The November 2022 End Notes are the shortest there have ever been. I feel like I haven’t gotten around to doing anything! What the heck?!
In reality though, I did at least manage to put another calendar together. Which you can order directly here. The selection of this year’s calendar photos is in the announcement blog post, here: 2023 Landscape & Nature Calendar. (note: it’s weird to type 2023, and I’m so glad that I didn’t screw this up on the calendar, haha!)
Even after millenia of dryness, these sandstone ridges and strange desert vegetation resemble an underwater landscape; Coyote Mountains Wilderness, California. March 2020.
Purchase a print.
Weather & On The Trail
Early in November we had rain, actual rain! That was nice, but it was followed by a much longer period of the typical “Santa Ana” weather we have at this time of the year, with extremely low humidity and high winds. This is Southern California’s peak fire season but luckily, no fires broke out. With those winds, they’d be completely out of control. (October 2022 actually marked the 15th anniversary of the very destructive 2007 Witch Creek Fire, which reached areas very, very close to where we live. Natural areas around Lake Hodges still looked very bare when I moved here in 2010, and burn scars can be seen around many trees.)
November is also the time when we have somewhat decent fall colors, at least at the higher elevations of the county, and I once more led a group of photographers from my photo club on a short hike to see those. This year we went to Wooded Hill in the Laguna Mountains and we were there pretty much at the peak of color, which all comes from Black Oaks that are turning yellow. On the hike though, I was struggling with the rather open Southern California forest, and all the visual clutter in it! I didn’t come back with many photos that I like…
Views into the land between the trees at Wooded Hill, Laguna Mountains, California; November 2022.
Whoops (Commenting)
I know that I’m often slow to follow up and reply to comments here, keeping a meaningful conversation going. For our September/October trip, I had temporarily disabled commenting on posts that were older than two weeks (to limit spam and potential overload I’d come back to), and promptly forgot to turn that back on again. That was pretty dumb because by the time I finally replied, you didn’t actually have a chance to keep the conversation going! Comments are open again on all older posts now. Sorry ’bout that!
Trees and landscape reflecting in the calm water of a morning at Tenaya Lake, Yosemite National Park, California; September 2015.
Purchase a print.
No Thanks, Elon & Hello Fediverse
I deleted my Twitter account soon after Musk started his whole shit-show there, and joined a Mastodon server. In case you did the move too, you can find & follow me as @alexskunz@mas.to or take a peek at my profile https://mas.to/@alexskunz to see what I’m sharing there. I always said that I’d pay for an ad-free, privacy-friendly social network without algorithms. Making donations to the person/team that runs a Mastodon server to ensure that it stays that way feels great!
I really like Mastodon. It’s very freeing to get away from all the bullshit on Twitter — which I do hope will go to hell, to be quite honest. I think that the world as a whole will be a better place without centrally controlled, algorithm and ad-revenue driven social media like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and so on. The voices of the village idiots, the demagogues, the voices of hate, ignorance and spite, are multiplied and amplified and propelled into everyone’s view by algorithms that reward attention, no matter how it is generated. A decentralized, user-regulated system like Mastodon seems much more desirable to me, even though I see the challenges for content moderation and growth that lie ahead.
Gypsum dunes disappearing into blowing dust and afternoon haze at White Sands National Monument, New Mexico; March 2019.
Purchase a print.
Worth Your Time
Just two short things this month…
- The Anomalies: The Acord Woodpecker (video, 7:54)
- Fascism, Free Speech, and Musk’s Twitter (6 minute read)
Ridges of the transition zone between mountains and desert, seen from Laguna Mountains, California; June 2011.
Purchase a print.
Recent Sales
Thanks to the buyers from Long Beach, California; Portland, Oregon; Sparks Glencoe, MD; Fayetteville, Arkansas! Because I have so very few photos from the month (besides the ones that I already shared in the blog posts from the beach, and the infrared ones) I’ve inserted them between the different sections above, this month. That’s pretty lame, I know…
And that’s it for this month already! I need to keep an eye on the final submissions for our photo club’s annual contest, and start writing my holiday cards!
I’m not a fan of that feeling that sometimes happens when I look back and don’t see anything much accomplished and yet it’s not like I was just standing around doing nothing, so what happened? A calendar is a worthy product of the month, though. It’s not something I’ve yet made the time to try. Here’s hoping December ends on a higher note. Strangely, I’ve actually found myself writing 2023 a couple times this year… and not for things that should have been 2023. :-)
At this time of the year I’m not so surprised anymore that time goes by quickly – the shorter days probably add to it, but the year-end activities pick up in November for real! Running our photo club’s contest ate more time than I would have liked, then Thanksgiving with all the preparations, etc. etc. :)
If I manage to get my selection of favorites from 2022 (I almosted typed 2023 now!) together in December, and one or the other blog post, I’ll be satisfied.
Thanks for the Acorn woodpecker link – I’ve heard about them and hope to see one someday but I had no idea about those interesting behaviors. I’m glad to hear you had some rain!
Happy to hear that you enjoyed that video. :) And it’s raining again today. Woo-hoo!
Yea!