Holy Snowflake, Batman!

Winter Solstice 2012.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

Death in the afternoon

A neighbor alerted us to the fact that a mountain lion (most likely) made dinner on our property, below the house.  We had been watching this stately buck as the males drifted back in for rutting season.  Never again will his lips curl in lust, savoring the sexy smell of the estrus doe.

Falling in love

A long, warm autumn brought out the gold in Siskiyou County's white oak woodland.  I took some pix above Greenhorn Park during a morning walk.

  

Celebrating Pollinators

A couple of Klamath National Forest -ologist types organized a little walk-and-talk at Kangaroo Lake on plants and their pollinators this weekend.  Retired entomologist Dr. Stan Carlson let us peek at part of his collection of native butterflies, moths, flies, bees and other bugs, while a rep from the Klamath Bird Observatory talked about the importance of hummingbirds.  Three forest botanists (one retired) were on hand to help us identify the myriad of wildflowers in bloom in the fens and meadows around the lake. Some two dozen people took part in the activity on this spectacularly gorgeous day in Siskiyou County.  Thank you Sam, Marla, Danica, Julie, Stan and Janene for a great day!

Pitcher plants aka cobra plants (Darlingtonia californica) are native to the fens of high elevation serpentine habitats in Siskiyou County.  

Rock, paper, scissors

Last Saturday, I joined the Mt. Shasta Trail Association on their Seven Lakes Basin Hike from Gumboot trailhead to Echo Lake.  We had a large and lively bunch of young and old walking a three-mile portion of the Pacific Crest Trail that gave us views to Mt. Shasta, Mt. Lassen, the Trinity Alps, Castle Crags, the Seven Lakes Basin ... and SO MUCH MORE!

I, for one, saw two dragons (one rock, one wood) and lots of pretty flowers, some so small they qualify for the term "belly-flowers" cuz you gotta get down on your belly to see 'em.

Here's one dragon:

For more dragons and a sample of flowers big and little, please go to my photo album at 

Picasaweb.

A CNPS hike up Black Butte

What can I say? I'm a sucker for Western dogwood (C. nuttalli) and this one catches the light like the snow on Mt. Shasta.

The Shasta Chapter of the California Native Plant Society planned a walk up Black Butte, so we joined them on Saturday.  It was wintry-windy-cold, so Jeff and I didn't go all the way to the top.  But we went far enough to be rewarded with some stunning penstemon (P. newberryi) ...

and stands of mountain maple (A. glabrum) were showing off their beautiful scarlet seeds.  We also noted some canyon larkspur (D. nudicaule) and star-flower.  At the trailhead we found boo-koo Shasta lily and wild ginger, not yet in bloom.  Tobacco brush (C. velutinous) was in exuberant and bee-delirious flush of flower.

For more pix from this hike, go to More Photos

Jackrabbit in Winter

We had a small neighbor come spend the afternoon in our yard, about 12 feet away from the back door.  Black-tailed jackrabbits sleep during the day, with their eyes wide open--quite disconcerting!  When dusk fell she left lickety-split.