Nicola Pitchford

😬 I find the wild ones a wonderfully digestible alternative to garlic/onions.

I think they’re both gopher snakes but I’m by no means an expert. I tend to think that any Californian snake with pretty geometric brown/tan patterns that isn’t a rattler is a gopher snake.

Wiggly gopher snake in sunlight on tarmac.

Less wiggly gopher snake in dappled sunlight on tarmac.

Coincidence or am I being followed?
L, two days ago in the Southern California desert; R, this morning near the Northern CA coast. Again, I assisted the wee pal to get off the warm but potentially dangerous bike trail.

(It’s actually peak season, as they’re trying to fatten up like the bears.)

😆 hopefully no hungry nazis allowed

Now I’m remembering there’s actually a Punjabi-Mexican place not far from my home that does AMAZING curried pumpkin enchiladas. Not cheap but I need to go back there.

👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼 😋

In an area liberally [sic] decorated with pro-Trump, anti-Newsom billboards, it’s always a bit of a surprise.

I am actually dying to try the Punjabi food (vegan options advertised) at some of the larger truck stops on Interstate 5 in the agricultural Central Valley of California. A lot of Sikh truck drivers (& also farmers) thereabouts.

One thing in which the UK can rightly claim to be years ahead of the US is in Indian food options, vegan food options, & gluten-free food options. It’s astonishing to me when I visit “home” that I can actually get a decent gf vegetarian sandwich in most supermarkets in the UK.

Vegan Palak Tofu Paneer - Tofu in Spinach curry. Glutenfree Recipe - Vegan Richa This Vegan Palak Tofu Paneer is the easiest. dairy-free, gluten-free Saag Paneer with Tofu. Can be made soyfree w/ chickpea tofu, veggies or cooked chickpeas. Vegan Palak Paneer Recipe

I predict a handful of wild three-cornered leek in vegan palak ‘paneer’ tonight chez nous. (P.S. always make the double recipe)

Dead dark teasels against a dry grass hillside edged with eucalyptus, under a blue sky.

Two wet, shiny California buckeyes on dark earth and leaf matter.

The emerald green new growth of a cluster of three-cornered leek.

In the week I’ve been away, it’s truly become autumn in the north — & it’s beautiful. The long golden grass begins to collapse on itself, turning soggy & dark. The buckeye conkers are massing on the damp earth. The woods smell like menthol again. Perhaps best of all, the three-cornered leek is back!

UK friends, please keep Billy busy.

🥰👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

Yes but anyone who touches my luxuriously displayed belly is getting a can of whoopass.

I think I must have some feline DNA because I’ve just realised I like the smell of cardboard boxes.

P.S. dollar stores are great for sign-making materials

No Kings: Protest Safety, Know Your Rights & De-Escalation Training I'm attending this event - sign up now to join me!

If you’re going to the (should be massive!) October 18 #NoKings nationwide protests, ACLU is holding an online training tomorrow on your rights, safety, & de-escalation. In English y español. @aclu.org

I’ve been chuckling at this for the past 24 hours.

Donkeys are the BEST kind of friends.

Looking across a wide dry creek bed at barren desert foothills & mountains. Wide blue skies above with a line of puffy white clouds just sitting on the far ridge.

Golden dry grass hills dotted with evergreen oaks. Blue sky above with one wisp of fluffy white clouds

Southern California yesterday; Northern California today. The ancestral lands of the Cahuilla & the Coast Miwok. I love this golden state, its mountains & hills & blue skies, so much.

They're getting worse & they're getting more creative about methods.

I cannot understand this.

His misbehaviour certainly gave us a lot of laughter when he wasn't giving us grey hairs. 😇

Not seeing one wrong word there.

Hahaha

Person in colourful clerical robes places their hand on the head of a seated, large, shaggy Airedale terrier while I stand behind, holding the lead very close and tightly.

It’s St. Francis Day, time to revisit the occasion many years ago when we took adolescent Rupert to the Blessing of the Beasts at St John the Divine (NYC), remembered fondly as “the exorcism.” Note my white knuckles, holding on & praying that this not become another occasion of spectacular shame.

Wiggly gopher snake on asphalt.

Yesterday morning it was tarantula relocation; this morning, I coaxed this harmless wee sibling to safety off the road. I am doing my (desert pagan) part to honour St Francis’s feast day.

If you have any other faves in the area, do recommend.

Wooden signpost with painted arrows to canyon view loop trail in one direction and PCT south in the other. It stands on a mountain ridge with desert arroyo spread out below, ringed by rugged low mountains, and an incredibly deep blue, cloudless sky above.

Fancy new sign for #FingerpostFriday (even if not actually a fingerpost). The wind & light are amazing up here.

😍