#coast live oak

[pointandshooter]

coast live oak

National Bonsai & Penjing Museum, Washington, DC

photo: David Castenson

[pickleweed2]

Trinity River along highway 96, before it's meeting with the Klamath

Weitchepec, California

[rinibayphoto]

[jenfoundabug]

Gorgeous October thorn moth (Tetracis jubararia) I found while camping in Northern California a few months ago. These leaf mimics in the Geometridae family reach adulthood sometime in the fall (August - November depending on the locality), making their brown camouflage all the more clever. As a bonus, the serrated edges of their wings resemble the leaves of the live oak trees, which are common around here. Live oak picture, for your reference. Not brown, but you get the idea. They're evergreen, but shed old brown leaves fairly regularly, particularly in the fall.

[littleguydrawings]

A scientific illustration of some oak leaves I did for an application. The shading on both is done with stippling! Back home, all we had were coastal live oaks. When I went off to college, I was so surprised to learn that these big rounded leaves were also from oak trees! So different from the spiky little bastards I know.

[crudlynaturephotos]

[punkass-diogenes]

Plant journal

[inkymink]

Coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia) and neighbors. Green Valley (Fairfield area), California. 14 Nov 2021.

[emperornorton47]

Live oak

[shevahh]

Landscape Los Angeles Design ideas for a mid-sized industrial drought-tolerant and full sun backyard decomposed granite and wood fence raised garden bed in spring.

[eiochaidh-darachrugadh]

The Oak King, Green God of Agriculture, Spring & Summer, Light & Day, Fair Weather - Quercus agrifolia

The Holly King, Red God of Pastoralism, Autumn & Winter, Dark & Night, Fowl Weather - Heteromeles arbutifolia

[fluentisonus]

fire damage 4 years on

[eclecticchick]

New video

New video is up It’s been quite some time since I’ve posted anything. I’ve been rather busy with work and other projects going. I do have a new video up on Facebook & YouTube polling all of my followers and viewers in which you get to choose my next project. Head on over to. Y other blog post above with the attached video explaining on how to cast your vote.

[rabbitcruiser]

Napa Valley Vine Trail, CA (No. 4)

It’s remarkable how a single trail brings together an entire region. As California’s Napa Valley Vine Trail grows to reach its ultimate 47-mile potential, community members and visitors realize the beauty of connectivity and accessibility.

Chuck McMinn, founder and president of the Napa Valley Vine Trail Coalition, championed the trail—a vision of practicality and aesthetics—from the beginning. When vacationing throughout the world, McMinn says he and his wife always made it a point to rent bicycles to explore the region. Living in the scenic Napa Valley, he said it struck him, “Why don’t we have a trail like these other places?”

Napa Valley is synonymous with the green, rolling hillsides of classic wine country. There’s a particular appeal to walking or biking between the long-established vineyards, creating a deeper relationship between the people utilizing the trail with the grape growers and vintners who are the heart of the region.

Launched in 2008, the trail currently covers nearly 20 miles, which are open in a few disconnected sections. Beginning in Vallejo, the trail travels north through the City of Napa and its Rail Arts District, an outdoor art exhibit. Lined with vineyards, the paved pathway continues to Yountville, paralleling the Napa Valley Wine Train and State Route 29, offering a safer alternative to sharing the road with vehicles.

In 2022, the gap between Vallejo and the City of American Canyon on the southern end of the route, as well as the section between St. Helena and Calistoga on the northern end, will open, adding another 12 miles. The remaining 15 miles is in the works. By the project’s completion, anticipated by 2025, the Vine Trail will connect two counties (Napa and Solano), five cities and one town, and will link to two expansive regional projects, the Bay Area Ridge Trail and the San Francisco Bay Trail.

“I can’t say enough good things about this project,” said Joel King, board member of the Napa County Bicycle Coalition and avid Vine Trail cyclist. “There are so many benefits.”

King said prior to his retirement, he bicycled daily to work, and now appreciates the opportunity to pedal into town for errands, as well as use the trail for recreation. Although King is a lifelong bicycling enthusiast, the Napa Valley Vine Trail holds an appeal for all types of trail users, particularly because many residents live within just a half-mile from the route.

“You see a lot of regular people riding on it,” commented King. “The Vine Trail makes it so easy for people to get on the trail and go. You can go car free through the entire Napa Valley.”

Source

[platycryptus]

Eyed Elaters (Alaus)

eyed elater click beetles, like this Alaus oculatus from Florida, are the biggest click beetles (Elateridae) found in temperate North America.

Click beetles are best known for their eponymous clicking ability- a sort of elastic locking mechanism on their thorax can snap open with a loud clicking sound, which helps them startle or escape the grasp of predators and allows them to launch themselves into the air when overturned (you can see that in slow motion at the end of the video)

(more elating click beetle trivia below!)

They live around decaying trees and logs, the adults feeding on sap flows and other sugary liquids while the predatory grubs use their powerful jaws to tunnel in search of other wood-dwelling insect larvae to devour (by contrast many smaller click beetle larvae, often called wireworms, feed on rotting wood itself or other plant matter). To rear these beetles in captivity it’s necessary to keep the larvae in containers made of a hard material like glass, as they’ll chew through plastic and escape (I learned this the hard way the first time I found and attempted to raise a grub).

There are 6 Alaus species in the US, the largest of which can be over 5 cm long. Two are found in forests along the east coast- A. oculatus, the eastern eyed elater (below, left) and its smaller relative A. myops, the blind elater (right).

Even though the larvae don't feed directly on decaying wood, different Alaus species prefer different trees- oculatus breeds in dead oaks and other hardwoods, while myops found in the same habitats only use well-rotted pines.

[carolmunson]

orange colored sky blurbette.

in the glow of the orange and purple lights he put up, you both lay quietly on the sectional. your head on a squishy throw pillow over his feet, both of you covered in blankets — two kindles glowing in the dim light.

you hadn’t expected reading together being such a thing, but you both end up doing it every now and again. eddie hated the idea of a kindle, but when his eyes started getting tired even with his glasses the text adjustment feature called to him. for you, it was just cheaper to get books this way.

your book is spooky, in honor of the season. you stopped being a big reader until you got into horror and thriller lit. some crime lit. you said ‘crime lit’ to eddie once and he said ‘haha, crime lit — clit for short.’ he thought he was so funny — ‘you reading some clit?’

but tonight you weren’t — it was spooky. it was scary. enough that every time the apartment settled with a quiet creak, or the rumble of a neighbor vibrated beneath you, your gaze would wander. cautious into the dark corners of his place.

maybe the book was manifesting the haunt.

eddie likes to tease you when you’re scared. smirking every time he hears you shift at a sound that goes bump in the night. you wouldn’t even open the closet yesterday after you both heard something fall in there after you’d both settled into bed.

“baby, it’s probably my weekend bag from when i came home from chicago,” he hums with his eyes closed, “i just sort of threw it on the high shelf. prol’ly fell.”

“still…” you say, eyes glued to the dark oak door, a sharp gleam on the center from the moonlight through thr windows. like a beacon beckoning you to try out your bravery.

“can you just check?” you whisper.

“you’re being such a baby,” he sighs, a soft snicker as he peels himself out of bed. he trudges to the door and puts his hand on the knob but stops, turning to you, “hey wait, shh.”

“what?” you whisper.

“hold on, hold on shh,” he presses his ear to the door, finger tips holding steady against the wood, “can you hear that?”

“what ed?!” you whisper yell, heart starting to thud.

“something’s…breathing…” he says slowly, turning to you with horrified eyes.

tears prick yours, stinging the corners of your eye lids while you scramble off the bed to the bedroom door. stopping short when you hear eddie laugh and open the closet with ease.

“see baby, i told you, just my weekender,” he laughs, light pooling into the room when he clicks on the overhead light inside. you sniffle, stepping over to see the leather bag on the ground — contents pouring out of it.

“you’re such an asshole,” you snap, wiping your eyes while you make your way back to bed.

“i know,” he giggles, “want me to sleep on the couch?”

when he flicks the light off again, the darkness sends that small crumb of fear into a small bloom again. you shake your head no.

“i gotcha, sweetheart,” he teasingly coos, getting back into bed, “whose scarier than me, huh?”

tonight, on the couch, you take another look around at the sound of the fridge hum lessening in energy saver mode. eddie giggles under his breath.

“stop readin’ it baby, if it freaks you out,” he says, nudging your head with his foot from under the pillow.

“it’s fine,” you shake him off, “i’m okay.”

later that night, still chest deep in the silence of the living room, a loud thud sounds on the roof. one right after the other. like footsteps.

eddie perks up, head lifting straight to the source, sitting up straight, “i don’t like that.”

your eyes coast from the kindle to his chest, his concerned face coming down to look at you.

“don’t worry about it baby,” you mock in a version of his cool tone from last night, “it’s probably just your weekender bag.”