Since it was a sunny nice day here in California, the three kids and I loaded ourselves in the car and went off on an expedition to see what was happening. The Sierra foothills are always bucolic, but especially so this time of year when everything is green and every gully has clear water running.

Below, we have a miniature forest of moss growing on top of a fence post, although it could just as well be some exotic New Zealand rain forest or a Jurassic copse of odd greenery from pre historic times (cue the dinosaurs).

How one is supposed to get to the boat with out swimming, I don't know.

These fuzzies below were nicely waving in the cool breeze.

This red tailed hawk leapt off a fence post as we passed by in the car, and the 13 year old caught this image while we paced it on the country road we were on. Surprisingly, it flew parallel to use for a long time, seeming to purposely offer us the chance to get this shot. Our hawk was likely watching us just as much as we were watching him/her. As the 13 year old said, it was a short but "epic" experience for us.

Not all the fall leaves have left the branch. These blackberry leaves were still gamely hanging on to the thorny bush, which is really amazing given the two weeks of windy and rainy weather we recently had. Nice color.