Rhea sent me a kookaburra audio clip, which reminded me of the time during lockdown that Dr Farvardin Daliri built a huge kookaburra statue complete with soundtrack, and towed it around Brisbane to make people smile. Sound on!
Dacelo novaeguineae
Blog
Backbone #7
Section 7 is in the books. Most of this trail was new to us, and we enjoyed it a lot. The steep uphill sections and exposed ridge might not be fun on a hot summer today, but right now they’re just lovely.
Marmota monax
It’s Groundhog Day! The groundhog, also known as the woodchuck (along with a bunch of other monikers), is a rodent of the family Sciuridae, belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots. Despite the popular tongue-twister, the etymology of the name woodchuck is unrelated to wood or chucking. It stems from an Algonquian (possibly Narragansett) name for the animal, wuchak.
Cardamine californica
This week in the perpetual journal. Milkmaids are one of the earliest wildflowers to appear on the shady banks and slopes of our local oak and riparian woodlands. They are in the Brassicaceae family.
strawberry plants
These are going in the ground today.
leucadendron
Leucadendron is a genus of about 80 species of flowering plants in the family Proteaceae, endemic to South Africa. We have the Wilson’s Wonder cultivar growing in a pot on our patio, where it looks good all year around, but especially when it’s displaying its yellow cone flowers.
garden report
Spent 10 minutes in the garden before heading off to work at Malibu Creek State Park. Just time to quickly record some of the sights and sounds.
For L.
My friend always picks “One Little Word” for the year (as do I). But she tends to forget what word she picked. So this year I made her a reminder to hang on her wall.
boot care
I’ve been hiking in these boots for at least 25 years, and I don’t think I’ve ever conditioned them. But this winter, my socks have been getting soaked, so it was time to apply some waterproofing. I found an ancient can of Nikwax under the bathroom sink; it had separated into a sticky thick orange wax, and a light creamy grease. Hopefully the grease will do the trick, because that’s what I rubbed into the leather. 🥾
geh weg, lass mich lesen
My daughter Rhea’s birthday card—she’s learning German, and always uses two tea bags. The tags say “GO AWAY” and ”LET ME READ”. I have no idea what the background text says. Something to do with the rise of Uber? 😉
hashiworks 