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Seasonal creeks are full of water now, tumbling on their way to the Pacific Ocean. Craig Tooley recently photographed some of the cascades on Quinliven Creek.

And if you could hear the creek, you would find out it is singing!

Thanks to Craig for allowing me to share his photos with you here. To see much more of Craig's nature photography, here is the link to his website: http://www.ruffimage.com

We received well over three inches from yesterday's storm. Season to date is 35.10 inches. And more rain coming in tonight.

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Scoliopus bigelovii has two strange common names - Fetid Adder's Tongue and Slink Pod. They are our earliest blooming wildflowers and they are found on the forest floor. The tiny, exquisite blooms come up first, with the stem barely cupped by the emerging leaves. The blooms are only about an inch or so high, so they are quite hard to spot. I recently showed photographer Craig Tooley where they were blooming on a neighbor's property.

They are members of the Lily family. The flowers will be long gone when the leaves fully emerge. If you find the large mottled leaves in the spring, note where they are growing so you can look for the flowers next winter. Rick and I always started looking for them on Christmas Day, and this year I found the first one on Dec. 26th.

Thanks to Craig for allowing me to share his photo with you here. To see much more of Craig's nature photography, here is the link to his website: http://www.ruffimage.com

Much of the Mendonoma Coast has no power. The towns of Gualala, Anchor Bay and Point Arena are without power since yesterday's storm. I am posting this with the help of a backup generator. We had a wild and very windy storm, which was the culprit for the power outages. Many trees are down. It will be several days before power is restored. The rain totals for yesterday's storm was 2.45 inches, 29.95 season to date.

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Perry Hoffman slowly approached the resting Harbor Seals, who were lounging on the sandbar on a sunny day. Don't they look happy and contented?

A Common Raven appeared, perhaps looking for remnants of the Harbor Seals' meal. The Harbor Seals didn't seem to mind.

Lastly, Perry saw a beautiful rainbow on New Year's Eve.

Now that's a nice sighting for the last day of the year.

Thanks to Perry for allowing me to share his photos with you here. To see much more of Perry's nature photography, here is the link to his website: https://magentaraven.com/

A big storm is hitting the Mendonoma Coast now. With the first wave, in the wee hours of Wednesday, we received 0.75 inches. Lots more coming down now. Power it out for many of us. I am fortunate to have a backup generator, which is how I can send this to you today. Batten down the hatches!

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The last sunset of 2022 was so beautiful. The colors started out orange and yellow, and then morphed into pink and purple. Paul Brewer took this photo showing the Gualala River in the foreground, the sandbar, and the Pacific Ocean behind it.

Tricia Schuster took her photo from The Sea Ranch, perhaps a few minutes earlier than Paul's photo.

Pure loveliness! Thanks to Paul and Tricia for allowing me to share their photos with you here.

We had a short rainstorm today, but it dropped quite a bit of rain, over a half inch. A big storm is coming in Wednesday, a river of rain event. Wow!

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Marilyn Green photographed this cloud formation recently and she sees a Great Blue Heron on the top. I agree.

Here's a recent photo of an actual GBH, taken by Sara Bogard out near the Point Arena Lighthouse. Notice that the heron has a scar on his or her right wing. Sara said it looked healed up so it happened some time ago.

Great Blue Herons are year round residents of the Mendonoma Coast, and sometimes they are even seen in the clouds!

Thanks to Marilyn and Sara for allowing me to share their photos with you here.

We've had lots more rain overnight and it's raining this afternoon as I type this post. The seasonal creek that crosses Rick's and my land is doing its best imitation of a mighty river right now.

Happy New Year to you and yours!