Central Coast

People who live in this area generally love it.   So many people, like ourselves, have relocated here from the Bay Area or the expansive LA region.   The Central Coast provides a quieter life with a more rural atmosphere and less traffic.   When I moved here in 2002, there were still large undeveloped acreages with oak trees and hay fields or wild grasses.   People were still raising cattle and taking them to the livestock auction in Templeton.   Thirteen years later, there is more traffic in the area because so many wide open areas have been developed as vineyards.   It's a different Central Coast today with wine being a bigger industry and tourism draw.   I much preferred the wide open land with cattle grazing to the thousands of acres of vineyards.   But nobody asked me, they just went ahead with all the development.   It's changed the landscape but we still have that small town feel and familiar faces in the same stores for the past ten years or more.   

And the skies.   We have such beautiful skies which I'm not sure I noticed so much until I started taking photos again about 8 years ago.   The foreground in my photos is always the same, but the painting in the sky is different each evening and with the light changing every second.   I take my camera outside with me because it's just too pretty to miss.   The dogs run around while I walk around the property.   It's just a nice relaxing way to spend a half hour or so.   

Birds show up every evening to get a drink of water from the buckets we keep for our chickens.   We have a pair of House Finches, some Gray Vireos, and these Bluebirds who are so very hard to photograph.   I can only get photos through the kitchen window.   It seems they have raised two young ones and are now bringing them to the buckets so they continue learning to fend for themselves.   I suppose when we no longer have chickens, we will have to keep these buckets for the wild creatures.   That is, except for the Starlings who are not really welcome.   I hope they move along when there is no longer chicken feed to lure them here.   

This morning it is very cool outside with complete cloud coverage.   It feels like an Autumn morning...very unusual for August on the Central Coast.   Lots of things change and yet so much stays the same.   I wonder what another 13 years will bring.

Have a great Friday and hopefully a fun and/or relaxing weekend.