Musings

Today we lived stress-free, or at least I did.

In the morning (almost) cool, we walked up a dry wash and back. There is nothing comparable in the part of the Midwest I have spent time in. Dry washes always look to me like they’re awaiting the next rainstorm, and are in a pause mode…. We even got in a little hammock time under the cottonwoods down by Little Bear Creek.

I finished the (yawn) novel I mentioned yesterday (yawn), and began Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2008, translation by Reg Keeland from Swedish of Män som hatar kvinnor). This one is well worth the time (much better than the Yawn), and I’m only 138 pages into it!

Posted at 9:03 PM | Comments Off on No cholla spines today

Short version: Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument—cool place!

The reality is that since the property kisses the US-Mexico border for miles, many of the coolest places are off-limits. Sadly.

So, in the interests of attempted perkiness, let’s keep to the upbeat stuff. Like the organ pipe cacti. Each one is a large multi-armed mini-forest. Yet, my eye kept being drawn to the saguaros looming above all the other plants, and to the various cholla species, dense with spined branches, as well as the ocotillos and palo verdes, all liberally sprinkled among the ubiquitous, uh, uh…(forgot name—see how much I was looking out the window rather than studying the handouts!).

Posted at 11:22 PM | Comments Off on Gorgeous Sonoran desert

Yup, that’s the root end of a giant redwood that fell a few years back. Nobody saw it fall, but a guy a few miles away said he heard what sounded like a freight train crash! And that’s the Guru standing back there to give you a sense of scale.

Having stood next to these gentle(?) giants, I’d say you pretty much have to use the vertical format more than you normally do in the out of doors. However, it’s still difficult to frame a whole tree even with a 16:9 aspect ratio.

I guess that’s why I’m rather partial to this photo (and others) of the tree-fall end of the redwood (spelled “rewood” on one of the state maps). You can see the robust roots do not extend far from the trunk, that there’s little buttressing, and that there’s no tap root. These guys are poorly anchored, at best. They need their brethren to help them stay upright. Another factor in this fall was that the ground was saturated from a lot of rainfall. I’d say wind is a great enemy of redwoods.

I just want to say that the two of us, having survived two tree falls—of oaks, mind you—maybe brought an unusual perspective on gravity and trees to our redwood time….

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Freight train

This morning we went to Lincoln Park (in West Seattle), because my Bro had heard there were old growth trees there. We did find some fine “older” trees, but no old growth ones.

Then, to be guaranteed a chance to see a few special plants, we stopped by The Conservatory at Volunteer Park. I enjoyed this cactus (New World only, of course; the other continents have similar plants that are succulents).

Posted at 10:56 PM | Comments Off on C-ATL plant explorations

“What do you want to do while you’re here?”

No particular agenda, we say, engendering a look of slight confusion.

So, we’re doing our best to live up to that philosophy….

Posted at 8:22 PM | 4 Comments »

Some of my chores today involved a bit of waiting, so I snapped a few pictures of the light coming through the maple leaves. Now I need to learn to ID the varieties of maples: sugar, silver, etc.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Which maple are U?

I’ve been watching this corner of the field with particular care, to monitor the changing colors. We have had more moderate temps since the hard frost last week, so the maples have yet to develop many leaves in the dark reds and maroons. See?

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Monitoring

In amongst all the other hubbub of the day, I went out in the late afternoon and dodged a few raindrops and snagged a few apples. Most were from a tree with limbs that had succumbed to the weight of the crop, and, along with a few from the Macintosh tree, they made great sauce, although not the bright pink of last month’s varieties. The Botanist said he got the Macintosh tissue direct from the place/person in Canada that had the original. This would have been in the mid- or late-1940s or perhaps early 1950s, I think.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Applesauce!

Short version: it’s begun, but just barely. The expanses are still mostly green, with some gold (I don’t dare write “gold leaf”!), and a few brilliant branches glowing in orange-red and deep maroon-red.

Stay tuned!

Posted at 10:22 PM | 2 Comments »

I find it oddly compelling to stroke the leaves of this modest plant, and then watch as each leaf folds in on its leaflet stem.

I write this off-line, so no scientific name or links….

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on How sensitive this plant?