountain. Underneath the rink is more of this brick, it's a very large courtyard. They hold lots of functions here. Directly ahead is the Monterey Harbor, where (mostly private) boats are kept, and to the left of that is the commercial wharf. Lots of great restaurants and tourist trap stores. To the right a ways is the other wharf, wharf #2. It's where the fishing boats go. There's a beach there, which is my day 2 photo. In that shot, I'm standing on wharf #2.
To my right rear is a museum, and beyond that is the Portola Hotel and Spa. It's at the end of Alvarado St. If you have interest, look up historical photos of Alvarado St. You can compare them to the photo I will take and post at some point this month, hopefully. What a change! :)
I almost forgot! To the left, beyond the wharf is the rec trail. What a gorgeous walk! It leads to Cannery Row and the Aquarium. A friend of mine and I went to a little beach just after the wharf, on the rec trail, today and cleaned up some empty beer bottles, soda bottles, and a 4 foot section of garden hose (?!). People are such jerks sometimes. :P

January 5th - Seagull on fountain postcard

Admittedly not the best postcard I've created, but it's what I felt like doing today. The sky was overcast (it sprinkled most of the day), so I couldn't get a great picture today. I had a busy day, so I couldn't spend too much time on shooting. I hope you enjoy this anyway. :D

January 4th - Scuba Diver

This is at the Coast Guard Pier, in Monterey. He was just coming out of the water. Looks like all kinds of fun, doesn't it? :D

January 3rd - Elkhorn Slough

Elkhorn Slough, in the morning. As taken from a car. I went to Santa Cruz today, and since that is in another county, I took a few shots on the way there and the way back, while still in my own county. :)
This is facing east, and you can see all of yesterday's rain starting to evaporate into the air in the background. The ground was positively steaming this morning! :)

And, since I had a hard time choosing today, here is an alternate photo. It's a somewhat zoomed in shot of the skyline of the city of Monterey and part of Pacific Grove, from Seaside across the bay. This was handheld, obviously. ;) I just really liked the shape the lights took.

January 2nd - Rainy beach

Bad weather today, rainy and cold. Still, I went to the beach. There's something wrong with me, I fear. LOL :)

January 1st - Surfing into the new year!

Surfing into the new year sounds like a great idea! Here's hoping it's a great year! :D

Happy new year, everyone!