Raspberry Thoughts and Go Bears!

This past week, we were very concerned about two local fires. As of this morning, the Pendleton Fire was 100% contained while the Oak Glen III Fire was 95% contained (full containment expected by Monday). We received word Thursday that the Oak Glen roads were open and the orchards would be open for business this weekend. This was extremely fortuitous on many levels - no structures or lives were lost in the fires, the apple picking industry was untouched and Michelle had been planning to visit on this particular Saturday (to go raspberry picking) for the past several weeks.

In the top left picture, you can see how frightening close the fire came to Riley's Farm - literally, it stopped right across the street. We love Riley's Farm and have been coming for their raspberries for the past couple of years (Holly got us addicted!). We were lucky enough to run into Mr. Riley himself (don't you love his costume?). As usual, the raspberries were delicious!

Here are the raspberry pickers! Daddy Dude stayed under the shade - he's not one to pick berries (after all, he's "not Nature Boy").

And as always, when the opportunity presented itself, I took some photos of some insects. It's very hard to get a good picture of a bee - there's something about their shape that doesn't lend itself to good overall focusing! This particular bee would not leave my basket but went from berry to berry, sipping leisurely. The other photos is that of some plant sucking bug nymph. I loved this shot because you can see its proboscis extended, drinking plant juice!

Last but not least... today was the season opening game for Cal football (note Michelle's T-shirt)! Daddy Dude has been glued to the TV for most of the day. We are extremely pleased to report that Cal crushed Maryland! Yay! GO BEARS!!!