Contented Cows

It's been a quiet day today. We had a little field trip to the Cottage Garden Nursery in Petaluma and I shot this picture of the Petaluma Valley from the window. We had our first real rain last week and I took this picture to illustrate how quickly the grass comes up. This looked like a field of straw the last time we drove down. The hills that weren't burned are turning green already and the ones that were are being sprayed with Hydrospray, a mixture of grass,  wildflower, and other fast growing seeds designed to prevent erosion. 

Della Fattoria, our favorite bakery/restaurant in downtown Petaluma has an event space where they took in evacuees, (four families, three dogs, two cats and a tortoise) until they could find more permanent accommodation. Last night the author of "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" did a free show for all the kids affected by the fires. He talked about himself, his work and his friend who lost his house to the flames. then he provided all the kids with a copy of his latest book, taught them the basics of drawing, and provided them with the materials to try their own hands at it.... 

Santa Rosa is a city of beautiful trees and fall is usually when they are at their best. This year It seemed that they weren't going to change color much at all, but it seems that it was just too warm for them to do their thing. Now that the weather has turned more seasonably cool the trees, especially the Chinese Pistache and the Japanese Maples are, well, flaming and our town is looking better.

The EPA hazmat teams are just about finished with the job of removing tall the hazardous materials from all the burned lots. Then the job of clearing them of debris, chimneys and foundations will begin. Homeowners can sign a 'right of entry; form enabling the government sponsored teams to do it in exchange for whatever the individual homeowners' insurance pays, or they can hire somebody themselves to do the work. It is required whether they rebuild or not. So is paying the mortgage on a house that no longer exists....

OilMan planted a dwarf pomegranate under our bedroom window today and I kept him company pulling up a slew of weeds that suddenly sprouted in the pathway. There are scores of lemons getting nicely ripe on the tree in front of the house and I am turning my attention to what, if anything we want to put on the front porch with the new front door....the bench we had there doesn't fit anymore....