Carmel next morning

Theo and I were up early and got out for our walk.  It is a misty moisty morning.  Its greener here because of that - they get the drippy fog off the ocean so it doesn't feel quite as parched as other areas of the state.

Here's a shot I took yesterday of the olive trees and solar panels.

…and yesterday the poppies were open (my cell camera insists on focussing on the background…oh well, you can enjoy the color ; )  Think of it as an impression of a poppy.

One thing that strikes me about some areas of California (and I remember noticing this the last time I was here) is the lack of summer night sounds.  Where I live in coastal NC the summer nights are full of the sounds of crickets, cicadas, sometimes frogs… here it is eerily silent…

I have been enjoying watching the quails in the yard here - I think they are the Valley (sometimes called California) quail.  They have that little top knot on their head.  See www.gbwf.org/quail/valley.html for a description…Here's a photo from their site: