The day after Christmas, Boxing Day to some - a veritable repeat of Black Friday - was a day for me to recharge in the woods. I've been in Mexico, in a area that has little water and thus the unusual level of rain that has greeted me upon my return to LA and San Francisco hasn't been as unwelcome in my life as usual.
My aunt, uncle, and I took off for Rancho San Antonio, determined to slog through the mist and the mud and see what we could see as we stretched muscles and worked off turkey. It was about 2pm when I took this shot,without any special exposure - the sky really was this amazing shade of blue.

Here I am, thinking I'm ready for how wet it would be. Little did I know I'd be covered in mud up to my knees by the time I left the park! 

Any amount of mud is worth this sight! We stumbled upon two deer hanging out enjoying the day. Their fearless level gaze remained no matter how close I deigned to move in their direction. I'm not clear who was more intrigued, them or me! 

Again, this was the actual sky - a completely unmanipulated photo. 

We saw at least a dozen deer during our 2 1/2 hours traipsing through the park listening to the croak of the frogs, California quail bounding across our path, stunning blue jays swooping low across the path, showing off their brilliant feathers against an equally blue sky and verdant vegetation covering the ground, stretching up to the skies and clinging to ancient fencing that lined the pathways in places where it hadn't succumbed to time.