Ahhh our time in the Mojave desert area is almost coming to a conclusion! Wow time flies! During this two month stay we’ve patiently waited for annuals to pop out of the ground and perennials to start thriving.  It finally happened! Even though the month of February had basically no precipitation around these parts, some fell in March and plants got blooming. But being a non-super-bloom year and on the drier side of normal the…

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Ahhh our time in the Mojave desert area is almost coming to a conclusion! Wow time flies! During this two month stay we’ve patiently waited for annuals to pop out of the ground and perennials to start thriving.  It finally happened! Even though the month of February had basically no precipitation around these parts, some fell in March and plants got blooming. But being a non-super-bloom year and on the drier side of normal the…

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When naturalizing Trevor and I have some odd ball saying we say to each other while observing certain species. For example, when we find a weevil which is a small beetle with a long snout at some point we will call it an “evil weevil,” even though they have no evil-ness about them. Another phrase is “spurge is the word.” Usually this is said to each other in a funky voice elongating “spurge” and “word.”…

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We are fully into our next location during this nomadic tour of California, and that is the Mojave desert! Being based very close to Joshua Tree National Park means we get to experience the end of winter and early spring in the desert; it’s a totally different landscape, and so beautiful! So with the total switch up in ecosystem from the redwoods of Santa Cruz Mountains where we last inhabited means a totally new switch…

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Insane views, campfires in the rain, just missing a puma with cubs, beautiful native flora, and some very sore feet were all components of this four day trip in the South Chilcotin Mountain Provincial Park.   Acknowledging this trip took on the traditional lands of Tsilhqot’in, St’at’imc, and Secwepemc Nations. For the American July 4th 2020 holiday we spent it in the Canadian wilderness. No better activity, in my opinion. This was my first backpacking trip…

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In this post I reflect back on what my hubs and I have learned about mothing over the past year or so, and a look into the science of why moths are attracted to light. We first started mothing back in October of 2019 and our first attempts were pretty pitiful, and we’ve come a long way. Thank goodness! When we lived in San Jose, we’d drive 45 minutes up to Montebello Open Space Preserve,…

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From mid December 2020 to mid January 2021 the Mister and I explored the beautiful area around Gualala, California. The small and friendly town of Gualala is positioned right on the Pacific coast at the southern end of Mendocino County, about 3 hours north of the Golden Gate Bridge.  We chose this area to spend the beginning of winter in order to search for mushrooms! This area of California hosts an insane diverse array of…

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Mid August of 2020 myself and the insect-obsessed hubby went on three day backpacking trip in Southwest British Columbia with two goals. The first goal was to search for insects on the snow banks in and around the Upper Lillooet Provincial Park boundary. The second goal was to see if this route we would take would be a viable way to reach Silt Lake, located at the headwaters of the Lillooet River (at the top…

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Ahh, the wonderful world of mushrooms. Winter in California means the arrival of rain and therefore the arrival of mushrooms! Yahooo! I wanted to put together a small collection of recently observed mushrooms from the Mendocino and Sonoma County area. Since mushrooms come in almost every color I thought I’d organize them into a rainbow-like pattern with a little bit of info on each. While plants in the winter are beginning their growing phase, fungi…

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For the last couple of weeks I’ve been admiring and perplexed by interesting looking leaves I find on the ground while mushroom and bug hunting. Most of the ground in the Central California coast is covered by brownish pine needles, tanish oak leaves, other fallen leaves as well as a thick layer of duff. But every once in a while a leaf stops me in my tracks and I MUST take a photo. Can’t resist.…

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