The veggie garden’s looking lush and happy, particularly the brassicas, which usually get seriously attacked by aphids and cabbage moths. It’s early days yet, but I’ve got fingers crossed that we get to eat homegrown broccoli and cabbage this year.
Musch Trail is one of the prettiest in Topanga State Park, but I don’t know how to pronounce it. Rhymes with bush? Or tusk? Or douche? Or crush? Was Musch a person? What’s his/her story? Can a local help me out?
I’m making up for the Covid years, and travelling to Australia for the second time in six months. I leave on Sunday afternoon; I’m hoping that most people will have chosen the Super Bowl over travel that day. Five weeks down under, here I come!
I very (very) rarely eat or drink out, but today I had to kill half a day in the city, so I enjoyed a light meal at Breakfast by Salt’s Cure. 💯 recommend the avocado toast.
Week 6 in the PerpJo.
Mirabilis laevis var. crassifolia is a native perennial herb found in coastal sage scrub, chaparral and woodlands habitats in California and Baja California. It’s fairly common, especially on rocky slopes with sandstone outcrops. It re-sprouts during winter after the first heavy rain and dies back after the rainy season.
The leaves are ovate to heart-shaped. The red-violet sepals look like petals but there are, in fact, no petals. These vivid, cheerful flowers are just starting to open here on our hill. Sweet!
According to Birdnet, it was a little flock of Golden-crowned Sparrows I was hearing. I didn’t see them, so I can’t be sure.
Photo refs: Vivek Khanzodé
It was so nice to see the first milkmaids this morning!
Milkmaids (Cardamine californica) are some of the first wildflowers to appear in the Santa Monica Mountains each year, showing up in winter and early spring. This member of the Brassicaceae (Mustard) family likes shady, moist hillsides or stream banks in riparian areas. Each flower is about 12mm in diameter with four white to pink petals. The flower closes its petals in late afternoon as the sun goes down and nods its pedicel before a rain, protecting the pollen. It is perennial—after flowering and setting seed, it dies back to its roots where it goes dormant until next year’s rains awaken it.
I hiked this trail once before, in summer 2016, and had a bit of a heat exhaustion incident. I was alone at the time. I remember feeling very dizzy and nauseated, and crawling into the scant shade of a tree to rest and cool down. Luckily today was perfect hiking weather. No hyperthermia involved.
Sunburst diving beetles are aquatic, though they can fly. They are found in Southern California, southern Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico. They inhabit various slow-moving freshwater habitats, especially shallow, temporary or intermittent pools and creeks with little or no aquatic vegetation. When their water source dries up they will fly to a new one.
They prey upon and scavenge other aquatic insects, snails, young fish, tadpoles, and mosquito larvae and pupae. The distinctive yellow spots serve as a warning sign to predators that the insect can release a foul tasting chemical from specialized glands found behind the insect’s head.
Source of the ‘mating wars’ info above: Trisha Nichols and Science Daily. I liked Susan’s comment during the livestream: “Guys, if your lady passes out underneath you, you are doing it wrong!”
As I have aged, I am definitely become more pessimistic about human beings, and everything we touch. But today I thought I’d play with some optimistic lettering, just for fun. Because allegedly it’s Optimist Day. And it’s always fun to play with a dip pen.
hashiworks 