Eucalyptus trees (or, as we call them in Australia, gum trees) have naturalised throughout Southern California, including on our 2 acres. I’m pretty sure these are blue gums.
eucalypts
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dinner makings
The secret to a cohesive vegan shepherd’s pie is to cook steel cut oats with the lentils. I use this recipe. Hmm-mmm.
bougainvillea
I know nature journaling isn’t about making pretty pictures, but sometimes it’s nice to do both on the same page.
grandmother’s tea tin
A perennially favourite subject to paint: grandmother’s* Bushell’s tea tin. I love its pale green colour and the almost comically inept illustrations, which are subtly embossed into the metal. If I google “bushells tea tin vintage australian animals” I find plenty of examples dating back to the 1930s but none that look just like mine. Those others all have far more realistic depictions of the same four iconic Aussie critters. Mine were sketched by a beginner artist 🙂
* We called her ‘Grandmother’, not a softer diminutive. It’s the kind of person she was.
above the roofline
mitten rock
I paid a visit to Rocky Oaks Park today, a great place for a 1 hour easy hike. The wildflowers are abundant right now, and the only other person there was a scientist (?) collecting data down by the pond. At least I assume that was what she was doing with her clipboard and frequent stooping. We waved to each other from a distance and I continued on my way.
pinyon jays
It’s always a pleasure (and an education) to take a class with John Muir Laws.
arugula/rocket
I don’t have a lot of success with growing spinach, arugula, lettuce or basil. They flower and seed so quickly!
Come to think of it, I don’t have a lot of success with brassicas or corn either — they get totally infested with aphids. Thank goodness for tomatoes!
don’t eat the lilies!
After completing this sketch, I was hiking back down the trail, and met a group of young adults on their way up. One guy asked me if there was asparagus growing nearby, because he’d just picked and eaten some. Uh … no. There is no asparagus growing here. After reminding him that all plants in the Park are protected, and that some are poisonous, we parted ways. A little further down the track I found the broken plant. I knew it was some kind of lily about to flower, but it wasn’t till I got home I learned that it was Toxicoscordion fremontii (Frémont’s deathcamas or common star lily). As the name suggests, it’s highly toxic to livestock and humans.
I hope he’s OK, but … what a foolish human being! People, don’t go eating plants in the wild unless you know for sure what they are!
under the elder
I wasn’t trying to write a poem, but now I realise that the first two sentences sound like I was.
