Near misses

Yesterday was one of those unsettled weather days with beautiful cloud formations and light/shadow.  I had an errand which took me past some beautiful scenery - and there I was with no camera.
This morning as I'm having coffee, for the first time ever I saw a family of Mourning Doves and there I was with no camera again so even though I had an appointment I had to go find some nature. 

Since it seems to be the year for Magpies, they were the first thing that caught my eye and they stopped me long enough to convince me to park and take some photos of the valley.     Although most of it is crispy and dry from the summer heat, the orchards and vineyards are irrigated and green.

                                                     I am really hoping to get to the lake tomorrow and hoping the sun will shine for pictures.  Wish me luck!

August Heat

Very hot and dry here, which is typical for this area.  It always amazes me how plants survive the summers, especially when they are not native to the area.
We've given up on a lawn, those who built this place didn't put in underground sprinklers and from past years we've learned that there is no way to keep up with it, so this year we've decided to quit pretending it's not a desert and just let everything either survive or not.

They tell us the lawn will recover but it's not looking too healthy.   If I had the energy I would remove it and put in all native plants with no lawn, just some walkways and sitting areas.

The only plant which not only survived two months without water but is blooming, is my wonderful Brown Eyed Susan.

This tumbleweed along the roadway is dry and crispy waiting for a good wind to break it off.  It's amazing to watch when the wind blows and they start to roll and pile up along anything that stops them. 

I understand there are a few plants that do that and this one is either a Diffuse or Spotted Knapweed.  It's very picky and spiky.  Not fun to step on or rub your leg on when wearing shorts and sandals.  Another weed which is annoying because it's burr- like (if that's a word) is this one.   I haven't been able to find out what it is yet.  It's quite a pretty flower but sticky like glue.   

Over the years, I have adjusted to the hot conditions but whenever I find a public park that has been irrigated and is green and lovely, I take a deep breath.  The air feels softer (the humidity?) and somehow not so tight.
And to end on a happier note, Okanagan lake is still pretty even with the heat. 

                                         

Need time in nature?

Bald Eagle, Keyring, Onament, Magnet, or Pin by countrymousestudio

My daughter just gave me a very insightful article about those of us who love spending time in nature.  I tend to need a lot of time in nature to recover from city-time or time with a lot of social activity.  In the past, people just called us shy but somehow it was always more complicated than that.  This is the article:

 Introverts are re-energized from spending time alone while extroverts derive it from spending time with others. While science knows the two personalities are hardwired differently, it's come up short on the why in the past. Now a new study found introverts and extroverts respond differently to human faces.

When extroverts look at a human face, there's an increase in a specific type of electrical activity in the brain, but there's no change when they look at an inanimate object, even something as pretty as flowers. However, there's an equal rise in introverts' electrical activity when they look at flowers and human faces, showing their brains do not distinguish between inanimate objects and people.

So while extroverts get a physiological lift from being around people, an introvert can have the same experience looking out a window. Score for introverts? 

Here is the link: http://www.tressugar.com/Why-Introverts-Like-Alone-10346907

It got me wondering so did a little digging and discovered this article on Nature Deficiency and how it can be harmful to your health  Here's the article: http://www.naturalnews.com/028203_nature_deficiency_self_healing.html

There is also this book by: Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder.


So now I'm trying to figure out if the person who needs nature, learned that through exposure or if it's possible for a city - raised person to ever get to the place where they find nature necessary - relaxing - re-energizing?  I've met people who just find time in nature boring.

If this article is confused, it's because I am.   If a person is hardwired this way then exposure wouldn't help but if exposure would help then we need to teach the children. 
 Whoever did the study needs to ask a few more question. 

All Bark

Occasionally I help my grand kids with their paper route and I've noticed two trees with very unusual bark.

I have no idea what this first one is and didn't want to spend too much time taking pictures in a stranger's yard.

This second tree appears to be a common Lilac.  I have lived around Lilacs my whole life and have never seen one with such unusual bark.  Perhaps it's very old?    
              The neighborhood is one of the oldest and it looks as if the trees have been around quite a while. 

The last photos

I just read Ratty's blog http://everyday-adventurer.blogspot.com/ on the mushrooms he found and I remembered that I had photographed mushrooms the last trip I took into the forest too.  They weren't glowing like his but very large.  I wish I had put something beside to compare, as this one was larger than my whole hand.
 Then of course remembering that I was in BC where they grow something called Magic Mushrooms I had to take a look on Google to see what they looked like.

Apparently magic mushrooms look quite different.  I wonder what brave soul tried one to find out they were hallucinogenic.

This next photo was a funnel spider that was below a tree being eaten by Carpenter ants.  You can see the web is full of sawdust which helps make it stand out.  It probably didn't catch many insects because it was so obvious.
I took a small twig and tried knocking at his door very gently as if a bug was caught in his web.  It took about 10 minutes of trying different tactics to get it to poke it's head out.  I wanted to see what kind it was, as we have the dangerous Hobo spider http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobo_spider here and having seen them before would have been able to recognize it.
It was early in the morning and before I changed position, I was casting a shadow on the web which probably convinced it, I was more predator then prey.
I could see it moving about inside it's little living area but it would only look out the door never fully appearing.
The mosquitoes that annoyed me all night long must have known my intentions because if I could have slapped one of them, I probably would have put it in the nest, although on second thought it did seem cruel so I finally gave up.

These were the final interesting photos from that trip and thanks to Ratty's post on mushrooms, I remembered them.

Beautiful Weed

When I first moved to this area and saw this flower growing wild along the highway, I fell in love with the beautiful color.
I was very surprised to find it was Chicory especially since I'd heard of its use as a coffee substitute.

Here is Wickipedia's info on it:
Common chicory, Cichorium intybus, is a bushy perennial herbaceous plant with blue, lavender, or occasionally white flowers. Various varieties are cultivated for salad leaves, chicons (blanched buds), or for roots (var. sativum), which are baked, ground, and used as a coffee substitute and additive. It is also grown as a forage crop for livestock. It lives as a wild plant on roadsides in its native Europe, and in North America and Australia, where it has become naturalized.

"Chicory" is also the common name in the US (and in French) for curly endive (Cichorium endivia); these two closely related species are often confused

It is so pretty I don't know why someone hasn't hybridized it to make an addition to the flower garden although it does look similar to a Batchelor Button.                                            I picked a bouquet and put it in a vase but apparently it doesn't like being picked because within just a few hours it was completely dead.

It can grow quite tall, up to waist height but if you mow it as they did along the highway, it will bloom at a few inches.   It's definitely one of my favorite weeds.

Beautiful and Deadly?

There is a plant on my deck that I hope I've correctly identified as Climbing Nightshade.  It's really pretty especially when loaded with red berries.

The flowers are purple and look like tomato or potato flowers.

Since I don't have small children in my yard I never bothered checking up to see how deadly it might be until this year.
Turns out that even the Canadian Government doesn't really know.  One article says only the green unripe berries may cause stomach problems.  That it has caused problems for cattle, sheep and mice and may have killed a child who was picking blackberries in an area where these were growing.                                                                 

                                                 
And on a more humorous note this is my son who asked me what I was doing and didn't want his picture taken.

And (for you Judy) Judy's cat
here's my cat, who thinks I should have contacted his agent before I took his picture.

Cattle guard

As I was going through the last of the pictures of my camping trip I found these and wondered how many people use this method of preventing cattle from leaving.     Is it used in your area?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  We call it a cattle guard or a Texas gate.  Apparently cattle will not cross because they cannot stand on it as their hooves slip right through.  There were a number of them throughout the journey, some without the ridges to drive on and unless you slow to a crawl the vibration will shake your teeth loose.
                                                    

Birds & Berries

Well, it's been a while since I promoted my art, which was supposed to be the reason for this blog.  So now for a quick advertisement.

Mountain Bluebird Oregon Grape by countrymousestudio

Birthday Rose Breasted Grosbeak on Hawthorne by countrymousestudio
Browse Birthday Cards

Northern Cardinal Postcard by countrymousestudio

Bald Eagle by countrymousestudio