About that title: I dunno, I’m home between trips, and I love it, and here are some random pix & vids from before & after New Zealand – including Christmas & New Year. There’s some repetition in my myriad nature excursions hereabouts, but every day is different, every hour or second, every angle, everything that comes next is new. No?

That may be why I’m including more & similar pix. Believe me, I cut, edit, sift, parse, curate, and leave out much more than I put in. But sometimes, it’s good to stereoscope, triangulate, and provide a bit more than the one crucial shot. Providence provides, thus do I aspire…

Perhaps, my rare reader/viewer, you’ve noticed that my logo for randomvail is now mating banana slugs. They provide a yin/yang symbol; dirty, spineless hermaphrodites defining the cosmos; truth from slime? In any case, here’s a timelapse of tenderness in the woods (and don’t miss another slug clip at the end!)…

Is it not also tenderness that floats a bird on the air? Tenderness, and epochs of evolution showing the love of life on earth? Here are some pelicans adding to the light, the clouds, the wind, the waves, and an extended ephemeral, yet constant, moment of beauty…

This batch starts with my local beach, San Gregorio to the west, and some stops along the 35, Skyline, to the east. Then, it goes to the hills above Pie Ranch with views of Año Nuevo Island, and some scratchings on the equipment at the top…

This batch starts out with Mary Lynn’s Book Club at the December ’23 meeting, then to Burleigh Murray, deer frolicking with turkeys, ML’s Winter Concert, Christmas itself, and lovely desserts brought by Nancy.

It moves on to another sunset, the art of mud & people (& animals), the annual Vida Verde solstice event, Veronica’s “Great Awakening” poster (hope this one ain’t like those in USH!), and I “saw” something…

Dawn Tyler & ML (sisters from another mister) on their way to a breathing retreat in Sedona, Arizona. A great picture by Ash (my Art successor), cows on a path, and the moon on the horizon…

Totally beachin’…

Some signage at Pie Ranch…

A weird batch. First up: peer pressure, the Joneses, or all “should” in the hood? Then, three pix of a persistent rainbow on the way to SFO, and two pix of artwork there. Ya can’t make this $%@&# up!

Amazingly, when our flight to Mammoth was canceled, we were rerouted to Denver so we could make it to Bishop the next day (Tues. v. Thurs.!) So, these pix aren’t just over the Sierras, they’re also over the Rockies – and over mysterious holes in the ground and other geological markings…

Finally made it to Mammoth, the MMI, great snow, parking lot coyotes, the Minarets, and the summit…

Here’s a fun time lapse from a gondola ride all the way to the top…

Also amazingly, the gondola station at the top of Mammoth now has an “Interpretive Center” (AKA a museum), which is outstanding. Went there more than once as you can see, met Phil the curator, and learned a bunch – in addition to having some slammin’ slides on the slopes…

We started with videos, so let’s end with some: skiing, flying over Yosemite (can you see Half Dome?), and landing back at SFO. Stay tuned to RandomV for more adventures soon. Carvaciously yours…

And one more in the “News of the Weird” category. The “slugder” or “spidug”? You decide…

Next up: SEAsia…