Quincy After the Storm

Lots of flowers blooming in Quincy today. Will post tomorrow a.m., after much needed sleep! This one's in front of Morning Thunder. See ya there at 7:00 a.m.?
Well, it's Thursday morning, and I'm posting a few of the pics I promised to post yesterday. After my morning coffee (Decaf, Bib), I spent the whole day making picture frames for the show I'm supposed to hang on Friday. I don't know how I'll finish. Just keep glueing all day today, I guess.
A note on the photos. I usually don't go around photographing domesticated flowers in the neighborhood. I tend to think of them, like cows, as pathetically weakened versions of their wild ancestors. But, when the main point is color, and we've had lots of gray days lately, I got motivated. The garden in front of Morning Thunder is full of tulips and daffodils, and it's always fun to try for a new angle. Also, their degree of openness and angle toward the sun keep changing, producing all sorts of photo possibilities. The museum, where my show is going, has some nice landscaping and interesting flowers. I doubt if I'll take any pictures today as I must finish my matting and framing. However, sometimes I just can't help myself. Later.

Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.

Whenever I got frustrated, as a teenager, about things my dad thought were silly, he'd spring the above phrase on me. Well, I wasn't really worried yesterday, just too busy to post my photos. Then, this morning I got distracted - another one of my specialties - by a meadowlark. Anyway, here are those Indian Falls area photos. From bottom to top, the first is chickweed, a member of the pink family, not a mustard as I erroneously reported to another blog; it's an immigrant from Europe and purportedly has some medicinal properties. I love the way it looks, but, like most weeds, it is popular on the herbicide websites.
Next up is a cairn by the trail. I love cairns, simple piles of rocks although I've seen some pretty elaborate ones done by people motivated more by art than function. I like them both ways. When I was a teenager, climbing Mt. Washing in New Hampshire with my younger brother, we were absolutely dependent on well-placed cairns to find our way to the top in extremely thick fog. As we felt our way from cairn to cairn in a cold wind, we suddenly heard the whistle of the famous cog railway. It sounded as though it was about to run over us, but we figured if we were not standing in the track that wasn't likely. So, the train passed, incredibly loud and smelling of burnt coal, and all we could see was fog. When all sound had passed, we proceeded only to find we were less than 20' from the track! Anyway, I've loved cairns ever since.
See how distracted I get? The next photo up is the new leaves of what will be fawn lily blooming in another week or so. I'm giddy with anticipation. Then there's one of the Forest Service trail markers that identify major vegetative types and mention Maidu names and traditional uses. I liked the drawing, and Black Oak is my nom de plume for this blog, but I wonder, if the Maidu people were inclined to produce such signs, if they would design them differently or have different things to say. Design is spelled the same as de-sign, but don't get any ideas:)
Top photo is fan violet, one of several local species with yellow blossoms. This is one of the flowers, like shooting star and milkweed, that I can't get enough photos of. It's as if the act of photographing them is either an attempt to get the "perfect" shot, whatever that is, or perhaps the act is my way of paying attention longer and taking in the beauty, perhaps also waiting for the arrival of an exotic winged visitor. Ciao for niao.

Not All Who Wander are Lost

I think I fell in love with my wife all over again the day she presented me with a T-shirt with this expression on it. I ramble, meander, amble, hike, crawl, and just plain WALK all over the place looking for stuff. I don't need to look for anything in particular because I trust that nature's bounty will be apparent if I just pay attention. Well, this morning, as I was about to post the promised pictures from yesterday's wanderings around Indian Falls, it was "Hark, hark! The Lark!" I was interrupted by a beautiful song as I got out of the car. A Western Meadowlark was singing from the top of a spruce tree. Fortunately, my camera was handy. Now I can re-live that moment many times over. There was a great deal of bird activity nearby, so I also got pics of a yellow-headed blackbird and a robin. I'll get back to those other photos later.

Out Wanderin' Again: Save My Place

Saw some interesting things on the way to this waterfall yesterday. Evidence will be posted later today.

Photo Show Coming

I'll have some photos you've seen here and some others on display at the Plumas County Museum in Quincy for two weeks beginning Friday, April 16. I hope to see you there. Soon, I plan to have many of these photos and others on blank greeting cards with natural history messages on the backs. I lovew sharing these photos, and whenever I look them over myself, I have a powerful urge to go back to the places where I took them. I not only love to revisit the various flowers and creatures, but there's always a surprise in store - a plant or animal I've never seen before or an interesting animal behavior. And it's always more fun when there's someone else along. This coming summer I'll be enjoying doing this sort of thing every day as Camp Naturalist at the Oakland Feather River Camp near Quincy.

Yesterday's Flowers.

Yesterday, on my way home, I took the loop of "Old Highway" just south of the Keddie community and was amazed at how quickly lots of species bloomed after our recent snowstorm. They were obviously "ready" before the storm hit. My favorite newcomer - new to me this year - is another member of the mustard family, Cardamine pachystigma, known by mere mortals as Stout-beaked Toothwort. While some of the blossoms are fully open, others have already gone to seed, revealing the source of the common name. The Henderson's Shooting Star are out in profusion, and I am so intrigued by the beauty of this flower that I take too many photos of it. I include two here. I don't save them all, but I think the act of photographing them holds my close attention, also increasing the odds of an interesting encounter with an insect. Manzanita, blooming or not, is easy to spot while driving, but I think its blossoms are under-appreciated. Every time I get in real close, especially when there are insects present, I am amazed anew at the beauty of this flower. Two very tiny newcomers this season are the Blue-eyed Mary and the Miniature Miners Lettuce. These blossoms are around 1/4" across and they are almost too small for me to get close-ups with my present equipment. One stretch of Old Highway. just south of the entrance to the Keddie Cascades Trail, has beautiful, damp rock walls that are currently covered with lots of Sedum, called by many different "common" names, such as rock lettuce. They are not blooming yet, but are quite beautiful and almost look like a landscaper has been busy here. Last, the violets, which in our area are mostly yellow. The first species to bloom this year is the Fan Violet. In this same spot, other yellow species as well as blue ones and white ones will bloom soon. Time to get serious about looking for wildflowers, but be sure to get out of your car!

Turning Over a New Leaf

The recent snow is, it has warmed up, and today I saw lots of wonderful new flowers blooming. Mostly near Keddie. The shooting star (AKA Mosquito Bills) have bounced back from the snow, as have buttercups and Whitlow grass. Today I saw lots of fan violets for the first time this season, as well as Blue-eyed Marys, and the smaller species of Miner's Lettuce. Too tired to post the pictures now. Will do that tomorrow morning.