What can you expect, weatherwise, for Los Gatos in the fall?  It varies but generally is dry and fairly warm during the days.  Mornings can be chilly but it heats up fairly quickly.  This last week was perhaps a bit unusual, but I'll share with you a bit about the weather here over the last seven days.

This last week, though, we caught the tail end of an Asian hurricane and we got drenched and pelted with strong winds.  After three drought years, no one is complaining: we needed the rain.

The storm caused damage to trees all over and created power outages for many.  Our block in Belwood was mixed - half the homes were out of power for about 48 hours. We were lucky and had power. As usual, though, after a very heavy rain, we had Comcast problems.  Our internet flickered off and on for a couple of days (a challenge for Jim and me since we both work from home and rely heavily on the web).

The temps rose in the days following the storm.  It's not completely abnormal to have an 80 degree day in October, but it is unusual to have a summer like temp with east-coast like humidity. The ground was saturated and as it evaporated, we had several muggy days. 

We got back to the daily walk with Bella through the neighborhood and to Belgatos Park and that's when we learned that so many neighbors were without electricity.  We saw a few trees that were getting extra supports (or should have, as they were now listing badly) but others which seemed just fine.

Many of the smaller plants and bushes fared much better than the larger trees had. To see the blooms along Westhill Drive, you'd never know that a massive storm had passed just 48 hours earlier.

Mike's prickley pear looked just great.

Everyone's got power again and aside from a few downed limbs, the neighborhood is looking back to normal. As usual for fall, Los Gatos is full of people who are jogging, riding bikes, pushing strollers, walking dogs, or just getting out.  Today was into the 70s - a very normal fall temp - and except for a few clouds that have been coming and going, it's again looking like autumn as usual.

Westhill Drive was cordoned off for a block party, too.

This is not surprising: our mild weather makes doing things outdoors be the norm throughout most of the fall.   We enjoy an average of 300 sunny days per year in Silicon Valley, with mild weather being the hallmark.  Rain normally comes from about December until March or April, but even then it's not usually so bad unless we have a once-in-a-decade El Nino year.   Word has it that we might be in for that this year, which would certain end, officially, the drought.  It's supposed to rain again tomorrow.  No one likes water rationing, so we will view it as a gift!

My family and I live in the east Los Gatos neighborhood called Belwood of Los Gatos, and the nearby park is Belgatos Park. We tend to visit it several times a week and spend a lot of time there. I confess, this isn't my first post about the park, but it is my first using video. (Recently I got a flip video so am learning how to work this new medium.)

This park is unique for a Town of Los Gatos park in many regards. First, it is one of the only parks in town which can accomodate horses, joggers and mountain bikers. (Joggers and mountain bikers, don't zone out! Horses may have gone before you.) Second, in addition to the niceties of a larger park, which include several grassy meadows, a playground, and a restroom, there are a myriad of trails that interconnect with Belgatos. If you are so inclined, you can spend hours chasing down the paths that wind through the Sierra Azule foothills.  Finally, it is one of the only town parks which, with a little effort on the visitor's part, can provide stunning valley views.

With that introduction, I'll share with you some video clips I took recently. It's now the end of summer and Silicon Valley is dry and so are our parks. Below the video clip I will include other pics, from other seasons, of our beautiful Belgatos Park in Los Gatos.

Here's a link to a prior post about Belgatos Park in this Live in Los Gatos blog: A Hike and a Photo Tour Through Belgatos Park.

And here's a slideshow of Belgatos Park done through Real Estate Shows. I took the photos of Belgatos Park in spring, so it's all very, very green and lush.

Today the typically pleasant, normal September weather returned to Los Gatos after several gloomy and unseasonably cold days took hold of us. It was too nice to stay indoors so in the late afternoon, I grabbed the leash and asked our aging black lab, Bella, if she wanted to go for a walk.

She limps now, but moves fast at the sound of food or the promise of a walk. We were out the door quickly.

After a stroll down Bacigalupi Drive, greeting neighbors and other dog walkers and pedestrians, we returned home to a really beautiful site. The moon was just about full and it was almost exactly between two palm trees straight ahead of me.

Getting Bella inside, I grabbed my Canon Power Shot out of my car and brought it outside, only to find the rechargeable batteries had died.

Got new ones off the charger and snapped a few shots. They didn't look good in the tiny little window of the camera and I was afraid that the impact would be lost. I took about a half dozen shots and then the batteries died again. Grrr. But I got what I needed.

It wasn't until I uploaded the pics to my computer that I could see if this would work or not. I think it does come across - though still not as breathtaking as when I saw it "live" today.

Here I think the moon looks so much like a ping pong ball suspended between two palmy paddles.

Another beautiful evening here in Los Gatos.

Los Gatos is a great place to live, but the early explorers must have been truly thrilled when oil was discovered at Moody Gulch and later in areas that are now part of the Town of Los Gatos. A few weeks ago, this blog covered the topic of the old oil pump that can be seen in a parking lot on Los Gatos Boulevard. My husband, Jim Handy, became intrigued by this topic and once again is providing a guest blog here, this time on the Belwood connection to oil. (Jim's previous contribution was April 22nd, when he posted on Harwood Road being a meridian.)

Oil in Belwood?  Guest post by Jim Handy

A USGS map found in 2000 shows that there was an "old oil well" near the intersection of Harwood and Belridge*.  This map was drawn about 100 years ago, and there was oil exploration here as early as the 1860s, so there's no telling when it was drilled.  In those days citizens weren't as circumspect about telling the state what they were up to as they are today.

View From Los Gatos