I thought this ink would be closer to the lemony colour of the flowers themselves, and it might have been if I’d checked in half an hour earlier. But I do love this rich orange. I thickened it with a teaspoon of gum arabic so it is more viscous than watery. I have no idea how fugitive it might be, but time will tell!
It’s easy to take the wrong turn on the Corral Canyon loop trail and end up climbing way up the mountain. I managed to do so AGAIN today. I eventually realised my error and backtracked; I’m *pretty* sure I won’t make that mistake a third time.
There aren’t many wildflowers out yet, but the grounds of the burned out house are full of naturalized garden flowers, including African flag, periwinkles, and the ubiquitous oxalis. I gathered a baggie of sour flowers to try making ink — more to come on that!
Today I found a lovely sit spot under a big oak beside Liberty Creek, in a less-visited part of Malibu Creek State Park. Sadly, even here there was styrofoam litter, which I duly collected. On my way back to the car I thought I saw a bunch of tennis balls nestled among the mustard, and reached in to add them to my bag ‘o trash. But they were ripe calabazillas or stinking gourds (Cucurbita foetidissima). The vine had completely died back, leaving just the fruit. Tricked me!
King Gillette Ranch houses the visitor center and joint headquarters for California State Parks and the National Park Service in the Santa Monica Mountains. It’s named for millionaire businessman King C. Gillette (inventor of the disposable razor blade) who owned the property from 1926 to 1939 and built some of the structures on the 360 acre property. There are easy hiking trails and lots of places to picnic (and sketch).
The hills are green from last month’s rain, though they won’t stay that way for long. A few wildflowers are flourishing—we saw California Buttercups (Ranunculus californicus), Golden Currants (Ribes aureum), and Wild Peonies (Paeonia californica). There is no rain in the forecast, so I think it’s going to be a short spring.
When we settled down to sketch, S told me that the movie How Green Was My Valley (1941) was filmed in the valley ahead, which is, ironically, rarely green; but the movie was filmed in black and white so I guess that didn’t matter. The old water tank we could see on a distant knoll was erected to provide the Welsh rain. Ah, movie magic.
I found a desiccated bird in the bird’s nest fern—too far gone for easy identification.
hashiworks 