Christume 2022!

This was my third annual Christume (Christmas-costume) bash, with this wonderful crew of friends Charlotte introduced me to who met at Sonoma State years ago.

Left to Right: Melina (Ebinezer Scrooge I think?), Jake (Jac-Bob Marley), Zach (the aspiring dentist from the Rudolph animated movie), Me (Santa Jaws), Charlotte (the elf from the Jack Frost animated movie from the 70's), I forget her name (A dinosaur), Jerome (Doctor Barber), Lindsay (Alvin), Mike (Simon), Macey (Had a Metallica Christmas sweater?), Morgan (Santa from "Silent Night, Deadly Night" movie), and front right are Alexa and Tavis as the "Wet Bandits" from Home Alone)! 
Oh, and Jonny (the Christmas Commando #2 was photographing)

Cookies were had, drinks were mixed, tamales were devoured, gifts were exchanged, and many a chuckle echoed through the night.

~•~°~○~°~•~Merry Christmas to All~•~°~○~°~•~

Salt Point Foraging!

 Having gotten a good 4+ inches of rain the last couple weeks, it was a pretty ideal day to look for mushrooms here in Northern California.  I was accompanied by my friend Katie, who is quite experienced in mycology and foraging, particularly in Salt Point State Park, which is a very popular spot for mushroom hunting.  We hit the road at the crack of dawn on a bone chilling Sunday morning (it has been a pretty cold fall/winter here this year) eager to dive into the coastal forest ecosystem, where it was actually a beautiful clear day, and not too cold.

A nice chestnuty-looking fella emerging from the pine needles

The underside of some type of Bolete, a genus of fungi that are referred to as "polypores" due to their lack of traditional gills under the cap, instead having this spongey-looking arrangement of many pores.

Arctostaphylos columbiana (aka "Hairy Manzanita") caught my eye with its hairy stems and leaves, a characteristic not shared by most (any other?) manzanita species.  Also, what a nice surprise to see some blooms already (I'm used to seeing those more mid-to-late winter on the species in the Napa area).  Hummingbirds buzzed overhead, feeding from the dainty little inverted-urn flowers.

A bolete with a manzanita flower.

Our first edible find of the day were these hedgehog mushrooms, a new one to me, but a favorite of Katie's.  They are recognizable by a distinct peachy-off-white color on the cap and these "teeth"-style gills on the underside:

Gills are so cool-looking. . .

Spiders: net-fishers of the sky

After a close call stepping on one of these blobs on the trail we were counting our blessings, thinking it was the product of an intestinally-upset canine... but as the morning progressed we noticed many more such blobs, some right atop fallen tree trunks.  So apparently it is not animal biproduct at all, but some sort of fungal or other mysterious organism?

Cute little family of unknown "saprophytes", a term referring to fungi that feed on decaying organic matter such as wood.

The ever-photogenic Amanita muscaria, with its flaky cap and lipstick-red "Don't eat me!" coloration.

An interesting darker-colored species of hedgehog mushroom, again with telltale teeth.  We did not harvest this type though.

Some nice violet hues on unknown specimens:

The forest was a scattered mix of pines, occasional redwoods, tanoaks, occasional madrone and manzanitas... it was interesting to me to see a habitat with redwoods, but that isn't redwood-dominated, as redwoods have a tendency to monopolize areas where they prosper.  Here is the burned-out trunk of one... a ring of younger trees surround this dead center, and they are actually the same living tree that this one once was part of.

It was a fantastic and fascinating day of exploration, army-crawling through brush, and scanning the forest floor like nerdy maniacs.

We made off with a substantial haul of Black Trumpets, Yellow Feet Chanterelles, Hedgehogs, Pigs Ears, and Candy Caps.  Maybe later I will add pictures of our bounty, but I didn't take any yet, except for the candy caps, which I have drying in front of the heater... as they dry, their aroma transforms from bland mushroom-y to a strongly pungent maple flavor--a great addition to sweets and baked goods like cookies!

Thanks for tuning in!

Halloween Extravaganza 2022

Halloween Extravaganza in Colorado!

Vitamin D for bone health!
The green pumpkin featured ominous phrases such as "I smell children" (one of Susanna's creations 😄)

So actually the main reason for Mom and my visit was to see Nora and Soren's marching band final competition.  They performed a show titled "The Siren's Lament".  It was very intricate! Light years ahead of what we called halftime shows back in my high school band days!

Team colors

Nora is a senior and plays tuba in this performance (they usually play trombone and bass trombone most of the time though).  Soren is a freshman and is one of two snare drummers, which is a pretty prestigious member of the band, I'd say.

Here's a snippet of the show:

After the band performances Saturday it was full-on Halloween mode back at the house:

This is actually just Susanna doing homework.  Even when at rest she is apparently a magnet for props and accessories.

Ahoy!

I'm gonna need those TPS reports by lunch, that'd be greeeaaat...
Characters "Joanna" and "Bill Lumburgh" from family-favorite movie Office Space.

Take note of this fashionable blue cat tunnel... you'll be seeing it again 🤣

Zany style

Oh hey, it's Cher!

Susanna was very proud of her awesome witch costume!  A character from the movie Hocus Pocus.

Soren was there too.  He wasn't much in the holiday spirit though, and that's O.K.

The rest of us, however, might have gone a little... overboard:

Cher "If I Could Turn Back Time"

Pt. 1

(Sorry, I had to break the videos into pieces to upload them here)

 Pt. 2

Pt. 3

We composed not one, but two music videos!

Rick Astley "Never Gonna Give You Up"

Pt. 1

Pt. 2

Pt. 3

Pt. 4

I had a lot of fun editing the videos.  It was my first time ever trying that.  We all were really tickled with how they turned out!

Well, I'll end with some random landscape shots.

We sell this Bouteloua grass at work.  I am a fan of its C-shaped seedheads, which earn it the common name "eyelash grass".  Colorado in the winter can be very beautiful with its golden fields and crystal-blue skies.

Sun going down behind Pike's Peak

I have always loved looking out the airplane windows and seeing the land from an aerial perspective.  And this is my favorite kind of pattern to observe, from afar as well as up close: branching/converging.  To me it symbolizes a lot of things.  I see the pathways as metaphorical representations of our thought processes and brain synapses.  I see energy accumulating, and as it does so, finding ways to join together for greater efficiency.  I like to think about Time as a flowing process, like that of water reacting to gravity and other external forces... leading somewhere for reasons still mysterious.  We're lucky just to hitch a ride for a little while, in the grand scheme of things.
So that's what I had in mind in naming this blog, if anyone was wondering.

Blue Skies, Blue Oaks, Blue Heron

 

Oh--hello there!

It has been a little while...  Sometimes I get distracted.

However, I was fortunate to enjoy a delightfully fun visit by my aunt Lori and Brian.  They are en route from Oregon to Arizona for the winter months.

I hadn't been out for a good hike in a while and they helped me break that spell with a jaunt up by Lake Hennessey.

As we set out on the trail, we were stunned by this Black Walnut with it's autumn yellow leaves aglow.

A Blue Heron perched above the waters of the lake.

The West-facing hillside was forested by what I am pretty confident are Blue Oaks (Quercus douglasii).  Initially, their leaflessness made us ask if they were alive, as we were driving toward our destination and seeing other areas near lake Berryessa that had burned.  But then I recalled that blue oaks were deciduous, like the larger Valley Oaks which I am more accustomed to seeing down in the valley.

One portion of the trail had the name "Old Man's Beard Trail" due to the lace lichen draped all over the oak branches.

Group photo!:

I forgot to mention that little Juno was also in attendance!  He, too, was overjoyed to be out romping.

Centuries-old century plants (Agave americana)?

I love watching corvids this time of year... they're always up to something.  This raven was vocalizing from his perch.

Toyon berries create a nice holiday feeling. 

It was great catching up with Lori and Brian and Juno.  We had good food, laughs, and saw some beautiful new sights! Thanks so much for stopping by!