ashen again

For the fourth morning running, when I came out to go to work, there was a light dusting of ashy bits on my car, an orange-brown haze low in the sky, and a faint scent of woodsmoke.

But last night, the moon was its normal color. Tuesday night, it too had been orange, after a day when brown smoke piled high in the sky at work in the afternoon. And today my knee is telling me that the weather is changing.

it's made of . . . ?

For a few weeks now, I've noticed that some of the burned swatches of Griffith Park, which I pass on my commute, have had some sort of bright green colored stuff spread on them. Last week I actually witnessed a helicopter dumping a load of green onto a slope. Just after dumping, the helicopter seemed to stand straight up on its nose for a moment -- from the sudden unbalancing? -- which I hadn't seen a helicopter do before. I was relieved to see it quickly right itself and putter off westward.

I wonder what the green stuff is. Something to attempt erosion control for the rainy season, I'm guessing, maybe like this.