Snow melted. What to do?

A nice, sunny day. Snow almost gone - again - so the flowers must be aching to come out and sample the sun. I wait with my camera. But, until then...a pretty island of rock in a sea of moss in my driveway, Einie (AKA Einstein) has lunch, and one of my son's paper creations. Meant to be a lamp shade, but it is flammable, so we left it on only long enough for a couple of pictures. Could be a pollen grain, or a UFO. Made of some thirty identical pieces of paper that interlock without the use of adhesive.

The Survivors

Another big snow storm blew in Sunday night. Melted off pretty fast Monday and today, but lots of the early-blooming flowers have been beaten down. An exception, as usual, the rugged dandelions. Everywhere I looked there seemed to be more blooming than before the storm. Could they actually be blooming under the snow? There were lots of shooting star buds, and a few flowers, but many basal leaves of ones that are sure to bloom in another week or so. And, the rock cress is blooming in profusion around the Greenville Y. It, too, seems like a very rugged plant.

One Year Later; Too Much to Bear

I started this BLOG one year ago today. Hopefully, I've learned a few things about this medium. I've fallen a bit behind in the publishing goals I stated in my first post, April 5, 2009, but I have done a lot more photography and I'm about to have my photos in two venues in town. I won't say where and when until I'm sure. Meanwhile, I've gotten revved up several times by emerging spring wildflowers only to be interrupted by another snow storm. SUnday night's storm was the heavy stuff, sometimes known as Sierra Cement. AS you can see in these photos, it was too much to bear for my birch trees, one of which is bent down to the garage roof. When the snow's gone, I'm going to have to gradually pull it upright and hope it'll recover fully in a month or so. It's amazing how many kinds of flowers bloom, then get covered with snow, but survive to bloom again or maybe hold onto their blooms until the snow melts. The feisty dandelions seem almost showing off their ability to survive storms by multiplying while covered with snow. At least it seems that way when the snow melts. Spring Break next week; I'm determined to find some flowers and insects to photograph and to get a dozen or so photos framed and ready for a show.

National Frog Month???

Someone told me this is National Frog Month. I can't seem to find out who or what organization declared it so. However, I found lots of websites suggesting artsy-craftsy activities to get kids to appreciate frogs. A much better idea would be to get outside and find a place where one could watch and listen to real frogs! Some years ago, I was a card-carrying member of the World Wide Fairplay for Frogs Committee. I had to print my own card since it was a fictitious organization - sort of - founded and directed by one Nestle Frobish. This character, who some claim was the late Chronicle columnist Art Hoppe, carried on a humorous series of letters with Assemblyman Jerome Waldie that was eventually made into a book. Anyway, I'm all for taking care of frogs, and the best way to do that is to leave them alone, and to stop ruining their habitat. Easy, huh? The top two photos are of the same species, formerly known as Hyla regilla, the Pacific Coast Tree Frog, but recently re-classified as Pseudacris regilla, the Pacific Coast Chorus Frog. I was disappointed when that happened because I named my first daughter Hyla after the original scientific name. Oh well, there are still many species of Hyla in this country, mostly in the Southeast. The bottom photo is Rana boylii or Rana mucosa, the foothill yellow-legged frog or mountain yellow-legged frog, respectively. We let this one go before I could check the details. They're extremely slimy, their thick coating being good protection against the cold mountain waters, and I imagine he often slips out of the mouths of would-be predators. We encountered this one near Rock Lake, around 6,000' elevation in the Bucks Lake Wilderness. Enjoy National Frog Month - don't just do corny crafts projects; establish a true protective relationship with frogs.

The Easter Industry, and an alternative....a tribute to lilies.

Guess what plant is native to southern Japan, is now cultivated mainly on the coast on either side of the California-Oregon border, has large white flowers that "want" to bloom in July but are forced through artificial light cycles to bloom about now, is poisonous to pets, and is nearly always thrown away after it blooms for a short while? Right! The Easter lily.
Guess what product contains sodium bicarbonate, maltodextrin, FD&C Yellow #5, modified cellulose gum, FD&C Blue #1, FD&C Yellow #6, FD&C Red #3, FD&C Blue #2, magnesium stearate, zinc stearate, and sodium lauryl sulfate, is mainly produced in China, and is believed by many to be a contributing factor to ADHD? Right! Easter egg dyes.
Guess what....oh, never mind.
Today's photos are REAL lilies, living in Plumas County, and all bloomed when they pleased, mostly from May through July, were not picked or transplanted, grow all around our forests free, and, via photography, can give pleasure all year 'round. Click on each photo to see a larger view with ID in a caption, then enjoy a special day based in reality rather than highly commercialized myth - oh, and enjoy the humongous storm that's on its way toward the Sierra.

April 1 Special - Upside-down Camera

I'm always looking for a new perspective, a new angle-of-view, so to speak, especially for flowers that are photographed so often that the images seem like cliches. So, today, at one of my favorite spots, while celebrating that the snow has melted, I took a series of shots while holding my camera upside-down. The place: Greenville Y. Just be careful walking out on the jagged rocks.

Snow, snow, go away....

I guess that's not how the rhyme goes, but in my on-going efforts to usher in spring, here are a few more pics from my first-day-of-spring trip to Table Mountain. I hope it works.