Queueing up around the block for the traditional Thanksgiving Eve Cheeseboard Collective mushroom pizza extravaganza. Berkeley culinary socialism at its finest.

The DNC roll call last night may have shown that, as one poster put it, "The Millennials Have Seized the Means of Event Production.” But this shot from the intro video for Doug Emhoff’s speech showing a teenage Second Gentleman holding The Clash's 1978 album "Give 'Em Enough Rope" is pure Gen X.

A blue whale cloud swimming over San Francisco Bay on a sunny Sunday before the next atmospheric river arrives.

First surf of 2024. The only one surfing naked in the 54-degree F (12 C) water was the harbor seal hanging out in the lineup.

Sunday Sunrise in Bolinas.

Solstice sunset over San Francisco Bay looking west from the Berkeley hills.

Took the car ferry to Bruny Island in Tasmania. Didn’t see any of the island’s famous white wallabies but we did encounter this echidna, one of Australia’s two egg-laying mammal species.

Wombat with an ocean view. Yesterday at Maria Island, Tasmania.

The aliens have arrived this morning in Hobart, Tasmania.

Foggy dawn Church of the Surf services in Bolinas as the Bay Area heat wave breaks. Glassy rolling waves and an attentive harbor seal.

Reflected sunset over San Francisco Bay and the Marin headlands on a hot Berkeley evening.

Today’s late summer harvest from the backyard Berkeley farm displayed on my mom’s 1960s-era platter.

San Francisco is soooo dead. At the free Stern Grove Festival to see Patti Smith amid the redwoods and eucalyptus. Inspiring performance.

I spend so much time reporting and writing about the ocean that I have little time to be in the ocean. So took a day off to go for a surf. A sunlight-streaked foggy Bolinas summer morning and small waves, but also harbor seals and California brown pelicans. Zen restored. At least for a few hours.

First harvest of fava beans from the backyard farm. Late in the season but an unusually cold and wet Bay Area spring delayed planting. Tonight’s menu: fava bean bruschetta!

DAL —> SFO
107°F —> 57°F

After 24 hours in the Texas (thunder) heat dome, returning to California cool (where I’ve relentlessly complained about the never-ending and freezing marine layer for the past two months).

It’s a fruitful strawberry summer in the backyard farm. Plus some raspberries.