Some 164 million Americans headed shopping yesterday. 164 million minus Darrell Sano.
He “decided to forgo Black Friday and instead venture out into the wind and rain to the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden.”
Normally, these gardens would be busy with people on the day following Thanksgiving Day. Darrell figured, correctly, that with steady rain forecasted, he would have the garden “nearly to myself!”
There, he found, “The rain was steady, adding a sheen to the leaves, pathways, and color. The sound of rain was complementary to my solo enjoyment, slowly meandering pathways while ignoring my water-logged shoes.”
While the garden was past peak, he still found it “beautiful and worth a visit. Pockets of color can be found in the Asian garden, with bright red Japanese Maple, Yoshino Cherry, large yellow leaves of Sinocalycanthus covering deep-green ferns, and carpets of red Ampelopsis.”
Some areas of the garden (Northeast) were Past Peak, “where much of the color now resides on the ground.”
Rainy days provide lovely color with “the diffused, soft light and rain” providing “wonderful opportunities for composition layers of branches and leaves, with droplets of water hanging in space in front of a backdrop of texture and patterns.”
Darrell noted that even plants that “were long past peak, such as sunflowers, stood beautifully in the rain, providing a more monochromatic texture worthy to photograph.”
His #OrangeFriday was “wonderful” and “memorable indeed!” No doubt Darrell’s recollections of his wet walk and the images he captured on it will remain personal treasures. Likely, the most memorable out of 164 million experiences that occurred yesterday. 
- UC Berkeley Botanical Garden (171′) – Peak to Past Peak, YOU ALMOST MISSED IT.
