Almost Mono

We took Spike for a walk today to have a look at the house that appeared behind us last week. It is right behind where I stood to take this picture. 
It shows our field which extends from where I stood over to the row of oak trees that separate our property from the one next door which burned. Most of these trees will probably survive. 

The fence that is most visible separates the property on the other side of our house (which also burned) from our field. The little eucalyptus grove on the right side of the picture also belongs to those neighbors and has been the subject of several conversations between us. Janet loves them but we know from experience in the Berkeley Hills fire that they are highly flammable and they provided 80% of the fuel for that fire. They were planted all over the Berkeley in the last century to be used for timber. By the time they took over much of the Berkeley HIlls they had been found to be unsuitable for lumber and almost impossible to kill. Even the ones that burn or are cut down usually resprout from the old stump unless it is poisoned.

This picture shows pretty clearly that our street is literally a canyon at the bottom of a  creek bed. We were surrounded by the fire which came over the hills on several sides of us, and also burned down the creek across the street. 

I was going to enter this picture for the Mono Monday challenge 'Leading Lines' , but I thought it lost its impact without the remaining bits of color, mostly in the vineyards on Wildwood Mountain which rises behind the creek. The field was recently mowed and the remaining stubble burned black. The trails were made mostly by deer, and a couple of them were enlarged by us. 

Spike went crazy in the field. He couldn't take his nose off the ground and ran madly around in circles. I don't think we needed a sniffer dog to tell us there had been a fire....