I did not go to see any fireworks, it was raining and I was busy with year end stuff. There were some bangs from outside, though, and I heard that my friends had had fun, so it is all good.
Rain on New Year’s Eve, light, water and Liquidambar(?) leaves
Today, New Year’s Day, it was raining some more. Photography is different in rain. I should use the opportunities when they arise, as California is not very wet state.
Water droplet on a palm, New Year’s Day
Water droplets on grass, sun was shining on a New Year’s Day between the showers.
Pink magnolias are beginning to bloom, Dec 26th or Boxing Day in Berkeley, CA. The weather was variable, in the afternoon it began to rain again.
I also saw a bold humming bird. It initially shied away, but when it saw that I was not attacking, it returned to feed close enough to video. It must have been hungry. Once it flew away, I continued on my way.
Christmas Eve, Berkeley, CA. The rainy season (winter) has started and new, hopeful green shoots are peeking.
Mosses are green, too.
Magnolias are blooming, different species than the big white ones in the summer. Those are now producing seeds. There seems to be always flowers in Berkeley, CA.
Berkeley palms against December sky. Later, it began to rain.
Then some Christmas ornaments. Or seed pods of a gumball tree (assuming I identified the species correctly.)
Finally, some late ginkgo leaves, most of the ginkgo leaves around here are already down, but there are some trees that even have some green left.
Hello, again! I have not abandoned my blog, just neglected it.
Here is a photo I took last week’s Saturday, while walking in Berkeley. Juxtaposition of red and yellow leaves and palms in sunlight at the beginning of winter (for me, the winter months are December, January and February)
Today was the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year. It was raining. I am still trying to decide which photos to use where, but I think these leaves on the ground have seasonal color.
December 21st, Berkeley, CA
Merry Christmas!
Maybe I should make colorized versions of these photos and post them as jigsaw puzzles?
And now for something different, a silent video of a skipper butterfly I saw September 14th 2025. Yes, I know it is mostly plants, but the butterfly is there, doing nothing very interesting.
Sometimes you need a moment of rest and relaxation.
Today, while walking with my mobile ready to snap a picture or even a video, I noticed a number of hummingbirds, not as a flock but a hummingbird or two every now and then. More than I could photograph. Aside from being fast, the little birds are well camouflaged when sitting among the green leaves of a tree. Also, they are small, which means my camera’s resolution will not be sufficient for a good picture or a video. Hummingbirds are migratory, moving south for winter and flowers. I don’t know if they stay here in Berkeley for winter, maybe they are just passing through, but some were singing.
A photo of a hummingbird and a bottle brush plant, October 19th, 2025, Berkeley, CA
Monday’s rain had apparently inspired little green shoots to peek from the ground. Hopefully this was not a false start. The best part of the winter is the greenery as the rainy season ushers new growth.
Skipper butterflies were still around, though this time I did not see a swarm. There were also occasional Monarchs and smaller white butterflies.
I was lucky enough to be aiming for a red bottle brush flower, when a hummingbird flew to feed. Quick switch to video mode captured a few seconds of hummingbird and red flower.
A short video of a hummingbird and a bottle brush plant, October 19th, 2025, Berkeley, CA
Sometimes you need to take a break and appreciate the small things
So, I got a temp job as a scientist starting late September and have been busy. But I am planning on keeping posting, even if the intervals between content get lengthy.
About a week ago I was walking around taking snapshot and videos, and was impressed at the amount of butterflies fluttering around, multiple species of them, multiple places. I am still trying to process my videoclips (I have quite a few of them taken this year) into YouTube videos, but here is a little sample at lower resolution.
There was a bush (or a cluster of them) with yellow and pink flowers, which seemed to be very popular with small brown and quick butterflies. I had seen them occasionally around, but their numbers had been increasing towards autumn. They look like online photos of skippers, which are common in California and North America, and though I would not presume to identify the exact species with 100% certainty, an Umber Skipper or a Fiery Skipper seems a possibility.
I think this swarm was from the latest brood that had eclosed and was preparing for winter and / or having a mating season. I have some earlier clips of similar-looking butterflies, but those were difficult to obtain because the insects were skittish and quick to fly. The butterflies in this swarm seemed to be more interested in feeding, occasionally chasing each other, but I could get close to this specimen without it flying away. Maybe they were preparing for winter or for laying eggs.
Pure speculation, since Winter in California is the rainy season, with new green shoots, so it may be a good time for new caterpillars to hatch. On the other hand, maybe the adults were preparing to hibernate through the wet and cold.
A skipper butterfly in pink inflorescence, October 04, 2025
Long time no write. I got employed (at will, contract until the end of November) and have been working since last week’s Monday. Still learning the ropes, enough of that.
Federal government
Secretary of War, Hegseth, had called all generals, 1-star and up for an all hands meeting. This includes those who have ‘active situations’ going. Very unusual. The rumors online ranged from imminent intensification of WWIII, invasion of Venezuela, an alien arrival, a complete reorganization of US military, or mass lay offs to clean out our top heavy military organization chart. The official explanation was pep talks telling the armed forces to merit base up, go on diet, and concentrate on learning how to efficiently win wars rather than having rainbow events and PC talk. It is generally thought that the pep talks were a cover for something else, though what that might be is unknown to public.
The mass lay offs in military would have dovetail nicely with the threatened imminent mass lay offs of Federal bureaucracy in general, due to government shutdown, because congress cannot (again) pass a budget, or as the case has been for quite a few years, a continuing resolution. Trump has been itching to take a machete or a flamethrower at our bureaucratic jungle and to cut our budget deficit (our current Federal debt has ballooned since the summer 36 trillion to today’s over 37.5 trillion and keeps rising)or at least the funding to his political opponents. Instead of putting the Federal workers on furlough with back pay when the continuing resolution has been passed, the president proposes to simply fire the non-essentials (or a fraction of them) to reduce Federal complexity and expenses. Considering the recent increase in debt levels, methinks, this is an opportunity for a political purge, any savings would be incidental.
This is, of course, ‘to combat the illegal immigration’ (much encouraged by successive Labour and Tory governments alike.) Exactly how the UK government believes forcing digital ID on people who do not use even paper IDs is going to help, but I think the digital ID for legitimate, as in taxable, work and other economic activity will collapse what is left of UK finances. Or the people will revolt (though at this point I think that less likely than finding metabolically active extraterrestrial life.) In any case, immigrants without ID could presumably still access welfare and healthcare, even if they cannot work legally.
While I unfortunately did not find a reference, I recall that during COVID, Sweden discussed banning cash, but the government retreated when they realized that large enough fraction of of their economy functioned on informal basis to sink the rest of the economy(sarskillt utsetta omraden would have exploded or become even less governable than currently. While the White Hall may know their people better than I and are banking on them being hopelessly obedient (rebels having left during 17th and 18th century), lots of White Hall mandarins are clueless elites that live separate from normal life and consequences of their actions.
In South Korea, there was a big fire in a government data center, which crippled many of the government services, including things requiring digital ID. The fire started from a lithium battery (the batteries were being replaced because they were getting old) and it is unknown how much actual data the South Korean government lost.
While I was anticipating hackers having a fiesta with people’s IDs online, and rolling blackouts and other such infrastructure misery making them unpracticable (the Indian Aadhar system has reportedly led to deaths by starvation due to lack of access to government social security), I had forgotten about the vulnerability of the data centers. TietoEVRY, which is a major PPP contractor for various data base services to Finnish government (including the election vote results, at least once in collaboration with Scytl when still known as TietoEnator) managed to years ago (when it was known just as Tieto) totally mess up multiple Swedish databases. Considering this and the South Korean example, I expect any digital ID to result in Kafkaesque nightmare for the subjects and massive confusion and potentially paralyzing dysfunction to the governments. But perhaps that is not a bug but a feature – maybe it will allow greater variety for financial oppression while reducing the citizens’ ability to defend themselves against the governmental predators, the profits of which are then calculated to outweigh the cost of national collapses.
Local news
California has on November 4th special elections about redistricting. The cost estimates range from 250+ to 280+ million dollars, that is over quarter of billion dollars to invest on Democrats (maybe) taking Congress (and US budget.) Nevertheless, as a California tax payer, I am annoyed. I have gotten two mailings of official election information. I suppose that is my tax dollars at work.
War and Troubles
Drone attacks and air space violations of NATO countries are intensifying. Involved parties: at least Poland, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Estonia, Hungary, Romania, and, of course, Russia and Ukraine. I probably have missed countries – these days the news come too fast for me to follow. Also who did what to whom is unclear, including to many of the targets. Meanwhile, I am more worried about cyber attacks and domestic terrorists.
Just another free jigsaw puzzle via Jigsaw Explorer. A depiction of light on Finnish forest lake water.
For people who have only a short break, 24 pieces. Access the puzzle by clicking the image. For those who want more challenge, the number of pieces can be adjusted at the beginning of the game.
I wanted to make something for Pinterest, but of course, it should be here, too.
This is a color saturated bubbles rendering of a close up view of tree bark I photographed this month (August 3rd) in Berkeley. Unfortunately, I have forgotten which tree.
After processing the photo for different versions (maybe one or more of them will make it to POD designs), I uploaded this image here and copied the planktonpunkt.com image link to Jigsaw Explorer to make a puzzle.
PlanktonPunkt 