Magic and jynn were kind enough to contribute images of their local landscapes, so here's one of the hills around San Luis Obispo. The image is
not mine, just to be clear.
This is looking almost due west towards Morro Bay, on the coast. That line of
morros (rocky hills) is also called the Seven Sisters: all that's left of a line of volcanic cores (last active tens of millions of years ago; locals are more worried about the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant).

Allowing for sunset, that's pretty much how it looks most of the year: brown and yellow. There are two or three months of real green that we locals look forward to; this year we might be still be looking next June. Dry winter so far, and little rain predicted for at least a month. In this, as in most parts of California, so many issues lead back to
water.