Skywatch Friday New Year’s Eve

Well here we are again at the end of an entire year , hurtling toward the new one only hours away.

Even a cynic harbors a smidge of hope that the fresh  calendar will bring good days ahead.

This is the leading edge of a one day rain event  rolling in from the Pacific over the Santa Ana mountains on the afternoon of Dec.29th.

Go out and make 2010 a good year !

See more skywatch photos from all over the globe at:

http://skyley.blogspot.com/

Merry Gumby Christmas Skywatch Friday!

This is a giant metal Gumby that resides in this guys yard all year with his pal Pokey across the driveway.

He has donned a Santa hat and holds a string of lights for the season.

Have a great Holiday week everyone!

See more Sky views from around the globe at:

http://skyley.blogspot.com/

First Winter Snow ! Skywatch Friday

First Southern California Snow of the season fell last weekend, more should arrive this weekend.

View of Mt. Baldy  from Corona foothills , across Prado dam and the 91/71 interchange.

See more skies at:

http://skyley.blogspot.com/

Skywatch Friday~December’s Full Cold Moon

This is the Full moon of December, known as the Full Cold Moon or The Long Night Moon.

The hovering light to the left is just a street light  poised to take over the entire planet.

Missed last week because Thanksgiving was super in every way, super fun, super tasty and super full  of friends and family.

Hope every single one of you out there has had a good week too!

I may have had too much coffee this morning!!!

See lots of lovely skies from all over the globe at:

http://skyley.blogspot.com/

Cactus Flower Moon on Skywatch Friday

Two striking photos this week.

The clear bright blue Autumn sky above a lovely Cactus flower,multi hued leaning over the front yard wall. I have never seen this cactus bloom in multi-color until this year and never so tall ,about 11 feet up!

Very glad I took this picture when I did, the ladies next door cut it down to use about 3 hours later!

This sliver of a moon rose about 6 pm tonight, I took this on my way home from work. Outside temp about 76 degrees , a lovely Autumn moonrise and a cooling trend on the way, perfection or close enough!

See more Skies from around the globe @ :

http://skyley.blogspot.com/

Skywatch Friday ~ Hillside about to change

This is what it looks like right before a piece of land is developed.This is Signal Hill in the town of Norco California.

It rises about 600 feet above the valley floor and during WWII it was atop this hill that plane spotters sat watch and communications antennas rose.

This is the “street” side  of the hill, the other side is the home of the US Navel Weapons and Tactical Command. Locally still known as the Naval Ordinance Lab, a leftover term from the 1960s.

I was driving by and noticed a few boulders at the foot of the hill had been moved to an artfully arranged pile , a sure sign of the bulldozers to come next. I looked up the hill and pulled into the lot across the street to take these photos. There are three guys at the top of the frame, likely engineers or surveyors and below them is their Humvee, could be from the Navel center or not ,can’t tell .

There are no roads on this side of the hill so that had to be a great ride up and down again!

I will be watching for future posts on what is built .

See other skies from around the world @:

http://skyley.blogspot.com/

Skywatch Friday~Heat,Squirrels,Fire&Fog

This had been a busy,strange week here in Corona.

Early in the week we had low humidity and high temps , now on Thursday morning we have cool fog and mddle 70’s!

Nov.2nd Monday:

A lovely Smog-set, poor air quality= beautiful sunsets.

Tuesday Nov 3rd:

Twelve O’clock noon,temprature 92 degrees, humidity in the 9-15% range.

A Squirrel takes respite in the narrow shade offered by a roadside marker, I do not disturb his furitive rest with a photo, seemed too intrusive.

Across the valley to the Northwest a brush fire has just broken out along the  untended hillsides of Hwy.60.

Caused by a truck with a broken exhaust system the fire caused little damage ,the water dropping planes and ‘copters based at Brackett Field a couple miles away, saw the smoke and went into action right away. All put out the same day.

The low pressure system heading our way from the South yesterday afternoon. This is on the I -15 South near Clinton-Keith road.

And today there is fog…

For more skies from around the globe :

http://skyley.blogspot.com/

 

Grocery store rant

So….I have been to a total of 4 “grocery stores” this weekend. That is too many.

The issue is partly my concern about eating cleaner, less processed,no added or refined sugar laden foods.

I am really OK with going to a couple stores but not 4 and still not have all the items I wanted for the week.

The Stores are all advertising how they have “lowered prices” in this economy however they have also lowered the selection of products available to the shopper.

Where there once was a 8-12 type/brand choice of coffee at Sams there are only 3 ground and 4 whole bean choices today. I am spoiled by the “On the Border” tortilla chips there and the pharmacy price on Aleve is very low.

So…we went on to the Walmart,no coffee there either, I am not looking for an exotic brand ,just Maxwell house breakfast blend.

So I bought cinnamon , scent free fabric softener and blackberry S/F Smuckers jam.

On we go to Albertsons where I normally purchase S/F cookies for Bob and speciality deli meat.

Only one flavor of cookie is there so we have reg. chocolate chip which is OK but a variety is nice. No pepper salami anymore and the brand of pastrami is less than I like in quality. Now I know I sound too picky to  be allowed to live but really , to have a good meal is one of the only ways we treat ourselves these days .

So the Stater Brothers visit was on Friday and was only for milk, toilet paper and Sobe and apples.

I still have not found the White Vermont cheddar I wanted.

May be later in the week I will trek to the Ralphs across town.

I may have to just learn to make do with the lesser selection at one or two stores a week because I found myself really angry and hating the general public who were mooing  at me to join their herd as they trundled through the aisles.

Oh lord I sound like Niles Crane.   So what…I deserve Vermont  White Cheddar.

I had disappointment for lunch.

Happy Halloween !

The Friday morning sun on the kitchen Jack-O-Lantern with our hazy,flat blue skies out the window.

Everyone have a safe and happy Halloween tonight!

Skywatch Friday S4/E15

Just a really different view of a hot day in Southern California.

Temps were in the high 8Os, there was a nice little breeze and this cloud rolled over the coastal range to the West of us and just drifted very slowly until the breeze started reshaping it over the 3 O’Clock sun.

For more views of the sky around the globe visit:

http://skyley.blogspot.com/