Fall images around Quincy

Here are some of my favorite photos from the past few weeks of wandering around my favorite place in the northern Sierra. The showy milkweed bursting with seeds is at a turnout my son and I have named "the milkweed spot"
because we've stopped there often and seen many wondrous things. Three different species of milkweed blooming all at once during the summer. Visits by the amazing-looking red milkweed beetle as well as red milkweed bugs. (Maybe later I'll write about what's the difference between a beetle and a bug.) The sycamore leaf was on the ground in my neighborhood below a tree that has been pruned so severely I can almost hear it cry, but it keeps on growing new branches and keeps a particular intersection looking beautiful during the summer and fall. My twice-weekly commute to Greenville was exciting on the day I saw five otters playing in a pool by the Greenville Y. I got lots of shots of their heads barely breaking the surface, then one finally decided to pose for me. The annual Apple Fest at the Dawn Institute was great fun - more pics coming soon - and I'm always wandering around looking for unusual things or looking at usual things in unusual ways. One of these pics I've captioned "There's more to apple trees than apples." True at least from the perspective of woodpeckers and sapsuckers. Then, I've always wanted to see The Big Apple without enduring traffic and polluted air. Finally!!!
[Click on any photo to see a large version, sometimes even too large for your screen!]

Some summer bugs

These were all photographed in the vicinity of Quincy, California, northern Sierra Nevada, 3,500' elevation. From top to bottom: (hoping the software preserves the order!) anise swallowtail butterfly on fennel, monarch butterfly larva on showy milkweed, checkered clerid beetle on mallow, goldenrod crab spider on yarrow having captured a wasp.

Hello, mystery person

Hi Sierrosmith or Q-topia. I have a feeling, judging from the photos, that we're neighbors. I'd love to know who you are. Also, several of my friends and former students want to post comments on my blog, but don't know how. Neither do I! :) Apparently you know how it works because you're a "follower." Could you enlighten us? I'm still a neo-luddite, even though I'm trying to blog.
My next post will be "bug" photos collected over this past summer. Joe

Pictures to hang onto summer by

As cold weather approaches, and my firewood is all split, stacked, and covered - finally - I'm simultaneously bracing for winter and not wanting to let go of summer. Winter will come, and I will adjust. But, meanwhile, I'm posting two more photos that remind me of the best of summer - the Pacific Coast Tree Frog, Hyla regilla, and the Goldenrod Crab Spider. Both are subjects of greeting cards in a line I hope to release before Christmas. The frog, by the way, has recently been renamed Pseudacris regilla, and is now a "chorus" frog rather than a tree frog. I guess I must have had a premonition of this back in 1981 when I published an essay titled "Our Tree Frogs Don't Like Trees." Having learned zoology back east where both types abound, I knew that our California frog had habits and appearance more similar to the Pseudacris clan, but I never really questioned the name. I liked the Hyla clan so much I named my first child Hyla. Now I'm hanging onto the first name just like I'm hanging onto summer.
The Goldenrod Crab Spider is a work of art, and I have photographed it often. In my next post I'll include a few more pics of it plus some other bugs I enjoyed this past summer.

Quercus kelloggii

I didn't think California black oak could get any prettier, then I went to get a donut at Papa's, and there it was!

Black Oak, Quercus kelloggii

Here are a couple of pics of the plant that inspired this blog and my publishing operation. Later, I'll post a brief history of the name and biographical info about Dr. Kellogg. These pics were taken October 3, as the fall colors are just beginning to emerge around my home town.

A poem from one who is not a poet

Here's the poem I promised a few entries ago.

ODE TO SOLANACEAE

Oh, deadly nightshade,

You mysterious bundle of DNA,

Perhaps you knew we were coming.

You killed some of us, but

You spawned many tasty cousins:

Potato, tomato, eggplant, and peppers.

Your cousins, too, are toxic

Except for the parts we eat.

So intriguing, your beautiful toxic flowers

And your often delectable fruit.

Both feared and admired; Solanaceae,

I thank you

for forcing me to pay attention.