It's Mid January Already?

I mostly bailed on doing chores today and all sorts of other "shoulds" in favor of taking a long walk along the river.  Scared up the great blue heron a couple of times, heard a kingfisher and saw any number of juncos. 

The fungi are in a bit of a retreat just now, what with not much precipitation lately, not to mention the cold weather.  I took some photos of a mushroom with ice crystals on it just for the fun of it.  It's a wonder that this particular mushroom hadn't been obliterated though, by the phone company heavy equipment that is currently digging an underground phone line up to our neighbors.  (Note:  some great machinery shots on their way at some, couldn't resist.)  It was mere inches away from the path left behind by the Cats.

Meanwhile, Dino had called early in the a.m., determined that it was a burn day and headed for the slope below the house to do some cleanup.  This is the same area he'd worked on some years ago, and entropy being what it is, things had gotten untidy again.

Number 93

Our 93rd species was spotted last night on my way home from town.  As I was passing a neighbor's new gate, I noticed a white bird-ish shape perched on a oak branch overlooking the road.  I hadn't noticed anything there before, and when I stopped to peer at it, discovered the lovely heart shaped face of a male Barn Owl looking back.  We figured they had to be around - they're not uncommon after all - but neither one of us had actually spotted one where we were confident in our identification.  We both agreed that it was a good omen for the nesting prospects of the several Barn Owl nestboxes that Dino has recently installed on our place. (Photo US Fish and Wildlife, in the public domain.)

On the subject of which (bird boxes that is), Dino and Audubon compadres have had several work days the last couple of weeks for building new boxes intended for the abovementioned Barn Owls, plus Wood Ducks and passerines such as Bluebirds and other cavity nesters.

I took last week off work, it was a little rough getting myself back into the office on Monday, but now look!  Four more days off, one of which will be spent eating good food!  Nifty!

This photograph was taken on a not-quite futile fungus hunting expedition over the weekend.  I found this oak bathed in pretty afternoon light near Lion Creek on our Northwest Territory.  A friend who saw this photograph states she can see a horse in it (that would have to be a spirit horse however).

November Road Trip

Week before last we took a road trip south to attend the memorial service for Dino's aunt.  We took a couple of extra days to play tourist. It was a major road trip, over 700 miles of mostly back roads through some of the most beautiful areas of California.  (Have I mentioned that I love where I live?)  We went to three wildlife refuges, took a side trip to a national monument, took the coast route south, and saw mile after mile of farmland, which has always fascinated me no end.  The cotton crop is being picked.  Slide show photos: the seahorses and all bird photos by Dino except the sanderling.  Others by yours truly.




Thursday was the first leg of the coast part of the trip.  We stopped in San Luis Wildlife Refuge, not too far from home, in the wetlands area of the Central Valley.  The flying critters were jam packed, and unfortunately that included a terrible number of hungry mosquitoes.  Leaving that aside, we did some heavy duty birding, being especially enchanted by the Sandhill Cranes. 

From there we headed toward Monterey, where we arrived in plenty of time to get checked into our comfy but not fancy motel, which as it turned out was only a 10 minute walk to Asilomar State Beach.  After we got situated, we headed to the beach and found that the tide was out enough that we could do some tidepooling.  I hadn't taken my good camera with me, just the iphone, and I did not get good shots of some of the neat critters - crabs and anemones, but the gadget did a pretty good job on capturing the beautiful sunset.

The next morning we lingered in the room a bit, eating breakfast and having a couple of cuppas, and then headed to the aquarium neighborhood.  We were still a bit early, so we walked along the waterfront and did some more bird and Harbor Seal watching, until the aquarium opened.

Love!  The seahorse exhibit was so neat, and although I do love seahorses, I fell in love with the Sea Dragons.  There were a couple of different species, the one in the slideshow is a Leafy Sea Dragon.  I was fascinated by watching their little fins pulsing -  the fins aren't the leafy things.  They have two little fins on the top and near the tail.

Then, on to the jellyfish exhibit, always interesting.  Another area I could just stand mesmerized.  That blue is how the photos came out of the camera - I don't know what the lights are used for these exhibits but wow on that color.

After the aquarium, we spent a couple of hours on a tour of the Tor House, the home of Robinson Jeffers.  We had to make an appointment, because only six people are allowed at a time on the tours, which are strictly led by guides.  I can see why, people would start carrying off bits and pieces of the place no doubt.  Most of the house and all of the nearly 40 foot stone tower were built by Jeffers, by hand, who rolled the stones up the hill from the beach.  We all got to climb the tower, via the secret passageway.  (Actually just hidden behind the door, but fun anyway, if a bit claustrophobic.) 

Next leg of the trip was down the Coast Highway.  Not the speediest way to get to where we were going, but on a nice day, the most beautiful. 

Sunday was our day to head north to home.  Instead we took a southerly direction (so typical of Dino, it's uphill both ways with him always but it's always interesting) and went to the Carrizo Plain National Monument.  This side trip was with the hopes of seeing a California Condor, which had been spotted somewhere in the area, according to the eBird software Dino uses.  We didn't see any condors, but the bird watching was great, I saw a couple of new species for me, including a prairie falcon.  The shot of Soda Lake, a large drainage basin which is seasonally wet show that this obviously is the dry season.  This area is also one of the best areas to see some of the naked slashes of the San Andreas fault - the background of this photo shows the Temblor Range.  Nothing was shakin' while we were there, however.

I'm taking the week off work, it's been lovely to doodle around the house and take multiple walks.  I've been doing a lot of Audubon work so I don't get too used to being lazy.

Fingers crossed for more rain at the end of the week.

Wood and Walls and Websites

I'll start in reverse order.  I've been working with a friend to develop her new website, Mindful Palate, which will have all sorts of yummy recipes, some thoughts about mindfulness, a little magic, and a hidden button to a secret place.   I designed the logo too, a bit of shameless bragging there, but it all turned out very well if I do say so myself.  And, the recipes are great - I made the butternut squash one last weekend and found it most delicious.

Dino has been working himself to a frazzle on getting firewood cut.  He likes to be at least a year ahead, and we've got some good stacks going now.  I helped last Saturday on this project:  Dino worked the chain saw (good choice) and I hoisted the cut pieces into the bed of the Ford.  Glad I've been doing all that weightlifting - it came in handy for this;  I needed help with only the last huge round. 

Lifting heavy things also comes into the stone wall that I decided to build near the road.  It was in the spot where a big oak came down one Christmas four or five years ago.  Dino had gotten the road cleared of the tree, and also pushed the logs and rocks out of the way.  I've been eyeing that spot all this time, mulling over the idea of making a little wall.  Now that I'm describing the thought process, I think really I just wanted to organize it, one of my favorite things.  If the project had involved bags, boxes or baskets it would have been truly primo, but being able to use the wheelbarrow made up for the lack of "useful pots to put things in."  I'm not entirely certain I'm done with the area - there is an untidy area on the other side of the road that may need some work as well.  This photo shows the wall after the first phase, it's more cleaned up now.

I'm taking another stab at getting some fall vegetables going, specifically snow peas.  I planted about 10 days ago, and noticed a couple of sprouts last weekend already.  Dino has been vigorously applying his best anti-ground squirrel techniques and I am hopeful the little devils *insert worse word here* will leave these infant peas alone.  We had a good crop last year and many excellent stir fries.

Excellent Snow Pea Stir Fry Recipe (four ingredient style)
Pick a pile of fresh snow peas, and clean the strings out.
Mince 2-3 cloves of garlic
Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to your favorite perfectly seasoned cast iron frying pan
Heat the oil, add the peas.
Let them cook a few minutes, until they get that amazingly gorgeous bright green color, then add the garlic.  Fry for 1 more minute, then add 1 tablespoon low sodium tamari and mix all of that for another 30 seconds.  Remove from heat.  Enjoy.

I noticed this tree the other day, at the perfect time of the late afternoon.

Fun with Legos!

My son loved (loves?) legos, but I admit I'm kind of glad he didn't take it this far. 

Birds and Fungi and Stuff

Yesterday was mostly devoted to the usual chores, plus a few hours in the vegetable garden thrown in before lunch.  That allowed me to finish up the trench filling-in that I'd started a couple of weeks ago;  I ran out of dirt to fill the holes the first attempt I took.  During the week sometime, Dino got the tractor up there and took some dirt from one spot and deposited it in another one, conveniently close to the trenches.  I shoveled and raked and smoothed and did that enough times so that it looks about as good as it ever will up there.  I had some fun with making some great rake marks in the dirt.  I also pulled out the disappointing tomato plants and got that bed cleaned up.

Today, I didn't wake up till nearly 7!  That's practically unheard of for me - my usual weekday hour is 4:15 and weekends, weekend mostly I'll sleep till 5:30 or maybe 6 before I can't stand it any more.  I rustled up some grub and a cuppa and doodled around on the computer for an hour and then grabbed my camera bag and started walking.

Dino had told me about a humungus fungus he'd seen inside an old oak tree near Turkey Crossing and I wanted to bag a shot of that as that would be the only fungus shot taken in the month of September, during any of the years I've been photographing fungi.  It's like getting a life bird or something.  It was easy to find, and yep, it was a big one all right, about 18 inches across at its widest.



















On my way to the fungus, I had one of my patented wildlife encounters.  I'd chosen a route along the fence at the bottom of Rodeo Meadow and as I was walking through the line of trees where Lion Creek comes through, I heard Big Rustling Noises.  Pigs.  I don't know what it is with me and pigs, but it seems that often enough I see them way before they see me.  In this case, I'd started to come around a big rock to get a better view, when one of the sows decided to emerge from the creek bed headed right for the same spot.  She grunt-oinked in alarm and took off at high speed, with the rest of the critters trailing along, heading up the hill toward Deer Ridge.

Here is the second reason I was in Rodeo Meadow to start with (aside from the fungus).  This is a picture of one of the new nest boxes Dino's manufactured and installed on our place.  This is a duplex box, tres fancy.  The big box is intended for Barn Owls and the little one on the side is a bluebird box - well really for any passerine that's a cavity nester and likes that size opening.  Funny that it's possible to double them up like that, especially given the barn owl's penchant for eating other birds, but it works.

















Mid-afternoon we took a walk together to the mailbox, with a stop just above the abandoned houses for a long look at two juvenile golden eagles perched in a large gray pine.  Neat!

For All You Small Engine Lovers Out There

Dino was greatly taken with this video from the East Coast of Arkansas.  Favorite quote: "If you want a Maytag that don't smoke, buy a Briggs & Stratton."