Lovely SMMNJC meetup yesterday at Rancho Sierra Vista/Satwiwa. Between us we saw four different rattlesnakes and a gopher snake (along with lots of other interesting critters).
Yerba mansa
Month: June 2024
BB14
We did it! All 67 miles of the Backbone Trail were traversed; we actually added 8 miles to the total with our couple of detours. It’s been such a great experience, seeing new parts of the gorgeous Santa Monica Mountains and revisiting favourite sections. Check the ‘backbone trail’ tag to see all the journal entries.
Big thanks to my BHBF (Best Hiking Buddy Forever) for sharing the adventure.
bud vase
Getty Villa Museum
This Roman marble theatrical mask on the mosaic fountain in the East Garden is my favourite thing at the Getty Villa Museum. I like to think he is expressing shock and horror at the antiquities theft that was rife in the heyday of the British Empire, examples of which are on display all about him.
dispersal
Acacias are introduced here, and several are classified as invasive. I think the one proliferating in our neighbourhood is Acacia melanoxylon, Australian blackwood. I don’t know what bird moves the seeds about, but I have found them in my bird bath so I’m pretty sure they are involved!
buzzfeed
I’d seen a tuning fork used to trigger pollen ejection from nightshade flowers, but an electric toothbrush is cheaper and more accessible for demonstration purposes. I might add one to my school walks kit.
imaginal discs
Why had I never heard of imaginal discs before? Such a cool name, and structure!
passiflora
Phlebodium aureum
The plants in our fernery don’t get a lot of attention apart from watering, but could probably do better with some TLC.
In other thoughts, I got curious about the etymology of ‘emergence’ and ‘emergency’ two similar words with very different meanings. They both come from medieval Latin emergentia, from Latin emergere ‘bring to light’ or ‘arise’.
good girl
When one of us is gone, she tends to spend her waking hours watching the driveway.
hashiworks 