Sailor’s Delight
Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning;
Red sky at night, sailor’s delight.
Why do mariners repeat this lore? Blame William Shakespeare, the playright, or Matthew, the disciple.
In Venus and Adonis, Shakespeare wrote of red skies in the morning:
Like a red morn that ever yet betokened,
Wreck to the seaman, tempest to the field,
Sorrow to the shepherds, woe unto the birds,
Gusts and foul flaws to herdmen and to herds.
In the new testament of the Bible, Matthew (16:2-3), attributed the following red sky at night reference to Jesus, “When it is evening, ye say, fair weather: for the heaven is red.”
These help explain the popularity of the rhyme, but not how it came to be believed or whether it’s true.
The federal National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration Earth System Research Laboratory informs that because weather generally moves from west to east, when the horizon is clear of storms at dusk, sunlight is able to pass through more of the atmosphere.
The longer sunlight passes through air molecules and particulates the more red and orange light is intensified.
That’s because blue light – because of its shorter wavelength – is scattered easiest by nitrogen and oxygen air molecules, whereas reds and oranges – with longer wavelengths – are not scattered as much over the same distance.
And, when there’s no storm approaching from the west, sunlight travels a longer distance through the atmosphere. That phenomenon is even greater in autumn, due to the low angle of sunlight at sunrise and sunset in the Northern Hemisphere.
As for red skies in the morning, the same idea applies, but in reverse. Redness in the sky occurs when warm morning light reflects off high storm clouds approaching from the west.
The reason sailors should take warning when red clouds are overhead at sunrise, is that they are likely the leading edge of an approaching storm, unseen in the morning darkness to the west.
Clakit StrapPack
Have you ever had to unpack your camera bag or backpack to find a cell phone or wallet?
The developer of the Clakit Clip was hiking California’s mountains (hopefully looking for fall color) when he realized he was constantly searching the bottom of his bag for something. That inspired his developing a durable universal clip and series of companion pouches that can be attached to shoulder straps up to 3″ wide.
The key is the Clakit Clip, a self-ratcheting nylon clip that uses pressure and pins to securely grip the shoulder strap and that adapts to varied Clakit pouches (for cell phones, water bottles, handheld radios, GPS devices, and other items) or other belt loop carriers.
It’s ideal for getting to small items, like: phones, glasses, lens cloths, ID cards, snacks, payment cards, notebooks, keys, pocket tools, flashlights, water bottles and other things you might need at a moment’s notice.
We tested the Clakit StrapPack, which has two zippered, padded compartments and a front flap pocket secured by velcro. At 7″ x 4″ x 1.5″, the StrapPack easily and protectively accommodated an iPhone 8 Plus, ID cards, credit cards, a pen, photographer’s notebook and cash.
The Clakit Clip held the StrapPack snugly to the shoulder strap on a LowePro camera backpack and NorthFace day pack. And, the StrapPack made it easy to get to what was inside… no more digging around or removing a backpack to answer a phone or pay for lunch.
When the backpack was no longer needed, the StrapPack can be removed easily from the clip and secured by one’s side with a belt. For anyone who doesn’t carry a purse, the StrapPack consolidates phone and wallet into one compact and secure pouch that can be clipped to shoulder strap or belt.
Priced at $20, the Clakit StrapPack is a holiday gift that just about anyone can use and enjoy. To buy one or learn more, visit Clakit.com.
Sweeping Fall Away
Doug Wilber spent part of his Saturday, much as he has done each Autumn for the past 17 years… raking and sweeping leaves into a pile in front of his Sacramento home.
His neighbors along 43rd St. had or were doing the same when I visited today.
The City of Sacramento calls this time of year, “Leaf Season.” It’s when the city’s fastidious residents rake, sweep and blow leaves from their front yards into piles every few feet along city streets. Then, every couple of weeks from November through January, city workers come by and scoop them up.
That leaf removal continues for three months in Sacramento tells you just how many trees grow there. This capital city loves its deciduous trees, which provide cooling shade in summer and warming sunlight during winter.
Even SMUD, the local public utility, encourages their being planted to save energy. Sacramento County residents are able to get ten free shade trees through a partnership between the Sacramento Tree Foundation and SMUD.
In Sacramento’s Shady Eighty program, residents can choose the desired height, shape, level of water dependency, if the tree flowers, how close or far it might be planted to structures or power lines, and – yes – desired fall color (red, yellow or orange).
Each year in the week before Thanksgiving, Sacramento streets are layered with canopies of ruby, crimson, orange, gold, yellow, green and buff-colored leaves. It is an impressive sight and worth a trip to Sacramento in addition to its great museums, bars, restaurants and the Freeport Bakery with its famous leaf cookies and other irresistible baked goods.
My favorite locations for seeing fall color in Sacramento County include: Mormon Island Wetland Reserve and bike trails of Folsom, quaint Fair Oaks where chickens run free, East Sacramento’s Fabulous Forties (Gracious Tudor, Colonial Revival, Arts and Crafts, California Bungalow and other grand homes along tree-lined streets numbered in the 40s), William Land Regional Park in South Sacramento and along the American River Parkway (Jedediah Smith Memorial Trail – a 32-mile paved bike and pedestrian trail from the Sacramento River to Folsom Lake).
Sacramento County – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
Droning On
OK, Fall Color video junkies. While working on our year-end recap video, I ran across these videos of California Fall Color taken in October. All locations are past peak, though they give a glimpse of what was happening, as seen by various videographers and drones.
First up: Peter Mikuljan visited several locations in the Eastern Sierra on Oct. 14. Here’s his video of Big Pine Creek, South Fork Bishop Creek.
Peter’s take on Intake II in Bishop Creek Canyon. This area provided one of the best shows along the middle fork of Bishop Creek.
More of Peter’s crew in Bishop Creek Canyon.
And on a road trip to Aspendell in Bishop Creek Canyon:
Next: Titus Davis was in the Hope Valley in early October and got this zen-inspired video.
Titus also rocked out over the color he found on Monitor Pass in mid October.
Finally: William Thompson also took a road trip to the Hope Valley in mid October.
And, to Yosemite Valley in October (FYI, If you’re shooting commercially in a national park, always follow park rules and apply in advance for a commercial filming permit from the National Park Service. The fines for not doing so are pretty hefty).
Pushups in the Woods
Recent rains have caused mushrooms to push up out of the detritus, as Gabriele Leete found in Anderson.
Among the mushrooms emerging are Amanita, among the most poisonous mushrooms on Earth, the most toxic of which cause liver failure and death.
There are 600 varieties of Amanita, including a few edible ones, though eating them is like playing Russian roulette with five bullets in a six-shooter.
Split-gill mushrooms, or Schizophyllum commune, are the only known type of mushroom to retract when touched. They are found on decaying trees during dry periods following a rainfall. Its beautiful gills or “gillies” resemble coral.
Sticky when wet, the honey fungus, Armillaria mellea, grows around the base of trees it infects. The mushroom is a plant pathogen that causes root rot in many of the plants it infects, causing discolored foliage, dieback of branches and death, according to Wikipedia.
Psathyrella is a smaller version of Psathyra, Greek for “Friable.” However, do not mistake these for being “fryable,” as they are toxic.
Psathyrella are in a large genus of mushrooms, containing some 400 types, including Coprinellus, Coprinopsis, Coprinus and Panaeolus.
OK, you get the idea, they’ve all been given Greek names. Aside from that, what also is common about Psathyrella is that they’re boring.
They are often “drab-colored, difficult to identify, and inedible,” Wikipedia reports, “So they are sometimes considered uninteresting,” perhaps that’s what makes them so fascinating to Gabriel and me.
No, we’re not Greeks, just geeks.
Mushrooms, Shasta Cascade – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
Butte Beauties
Bold color is being seen throughout Butte County in the northern Sacramento Valley, from Oroville north to Paradise.
This is the week to see Oroville, Durham, Biggs, Chico and Paradise at peak. The color will likely last through Thanksgiving day (conditions permitting), though not much longer. Click to enlarge photos.
- Oroville’s Sank Park is splashed with yellow gingko, fluorescent Chinese pistache, red-orange redbud and valley oak.
- Vance Rd. along the Feather River in Biggs is literally dumping leaves of every color.
- Chinese Pistache along the Midway from Durham north to Chico have transitioned from hot yellow, lime and pink to deep orange and auburn.
- In Chico, The Esplanade and Main St. are heavy with dark red, orange, yellow and lime color.
- Paradise is Past Peak, though spots of gold, brown, orange and lime are seen among black and brewers oak.
Butte County – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
Sequoia National Forest – Still Bright
Niles Armstrong sends this first report of Peak to Past Peak color north of Kernville in the Sequoia National Forest.
Notice how full the river is running in mid November, even though it has not yet begun raining heavily, and the bright spots of gold still seen among cottonwood along the Kern River’s banks.
Kern River – Peak to Past Peak – You Almost Missed It.
Mixed Display at UC Berkeley Botanical Garden
November is when California’s botanical gardens begin to peak.
This late show is because of where the gardens are located… in and near major metropolitan areas.
Perennial color spotter Sandy Steinman, editor of Natural History Wanderings, visited the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden yesterday morning to find the color very mixed.
He reported, “Some trees and shrubs, were past, some were at peak and some were still early.” His favorite section, the Asian area, “is still probably two weeks away from peak.”
That makes it a prime location to visit on “Orange Friday,” CaliforniaFallColor.com’s much more satisfying alternative to Black Friday.
What you’ll see now in Berkeley are flowers still blooming. This botanical garden is a tribute to California’s Mediterranean climate in that, Sandy notes, it is “one of the few places you can see Willows across the path from Cactus.”
UC Berkeley Botanical Garden – Patchy (10-50%)
Wine and Fall Color Pairing
Unless you’re a club member of one of California’s largest wineries, the welcome is often less than enthusiastic.
Not so in the Sierra Foothills. The wineries there are so lightly visited that the welcome is genuine and warm, and the tasting is often free.
Their hospitality, some extraordinarily exceptional wines and lovely fall color from late-October to mid-November
make them a great choice.
Today, East Bay color spotter Darrell Sano and I visited the Sierra Foothill AVA, independently. He toured Shenandoah Valley vineyards in Amador County while I stopped in El Dorado County’s Pleasant Valley.
There, Holly’s Hill was holding a wine and cheese pairing, with cheese from an artisan cheese shop in nearby Placerville, which used to be called “Hangtown” for all the hangings that occurred there (the El Dorado County seat) in the late 1800s. Today, all that hangs there are sausages in the cheese shop.
At this time of year, Newtown Road, between Placerville and Pleasant Valley, is over hanging with bright yellow bigleaf maple and orange black oak.
It’s the kind of scenic route that Darrell searches for among “the lofty hills and gentle curves in this somewhat hidden area” of California.
Despite a late start from Oakland, he found “the morning light was still something to behold, illuminating the hills, intensifying the color.”
That’s why John Muir preferred to call the Sierra Nevada “the range of light.”
Darrell says that one thing he finds wonderful about fall is that “The quality of light at 1 p.m. is like 7 p.m. in summer… intensifying clarity and structure.”
What Darrell enjoys most about tasting in Amador and El Dorado Counties are their “bucolic hills, traffic-less roads, and no limos!”
You’re not likely to encounter backups as people pose for pictures beside their cars or with their girlfriends. You’ll have the road mostly to yourself, except for an occasional rancher, local or fellow oenophile.
As you motor, craggy Sierra peaks spray-painted white with fresh snow are glimpsed to the east, while the western horizon undulates with layers of purple foothills, scored by rows of vines.
It amazes me how many of California’s most famous labels grow zinfandel, syrah, mourvedre, grenache and viognier in the Sierra. It’s not something they brag about doing – “We grow our grapes in the Sierra!” – but they do.
Then, you sweep past workers picking olives, apples or pears. Harvest is still coming in, even if the grapes have long-since been picked. Darrell stopped and spent a moment talking to the olive harvesters and “relished the moment.”
In places you’ll find fall color surrounding 1855 Victorian structures, like the Farnham House in Fiddletown.
Soon after gold was found nearby, it got so busy that six stage coaches would stop there, each day.
“Today, Darrell was one of the few who stopped during his trip to pair fall color with wine tasting.
Sierra Foothills – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
Fall Farmer’s Markets
California loves its farmer’s markets.
There are literally hundreds of them in the state, and they are found in just about any city of significant population.
Los Angeles has 30 farmer’s markets… some periodic, some permanent.
Although farmer’s markets can be enjoyed year-round here, they’re best in autumn.
There’s just nothing quite as satisfying as exploring a farmer’s market’s booths and wares on a crisp autumn day. You walk the market in a cozy sweater and spend time leisurely chatting with the farmers, artists, authors and vendors.
Buying at a farmer’s market isn’t just about what you buy, it’s about the relationship you make with the person selling it.
Today, I bought three books, as birthday gifts, directly from the author, a writing instructor at the University of the Pacific.
I didn’t need a book review to know they might be something worth treasuring. His enthusiasm communicated that. You don’t get that on Amazon.com. Spending time at a farmer’s market gives you that and more.
Robert Kermen spent Veterans Day in Nevada City at its farmer’s market. The fall color in town was so-so, but the color to be seen at its farmer’s market was off the charts.
CLICK HERE for where to find farmer’s markets in California.