A few Monday Mono pics: the east side of the Sierra

 Traipsed to the east side this weekend.

Didn't take a lot of photos, as it was rainy or sleety, much of the time.

However, I did get a decent shot of Black Point, one of my favorite Mono Lake features.

The cloudiness softened the lighting, in a place that, when sunny, can be BLINDING.

We'd planned on photographing golden aspens,

but they were not yet golden.

So, hung out at Mono Lake instead.

This is the sort of weird, beautiful view of Mono-Inyo craters that you get around here.

Which makes me inordinately happy.

However, I also have to STARE at the beautiful cattails and tule

in the peri-Mono Lake environment.

So gorgeous!

Oh, and earlier this summer we were here,

and some power birders (w/spotting scope) showed me

the osprey nest, which you can still see

on the little island in the middle of this photo.

(hm... blogger is making this very purple. Ah, well.)

Can you imagine being born, and THIS is the first scenery you behold?

Wow.

And to the left a wee bit, a pretty little squall across the lake.

Driving to Mammoth Lakes, this was the car's view at a rest stop.

I love the tiny, upside down forest vignettes in the water droplets.

So, before we left, we jammed to Minaret View,

a place with one of my favorite views of all time...

Which was totally socked in. =)

But, you can sort of imagine it via what is, no joke,

one of my favorite interpretive displays EVER.

Just a metal cut out, mirroring the amazing craggy skyline here,

labeling each little peak & naming it.

A simple, accurate and durable display.

Show me the data. Love it.

Last: where is the snow line?

If you turn your back on the view of the Minarets, you can see this. Pretty nice. =)

K. That's it.

Hope your week is a delight. =)

xobb

Friday Foto Fling

and Happy Flehmen Response Friday!*

Ridiculously beautiful day at Mono Lake. Kinda stormy.

Driving home. Road trips are ROUGH when there's nothing to look at... =)

View during (brief) traffic stop at Yosemite. Again, hard to bear. =)

Note debris on road at right. Brief, intense rainstorm washed stuff onto the road, hence road work.

Finally landed on a term for dahlias: absurdly beautiful.

iPhoto plot: it opened onto May 22, 2014 & I saw this guy. HAD to re-post. Cute little hopper!

 LOVE those eyes...

I added mulch one day and I SWEAR the NEXT DAY everyone looked happier.

Gaillardia infront of chrysanthemum. 

Perusing lovely images of gardens (& listening to gardening podcasts)

it occurs to me that many people don't have the

gophers, rabbits, deer, bears, etc. that we have.

Their plants are just OUT THERE, and all's well.

Can't. Even. Imagine.

Here's the deer's eye view of our dahlias:

Looks like flower prison. For the criminally gorgeous. And tasty.

Moby trying to figure out how to GET to those tomato plants.

Nevertheless, I still enjoy gardening; miracles abound.

Soaked these pups 1.5 days, and they had ALREADY started to germinate.

Which may be why this happened 5 days later:

=) Hard to see, as I MUST disguise baby bean plants so birds don't get them all. 

Next day:

SO amazingly fast. SUPER gratifying.

They're scarlet runner beans, so when they mature,

not only will they be beautiful and shade-making,

but also I'll finally have something for the hummingbirds. Hooray!

K. THASSIT!

Have a fabulous weekend, cherished peeps.

xoxobb

*To perk up your Friday, just google image search Flehmen response.

It's PG rated, a real biological thing, and SUPER entertaining. =) Plus, tapirs!

Rockin' sunset saves my bacon: photo challenge day 2

"Where I Live"

Facing southwest by our house: the Sierra foothills.

That is the theme of Day 2 of the Just Go Do It 30 Day Photo Challenge

& I already have a confession: I took this photo yesterday, not today.

It rained ALL DAY, today.

Not a lot of tugging the Nikon w/me as I sklitch & slide around the property.

So: among the tree species you see above are

ponderosa pines (Pinus ponderosa, go figure, the pointy ones)

and foothill pine (Pinus sabiana, the rounded ones).

Same sunset, looking due south.

Foothill (or grey or umpteen other common names) pines grow,

as the name suggests, at low elevation (20-2200 m),

and can tolerate the (100+ F) heat and drought we have here. SUPER tough.

What they DON'T tolerate too well is snow.

one more aspen hit

Because, tho' I went from the Pacific (see header)

to pronghorn antelope in one (glorious) day

this last weekend, I'm not feeling blog-posty.

So, here's this. =)

xoxobb

Tongue-tied Tuesday

aspen attack

Yesterday afternoon we scoped out the aspen action

in the Mono Lake area in eastern California.

Today I walked into the above aspen forest,

surrounded by possibly the most beauty

I've ever experienced in one place at one time.

I took 6 big steps forward,

then lay on the dirt & leaves,

and stared up.

gah!

[ed: bb left unexpectedly before completing this post. We assure you that she will post more aspen photos (accompanied by the usual blather) once she has recovered her faculties. We apologize for any inconvenience, and for her lapse in professional conduct.]