Happy Earth Day

Hike up Lopez Cyn, the Land of Contrasts; gasp.

Native thistles fostered by yerba santa drew me to creep into thick chaparral. "The prettier the flower, the father from the path." -- Into the Woods.

Closest I've ever come to a So. Cal Rattler! "And then my heart stood still." Dead, or stoned, or sleepy? Did I frighten it to death? It never moved. I did, and fast. Dig the swirling fractals:

Closest I've ever gotten to a gopher snake! It, too, was frozen in place, or dead, or simply paying no heed, man, to clodhoppers on the path. But hey yowza, look at that skin: 0=0=0=0=0=0 simply gorgeous. Lopez is "raptor alley" so I don't get why these guys, dead or alive, aren't being snapped up. Maybe, in honor of Earth Day!?

The Hills Have Buttocks

The Spring Clad All In Gladness

 ...doth laugh at Winter's sadness! Laugh along with the wildflowers of the California Floristic Province. First, those cut-ups in the hills:

 

Ceanothus!

Miner's lettuce, and blue dicks

Yerba santa

and holly-leaf cherry

Blackberry brambles ride the vents

Nightshade and Sagebrush, Ltd. (Purveyors of fine bath requisites?)

Heliotrope above. Below, the fantastically rare Nevin's barberry:

Now the flowery Flats: the Valley's gullies, washes and marshes:

Arroyo willow

Clarkia

Make way for goslings!

The vernal pool at Sepulveda Wildlife Refuge is coming back in native milkweed (Asclepias sp.)

Hummingbird sage!

Welcome fireweed, in two different shades!

Golden poppies, making merry with Cleveland sage...

Tutti fiori!

White sage, black sage and Cal. sunflowers

Behold beautiful buckwheat

Happy Easter from Cloudcuckooland!