The great Hayward Falls..

not much falling these days, right? With the added moisture this year will it improve? still very beautiful.

If you catch it right after a big rainstorm in mid winter..it might be 3x as wide..lol. Never a big deal. It is the only one in town that I know of. Lori,in pre 49er days when the bay area was all mixed Oak woodlands and native evergreen perennials grasses...these streams flowed all year. Cattle ranching,then development ended all that. Now,most are called "dry creeks" only have water in winters.
You can easily see also the deep erosion caused by once cattle ranching in this park. At least its recovering..the ferns and such. But in the hills above me..nothing grows on the edge of those seasonal streams but a few large and very old tree's. Instead of gentle banks..some have steep 10-15' near vertical banks.
Cattle.

Can you imagine what's happening in Argentina and Brazil? They've razed the old growth forests in Borneo for Palm oil plantations. Perhaps it's fortunate for California that these areas are being allowed to "come back." When we buy beef we buy "local"... some others don't have that choice. It's a sad crazy world.

This should be going pretty strong with all the rain there's been up there. I see you're in for a lot more rain over the next week. We haven't had any for over a week now. Everything is starting to dry out, again! I hope we get some rain by this weekend! It's been extremely mild here. A strong zonal flow has set up over the southwest!

The last clear all sunny day was on the third of December. It might not be until this weekend we get another.

No,I have not touched a gardenhose in anger for days now.
When it does start to dry out?...rain comes back.

So far Andy,39f is the lowest low. A 10b winter so far. 11a in San Francisco.

Lori,Beef takes so much more out of the land then any other endeavor. Its like four hoofed strip mining. Even in the Cosmopolitan enlightened bay area..ranchers still graze on public lands and we wonder why the large Oaks are getting farther and farther apart.

The rain is good, though. So many years of drought, the reservoirs and ground need to be replenished. I wish I would get some rain! It's drying out very badly here, again!

That's great, the weather has been very mild for you. We had one morning when it went down to 48 degrees. It's been for sometimes now in the mid-to-upper 50's for morning lows. Some rain with colder air is suppose to move in on Friday or Saturday. At the time (11:45pm) of writing this comment it's 59 degrees here and 50 degrees in Hayward. The next three days low 70's for highs.

Papaya fruit are still getting larger. I thought it would stop in mid winter. The tree's look good Andy..no rot. So far.
My red Guava..the outside has colored to a light green from the olive green it had been. That's the one that ripens in San Diego in January. I really took a chance that A. it can take our cold B. if it does well,will the fruit ripen. Not sure about B. yet.
Its shaping up that the third week of December will put a string of high 30's as lowest lows. Its that last week or so of December that always wants to be much colder then the rest of the winter nowadays.
Banana fruit cant be more then 4". These are going to be "designer nana's".

That's terrific your papayas are still getting bigger. I know many times my papayas would ripen in winter. They were so, so sweet and yummy!

The Red Malaysian Guava I've always seen ripen here in Fall. There's some in Balboa Park which have really red leaves and the fruit is red, also.

Bananas can ripen any time of the year, here. I've had really good bananas in winter. They need to be picked and ripen indoors, anyway. You never want bananas to ripen on the plant. They over-ripen and rot too quickly!

I hope your lows don't get too low! If it's short-lived your plants should go through it without any issues.