10 December 2015

Late fall colors

I think the weather has just barely been cold enough this autumn for the trees around us to take on their golden fall colors. A lot of the golden trees are oaks, which keep their leaves all through the winter, until new growth appears in the spring. Below you see the road that runs along the edge of the vineyard. It's typical of local roads and is about 10 feet wide. Two cars can't really pass without one or both of them driving slightly off the edge of the pavement.


Notice the deep ditch on one side of the road. That keeps driving interesting. In most locales, as below, the autumn colors are subtle, but they're accentuated by the bright green of the grass and the blues and grays of the autumn sky. That's true on days when it's not too foggy. December is fog season here. High pressure systems hold moisture close to the ground, which is not yet very cold, causing fog to form.


In many places around the vineyard, the ground is carpeted with brown, golden, or yellow leaves. Here's Callie posing. She doesn't like it. She'll stand facing away from me as I hold the camera. I have to say her name two or three times and almost beg her to look at me. She finally does.


Here's the view from the back yard out over the vineyard. It's all in contrasting greens and oranges, with a foggy or overcast sky that's often a pale gray or even white. We have had some frost and light freezes — you can see nasturtium, bell pepper, and eggplant plants in the garden that have died of frostbite.


Today is the day I've chosen to go out and pick more leaves off my collard plants. I'm trying to decide whether to try making collard kraut or just go ahead and cook the collard greens the way I usually do, with some duck fat, white wine, salt and pepper, and hot red pepper flakes. I don't think I have the right kind of salt to do kraut, so that might have to wait until later.

BTW, I took all these photos with my Canon sx700 camera, not with the Panasonic TZ60.

19 comments:

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    1. I especially like the sky in the second photo.

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  2. Love Callie's over the shoulder look.
    Another difference between US and UK: We walk on a pavement in town and villages (for pedestrians, too often bikes and parked cars) the vehicles drive on the road. Country roads are narrow but they seldom stop White Van Man overtaking

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    1. Your pavement is our sidewalk. I don't know why you call it a pavement. Do you suppose the "sidewalks" were paved in stone before the roads were anything but dirt or gravel?

      In the U.S., we use the words "paved" or "pavement" to mean any hard surface, even when the surface is not composed of paving stones or cobblestones. A U.S. road can be paved in asphalt, concrete, stones, or bricks. Most modern roads are either asphalt or concrete. It's interesting how our words change meaning to reflect the reality we need to describe.

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  3. Terrific photo of Callie. Even in borderline Australian tropics, deciduous trees still drop their leaves. It is mostly about light rather than heat or cold.

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    1. Thanks, Andrew. The photo really does reflect Callie's personality.

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  4. It's funny how Callie doesn't like to look at you when you have the camera on her :) That makes Walt's "Periodic Puppy Pics" posts even more appreciated :)

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    1. Walt is very talented when it comes to getting Callie to pose prettily for photos.

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  5. Your trees have more leaves on them than ours right now. I also like the second photo with a touch of blue sky showing through the cloud cover.

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    1. I like that sky too. It's much grayer out there at this point.

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  6. Callie knows that the camera will steal her soul.
    I love the ditch by the side of the road: it means you must have rain from time to time!

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    1. We do get downpours at different times of the year. There are ditches along the roads everywhere around here.

      I do which Callie would learn to enjoying posing for pictures, but I think it's kind of late for that to happen. She'll be 9 (can you believe it?) in February.

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  7. Every time you write about collard greens, I wonder how I largely missed out on them, having grown up in Texas. It is a mystery to me. Now I'm keen to taste them, but I don't know if LA would be the right place.

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    1. Once, Stater Brothers had collard green in La Quinta, so you might find them in LA.

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    2. All the supermarkets in San Francisco stocked collard greens in the produce section. They must be grown in California.

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  8. Thanks guys I'll check the produce section. And I see our local BBQ restaurant "Baby Blues" (billed as Memphis cut with western North Carolina sauce) has them on the menu. :-)

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    1. Be careful about restaurant collard greens. I hope they are good, but sometimes I've had them with sugar added (too much — a little goes a long way). I prefer them without sugar but with a splash of plain or hot-pepper vinegar at the table. Or tabasco sauce. Get cornbread to go with the greens and pork barbecue if you can. Western N.C. sauce differs from Eastern N.C. sauce — the first has tomato (or ketchup) in it, and the second is just vinegar and hot red pepper. That sauce is good on the greens too.

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  9. Oh, Callie, you have truly mastered the side-eye. Funny picture.
    How do they know about how to avoid cameras? So many dogs are that way.

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    1. Our dog Collette seemed to like having her picture taken, but not Callie. Collette would pose and look serene. Callie looks suspicious and slightly bothered by the attention.

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