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New Year’s Moon over East County. On the evening of Jan. 1, 2010, reflected sunlight made the quarter-million-mile journey to Earth and was refracted through a thin layer of cloud above Brentwood, surrounding the Moon in a spectral corona.<br><i>Photo by Ger Erickson</i> Golden age of lunar equilibrium
Like an angel of heaven, she’s a creature of reflected glory – you can gaze on her and not be blinded. She’s a lesser power, yet she rules the domain of night unchallenged, delivering us from dark...
Mar 09, 2010 | 0 0 comments | 5 5 recommendations | email to a friend
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Standing sentinel along the Bruce Lee Road trail at Mt. Diablo State Park is the gnarly friend Press columnist Ger Erickson dubbed Rhino.<br><i>Photo by Ger Erickson</i> Hiking cohorts wanted – dead or alive
The image of a dead tree touches a nerve. It’s a statue on exhibit, yet unlike the statues fashioned by human hands, it was once alive.
Mar 02, 2010 | 0 0 comments | 7 7 recommendations | email to a friend
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A forest fire of stalks topped by spore-bearing capsules (calyptra) sweeps across a boulder in Round Valley s interior hills. The protective layers of the arrowlike calyptra fall away in stages, the structure dries out and the capsule releases a miniature dust storm of as many as 50,000 spores.<br><i>Photo by Ger Erickson</i> Savoring the season of miniature marvels
Those fleshy and scabrous organisms we associate with the monsters of sci-fi horror flicks are essential to the life of the landscapes we admire.
Feb 08, 2010 | 0 0 comments | 9 9 recommendations | email to a friend
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Viewed from the summit of Round Valley Regional Preserve, inversion fog descends to reveal the ridges of Morgan Territory Regional Preserve.
Photo by Ger Erickson
Senses set adrift in ocean of grey
I had caught sight of an achingly sharp-edged shore beyond a formless ocean, and just as swiftly it had been snatched from me. Was it real or had I dreamed it?
Jan 20, 2010 | 0 0 comments | 8 8 recommendations | email to a friend
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Several times each winter, lovers of East County scenery get to enjoy the beauty of clouds from an elevated point of view – in this case, the view south from the Mt. Diablo Summit on New Year’s Day, 2009.<br><i>Photo by Ger Erickson</i> I’m dreaming of a wet Christmas
Out at sea a cortege of clouds is assembling and getting itself pointed down the time-honored parade route. Straight at us.
Dec 01, 2009 | 0 0 comments | 10 10 recommendations | email to a friend
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