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Posted on December 9, 2009 by Barb — 7 Comments

What a Difference a Week Makes!

Our first winter snow! This is the most snow we have had in December ever!

Here is my garden all covered in a blanket of snow. Last week I was hopeful about the broccoli but even the protective frame that I built over the top is covered in snow…..seems like winter has arrived.

We took off on our snowshoes to see what the neighborhood was like on this first snowy morning. Here I am about 1/4 mile from our backstreet. There were a few children out throwing snowballs and a man walking his dog but we pretty much had the whole street to ourselves. I always forget how quiet it is when there is snow.

We lost a few big branches from the trees that still had leaves on them. The evergreens held up pretty well but the oaks and sweet gums just aren’t built for this much snow.

Later on in the day, we all built what ended up being a snow bear in the front yard. Even our Kona dog “helped”.

The next morning we had icicles like never before.

Today is really, really cold for our area….15 degrees. The ice is thick on the roads and I am hoping my husband is careful on the way to work. He has to travel over the river and then climb up into the mountains to get to his station and yesterday it was treacherous. I can only imagine today’s drive. He has chained up the truck and he assures me he will be careful. I will be waiting for his call once he arrives.

Amanda hiked up to the top of our hill to see the sunset. The sky was pink and lavender and after such a stormy night and morning, it was great to see the sun again.

Posted on December 1, 2009 by Barb — 1 Comment

We’re Still in the Garden

We had freezing temperatures last night but by mid-morning it was at least sunny and up into the forties.

“Out-of-door life takes the child afield and keeps him in the open air, which not only helps him physically and occupies his mind with sane subjects, but keeps him out of mischief. It is not only during childhood that this is true, for love of nature counts much for sanity in later life.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 2

I was out for my morning walk in the backyard and I was amazed at how many honeybees we have left around on the last day of November. They were busy in the marigolds, the cyclamen, the alyssum, and the snapdragons. I love the way it looks as if he is going to burrow right down into the middle of this marigold! (You can read more about honeybees in the Handbook of Nature Study starting on page 391.)

The peas are all nice and green with lots of tendrils everywhere. I am not sure if the weather will hold out long enough for us to harvest some pea pods but we will keep our eye on the box.

Our broccoli is finally looking like it might survive the weather and bugs and give us a crop to enjoy. I can’t tell you how happy that makes me since I love home-grown broccoli and it has been a number of years since we have been successful at getting the plants all the way to maturity. I have five plants that look hopeful.

The millet fell from the birdfeeder this past summer and it sprouted and is now bearing its fruits. The finches are loving the bonus of the meal *under* the birdfeeder. I also harvested the last of the giant sunflowers and the seeds are now safely stored in a sack for winter meals for the birds.

Up on our deck the potted plants are blooming again and the snapdragons are attracting the hummingbirds and the bees.

We are taking advantage of every sunny day to go outdoors for long periods of time. Taking long walks with the dog have been such a great source of refreshment to us all….helping us to keep our sanity.

Posted on October 15, 2009 by Barb — 2 Comments

Autumn Afternoon Walk-Surprising Discovery

Just another beautiful oak day with a beautiful sky.

Here we go down the trail. The rain stopped a few hours earlier and we decided to take advantage of the break in the storm to hike down the hill and see what we could see. Little did we know that right after I took this photo we would see something that would make us stop dead in our tracks.

There in the middle of the trail were scattered deer bones and one of the hooves.

A little further down the trail was the biggest pile of bear scat I have ever seen. Yikes. (No photos of that I promise.)

We have been hiking this trail for a very long time and we have never seen either of these things before.

We did a quick consultation and decided to finish our hike down the hill but on the return back up the hill, going past the pile of bones, I started to get a little nervous. I was sort of glad to get back to where we had parked the car…if you know what I mean.

I am not usually spooked by this sort of stuff but it was a big pile of bones and a huge pile of scat. It looked fairly fresh but maybe it was because of the recent rain….or not.

We might hike somewhere else for awhile.

Posted on October 13, 2009 by Barb — 5 Comments

Garden Goodness Before the Rain

It is raining this morning but yesterday I was able to get out into the garden to gather in some goodies. There are now four vases with zinnias on my kitchen table to cheer me up on this gloomy rainy morning.

The veggies are tapering off but are still very welcome at the dinner table. I didn’t photograph the gigantic zucchini that I found hiding under the leaves…how does that happen?

Some of the herbs have gone to seed and are so pretty that I hate to trim them.

The garlic chives have some seeds too…I couldn’t bear to cut them back and this is what happens.

This is my favorite flower of the day with its uncurling ray flowers.

Just think…we are getting to the end of my garden posts for the year 2009. Autumn posts will start to roll in anytime now with the changing season. I need to start thinking about a winter topic for the blog. 🙂

Posted on September 29, 2009 by Barb — 6 Comments

Early Autumn: First of Many Walks

We took a long walk today to enjoy the last of the hot afternoons…we know they will be coming to an end soon. Here are a few things I want to share from our day.

This is a sure sign that autumn is coming quickly. The aspens are beginning to change color and the wind makes them shimmer and shake.

The Kokanee salmon are spawning and their green and red color is brilliant in the clear creek water.

The creek is very shallow and the salmon come here to lay their eggs and die. This becomes a habitat for eagles and bears and ducks this time of year. Can you guess why?

If you click this photo it will enlarge and you will see the outline of a bear at the bottom of the photo among the trees. She was on the other side of the creek sharing a salmon with her baby. We gave her a lot of space and the few of us that were there snapped a few photos and left her in peace.

The whole afternoon was picture postcard perfect.

The Pussy Paws are golden and the Rabbitbrush is golden and the pines are green and the sky is blue……where are my paints?

This was a great afternoon and I feel so refreshed.

Posted on July 27, 2009 by Barb — 9 Comments

Yosemite Amazes Me

We had a great camping/hiking trip to Yosemite National Park…it was a little bit hot in the valley so we tried to stay cool by hiking up in the high country, swimming in the river, and generally keeping to early morning hikes and activities.

Here are a bunch of photos in random sort of order just because I don’t feel like moving them around now that I uploaded them to Blogger. (Some might call that lazy…)

The meadows were filled with wildflowers and it was a feast for the eyes as you hiked along. This lovely bunch of flowers was at McGurk Meadow. This place is along Glacier Point Road and is about a three mile round trip hike from the road. The insects are thick but if you keep moving they pretty much leave you alone. The Indian Paintbrush was the predominant flower on this day.

The California Coneflowers were in full bloom at Crane Flat and this one was as big as my hand. It almost looks like a flat sunflower it was so big.

One of the many nature journal entries that we worked on back at camp. The Locoweed was thick at Crane Flat and it was fun to sketch and paint.

How about this wildflower? Elephant’s Head was blooming alongside Lukens Lake.

Here is Lukens Lake on a summer morning. The hike from Tioga Pass Road to the lake is about 1.5 miles and it is worth the effort. It has a beautiful meadow that you could hike across until last year when they closed it for restoration. You now walk alongside the lake the whole way and can only see the meadow from a distance.

Nothing like a swimming hole in the high country on a hot summer day. We were hiking along the John Muir Trail when we stopped to listen to the water falling down the rocks into the pool. Some fellow hikers tried to convince us to jump in but I knew the water was ice cold. We did end up taking our boots and socks off and sitting with our feet dangling in. It is amazing how fast your feet go numb in the icy waters. This is the Tuolumne River just outside Tuolumne Meadows hiking towards Rafferty Creek.

Here is another high country lake with crystal blue waters. We ate lunch one hot afternoon here and there really were quite a number of other folks around…some kayaking, some swimming, some wading in and cooling off, and some like us just enjoying the view.

This is actually just behind our campsite at Crane Flat. The meadow is in full bloom right now and it is tempting to walk out there and take photos. I did obey the sign and we stayed off the meadow. We did see a bear coming out of the meadow a short way from here but it was busy trotting off somewhere and didn’t even notice us.

Now this flower I knew! Mariposa Lily and there were quite a few growing in a bunch alongside the trail at McGurk Meadow. It is just so perfect. Sigh.

Here is another photo of the meadow as we hiked along. The meadow was damp and it made it sort of steamy in the sun. Hiking in the shade wasn’t so bad but out in the bright sunshine we got a bit hot….okay, we got sweaty. It was a good thing we had packed lots of water and Gatorade to drink.

These blue butterflies were landing on the damp ground. I learned from Casey’s blog that they call this puddling. They were definitely landing in the moist earth of the meadow and staying there awhile. It made a great chance for me to snap a few photos.

The star wildflower on this trip was the Indian Paintbrush. We all agreed it was our favorite flower in the meadow.

This trip was a boys trip and my dear husband decided to teach the boys to whittle. He had purchased each of them their own knives and presented them to each one once we set up camp. It must be a guy thing. 🙂

Here is dad giving them a lesson on safety and how to use the knife to whittle. They whittled the afternoon away and I finished reading two good books.

It was a great July vacation and we already have plans to go back next year. The boys have plans to hike to the top of Half Dome. I told them that they could go and I would stay behind and have dinner ready when they got down. 🙂

I am not really all that great with heights and since they are both teens now, they are eager to test their strength on a long, strenuous hike. Their dad is undecided about whether he wants to try it or not….we have some time to think about it.

Hope you enjoyed some scenes from our trip….grab the chance to go to Yosemite if you ever come this way.
I recently added a Squidoo Lens on Yosemite books: Yosemite for Families

Posted on July 6, 2009 by Barb — 1 Comment

Emerald Bay: Day Hike with the Boys

Summer afternoon hike at the lake…not just any lake but a sparkling alpine lake.

The trail is narrow and winds along the shore of the bay. I talked to another hiker along the trail and he was telling me he thinks the view on this trail is in his “top ten” views in the world. It is amazingly gorgeous. The colors of the water are so blue and the mountains, still with a little snow on the tops, are majestic. (The horizon line in this photo is so crooked that it really bothers me but I love this photo of my youngest stopped in the middle of the trail, taking in the panorama.)

It was nice to have my oldest son along since he is a photographer as well. He captured some great shots of the water and the surrounding mountains. We gave each other photography tips and support. He is such a tech guy and I am very much *not* a tech person but photography is a language that we speak in common.

This was a new wildflower to us…so bright pink. I had an inkling it was some kind of penstemon. I came home and looked it up and sure enough, Cliff Penstemon or Rock Penstemon-Penstemon rupicola, figwort family.

Here is the waterfall at the end of the trail. This was a 1.7 mile hike from the trailhead which runs Emerald Bay Campground to Eagle Falls. The falls were hard to capture in a photograph because the sun was behind them at this point late in the afternoon. You can imagine the waterfall roaring and the mist blowing over to us, cooling us off. It was very refreshing.

From the waterfall we hiked down to the shore of the lake to wade in the water and have a snack. The beach had a dozen or so Canada Geese. Look at those feet! They are really big birds with really big feet.

After we hiked back to the car, we drove to our favorite beach to have a picnic dinner. There were lots and lots of Mule’s ear blooming. We enjoyed our food and then walked along the shore one last time before heading home for the day.

One last photo for those that wonder about bears….here is the sign at the place we had our picnic.

No bears on this day. We have encountered bears before in this area and we agree with what the sign says, “Appreciate the experience and move on….”. The bears we have seen in the wild are usually too busy doing other stuff to take much heed of our presence. It is usually a pleasant experience and not one to be feared.

What a refreshing, fun afternoon and evening. We all are looking forward to our next trip to the lake.

Posted on May 14, 2009 by Barb — 7 Comments

Yosemite Research Trip: Waterfalls, Dogwood, and Birds

We had a family trip planned for the last few days to Yosemite National Park. A wildfire in Santa Barbara came along and changed our plans. Instead of the four of us going, three of us headed to Yosemite and one went to the coast to fight fire. This is the way fire season goes in our house….be flexible and make the most of it.

Yosemite at this time of year is all about the waterfalls. Big waterfalls. It seems as if the walls sprout water. Bridalveil, Yosemite, Ribbon, Staircase, Vernal, Nevada, and Illillouette are all going strong! The sound of water is everywhere and it gurgles and bubbles along just about every hiking trail.

Another outstanding feature of spring in Yosemite is the blooming of the dogwood. It fills the forest with its beautiful white blooms.

We had a lot of adventures in three days. One morning we got up early and jumped on our bikes and were off to watch the sunrise over Half Dome.

It was a beautiful experience and if you could hear the soundtrack in the background of this photo….you would hear birdsong and water running high in the creek from Mirror Lake down to the river.

Although getting up early wasn’t necessarily their favorite idea, the boys were great once we got off on our adventure. It helped that there were quite a few other people up on the trail already as well. Most of them had big camera outfits with tripods but since we were on bikes and I don’t own any fancy camera equipment, I was happy just to be there and capture a few good photos with my point and shoot.

Here is a photo of Mirror Lake….it’s not hard to figure out how they came up with the name. 🙂

This is not your traditional birdwatching pose but it works. We also did some water observations as we sat here early in the morning. We saw some sort of larval insect in the water wiggling around and there were mosquitoes and some other winged creatures as well.

Later that morning our bike ride took us by this view. I think I took about a hundred photos of Yosemite Falls on this trip, from every angle possible. The sound of it is just incredible as it thunders over the rocks.

Oh, we did see two bear cubs at two separate locations…no mama bear but we figured she was probably close by. We just keep on going about our business and the cubs would scamper off into the woods.

Another day found us hiking in the Tuolumne Grove of giant sequoias. I have given up trying to get an entire sequoia into a photo. This is a great hike if you have an afternoon to spend under the big trees. I am working on a Squidoo lens describing some easy day hikes for families. This hike will be in it for sure.

Our last big hike of the trip was on the Panorama Trail. The road to Glacier Point was open which was a surprise so we took advantage of the afternoon to hike down towards Illilouette Falls. The view of Half Dome and Nevada Falls from this trail is breathtaking. We decided to sit on a downed tree and just take in the splendor of the moment. The photo above was our view.

We also did a little birding as we hiked on this gorgeous afternoon. There was a bird singing a beautiful song as we hiked. We spotted him and we think he was a Hermit Thrush.

Okay, so I have spent a lot of time out in the wilderness over the years but this hike gave me something to ponder over. We heard a sound. Not quite sure how to describe it. At first it sounded like drums….sort of like tribal drums…..thump, thump, thump. But not quite like a drum….it was more of a vibration. The boys thought it sounded more like when you blow air over the top of a bottle and it makes that vibrating sort of sound. We went through a list of animals it could have been but nothing seemed right. We thought about wind blowing in or over something but it was not quite what we heard either. It was not a steady sound but would come and go but always in a series of three….thrummm, thrumm, thrumm. We heard it on the same section of trail both going out and then coming back. It was sort of eerie.

EDIT TO ADD: Shannon suggested a grouse and I did a little research. Turns out there are several kinds of grouse in Yosemite. I listened to the call on All About Birds and it is very similar to what we heard. Here is a link:
Dusky Grouse
Doing a little more research it turns out that it probably was a Sooty grouse. The Blue grouse was split into two species: dusky and sooty. I found a list of Yosemite birds and it lists the Sooty grouse. No way to know for sure without having seen it but it sure sounds like what we heard on our hike. 🙂

The habitat is right on. Here is what WhatBird says, “Preferred habitats include burned areas, montane forests, slashes, and subalpine forest clearings.” We were in a burned area with lots of downed trees and it was a subalpine habitat. Bingo!

So many adventures, so little blog space. 🙂

I may be home from Yosemite but it is a place that never leaves my heart.

Posted on March 28, 2009 by Barb — 2 Comments

Dog Study: Outdoor Hour Challenge-Mammals

Outdoor Hour Challenge #51 took us some time to complete for some reason. The boys didn’t think that they needed to learn much about our dog but after we got going, we really enjoyed some of the ideas that Anna Botsford Comstock suggested in the accompanying lesson.

We watched the PBS video on wolves in Yellowstone and we were so interested to see how the circle of life goes round and round even within one national park. I think someone else mentioned that they had a hard time knowing which side to be on when you saw a skirmish. I totally agree with that…..like with the wolves, the elk, and the coyotes. Each one had its family and its physical needs and without eating each other, none would survive. It gave us lots to think about.

Now to our crazy dog study….my boys were so funny working through the lesson on dogs in the Handbook of Nature Study. I couldn’t believe how much they could answer without even getting up and looking at the dog or the cat. The comparison between the two in the lesson ideas worked out great because it made us stop and really think about the differences between canines and felines.

Sleeping dogs are great to take photos of since they don’t move around. She really doesn’t like us to take photos of her very much and trying to get photos of her body parts was impossible. I felt like we needed to wrestle her to the ground but my son decided that having a little “scooby snack” in his hand did the trick.

I think I shared this photo before but this is a priceless photo of our dog showing her teeth. I don’t remember exactly what we were doing that made her give us a “smile” but it makes me laugh every time I see this picture.

Her ears are also very expressive in real life and we can tell if she is listening by the way she has them positioned. Sometimes when she runs her ears turn inside out and it looks so cute.

Even though we didn’t have much success getting photos, we did have a great time examining the things that the Handbook of Nature Study suggested we look at during a good dog study. Kona uses her nose to sniff just about everything when we go for our walk and we have even named one spot on the trail “Smelly Rocks” because she can’t bear to pass by without giving them a good sniff. There is also one particular bush alongside the path that gets her interest every time as well. This photo is sort of a “all the better to smell you with” kind of photo…..her nose looks really long and her nostrils very large.

If you haven’t completed this particular Outdoor Hour Challenge yet, I encourage you to do so with your own dog. You will learn a lot!

Posted on March 24, 2009 by Barb — 2 Comments

Early Spring Wildflowers (Part 3)

Popcorn flower
(found in the meadow, sunny location)

“There should be from first to last a steady growth in the intelligence of the child as to the places where certain plants grow. He finds hepaticas and trilliums in the woods, daisies and buttercups in the sunny fields, mullein on the dry hillsides, cattails in the swamp, and water lilies floating on the pond. This may all be taught by simply asking the pupils questions relating to the soil and the special conditions of the locality where they found the flowers they bring to school. ”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 458

We are adding a few new flowers to our list of early spring wildflowers along our walking trail. I am also updating a few photos to ones taken with my older camera with the better macro lens.

Chickweed…..now I see it everywhere! Even in our backyard!
(along the trail)

Spring Beauty
(along the trail)

Unidentified as of today.
(along the trail in the shade…very low to the ground with interesting leaf shape)

Fiddleneck
(sunny areas)

Here is another photo of Fiddleneck

And another Fiddleneck.

We found a whole patch of Miner’s Lettuce.
(growing in patches along the path…moist areas)

The California poppies are just beginning to bloom on our hiking trail.
(sunny hillside, along the trail)

Common Owl’s Clover
(Note to self: This was on the walking trail and not the Red Shack Trail. Growing along side the trail and on a sunny hillside.)

These flowers are all from last week’s hikes. I am trying my best to keep current.

We had a snowstorm yesterday morning! It all melted rather quickly though and today we were back to our spring like weather.

Tomorrow I will try to post about our bird study and then on Wednesday we will share a garden flower study from the Handbook of Nature Study.

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