“You Can’t Keep a Good Fern Down”

Olympus E-M10 IV with 14-42 kit lens @ 15mm, f/11, 1/40s, ISO 800. Along the East Fork Trail.

A small bridge surrounded by ferns

“Spring Trail”

Olympus E-M10 IV with 14-42 kit lens @ 14mm, f/9, 14005s, ISO 320. Olallie Trail with a foot or so of snow on the east side of O’Leary Mountain.

Show-covered trail

“Morel Season”

Olympus E-M10 IV with M. Zuiko 40-150mm f/5.6-6.3 lens @ 42mm, f/5.6, 1/400s, ISO 200. On the O’Leary Trail south of Mclennan Mountain.

Finished: The Peshawar Lancers, by S.M. Stirling 📚. A rip-roaring adventure tale set in an alternative-history sort-of-steampunk 2025 India, featuring soldiers of the British Raj, Imperial Russian secret agents, Sikhs, Pathans, Jewish merchants and a host of others. A quite enjoyable book in the Heinlein “good guys win by being noble and competent and get the girls” mold.

“Sawtooth Ridge”

Olympus E-M10 IV with M. Zuiko 40-150mm f/5.6-6.3 lens @ 53mm, f/8, 1/200s, ISO 160. Seen from the O’Leary Trail west of MacDuff Mountain.

Sawtooth Ridge forested mountain summits

Finished: The Living Reed, by Pearl S. Buck 📚. A novelization of Korean history from 1881 to 1945, of which I knew essentially nothing before reading. I’m not sure I know how much after - like Buck’s other books, this is quite romanticized, and focused more on personal stories than historical analysis. Slow and lush writing makes for pleasant reading though.

“Mossy Elephants”

Olympus E-M10 IV with 14-42 kit lens @ 15mm, f/5, 1/125s, ISO 3200. O’Leary Trail west of MacDuff Mountain.

Trailside rock formations covered with moss

Finished: The Rising Tide, by Jeff Shaara 📚. A historical novel covering WWII’s Mediterranean Front roughly from the tank battles of North Africa to the Allied invasion of Italy. It mixes the prime movers (Rommel, Eisenhower, and so on) with a couple of regular soldiers. As far as I can tell the historical content is accurate, though much of the dialog is clearly imagined. Does a good job of showing the political side of the upper echelons of the military.

“Starflower”

Olympus E-M10 IV with 14-42 kit lens @ 42mm, f/6.3, 1/15s, ISO 1600. O’Leary Trail west of MacDuff Mountain.

Starflower in the woods

“Sand Two Bits”

Olympus TG-6 @ 5.4mm, f/3.2, 1/800s, ISO 100. At Baker Beach.

The US has a radio-free zone. If we had an AI-free zone, I’d move there.

“By-the-wind Sailor”

Olympus TG-6 @ 7.8mm, f/4, 1/160s, ISO 200. At Baker Beach.

By-the-wind Sailor stranded on the sand

“Loneliness”

Olympus E-M10 IV with 14-42 kit lens @ 42mm, f/11, 1/1600s, ISO 800. Shot at Baker Beach.

A single bird on an empty beach

Judge: Trump Administration ‘Unquestionably’ Violated Court Order on Deportations

And they’ll no doubt violate his order of remedies too. The Constitutional crisis is here, and there may not be any way to stop it.

Diseases are spreading. The CDC isn’t warning the public like it was months ago

So the way to make America healthy again is just to claim that there are no diseases. Seems legit.

Trump administration accepts Qatari 747 to serve as Air Force One

Even loud objections from (some) Republican members of Congress isn’t enough to rein in this administration’s blatant corruption.

Prediction: this jet will never fly as Air Force One. It’s going to cost more and take longer to retrofit for security and defense than the Trump people are claiming.

Nice 20-mile hike today. www.alltrails.com/explore/m…

Photos will follow but right now I’m exhausted.

“Sea and Sky”

Olympus E-M10 IV with 14-42 kit lens @ 14mm, f/11, 1/640s, ISO 320. Morning low tide at Baker Beach.

Morning low tide at Baker Beach.

Trump admin deports immigrants to South Sudan in violation of court order, lawyers say

It’s becoming increasingly apparent that this administration only follows court orders that it likes.

“Run Away!”

Olympus E-M10 IV with 14-42 kit lens @ 42mm, f/8, 1/500s, ISO 640. Snowy plovers on Baker Beach.

Snowy plovers on the beach