Tumbling photos, field work hazards, & rain saves my butt

My guess: Edith's checkerspot (Euphydryas editha)

on yerba santa (Eriodictyon californicum).

1. Am doling out more photos from the (fairly glorious)

CNPS hike along the Merced River,

including wildflowers, butterflies, etc.,

on Tumblr (click on that!) 'cause it's faster. For now.

Hope that's alright. xoxoxo

2. Hazards of field work, part 12

Found a good site for Saturday's mushroom hike: hooray!

Unfortunately, also found poison oak on my body.

I knew I'd gone through a patch 2 days ago,

during an exploratory hike of a potential site,

so washed my clothes with Tecnu.

Forgot to wash MYSELF with Tecnu.

Oops.

3. The recent RAIN we got saved my hiney!

Until about 10 days ago, we had almost NO mushrooms visible anywhere.

Cruised through a potential hike in the Sierra NF yesterday,

and saw over 6 species.

Some kinda TINY, beautiful, BRIGHT mushroom.

No clue, re: ID. In the Sierra National Forest, Bass Lake District.

Thus, I am saved.

From a mushroom-free mushroom hike.

And mushroom-free mushroom-seekers.

Who would need someone to blame.

And pelt with pinecones.

Thank you to the rain + warmth that --> MUSHROOMS!

And thank you, in advance, to the Sierra National Forest

for having handy, fruitful, and free forests for us to roam.

I'll think of you if/when I write a check to the IRS this year.

xoxoxo!

bb

some "best of" Hite Cove photos, few words...

    
People have been searching for Hite Cove trail or flower shots, probably looking for inspiration to get out, so here's some favorites from last Sunday. =)

This hiker jokingly asked if I wanted them to model, to break the monotony of all the flowers and I laughed. Then they passed me, and I thought, What the heck? He's taking a photo, she's gazing happily. Typical scene, that day. Like all the pictures, it looks better if you click on it.

Blue dicks, Dichelostemma capitatum, punctuating the orange with lovely hits of purple. Later I'll post pictures of the bud of same, which is a lovely, moody, dark thing.

My favorite wildflower when I was a kid. Still nuts about them. Shooting stars, Dodecatheon spp. Based on the habitat, I'd guess it's Dodecatheon hendersonii, but again, this is a Q&D guess.

Face to face...

Stunner.

And, last but not least, the California state flower:

Again, click on above for pollen-acious detail. I don't know why seeing the pollen grains makes me so happy, but it does.

Have you ventured out, yet? Do tell.

biobabbler

And the photo theme winner is...

Flowers and bugs!

Going through my pics last night to get them onto my mac was a revelation.

I have a lot of pictures of bugs. A LOT. I had no idea.

For a trip that involved the midwest, I'm pretty sure there are more pictures of bugs than people.

ANYhow, here's the first of several.

This is a tiny caterpillar we saw on a blooming indigo plant in the Anza-Borrego desert. Tiny, adorable creature. And the colors in that plant make me nuts--white stems, super dark, intense purple blossoms, so beautiful.

I'm off to clean the coops. It's going to rain a TON so I want the interior of their coop to be as dry and clean as possible, since they'll be spending a lot of time there over then next week.

Will post more pics later. =)  Enjoy!

biobabbler

P.S. Aw, heck, here's one more...

This flower is a native to the Texas region, HUGE red flowers on a towering plant. The instigator is a neighbor of relatives in Texas who has landscaped in all natives, almost making me swoon. Gave us a tour of everything, and I took lots of photos, catching these dashing creatures amid all the shiny red.

snow is a no go

So, no go snow. Foo.

Friends cannot visit, after all, due to physical phaulter down there (in addition to mine), so apparently I’ll be nursing my ankle, doing pilates/yoga videos, and NOT bringing you marvelous pictures fresh from the Sierra Nevada.

But, I can, over the next few days, post pictures on any of the following themes:

• Big, crazy fire of 2008 (view from our property, among others, the Yosemite fire in all the papers and national TV)
  
• Best bobcat photo
  
• Great snake shot
  
• Fresh from the East Coast pics (mostly Boston)
  
• Mega manzanita
  
• Abstract nature shots
  
• Hawaii glamour shots
  
• Yosemite glamour shots (sky and rocks and water, usual themes)
  
• Yellowstone glamour shots
• Mount Rainier glamour shots
  
• Mount Saint Helen shots
  
• Cool flower/bug shots
  
• Garden rocking hard shots
  

YOU (my audience of, what, 2?) get to pick. So, whomever comments gets to pick, and if more than one person replies, then I’ll pick the most popular topic (if there is overlap). Or one per day. Something reasonable.

Otherwise, if you say nothing, I’ll just put up what I want. =)

xoxo the biobabbler