I’m pretty sure these were scarlet buglers (Penstemon centranthifolius) in great profusion in the northern part of Cheeseboro Canyon. We’ll have to go back in spring to be sure.
Penstemon centranthifolius
Month: December 2024
vanalden cave
What motivates some people to take spray paint to a site of awesome natural beauty? I will never understand how that can feel good. I thought this part of the cave looked like a sad or angry face frowning down on the graffiti.
cyclamen
burnt hills
Bodie and I did a few laps of Legacy Park this morning, past all the mosaic statues. (Wow, looking at those photos I’m delighted by how different the park looks after 14 years of native plant growth.) We viewed the burned hills above town—the Franklin fire came right down to City Hall. We are so lucky more structures weren’t lost. Thank you, firefighters!
seasonality journal
Kate Rutter is one of my favourite people in the nature journaling community. She’s smart, creative, generous, kind, and “rambunctiously experimental”. I enjoyed her zoom session today on creating a concertina journal to record daily data relating to weather, day length, moon phase, temperature, precipitation and more. Not sure if I want to do it myself for 2025, but I’m thinking about it.
tired girl
not what I had in mind
I won’t call it a sewing fail, maybe just give it a C- or D+. I thought I was making an elegant layering piece, but instead it feels like a uniform. Luckily the fabric was from the remnant rack, so only cost a few bucks.
friday hike
Today I returned to an old favourite, dog-friendly, fossil-laden canyon for a lovely winter hike. The landscapito at the top was sketched from the turnaround point, looking east.
Adenanthos sericeus
The woolly bush is a shrub native to the south coast of Western Australia. We planted three here in 2017; one eventually died but the other two are doing well. This fine-textured, upright shrub or small tree typically reaches a height of 6 to 10 feet. The wispy stems are adorned with soft, gray, needle-like foliage that feels velvety to the touch and displays pink hues in its new growth. Small red flowers emerge intermittently throughout the year at the base of the leaves. They are so obscure that I wasn’t even aware the bushes were currently flowering until I noticed the hummingbirds having a feast.
franklin fire
We had no electricity for 48 hours while the Franklin wildfire has raged nearby. Things I did while the power was out:
- planted potatoes
- knitted a dishcloth
- crocheted a rug out of old tshirts
- read a book
- walked around and chatted with neighbours
- admired the dramatic sunsets
- enjoyed candlelit dinner cooked on the camp stove
We’re grateful for the fire fighters and their technology. For now, we are out of danger but the fire is still burning and the winds could shift, so we are staying alert and prepared.
hashiworks 