Visit the kelpforest....

My work family (and people here do seem like a family, especially those of us who've been here a long time) not only made a donation in my dad's name to the American Heart Association, but also sent us a tree seed from Seeds of Life. It's a Canyon Live Oak, a native Californian, as he was, so it's very appropriate. They even grow around Oxnard and Moorpark, where he was born and grew up.

We planted it in its biodegradable pot a couple of weeks ago, and the acorn is sprouting! Very exciting!

I don't know if we're going to be able to plant it here at the house, once it gets big. I'm wondering if maybe the Shipley Nature Center in Central Park might let us plant it there? Then it would still be here in HB, and we'd have a nearer place to go and visit.

Another walk (since it was Spring Break and the kids were home all week), this time to Bolsa Chica Ecological Preserve, where we walked from the parking up to the lagoon north of the flood control channel, on a trail at the base of the mesa. We hadn't been along that path before. While trying to get close to some flowers, I looked down and saw this male side-blotched lizard catching some late-afternoon rays at the front of his burrow in the earth.

Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve
Huntington Beach CA
Canon EOS 1000D
7 April 2010

( moar... )

23. earth ☺
2. pace ☺
5. flower ☺
20. fruit ☺
1. stair ☺
3. bird ☺
22. camera ☺

March scavenger hunt (item list here) - I decided to just look around my desk at work and see how many items I had at hand. Turns out, quite a few!

( 14 things! )

Yay, that's almost half the list! If you click through to Flickr, there are notes on the pic - move cursor over pic to see more detail.

I did have a small bottle too, but somehow it didn't wind up in the picture. Actually, it wound up in another picture of the same arrangement, but meh, I'll just save it for later.

Mustard
Bolsa Chica Ecological Preserve
Huntington Beach CA
Canon EOS 1000D
30 August 2009

Mustard is a non-native plant, and the sky is colored by a combo of L.A. smog and a forest fire, but together it makes for a good picture, I guess...

( More Station Fire... )

Some kelp I found in a load of sardines - I hadn't seen it before and we're supposed to be documenting bycatch. I noticed that some of it was bright green and other specimens were brown, like this one. Luckily I still have my handy dandy Marine Algae of California from my Marine Phycology class in college, and discovered it's a species of Desmarestia, which sounds familiar, so I must have come across it before. Some of it was green because this type of kelp harbors acids in its tissues - so much so that it will bleach out anything else caught with it (and why some of it looked green).

Acid Kelp
San Pedro CA
Canon EOS 1000D
17 August 2009

A pot I like on a neighbor's porch. Although I think it needs something else in it.

Lips
Huntington Beach CA
Canon EOS 1000D
19 July 2009

I spent the 4th laid low by an ear infection, so these are my belated fireworks.

Blooming succulent
Huntington Beach CA
Canon EOS 1000D
06 July 2009

( also explosive... )

The Mary Lou Heard Memorial Garden Tour was going on this weekend - however, we only went to about 3 homes that were close to us. This home was on the tour last year, but we didn't get to it then. The backyard over looks the Talbert Marsh, so the gazebo had ID pictures of birds, and field guides and binoculars set out. There was a kid-sized honeysuckle tunnel around the sides of it as well, complete with picnic table and dishes.

Garden Tour
Huntington Beach CA
Canon EOS 1000D
3 May 2009

( moar... )

On a walk after work...seen chewing up the neighborhood telephone poles...

Carpenter bees
Huntington Beach CA
Canon EOS 1000D
20 April 2009

( Down the alley... )

Beware of veggies guarded by blade-wielding little people! Maybe drunk too, judging by the beer bottle...

Armed Gnome
Huntington Beach CA
Canon EOS 1000D
14 April 2009

(John saw this in front of an apartment building a few blocks away, and insisted I had to see it for myself.)