While I’m teaching my summer classes at UC Santa Barbara, I have wonderful friends, Cassandra and Philip Grant, who are nice enough to let me stay with them in the Santa Ynez Valley not far from Los Olivos. All around are beautiful oak trees, and I took this picture near sunset after some dark clouds from a tropical storm had made their way up to central California. At night there’s the yelping of coyotes and the occasional ‘whos’ of owls and cooing of morning doves. A lovely part of the world.