Happy Solstice, Christmas, Holidays and New Year

I went to  a solstice celebration in Muir Woods 2 days ago.  They opened most of the main grove for free from 3-8pm.  Music, carolers, children running around with flashlights. It was good fun.  And they lined the path with luminaria, something I know more from my time in Arizona.  A great way to guide people through the trees without the need of flashlight.  But as you can see, it's really dark under redwoods at night.

I've had a very busy 2011 and have not been blogging, but will be back in 2012.  A very merry season to you all.  And from here on out the days just get longer. 

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - April 2011

The tax day addition.  Fortunately for my procrastinating self, taxes aren't due till Monday, and my first appt was a no-show, so I have time to blog a bit.

On my little patio/potted garden I have a couple things blooming, the first four Ca natives.  The biggest surprise were my western bleeding hearts (Dicentra formosa).  They die back completely in the dry season, and I mean completely.  I was a little afraid they wouldn't come back, but a couple of weeks ago they started leafing out and today, blooming beautifully.

My redwood sorrel (Oxalis oregana) has been green continuously, but just started flowering for the first time in almost a year.  I like the second pic.  I looks like the one flower is incredibly shy.

The columbine (Aquilegia formosa) has also just started to flower.  It's also covered in these monstrous giant bugs.  Well they look that way with my macro lens.  Way to go macro lens.  Boo to the bugs.  They were actually pretty small, and have now met their doom.

The last of the Ribes sanguineum glutinosum.  It was actual beautiful last bloom day, but I wasn't around to blog about it.

And this volunteer oxalis in one of my pots.

Happy bloom day, and thanks as always to Carol at May Dreams Garden for hosting bloom day.

Hiking in Redwood Regional Park - 1 New, 1 Old

So my blog is now 2 years old, as of a couple days ago.  I'm mildly proud of that, even though I haven't been blogging as much as I would like to.  Completely unrelated, this year I've been trying to see parts of the Bay Area that I haven't seen before.  This can be exploring a new park, new hot springs, a new restaurant, or something as simple as hiking unfamiliar trails in a familiar park. This post is a conglomeration of photos from  hikes I did about in Redwood Park about 3 weeks ago.  The first, hiking out of the serpentine prairie (new) and the second leaving from Skyline Gate(old).

For the first hike I went up to the Serpentine Prairie (see my previous post about this area here) and then went out the Dunn trail and back on the Golden Spike trail for a short loop.

The first blue dicks were out, as were some tiny insects.  Are they flies, tiny bees?

A field of common star lilies (Zigadenus fremontii).

 And does anyone know what this is?  It looks like red asparagus.  It was growing in some shade under oaks I believe.

 Find the other hike after the jump.

Alien life forms at Huckleberry Regional Preserve

I went to Huckleberry a couple of weeks in search of Ribes sanguineum blossoms.  I found that and quite a bit more.  One of the storms seemed to have knocked a tree over at the beginning of the trail.  But I saw some people coming up that part of the trail so I went on down.  Shhh, don't tell.  I think it was only for liability reasons anyway.

 The ferns were emerging from their dry season slumber.

These weird shapes were on the madrone trunks.

 

 

 More after the jump...

Catch up - Photos of Mt. Diablo with Snow and Roasting the Bay Nuts

A few days after my aborted attempt to see snow on Mt. Diablo, I went out to Walnut Creek to do some work. Luckily my friend was driving.  He was even nice enough to pull over, but strangely the best pics were just taken through the windshield while moving.

And I realized I did in fact take some pics while roasting the bay nuts.  The shells are very easy to remove, leaving two halves of a creamy colored nut.  The 2nd and 3rd pic are the roasted nuts.  The 2nd picture is without flash and the 3rd with.  The actual color of the roasted nuts is somwhere in between, think a ruddy chocolate brown.

No snow and California bay nuts

So the forecast for this last weekend was for snow in the SF Bay Area.  They were even forecasting snow down to sea level.  I was pretty excited.  But there was no snow. I should have known better than to trust a weather forecast.

In other news, I finally roasted some California bay (laurel) nuts.  As you might have read in another post, I collected some back in November.  And I finally got around to roasting them recently.  Flavors of Home suggested roasting them in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes. It seems a little less might be better.

The first time I roasted them for a little longer and they tasted like burnt popcorn.  I tried it again and took out the nuts at different times (between 25-35 min of roasting).  Too little and they taste a little raw/bitter.  Too long and they taste too burnt, but even when cooked right they still have the taste of burnt popcorn to me. When I told this to a friend, he immediately asked, "Burnt popcorn in a good or bad way?"  Sometimes burnt popcorn is not so bad.  So I would say burnt popcorn in a good way.  I can really see eating a lot of them, but they definitely weren't bad.  I have a few more nuts, so I'm gonna try one more round and experiment a little more.

For another blog post and video on roasting them check out FeralKevin.  (Thanks for the link Katie)

Castle Rock Regional Recreation Area

So the plan today was to get up to Mt. Diablo to see the snow.  But just near the entrance on Northgate we saw a long line of cars, and a long line of cars turning around to come back the way we had come.  The thumbs down from one of the returning drivers sealed it, so we also turned around and headed to Castle Rock Regional Recreation Area (try and say that ten times fast) instead.  I had never heard of this park, but it was actually a really nice find just on the edge of Walnut Creek.

We followed the course of a creek, having to cross it several times.  That made for some interesting dances across the rocks.  Above us there were tons of beautiful rock formations.

 And there were also caves big and small scattered about.

The buckeyes were just leafing out, filling the woods with bright green light.

 

Lots of baby buckeyes too and the first blue dicks were popping out.

 We also saw buttercups and lots of miners' lettuce, some red-tailed hawks and a woodpecker.

And in the end we did end up seeing some snow, though from far away.  Here are some of the foothills covered with a nice dusting.  The peak itself was covered in a much thicker coat.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - February 2011

Spring has arrived here in the Bay Area thanks to several weeks in the upper 60s and there is stuff blooming all over town.  I managed to snap these pics right before the rains started up again today, though.
My own gardening is limited at the moment, but I was very excited to see some blooms on my patio.  And not just any blooms, but Ribes sanguineum, aka flowering currant, one of my favorite flowers.  It's just started to open, so soon the flowers will be dripping in longer pendants.

 

Also flowering is one of my 3 blueberries.  The other two are a different variety.

 

In the house, I just bought two orchids.

 

And I have some cut birds of paradise in the house that were brought over for my birthday party.  This shot just reminds me of many a rainy day in the Bay.

Thanks as always to Carol over at May Dreams Gardens for hosting Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.

Old Growth Redwoods and Hot Springs

 Last fall, my partner and I were looking for a day escape from the Bay Area.  Fortunately, we found a great one.  We decided to head north to check out Orr Hot Springs near Ukiah.  I insisted on also stopping at Montgomery State Reserve which protects five groves of old-growth redwoods for a short hike beforehand.

We found this to be a really easy (though fairly long) day trip from the Bay.  Orr Hot Springs is just some 14 miles outside of Ukiah, so it's actually a nice straight shot up the 101.  Those last 14 miles are anything but straight, however.  And Montgomery State Reserve is just another 3 miles past the springs.

 The hike in Montgomery starts up a decent hill, but once you flatten out you are rewarded with an incredibly beautiful stroll through several redwood groves.  Water branches out in several directions and the forest is carpeted with ferns and sorrel.  And the trees are, as expected, immensely tall.

If you've never visited an old-growth redwood forest, you're missing out.  There is something magical about the experience.  Since it's a little off the beaten track Montgomery doesn't seem to have that many visitors making it a really pleasant experience.  Here is the rootball of one of the giants.

Here are signs of a fire, started by lightning, that burned in the forest in 2008.  Otherwise the undergrowth seems to have recovered.

After the redwoods we headed to Orr Hot Springs.  The pools are for the most part small, but they were clean, and this was one of our favorite hot springs to date.  Sorry no pictures of the springs.  But check out this site for one person's perspective.