I shot this yesterday. I take this shot from the same place a few times a year. It's our weekend place in rural New York State. Both barns are ours; I call them stereo barns.

Older and newer together again

nice mood

Romania 2015

So Lovely !

... when we live with and respect our natural world there is nothing more wonderful...
there are many things about back east which I miss...

Ride On
Yuri

Spain

you've shared this view before. I love it. great pic this time capturing the falling snow

may I ask how you keep tabs on a vacant house in the cold? if you'd rather PM me that's fine. I ask because since our Mother moved out of the family house a year ago in Yonkers I've been visiting every 2 weeks. actually the frequent visits started 3 yrs ago when our Dad passed. but at least Mom was in the house, keeping an eye on everything. in this cold it doesn't seem like enough. there's no internet & so we have no remote monitoring. the house is fine, so long as nothing goes wrong ...

We have wonderful neighbors who help us. We pay one of them, and we hire other folks occasionally. The others do it out of neighborliness. We leave the heat on at low thermostat settings. The house is extremely well insulated.

We do have internet access though no fancy monitoring devices. I keep a small Linux server there, and if I can log into it remotely, I know the power is on. If I can't ping it, then something is probably wrong. The power goes out a lot there, between 4 and 8 times a year. When it comes back on, I log into the server and check the time when it started. Maybe one day I'll install fancier monitoring devices.

The mighty Oak tree.

Wonderful pic

It looks like what we have here, in my area -- especially the spread of the crown, which is a Live Oak (Quercus virginiana) . However, as I understand it California doesn't have Eastern Live Oaks, but they have some very similar oaks. My guess is that this may be a Coast Live Oak (Quercus agrifolia), but I guess there are a few other possibilities.





.

Valley Oak is deciduous. Our live oaks are evergreen. It does have it's share of mistletoe.

Damn ... that is a great photo!

Enjoyed a bit of skiing this weekend. Sometimes, it's all about the view ...

When you need to get in a Z2 ride, but it's after 5 p.m...

Wow! Gorgeousness

Picos de Europa

Interesting topic. In general I've only ever differentiated the 'Live Oak' into the 'Coastal' (what we have around here) and 'Interior' (those interior from the Coastal ranges); but apparently there are at least 20 differentiated varieties/species of 'Oak' - of which the evergreen varieties are the most apparent...
per Google AI:
"AI OverviewCalifornia has roughly 20 native species of oak trees, along with over 20 hybrids. Among these, several key evergreen "live" oak species dominate the landscape, notably the Coast Live Oak (Quercus agrifolia), Interior Live Oak (Q. wislizenii), Canyon Live Oak (Q. chrysolepis), and Engelmann Oak (Q. engelmannii).
Key details regarding California live oaks include:

• Primary Live Oak Species: The most common are the Coast Live Oak (coastal areas) and Interior Live Oak (foothills).
• Key Identification: Live oaks are evergreen, unlike many other California oaks that lose their leaves.
• Other Notable Species: The Canyon Live Oak, often found in rocky canyons, is another significant species.
• Hybrids: In addition to the roughly 20 distinct species, many natural hybrids exist between them. "
  
  and never thought the Live Oaks one sees in canyon would be different...
  
  Ride On
  Yuri

Shot these yesterday from along the bike path in Ogden, Utah.

Georgia, Caucasus

I drove the Georgian Military Highway across the Caucasus in 1977. Spectacular!

musst have been great back then! when I rode it in 2015 there was lots of traffic, but in waves. they stop traffic at the borders and they have wait days... until they can pass.