2½ hrs from Los Angeles, NW of Bakersfield, is the Carrizo Plain National Monument; it is the only undisturbed remnant of the vast grasslands that carpeted the San Joaquin Valley before Agriculture and Oil took hold.

The super bloom was particularly intense this year after our record-setting rains. It is parsley visited, and there were times when we were the only two people visible. The central feature of the valley is Soda Lake, an alkaline body of water that, when it recedes, leaves the white mineral deposits in the last image. Solidity is deceiving, as there is an underlying layer of gelatinous mud that can trap the unwary Photographer (not me)

All images with Fuji XT-4 and a combination of Fujifilm 18-35, 10-24 AND tAMRON 18-300.

I keep hearing all these horror stories about all the troubles people are having with Windows 10 & 11 brings back memories of Windows ME & Vista. Number one and number two worst windows programs ever created. My wife went from 7 to 10 a few months after it came out and has had trouble with it since. I was lucky enough to hang on to Windows 7. I have a couple of highly rated virus programs that have worm, Trojan, ransom hacking sites, email protection and all the rest.
I know M/S doesn't support 7 any longer but I don't think they did such a hot job of that either. I have a techy friend that I think is the King of the Geeks that rewrote several of M/S support programs and he said it was nothing. I expect 7 to crash then I'll go to something completely different like Linux or maybe the spymaster of all time Chrome OS

Even I can tell I'm babbling so I'll quite - Yall have a good day