Walking Among Old Oak Trees

 

Last week my friend Kris and I took a lovely walk in Crane Creek Regional Park which is one of my favorites. The reason I like it so much is that it has so many old native oak trees that give the park its special character. In the spring a grand show of native wildflowers downright explodes here, but due to my stupid knee and the surgery I wasn't able to see it this year. However, last year I did see the wildflowers and if you are curious about them, you can see them here. 

The first oak we saw was a dead oak.

Most dead trees are simply left in this park where they slowly decay and still give lots of shelter and food supply for the wildlife. I think this is one of the reasons I like this park so much, its very natural state.

Here's another decaying tree:

Isn't it gorgeous? Of course, poison oak is already growing up the trunk in the background.

Below you see two dead trunks in front of and next to oaks and other trees that are way more alive.

Getting closer and changing perspective, they looked a little different.

They actually remind me of a mating dance of (rattle)snakes, only a bit bigger and clumsier.

We were getting closer to the halfway point of our walk, a bench in the shade of this tree. From up here we had a splendid view over the oaks in the valley. While we were sitting there, we were able to observe many birds and feisty squirrels. Crane Creek is home to a good number of raptors; this time we saw and heard Red-tailed hawks as well as White-tailed kites.

The oak we were sitting under already showed some signs of autumn.

Other oaks seemed to have fallen only recently, lying on the ground with their foliage still full and green.

Others were just crooked - my kind of tree!

Do you see the Turkey vulture sitting on the dead tree (this was actually a song Kaefer learned during 6th grade science camp on the Marin Headlands). Just right before it had landed with wide open wings. Their wingspan is enormous, but I was too late with my camera, because...

... I was taking a picture of this. Crooked tree branches over our path. These are the things I love.

You can hardly see the face of the Turkey vulture, but I do need a face for Nicole's Friday Face Off. So I stayed closer to home and took a picture of soundly sleeping Kibeau on top of the leaves in my garden, just wanting to be near me. I love his sweet little face when he is so relaxed. My sweet grumpy old man.

The Small Stuff

 

The last few times I walked around the lake I paid special attention to the "small stuff" - all the little and even tiny things for which we usually don't stop or even just look. This year I started to look closer, often in wonder about how deliciously beautiful nature is. I want to show some of this "small stuff" in this post, together with the "bigger stuff".

Like these Canada Geese. They are very reliable residents of the lake.

Some kind of bumblebee (I think) on the flower of a thistle who didn't mind me at all taking pictures.

Another little insect - if anyone knows what it is, please let me know - on Yampah (Perideridia). This plant has actually kept me in confusion for the longest time and I'm still not 100% sure that it is Yampah. It would make sense, though, since it is a California native and found in abundance here. But maybe I'm completely wrong and it is something else. Sometimes trying to identify plants that all look somewhat similar leaves me in bigger confusion and only shows me how much I do NOT know. It can be very frustrating.

Same plant with a big spider web - I hope you can see it.

And more spider webs - they are abundant at the lake.

Often fluffy stuff gets caught in them.

This is a favorite photo I took in June of what I assume is Foxtail barley (Hordeum jubatum) - beautiful, but invasive.

Talking about invasive species - this is a part of the lake, even though you can't see any water. It is completely covered by Common Water Hyazinth (Pontederia crassipes), a highly invasive plant. It does look beautiful - many invasive species do.

Thankfully the Water Hyazinth was limited to two smaller areas of the lake (and I hope they won't spread any further). The water was clear, sometimes I saw otters who are always way too fast for my camera. Branches were lazily floating near the shore.

The lake has beautiful views, that I will always enjoy - they never get old.

Don't get fooled by the glorious red color and don't get near this plant and NEVER ever touch it, or you will spend the next few days in agony over a terribly itching rash. This is Western Poison Oak  (Toxicodendron diversilobum) - beautiful to watch, especially when backlit, but only enjoyed from a distance.

Lichen can be found everywhere - on the trees and on the ground. This one is Oak moss. Isn't it beautiful?

I also love lichen on rocks.

There were even some very sweet faces to be found at the lake. The Park's vegetation management is back, on four legs and very hungry. Wildfire mitigation at its best.

One last photo of the lake with a favorite tree.

The 366 Project: July

 

It seems like July started only yesterday, and here we are in August already! July just flew by with lots of knitting, time spent in the garden and unfortunately two heatwaves. You might think that we should be used to a lot of heat in California, but while this is certainly true for Southern California it is not the case here in Northern California, especially so close to the coast. Mornings and evenings can be downright chilly thanks to the marine layer aka fog. I love the fog and don't like the heat and I was really happy when the morning fog finally returned. Such a relief. I guess many of you in North America experienced the heat as well. It is a mystery to me how someone can still deny climate change.

This was July in my world:

Just a few days into July I had my old German class over for some German Erdbeerbowle. Over the years this has become a tradition that everyone seems to look forward to. I enjoyed setting the table under the big shade tree (it was one of those very hot days).

Everybody came and we had a wonderful time together despite the heat. I will miss these people so much. This photo is my ticket for Nicole's Friday Face Off.

We enjoyed our "new" bird feeder in July, but had become a bit weary of the squirrels. The Geek was thinking about how to discourage these little rascals from ransacking the feeding tubes almost constantly. The Geek being an engineer through and through, he sat down and did some calculating and figuring out.

He then constructed a baffle out of thin metal and empty beer cans (good German beer!), some metal glue and duct-tape.

So far it has worked very well. We also turned the feeder by 90º so it's further away from the fence. Now the birds feed undisturbed on the tubes, but are kind enough to throw some seed to the ground where the squirrels then eat them. Everyone's happy and I don't have to refill the tubes every day but only every other day or even less. Like everything else, bird seed has become quite expensive as well.

Since we had so many hot days in July, I cooked very basic simple meals. I usually eat whole grain toast for breakfast - here you can see my summer version. There's hummus below the tomatoes and smoked salmon spread below the cucumbers. So delicious!

Here's dinner - clockwise from top left: Ramen noodles with tofu, fennel, red bell pepper and zucchini; marinated sockeye salmon with roasted carrots and zucchini; Teriyaki chicken with broccoli, green onion and rice; Fusilli with market fresh tomatoes and zucchini

One more thing - when the Geek built the clothesline for me in 2015 I also found a beautiful hand sewn clothespin bag. Now after nine years hanging out at the clothesline what remains of this bag is mere rags, so I decided to look for a new one. There isn't that much out there what I had envisioned. But then I found this shop on Etsy in Germany and there were the cutest hand sewn clothespin bags. I ordered one and I received it in less than two weeks. I'm so happy!

I wish all of you a pleasant, not too hot August!