Life, Travel, Photography, Cats
My First “Boosted” Article, Graupel in Southern California, Snow on Saddleback, Uma Loves Yoga, Cooking with the New Yellow Pots and Pans, the Best-Rated Pizza (786 Degrees) in the Country, and “I wanna be on TV too, Mom”
A couple of weeks in photos
Does the new “boosting” that medium has introduced make a difference? I had my first “boosted” article a few days ago and I would say “yes, it does make a difference.” It’s still a little early to write about all the details, but I had three articles published in Globetrotters last week for their “Terrains of the World” monthly challenge and one was boosted. I would consider all three of them to be fairly equivalent in quality, although you can be the judge:
The “Beyond the Cinder Cones and Above the Clouds” one was the “boosted” one. I wouldn’t exactly say it has gone “viral” yet, but it has received over 1,000 views so far, which is five times as many views as the others. But the kicker is this — 83% of the views are “internal views” by medium members.
I’ve had several articles reach close to or exceed 20K views. But they are always mostly “external” views. I have no idea where those readers come from. So, I would say that medium is doing what it promised it would do with the boosting. We’ll see… I’ll do a longer piece on this later, after the article has a little more time to do what it is going to do. I was curious, as I imagine some of you are too, about the effects of the boosting, so I thought that I would share.
On other fronts, we’ve had very weird weather in Southern California in the last couple of weeks. I walked out of the back door the other day, thinking that I was going to go for a walk. But when I looked up, the sky was absolutely black. And then it began to snow!!! This is crazy for where I live.
It was only “snow” for a few seconds, then it turned to hail, then to rain, then to this weird thing called “graupel,” which, it turns out is a rare weather phenomenon where supercooled water droplets in the air freeze on falling snowflakes, forming 2–5 mm (0.08–0.20 in) balls. You can read about it and see more pictures here.
The local mountains have been beautiful. It almost looks like someone has put a backdrop of Colorado behind Orange County.
This is our local Saddleback Mountain with the green, green hills of spring in front of it.
After the several years of drought we’ve endured, it feels like we’re living in Ireland or England. The hills are absolutely emerald-tinted right now. And the wildflowers, like this little California poppy, in nearby Peter’s Canyon, are nodding in the breeze.
The kitties are doing well. Here is Freyja enjoying the rain. I normally let them out for a couple of hours at lunchtime, when I can be with them. They all have more than a little Maine Coon in them (they’re rescues) so they absolutely love the rain.
Bisou has also been enjoying his outside time. He, out of all three of them, really likes to lounge in sunny spots the most.
Uma enjoys the garden too, but she really loves to do yoga with me too. This is her little “mat” right at the end of my mat. Can you see her doing her stretching?
We got a new toy. It’s a scratcher that looks like a TV. It’s been a big hit.
However, Bisou has decided that the TV is his and his alone. He has become quite territorial of it. He perches on it while we are making dinner and keeps his eye on things. It is located in “his” room, so I guess that this is a reasonable cat assumption. This is his “Stay away from my TV” look. Check out the dilated pupils and the menacing look (or as menacing as this little orange fluffball can manage). You can almost see the quivering whiskers and hear the little chirps he’s making. I’m thinking we might need to buy a second TV.
For Valentine’s Day, we bought each other a set of new yellow Caraway pots and pans. Besides from just being so happy-looking, they are amazing to cook with. We just love them. I have no idea why the broccoli is so much more flavorful in this pan, but it is. We just use a little butter, salt and pepper.
My husband is big pizza afficianado. We have actually been to “pizza school” to learn how to make really good wood-fired pizza and we have tasted a lot pizzas in Napoli, Italy. So, whenever a new highly-rated pizza place opens up, we have to make the trek to try it out. This one, 786 Degrees, in Pasadena was worth the drive.
It has zero ambience, literally. It’s not really set up for in-person dining. But their pizza is so good that it doesn’t matter.
I’ll leave you with a “not-so-menacing” shot of Bisou. He is, literally, snoring in his “little french bed” in front of the fireplace.
This is the view in my office most days. My desk is right beside the raised beds. It’s the happiest feeling to be writing away (or editing photos) with these little love bugs right here beside me.
I hope you have all had lovely weeks.
If you enjoyed this, you might like checking out some of the other “Week in Photos Tribe” from around the world. I so enjoy reading about people’s lives and seeing what is happening in other parts of the world in real-time each week. Dennett started this a couple of years ago, and it has really been fun to keep up with.
Dennett /Anne Bonfert /Eileen Vorbach /Lisa Bolin /Tracy Aston /David Wade Chambers/Kim Zuch /Barbara Radisavljevic /LensAfield /Barbara Dalton /Sasha Meyer /Susan Alison /Diana Lotti /Barbara Dalton /K. Barrett /June Nguyen /Juan O. Aguilera /Ellie Jacobson /Shruthi Sundaram/ Pene Hodge /Tracy Aston/ Sandra Barrett/Jillian Amatt — Artistic Voyages /Shell Parsons/Ivy Shepherd/Mia Verita/ Lynne Nardizzi/ Ken Martin
(I know some new folks have joined in, so if I’ve missed any of the “week in photos” tribe, please let me know!)
Erika Burkhalter is a yogi, neurophilosopher, cat-mom, photographer, and lover of travel and nature, spreading her love and amazement for Mother Earth’s glories, one photo, poem or story at a time. (MS Neuropsychology, MA Yoga Studies).
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Photos and story ©Erika Burkhalter. All rights reserved.
