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kevinhamel.bsky.social
Kevin is not doing any more work
@kevinhamel.bsky.social
1.3K followers 1.5K following 3.4K posts
Winemaker, gardener, eater. Read the Alt text.
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kevinhamel.bsky.social
“… gotta find just the right acorn.”

captions in ALText

#squirrels
#wildlife
#backyardcritters
A grey squirrel with a shiny grey coat and a fat, fluffy grey and white tail is searching behind a tree for an acorn. The foreground is dark brown soil with a few scattered brown leaves “… found one!” The squirrel, sitting on its haunches, now has a fat, chestnut-brown acorn in its mouth, and is holding it stogie-style In this photo the squirrel is sitting on its haunches, tail curled at its back, with the acorn in its front paws. Squirrel is peeling off the dark brown shell revealing a creamy white center! The squirrel is now sitting on a fence with the acorn in its front paws, chowing down. In this photo the squirrel is a little shaded by the fence
November 10, 2025 at 12:41 AM
kevinhamel.bsky.social
Describe your cat’s personality with one photo
Photo of a grey and white cat drinking from a shallow kiddy pool, or maybe kitty pool. The pool is bright blue and covers most of the shot. The kitty’s head casts a shadow into the pool, her head surrounded by the concentric circles radiating outward as she drinks from the pool
November 9, 2025 at 5:46 AM
kevinhamel.bsky.social
It was an unpopulated day in black and white - this photo shot in color, no adjustments. The surf was REALLY big and the tide was heading out, so all the footprints on the beach were either mine or theirs.
#sonomacoast
#wildlife
#photography
🌊 🪸
Rocky beach scene with heavy misty sea and sky, rough surf. In the lower half of the photo a rock juts up from the sand, a California gull perched on top. The sand patch is dark grey and untouched. In the right foreground a shallow stream flows down to the sea. Another California gull stretches its wings high next to the stream, In the center right, wading in the stream is a Black Oystercatcher. The photo appears as if in black and white, though it was taken in color.
November 7, 2025 at 9:54 PM
kevinhamel.bsky.social
Feels like the narcissus might be answering the bell a little early this year. But we have had some rain, so here we go!
🌱 🌿
#gardening
#flowers
#justaddwater
Close in ground level photo of a patch of brown soil littered with dry oak leaves and quite a few green spears - narcissus leaves - poking up
November 6, 2025 at 6:46 PM
kevinhamel.bsky.social
“You’ve got two empty halves of coconuts, and you’re bangin’ ‘em together!”

“So?”
A misty scene from the Monty Python film ‘The Holy Grail’. King Arthur leads the way as he and Patsy are pantomiming riding horses. Patsy adds galloping horses sound effects with two halves of coconut shells
November 5, 2025 at 10:16 PM
kevinhamel.bsky.social
“Hey! Are you lookin’ at my butt? You’re lookin’ at my butt, aren’t you?!

Share an angry bird and the curse you think it embodies
Rocky shoreline scene with a seabird (shearling?) standing on a rock, looking back over its shoulder with an annoyed expression. The bird has a complex pattern of tan and white bars on its wings
November 2, 2025 at 5:17 AM
kevinhamel.bsky.social
“Hey! Are you lookin’ at my butt? You’re lookin’ at my butt, aren’t you?”

#birds
#wildlife
#atthebeach
Foto of a seabird (shearwater?) standing on a rock at a, um… rocky beach. The bird has complicated patterns of brown and white bars and is looking back over its shoulder with an annoyed expression.
October 28, 2025 at 10:44 PM
kevinhamel.bsky.social
That looks like a great book!

Sea weed, and giant kelp particularly, have been declining in this part of the coast and so I’m always encouraged to see pockets that are hanging on. This is a cove a few miles north with a respectable looking kelp bed.
Rocky cliff ocean photo. At the top of the photo a dark brown rocky cliff juts out into the ocean. It helps form a cove of calm blue-green water with floating masses of brown kelp in the center. Rock poke above the water line in the foreground.
October 28, 2025 at 5:10 AM
kevinhamel.bsky.social
Some seaweed examples washed up on some recent Sonoma coast beach trips.

I’m going have to get a copy of that guide
Examples of various seaweeds laid out on a grey-sand beach. They range from lasagna-shaped black strips, ripple textured greens in several shades, a pink ruffle A sea palm plant washed up on a grey sand beach. Three greenish yellow stems, joined at the base, with palm-like leaves only on the tops of the stem. There is also a chunk of purple seaweed is in the lower right A green seaweed plant washed up on a grey sand beach. The plant’s base has a small nub of roots, a long slender stem and long green leaves at top
October 28, 2025 at 4:16 AM
kevinhamel.bsky.social
Mushroom riot!
#fungifriends
#mushrooms
#gardening
🍄‍🟫 🍄‍🟫 🍄‍🟫
A big clutch of mushrooms growing under a garden shrub. The mass of fungi takes up most of the frame with shades of white to tan to brown. The background is brown soil with dry leaves mixed in
October 27, 2025 at 6:58 PM
kevinhamel.bsky.social
#ForestFriday

Trail climbing a ridge in the Monte Rio Open Space Preserve
Photo of a trail leading through the forest. A mix of dappled light and shade, straight black and brown tree trunks, green foliage background, patches of blue sky at the top, reddish brown trail crossing the lower third of the frame
October 24, 2025 at 3:36 PM
kevinhamel.bsky.social
Meanwhile, just a bit farther north, at the San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge, the migratory crowd is packed in!
#birds
#nature
Wide shot of a shallow pond in the SPBNWR filled with the brown, black and white specs of migratory shore birds. It is a windless day and the water is glass-smooth reflecting the blue sky. The raised roadbed of state hwy 37 cuts across upper third of the photo and the grey brown hill of Sears point rises above the traffic Photo taken from a raised spot. A group of willets and stilts wades in clear, still, shallow water; looking for food. There are submerged tufts of green grasses in the foreground. At the top of the photo the blue sky colors the surface of the pond
October 24, 2025 at 5:17 AM
kevinhamel.bsky.social
I transplanted this lavender from a pot, where it was anemic looking and leggy, to open ground.

It seems happy!

#gardening
#lavender
🌱 🌿 🪻
Close photo of two lavender blooms; one with its stem wrapped around the other. The elongated cone-shaped flowers are deep blackish purple at the center and base, rich violet at the top. Grey green foliage fills out the background
October 22, 2025 at 6:30 PM
kevinhamel.bsky.social
I voted extra hard this time
#vote
#votingrights
#voteharder
#Prop50
#NoKings
Photo of the voter instruction page for the 2025 California special election, printed in Spanish and English. At the top of the page is a peel-off ‘I Voted’ sticker, also in S & E
October 17, 2025 at 5:30 AM
kevinhamel.bsky.social
Women just don’t like the vehicle
Photo from the tv series ‘The Beverley Hillbillies”. Uncle Jed and Jethro are in the front seat driving an open top, ramshackle vehicle with all their possessions, including a whiskey keg and a rocking chair, strapped to it. Elly May and Granny are sitting in the back with Duke, the bloodhound between them
October 16, 2025 at 10:53 PM
kevinhamel.bsky.social
#ThickTrunkTuesday
#BlueOaks

Up on #TaylorMountainReserve the trees are working on their Halloween ‘fits
Forest photo. A large, thick, twisted, very old Blue Oak tree stretches across the frame from LL to UR. The tree’s bark is a bluish grey with green moss growing over it. The trunk has two gaping holes from old wounds that give the tree a monstrous look. There are twisting black limbs and grey green foliage in the background.
October 14, 2025 at 6:17 PM
kevinhamel.bsky.social
Château d’Amboise, Loire Valley, FR
#AlphabetCallenge
#WeekOforOctober
Chateau d’Amboise: a beige castle perched above the town of Amboise in the Loire Valley, FR. On the left of the structure is a broad turret which was constructed so that a rider with an urgent message for the king could ride straight to the top without dismounting. There is a much taller, narrower tower with many windows. The roof is steep, black slate, with several chimneys and 6 ornate garret windows across the top. Leonardo da Vinci had a studio/workshop/garden, Chateau du Clos Lucé, a short distance away.
October 13, 2025 at 12:05 AM
kevinhamel.bsky.social
“That’s right, honey. Just start with the tip…”
Photo of a middle aged white man, Marcus Bachmann, trying to eat a corn dog. He holds the dog with both hands and, with eyes closed, takes a tentative nibble. As a gay conversion practitioner, he seems to be having trouble opening up to take in the full experience. His wife Michelle, the brown haired head in the lower right, encourages him: “They’re really not that bad!”
October 7, 2025 at 6:29 AM
kevinhamel.bsky.social
Chinese red-cooked pig’s feet. All that connective tissue…

Also, from a no-one-needs-to-watch-this perspective, popcorn.
Snip from the cover of The Rolling Stones ‘Exile on Mainstreet’ album. A grainy black and white photo shows a man, perhaps a circus performer, with three balls (pool balls?) shoved in his mouth. The balls are lined up in a row and visible through his stretched out lips
October 7, 2025 at 4:22 AM
kevinhamel.bsky.social
Clearly we’ve had to evolve from ‘flower power’ as a response to soldiers in the streets. Just as well, given today’s goons will lock you up for a week if you try anything like that.

Maybe we invite a whole bunch of Yuru-Kyara to do a tour, hold workshops for aspiring mascots. Peace Love & Mascots!
A very colorful squadron of yuru-kyara (Japanese mascots) is lining up to march out. A bear, a turnip, a post, some burgers, a rabbit are among the many cute mascots heading to Portland
October 6, 2025 at 6:10 AM
kevinhamel.bsky.social
Pelicans patrolling the shore at Carmet Beach/Sonoma Coast
#pelicans
#sonomacoast
Shoreline photo with a large chunk of dark brown/ black rock reaching into the surf. The sky is a clear, pale blue. A flock of six pelicans flies by above the rock.
October 5, 2025 at 2:39 AM
kevinhamel.bsky.social
I bought this book during the Arab Spring, to try and understand how effective resistance against fascism is staged. I am now re-reading it from the perspective of ‘how are we gonna put this country back together’, because it sure feels like we’re passed the point of prevention
Cover of the most recent edition of “From Dictatorship to Democracy” by Gene Sharp. The cover shows cut and paste images of political resistors, a flag, fists raised
October 2, 2025 at 10:02 PM
kevinhamel.bsky.social
This is Ashley in one of her spots when she needs to get away from The Dog.

“Have you tried taking a nap?”
A grey and white cat lying in a planter with geraniums and gladioluses. Her mouth is open WIDE in a yawn. One white paw hangs over the edge of the planter
October 1, 2025 at 6:40 AM
kevinhamel.bsky.social
“Rollin’ in the grass is a gas
Baby can you dig it?”

music.apple.com/us/album/gra...
Black and white terrier dog rolling on his back in a green lawn
September 29, 2025 at 9:11 PM
kevinhamel.bsky.social
WEATHER IS INCLUSSIVE
Shoreline photo on a dead-calm day on the coast. The sky has a few shreds of fog near the shore. Blue sky is breaking through but farther out to sea is a solid grey marine layer. A few very small waves leave a diagonal line of white foam which defines the shore line
September 27, 2025 at 10:49 PM