A rainy day is a perfect time to take a John Muir Laws class on drawing insects. Isn’t this guy kooky? Trachelophorous giraffa is endemic to Madagascar, and shouldn’t be confused with the New Zealand Giraffe Weevil (Lasiorhynchus barbicornis). In both species, the males have extremely long heads.
I created this page a few weeks ago for our Park docents’ newsletter. Now that it’s been published, I can post it here. A rattlesnake and a mountain lion on the same hike, that was pretty exciting!
Erythrina caffra, the coast coral tree or African coral tree, is a native of southeastern Africa. It is often cultivated as an ornamental and street tree, and has introduced populations in California and India. We have one growing in our yard. It’s deciduous, and puts forward both leaves and flowers in early spring. The flowers are made up of a main petal of a gorgeous transparent pyrrol orange hue, and four small petals. The main petal curves back to expose the stamens.
I arrived five minutes early for my lunch date—just enough time for a continuous line drawing of the lobby flower arrangement (colour added when I got home).
This guy was poking his head out of the long grass as I went by. I hope he’s living up to his name and eating lots of gophers!
Chive blossoms are so pretty … and edible! I should be incorporating them into our meals.
Annette and I drove up the coast a ways to join the Channel Island Nature Journalers for a windswept nature journaling session at Carpinteria. (Note to my Australian friends: the emphasis is on the penultimate syllable, Car-pin-ter-REE-a) A good (blustery) time was had by all.
I spent all day indoors at the Park, in a first aid class. It was so nice to emerge into the late afternoon sunshine, and notice the new leaves on the valley oaks.
Lovely day out on the trails. Still plenty of water in the creeks and waterfalls, and the wildflowers are really starting to pop. Feeling very grateful to live in these beautiful mountains.
hashiworks 