Chapter 2 at Table Mountain

 I happen to be sitting in a place with high speed Internet.  I was able to add all ten of these photos in less than one minute.  With our pathetic service at home, it would have taken closer to an hour.  So, when I get home, I can spend some time adding the stories (text loads fast even there) to this and my previous post.  What's clear in my mind, but may or may not appear clear after I type, is a kind of linear story of the experience I had last Sunday at Table Mountain.  The story's skeleton is a sequence of observations captured by camera, but what will be added to the skeleton are the many conversations with my buddy Spencer that gave meaning to these observations.


4/8/16  Time flies, doesn't it.  Here I am, finally adding some text to this old post.  And I have at least two more "chapters" to add to my Table Mountain excursion.  Since that trip, I have made several more local trips around Quincy, including two brief walks this morning, which yielded more photos of Spring.

Back to Table Mountain.  These first two photos of Bitterroot were the first I found after the false alarm of red plastic that ended my previous post.  As you will see in later images, we eventually

found a large patch of fully-open Bitterroot. 

Several species of Lupines grow on and near Table Mountain.  These small ones were found near most of the streams, but not so much out in the open in areas that are already getting dry.  The one below appears to be an albino of the same species as the blue ones.

Bird's-eye Gilia (below) is one of the most beautiful flowers (to me) on the mountain, but the delicate details in each flower are easily missed in the sheer abundance of them unless one takes the time to get down on the ground for a closer look.  You can get the same effect without getting your pants dirty by clicking on the image.

Around Quincy, when we took this trip in March, the first yellow violets of the season, Shelton's Violet, were just beginning to bloom.  At Table Mountain, another species, Viola purpurea, the Oakwoods Violet, was blooming.  It's possible Douglas's Violet is also blooming down there, but we did not see any.

One of the many lilies, formerly known as Brodiaea, is the Prettyface.  It is now known as Triteleia ixioides, and is in a new family,  the Themidaceae.  We have a closely-related species at the higher elevations around Quincy. 

 

The Popcornflower were out in abundance. Click on the photos for an enlargement and you can see the kinship with the flowers of Forget-me-nots and Fiddleneck.

Scenes like this temporary stream are common at this time of year and tend to be where most species of flowers bloom, and also where frogs and salamanders can be found before they go into hiding for the long, dry summer and fall ahead.

The Dwarf Monkeyflower has some of the most amazing color on the mountain.