It is so nice at our apartment/cottage in Santa Barbara...

that I never want to leave the patio area.

Cactus

Cactus, originally uploaded by inyopfc.

Fog Sunset

Fog Sunset, originally uploaded by inyopfc.

Lichen and Oaks

Lichen and Oaks, originally uploaded by inyopfc.

Erosion

IMG_3612.JPG, originally uploaded by inyopfc.

Tea Fire

Tea Fire, originally uploaded by inyopfc.

The Tea Fire, the day after.

MODIS view of the California fires

MODIS view of the California fires, originally uploaded by inyopfc.

A cropped image from http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?subset=USA5

Bright Maples

Bright Maples, originally uploaded by inyopfc.

Adirondack Peaks

Adirondack Peaks, originally uploaded by inyopfc.

Melted Snow On Leaf

Melted Snow On Leaf, originally uploaded by inyopfc.

Mushrooms

Mushrooms, originally uploaded by inyopfc.

Field Naturalists

Field Naturalists, originally uploaded by inyopfc.

Fall Highway

Fall Highway, originally uploaded by inyopfc.

New York State

Me on the Lake Champlain Ferry

Me on the Ferry, originally uploaded by inyopfc.

I am wearing ridiculous clothes because I didn't hvae any good cold weather gear. If I get into this school I need to buy a lot of winter clothes.

UVM

UVM, originally uploaded by inyopfc.

The University of Vermont

Cold!

Cold!, originally uploaded by inyopfc.

It is COLD in Vermont! This was taken in late October, not November... solid ice on a car wildow.

Church Street

Church Street 2, originally uploaded by inyopfc.

In October I visited Vermont to check out Burlington and the Field Naturalist graduate program. I had a great time, and didn't feel like coming back into the fires.

This is Church Street, the 'main drag' of Burlington

Tea time

Fire1.JPG, originally uploaded by inyopfc.

That orange glow in the center of this photo is the Tea Fire. Last Thursday night this fire was barreling down out of the canyons straight towards Santa Barbara. It ate up a bunch of houses in Montecito, mostly because of the eucalyptus, pine, and palm trees people plant up there. At the time of this photo it was moving straight towards us from about 4 miles away and growing like mad. It could have burned up the whole city, except that the winds died down and some amazing nighttime water-dropping helicopter action knocked the fire down fast once the winds slowed down. I can't even imagine trying to fly a helicopter in 60 MPH winds near an almost vertical wall of mountains.

Anyway, I also have some amazing pics of my trip to Vermont but I haven't had time to blog them yet.