Couldn't Remain Calm Before the Storm

Photographing that spider on Sunday wasn't enough to satisfy me.  With a storm coming, I decided I needed to take a walk around the neighborhood and downtown to get one last look at things before they got covered with snow.  My tour began with a beautiful yard on the upper reaches of Coburn where Hollyhocks looked as fresh as in spring.

A flame red tree across the street from the Hollyhocks set my mind a-wondering.  If I'd had a few beers (which I never do) before seeing this tree, I might have thought it was on fire and talking to me.  We naturalists depend on our senses to gather information, but our senses can be altered by various events and substances.  Naturalists in the 1800's were often heavy drinkers.  I got to wondering about Moses.

When I approached the courthouse I was taken by the beauty of fallen leaves and enjoyed seeing several out-of-town photographers capturing the scene.  I knew, of course, that come Monday morning, if not prevented by snow, the Leaf Blower Army would be out there returning the courthouse lawn to its sterile perfection.  These leaves should be raked up, jumped in, and raked up again.  Kids should smell them, jump in them, and smell them burning (carefully, of course).  If we're giving up all of that, why not just get Astro-Turf. 

I searched the area for a few standouts like these Sweet Gum leaves.

There are also lots of non-native Maples and possibly their close relatives the Boxelders.

I continued on toward the shopping center, then stopped to photograph the Maples by the west side of Safeway.

Then, on to the ditch in front of the shopping center which until a few days ago was a wonderful mini-wilderness.  I've photographed over 50 species of wildflowers here during the summer, and many visiting insects, spiders, and birds, and a small population of Rainbow Trout.  It was a great place to sketch and take photos, but now it's been tamed - like the courthouse lawn.  I much preferred it wild.

I wonder where the "waste" goes.  Hopefully it will join the Carbon cycle soon in an ecologically sensible way. 

When I got home, one last Red Clover was leaning under the weight of dew, but still glowing bright red.  I figured the snow Sunday night would end its season, but now it's Tuesday night and it's still hanging tough.

I ended my excursion at my dining room table where I photographed an oak leaf I picked up in front of Papa's Donuts a few days earlier.

Not a Halloween Cut-Out!

She's been on my front porch for a week now.  By day, she hides in a dark corner under the eave, and by sunset she comes out onto her new web and waits for an evening meal.  A cold spell forecast, so she might be getting ready to disappear for the winter.

Boyle Ravine Scenes

 On Tuesday I didn't have time to leave town, but I did manage to take a brief hike with camera up Boyle Ravine.  The most dominant Fall Colors up there were the Big Leaf Maples, mostly turned bright yellow punctuated with spots of a beautiful black, gray, and green virus.  There were a few Dogwoods, too, but not brilliant red like happens in some years.

 Every now and then the basic brown ground cover is decorated by bird feathers, this one a Steller's Jay, and tasty-looking acorns.

 Most of the California Black Oak leaves turn a deep orange, but a few trees just below the big green water tanks have turned bright red.

Mt. Hough

 Got to visit the Lookout Wednesday, just three days before it closed for the season.  Got to treat my visitors from England to one of the best views in the northern Sierra.  Pretty dry up there, so why did they close it?  Must have been confident that the rain forecast for tomorrow is actually coming.

 The view from the parking area just below the lookout is breathtaking.  Crystal Lake a few hundred feet below us, and a great view over Indian Valley into North Arm.  Could also see Lake Almanor, Round Valley reservoir, Lassen Peak, Butterfly Valley, and many recognizable peaks to the East and South.  Especially fun recognizing many places we'd visited on the ground the previous two days.

We hiked from this point down to Crystal Lake and had lunch at the notch where the lake leaks out into the drainage of Indian Valley.  Most notable "nature event" was groups of ants cooperating in dragging our lunch crumbs as well as corpses of other insects off to their dens.  I wish our economy were as well organized.  The ants were all smiling with pride in a job well done.

Not Your Ordinary Fall Colors

 A brief side trip from showing my visitors around my favorite Quincy area trails was to run an errand at FRC.  One of the beautiful surprises there, as far as Fall Colors are concerned, is a patch of Orange Peel Fungus under a stairway near the administration building.  This fungus is very convincing; I've had several friends think I was trying to pass of an actual orange peel as a fungus.  Of course, eventually, most orange peels end up getting consumed by fungi, but not such pretty ones.

 I took my friends to Butterfly Valley Botanical Area.  Upon approaching the Darlingtonia Bog, one sees mostly dried up, brown vegetation with some of last year's Pitcher Plants poking up, but they too looked spent from our dry summer.  However, as we patiently crawled around and looked closer to the ground, there were many colorful surprises, including quite a number of blooming Asters (above).

 A new patch of Darlingtonia looked so cute I had to place a quarter on top for show scale.  And the Sundew were still looking good in the wet areas.  It was a cool morning, so we didn't see any flying insects. 

 One of the man lilies found in this area is the Tofieldia (both common and scientific name) which was still standing with its seed pods looking almost like blooms from a distance.

 After spending an hour or so wandering around the bog, we adjourned to the Keddie Cascades Trail.  Most of the color was the green of evergreens and the yellow-brown of oaks, maples, and many different shrubs.  But a few patches of Umbrella Plant were showing off their reds, oranges, and yellows.  Overall, the Umbrella Plant didn't produce the solid rows of brilliant red along the creek side that happens in some years.  But I enjoy looking for the individual spectacular leaf anyway.

 The dusty, gray trail was decorated with occasional Wooly Bear caterpillars.  They can winter in the leaf mulch, even under several feet of snow, and they turn into a Tiger Moth in the spring.

So, we saw more than satisfying amounts of Fall Colors, even though we never saw the seasonal standards: large groves of Aspen, Black Cottonwood, Black Oak, Big Leaf Maple, and Dogwood.

Spanish Peak

 To me, the Bucks Lake Wilderness and Spanish Peak are every bit as exciting as California's better known mountain regions like Yosemite and Kings Canyon with the added bonus of having no crowds.  I was so glad to live near them when last week I was paid a visit by friends from England who could have easily been sidetracked by Chamber of Commerce type pitches to go to the more famous places.  On their first day in town, Last Sunday, we hiked up to Spanish Peak from Silver Lake.  The top photo is the view from the dam by the east end of Silver Lake.  So gorgeous that one could easily spend the day sitting on or near the dam with a sketchbook and some food and drink.
We went in search of Fall Colors - capitalized because they are treated as sacred this time of year.  Interestingly, there weren't many reds, oranges and yellows along the trail as we've had a very dry winter and summer.  Even the Mountain Ash, which I thought would put on a good show, was mostly dried up and had lost its leaves and berries.  However, the views, as always, were spectacular.  We could see Lassen Peak in one direction, and Sierra Buttes in the other.  Then I pointed out the path we took up from Quincy.  The view of Silver Lake from the top (photo below) always gives one a feeling of accomplishment.

 Ironically, the most dramatic fall color was the wolf lichens covering the huge Red Firs that suddenly appear as we emerged from Granite Gap.

 Nearing Spanish Peak, we encountered several friends and colleagues from Quincy and a nice lady with a Labradoodle jogging along the PCT. 

We picnicked near the peak and watched the many Chipmunks waiting for us to drop some crumbs.
The only negative experience, for me, was being greeted by three hunters as they were leaving the Wilderness Area.  I hope they didn't find anything.

Variations

 Our front porch resident spider is back.  Last night she devoured yesterday's web, and by daybreak had built a new one.  Already had one fly victim wrapped up in a corner.

 A man-made lily.  My daughter is experimenting with her new birthday camera and is already getting some nice effects.  When I look at these light bulbs over her bed, I see lilies.  Maybe she does, too.  Or perhaps stars. 

This is another arrangement of the leaves I posted a couple of days ago.  I call this shot "Botanical Rainbow."  The leaves of Cascara Sagrada stay fresh for quite a while.  I might try still another arrangement today, and post more natural history notes about the species, and color changes in general.