I love these delicate little chalice-like seed pods.
Keckiella cordifolia
Category: Uncategorized
bryophytes
And then there were the bryophytes. So delightful.
i’m lichen it
I went for a hike and got completely distracted by dual organisms consisting of a fungus and an alga or a cyanobacterium. Look! So many pretty colours!
garden salad
Tonight’s salad greens, both cultivated and wild, came from the yard. I added some cherry tomatoes and a little preserved lemon vinaigrette and it was 👌🏻.
for miss six
Birthday card for my super-duper, roller-skating, karate-kicking, friendly, fun six-yr-old great-niece.
Zuma Canyon trail
Thanks to blogging, I know that the last time I hiked this trail was in March 2024, as part of the whole Backbone Trail. I saw a striped racer that day; it’s been a long time since I’ve seen a snake, now I come to think about it. But it’s sure nice to witness the return of the wildflowers.
Ceiba speciosa
In the U.S. we call this the floss silk or silk floss tree, but in South America (where it is native) it goes by palo borracho (“drunken stick” in Spanish). Looking at this specimen, I can see why!
fishy gift
red cabbage
Well, this was a surprise. A forgotten cabbage was busy procreating in the back of the fridge. I’ve nestled it into the dirt—let’s see if the babies continue to grow.
Uresiphita reversalis
A and I explored Santa Ynez Canyon for the first time since the Palisades Fire burned through a year ago. There’s a lot of regrowth and things are looking pretty good. We were excited to see a lot of young Humboldt lily plants; we’ll for sure return in late spring to see the flowers.
I spotted some caterpillars of the Genista Broom Moth munching on lupins. Genista caterpillars feed primarily on acacias and members of the pea family, including brooms (Genista spp.), Scotch broom, Texas mountain laurel (Sophora secundiflora), blue wild indigo or false indigo (Baptisia australis), and lupines. These caterpillars ingest and store alkaloids from their host plants, making them bitter—and sometimes toxic—to mammals, birds, and some insect predators (so definitely don’t eat them!).
hashiworks 