photo of the month from randy kato click the image for a larger view Hi, Where might this be? Some faraway exotic wetlands? Well, it is far from home, though it's incredibly close to home at the same time. Three thousand miles away from my current home in New York City is where I grew up, at the southeast edge of San Francisco Bay. I usually visit at least once a year, but that is almost always for Christmas - New Year's. I recently visited during the summer for the first time in over a decade. Now the weather in the Bay Area doesn't change all that much throughout the year, so the seasons are not distinct the way they are elsewhere. But the difference I noticed after not seeing summer there for so long was intense. The first thing I noticed were all the agapanthus (Lily of the Nile) abloom everywhere. I had forgotten about these and how they really are everywhere in our neighborhood, from city landscaped areas to most people's front yards. What hit me next was all the smells, so vivid and so varied: eucalyptus, flowers of all kinds, pine, jasmine, and many more unidentified. Is it possible to miss something you forgot even existed? Or is it a strange form of nostalgia? So what about this month's photo. I grew up by a lake. It's a small man-made lake, and it's quite nice - especially for a kid growing up. I have countless memories from that lake. As we rode bikes around it, we discovered new things that didn't exist before, like the dozens of cranes that flock to the three small islands and rule the roost there. These trees growing in the lake... I feel like I've never seen them before, yet they're so big I can't imagine they are new. Nevertheless, I found them particularly beautiful and peaceful. Enjoy, Randy Photo of the Month archive