I haven't been hiking in quite a while, for various reasons. It turns out writing the dissertation is time consuming (doh) and there has been this record-book-breaking, awful drought in California, that has made me pessimistic about seeing wildflowers this spring. But, this intense nagging thought kept returning: I need to get outside and see what's going on! What's blooming, is it green at all, are there squirrels playing and birds singing, etc. So today I left my laptop and we took a short hike through Rivas Canyon, in the Santa Monica Mountains. Its not a loop trail, which always bums me out, but it joins Temescal and Will Rogers park, and is a nice break from the nearby crowded Temescal Canyon option. There was a glorious flannel bush blooming at the entrance to Temescal Park, and it seems like the Coast live oaks are flowering (or have just stopped). I found some white nightshade flowering, and one lonely fuschia-flowered gooseberry was starting up (but several others were bare). On the way down into the canyon, I spotted a very cold little butterfly, who was vibrating to keep warm and therefore didn't mind my getting close to take a pic, and there were a few hawks out and about towards the sunset. The clouds were threatening, but alas, the rain did not come.
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AuthorI like nature! And hiking, and taking pictures, especially of nature. Archives
September 2014
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