To my delight, a house finch couple has spent the last few days building a nest in the cypress tree outside our kitchen window. We can’t see the nest — it’s tucked into the tree’s interior — but it’ll be fun to see the birds come and go as they breed and feed.
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.
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!
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!
I took Bodie out to (dog-friendly) Charmlee Wilderness Park yesterday for a three-mile hike. It had probably been about nine years since we were last there. She was pretty excited to visit someplace new, and smell all the critters. The wildflowers are popping, and the area seems to be recovering well from the 2018 Woolsey Fire.
I’m beyond lucky to have this as my daily view.
I somehow managed to make the silver dollar jade look like a bunch of lollies bursting out of their paper bag. PARTY!!!
Working on my trees. I had a huge aha when I heard Liz Steel say she uses Yellow Ochre as the yellow in her mixed greens for foliage. Giving it a go.
The native bush sunflowers (Encelia californica) are just about done for the year. The invasive fountain grass (Pennisetum setaceum) is still going strong 😩
Four mile hike with V at Topanga — the wildflowers are changing week by week.
hashiworks 