At life drawing this week, the teacher gave us a 10 minute overview of the anatomy of the arm. “Any questions?” he asked.
I raised my hand. “Are we supposed to remember all that?” Got a few laughs.
Even though the class is not-for-credit, and there will be no test, I thought I’d come home and review anyway.
Whenever I notice something for the first time, it makes me wonder what other beauty I am obliviously missing.
The deerweed on the hills at Leo Carrillo is being absolutely denuded by Western Tussock Moth larvae. Shrub after shrub along the trail has been stripped to bare stems, while others show a thick population of caterpillars munching away with abandon.
Orgyia vetusta is native to western North America, and is considered a pest by many because of the speed at which the caterpillars can defoliate a tree. They‘ve been reported on virtually all California oak species as well as various fruit and nut trees, ceanothus, hawthorn, manzanita, toyon, walnut, and willow. And deerweed!
The defoliation wrought by these caterpillars can trigger a chain reaction in ecosystems. Trees and plants serve as vital resources for numerous organisms, and their decline can throw food chains into disarray and diminish biodiversity. Tussock moth caterpillars have several natural predators, including birds, parasitic wasps and predatory beetles. Here’s hoping that the population reaches a healthy stasis at Leo Carrillo.
What a joy it was, to have a full weekend of camping and nature journaling with 22 other curious nature lovers at Leo Carrillo State Park.
I got to wondering — who was Leo Carrillo (1915–1957)? Turns out he was an American actor, vaudevillian, political cartoonist, philanthropist, and conservationist. He gained lasting fame when he played the role of Pancho on early television’s “The Cisco Kid.”
Carrillo served on the California Beach and Parks commission for 18 years and played a key role in the state’s acquisition of Hearst Castle at San Simeon, Los Angeles Arboretum, and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. He was also an ardent historic preservationist and helped to save a number of historic buildings in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara.
His legacy is not entirely golden, however. During World War II, Carrillo advocated for the removal of all Japanese Americans from the west coast. In a 1944 telegram to Congressman Leland Ford that received extensive coverage, Carrillo wrote: “…it seems that every [Japanese] farmhouse is located on some strategic elevated point. Let‘s get them off the coast and into the interior.”
As for pronunciation of his last name, we now say “Car-reeyo“ with the “y“ for double “l“ as in Mexican Spanish. However, his autobiography* phonetically spelled what his family considered the correct Castilian pronunciation: “Cay-reel-yo” with a liquid Castilian double “l”. *Carrillo, Leo (1961). The California I Love.
Time for a new sketchbook. This one has a white canvas cover, which will quickly get grubby, so I decided to paint it. Watercolours definitely run amok on canvas!
Great Valley gumweed is native to California and Baja California, where it can be found in a number of habitats including chaparral and woodlands. The flower heads fill with a sticky white exudate that was reportedly used by the Chumash to treat poison-oak rash, skin diseases and pulmonary troubles.
At first I thought I had the answer, but all I got was more questions. The joys of nature journaling 💚
Leaf comparison within a genus. Salvia (not to be confused with saliva) is the largest genus of plants in the family Lamiaceae, with nearly 1000 species of shrubs, herbaceous perennials, and annuals. Here are the plants from our garden that are known as sage, but other, less obvious herbs are also Salvias, e.g. rosemary and chia.
Ticks are parasitic arachnids of the order Ixodida. They live by feeding on the blood of mammals, birds, and sometimes reptiles and amphibians. They’ve been around for a long time; the oldest known tick fossils are from the Cretaceous period, around 100 million years old.
I’d never heard of the American dog tick (or wood tick) till I brought one home on my neck last weekend. They mostly live east of the Rocky Mountains. Dermacentor variabilis is a three-host tick—the larva, nymph and adult all need to ingest blood.
Some ticks attach to their host rapidly, while others wander around searching for thinner skin, such as that in the ears of mammals. Mine was obviously still on the hunt for a good feeding site. Reading up on tularemia and Rocky Mountain spotted fever, I’m glad I removed it before it latched on!
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