Playing with tempera sticks and wax oil pastels makes me feel like a kid again. Nice!
mixing it up
Tag: trees
Brenneria quercina
Do you have oaks in your neighbourhood? Are they drippy this year?
Feron kingi
Feron kingi, commonly known as the red cone gall wasp, is a member of the Cynipidae family.
The adult female lays her eggs within the leaves of several white oak species, including the valley oak (Quercus lobata). Once the egg hatches, the larva begins feeding on the leaf tissue, triggering the plant to form a hard, protective structure—a small red cone about 5 mm tall. This gall benefits the insect, providing it with additional plant tissue to consume. Inside the gall, the larva pupates and eventually matures into a parthenogenetic female adult before emerging from the tip of the cone. That’s right — there are no male gall wasps.
Eucalyptus cinerea
We went to nature journal orchids, but I spent my time down memory lane with a silver dollar eucalypt instead.
in sycamore shade
I had a slight miscommunication with A, which had me arriving at our hiking spot first (most unusual!) But of course, waiting is never a problem when you have a sketchbook handy.
Quercus agrifolia
We have 6 mature oak trees in our yard, so right now we have hundreds of seedlings popping up all over. If you want to come by and transplant some for your place, let me know! We have plenty to spare!
ways to engage
At our nature journal meetup today, I trialled a class I’ll be offering in a few weeks. The participants enjoyed it and gave valuable feedback. I really loved hearing all their observations and poetry. What a great way to spend a few hours.
Quercus agrifolia
The male oak flowers are dangling hopefully, but, as with the walnut flowers I sketched last week, I’m not yet seeing any females following behind. Will keep looking!
under oak
Fun outing with the Channel Islands Nature Journalers. It was my first time seeing an elfin saddle (Helvella dryophila)! What an interesting-looking fungus.
Salix lasiolepis
It was so good to meet with SMMNJC again this past weekend. Due to vacation, holidays, and wildfires it had been four months since I’d got to hang out with the gang. We welcomed four newcomers, and all enjoyed our time in the sun. I got curious about the arroyo willow flowers and identified male/female. Did not identify the odd stem growth, but mysteries are OK by me.
hashiworks 