Yesterday we took a road trip to see our nephew and poke around the Oregon Coast. We visited Ecola State Park, which is lovely. It is the location of the famous Goonies sea stacks; it also has very beautiful spruce coastal forest.
Many people just take a picture from the viewpoint, but we took a nice hike through the woods. It tantalized us with glimpses of the beach for over a mile before a steep switchback trail allowed us to descend to the beach.
The trail winds through beautiful coastal Sitka spruce forest. The understory is mostly salal and sword ferns. The forest has some true giants; this was one of my favorites, because of the swooping limb that was itself the size of a tree.
The beach itself is beautiful, fine pale sand bookended by headlands that have eroded into sea stacks in both directions.
This picture is back towards the bluff by the parking area. It looks so close, but the actual walk is more than a mile.
It was a pleasant walk, although a bit of a scramble in a couple spots. It would be difficult if you had bad knees.
Here is the view from the bluff near the parking lot. This view is available to all, having excellent access from the parking lot.
There are lots of picnic tables near the parking lot — it would be a lovely spot for a picnic!
We happened to go on Goonies day, so I’m sure there were four times as many people as usual. Even so, once we were out on the trail we only passed the occasional hiker.
It has been a busy spring: work, life, and a sick kitty conspired to stretch us thin. Things are finally settling down, in time for us to enjoy the lead-up to summer.
The swallowtails have arrived, just in time for the Dame’s Rocket. This is a lovely plant, but invasive in some areas — check before you grow!
A bunch of other things are starting to bloom or just hitting their stride.
The Harsh Paintbrush has been going for a couple weeks now. I grew these from seed two years ago, and am very pleased that they are solidly perennial.
The slugs tend to munch on them when they’re starting to res-route; the copper around the pots eliminates that problem. I’ll be trying to plant some out this year — we’ll see whether I can keep them safe in the spring in the ground!
I also started some baby paintbrushes from some of the plants that bloomed last year. It’s gratifying to have their propagation down — maybe not to nursery standards, but quite solidly enough for home use.
I scarify the seeds in a ziplock back with some damp coconut coir for 6 weeks, then I sprinkle them in a 4″ pot filled with a coir/perlite/vermiculite mixture with a little vermiculite over. They sprouted in just a few days under grow lights in the basement.
About a month on, I use a fork to pull out chunks and stick them in 2″ pots. Then I sprinkle some native yarrow seeds over: these will act as the host plant, since paintbrushes are semi-parasitic. Yarrow sprout fast enough that they catch up nicely, and then they can grow up together.
Unfortunately not everything was so successful.
The native penstemon were getting off to an amazing start after the same scarification and planting regiment as the paintbrushes… but they had a mold attack very early on, and it pretty much destroyed them. I might get one.
Lesson here: plant them more thinly, and maybe don’t use vermiculite over them; I feel like the vermiculite made it worse.
The planting notes for this species do mention that they are susceptible to damping off… so I will be much more careful next time!
One other note on damping off:
I was a good girl and bleached all my pots this year, and it made a big difference (penstemon aside). The only things I had any problems with were my first batch of chocolate cosmos (note to self, they do *not* like being wet — keep them on the dry side until they hit their stride), and the penstemon.
So, lots of success and a few failures this spring.
More notes later! I will resist putting everything in this one catch-up post 😉
We finally had the conditions for good frost flowers Thursday night/Friday morning.
Under exactly the right conditions (temperature, moisture, dead sticks ravaged by the correct fungi), dead sticks “grow” strands of ice that form formations that look like locks of hair… or, sometimes, like flowers!
Aesthetically I like the latter term better.
We are lucky enough to live in an area that usually has the correct conditions a few times each winter.
However, this was the first really good batch of frost flowers of the season!
The temperature range has been correct (we’ve been having an unusually chilly span, where it is below freezing each night, above during the day).
This would normally be perfect, but the humidity has been too high!
The result is gloppy frost flowers, where secondary frost messes up the formation.
So it was a joy to go out Friday morning and find lots of really well-grown frost flowers!
This means that the sticks were well sodden, and the temperature range was correct for many hours.
From a distance, they are eye-catching but not beautiful. They just look out of place: clumps of pure white in a landscape of brown and green.
In our area (South Puget Sound), they are strongly associated with alders.
So check your alder groves on a cold morning!
I hope you have enjoyed this foray!
I’ll close out with one that shows off especially nice distinct locks. Because it is a small twig, the growth was not so luxuriant as to hide the structure.
We were lucky enough to go on a land-based tour of the Galapagos between 1/16 and 1/26.
We start our journey on San Cristobal. We flew in from Quito, Ecuador.
San Cristobal has a lovely town with a nice harbor and a massive sea lion colony.
This is the sea lions’ beach. They own it! No people allowed.
They also own benches and patches of curb and boats along the wharf.
We were lucky enough to go when there were lots of sea lion pups. The babies stay where they are stashed until momma comes back.
They are adorable and vocal.
The first full day, we went diving at Kicker Rock. This is one of the top snorkeling and diving spots: if you come to San Cristobal and you’re up for water fun, you will go here.
There is an amazing canyon between the two rocks.
We were lucky enough to see hammerheads and a huge school of fish.
We glimpsed our
We glimpsed our first marine iguanas that day, but we got much better sightings the next day, at Floreana.
Each island has its own marine iguanas, with distinctive coloration. The Floreana marine iguanas had wonderful shadings of red and green, especially the males.
On Floreana, we went up to the highlands and got to see our first tortoises!
These are relatively young (30 years or so), and as soon as the rat population is eradicated, they will be fully released into the wild. They are currently walled into a protected area in the highlands.
From the highlands, the volcanic heritage of the islands is clearly visible.
The Galapagos have been formed over millions of years by a hot spot. Each island is usually made up of multiple volcanoes. The oldest of the Galapagos are actually gone — they are on a tectonic conveyor belt.
Then it was on to Isabela. We went kayaking, and got to see lots of fun things around the harbor, most notably the Galapagos penguins.
These are the only penguins you can see in the northern hemisphere (just barely!).
Note that puffins are not penguins 😉
The next day, we went for a hike on one of Isabela’s several volcanoes.
It sprinkled on us for the first half, which was actually quite welcome — it was blistering hot when the sun came out!
This is a very active volcano, that erupted in 2005 and 2018.
The next day, we went snorkeling en route to Los Tuneles. That was one of the trip highlights!
Our guide helped us see reef sharks dozing in their cozy caves.
There were also lots and lots of beautiful turtles!
And many beautiful little fish!
And sea horses!
Such a treat.
Los Tuneles itself was wonderful! You aren’t allowed to snorkel there right now, but we took a dingy through, and were able to walk around a little bit.
Layers of old lava have eroded away, leaving dozens of natural arches. The formations are studded with cacti, and it is prime nesting for boobies.
We closed out our time on Isabela by visiting the tortoise breeding center.
Rats are a threat to baby tortoises, so they raise tortoises here and then release them when they’re old enough to be safe. These guys are a few years old.
Finally, it was on to Santa Cruz, the most commercial of the islands.
There, the highlight was a tortoise reserve. This is private land that butts up against a national park. They allow wild tortoises to come and go.
The tortoises especially like the mud wallow.
And here we are with a couple of the tortoises. They were big, but there is some false perspective going on here 😉
All in all, a really wonderful trip! I would highly recommend it to anyone who gets the chance to go.
Sadly, it was about this time that a bit of food poisoning kicked in. It took out 10 or our 16 members, and the guides got a bit of it too. Fortunately we only missed a couple minor things — it basically turned one lost transit day into two.
Fortunately that discomfort is already receding in memory, leaving behind a truly lovely trip!
We got our first frost flowers of the year Thursday, 12/5.
Stick 1 has an elegant swirl frost off the end
Please note that the general frost flower commentary below is taken from this post from a couple years ago. All the photos are new.
Frost flowers (hair ice) form when there are sodden sticks that dip below freezing overnight. Around here, the sweet spot is ~28-31 F. It needs to be cold enough to produce frost, but not so cold as to freeze the stick solid.
The ice forms on the surface of the stick, and is extruded as it freezes to form “hair” which can take beautiful forms that look like silvery locks or silvery flowers.
Closeup of stick 2
There is a fungal association with Exidiopsis effusa. Around here, there is also a clear preference for alder twigs and branches. I’m not sure whether that’s what the fungus prefers, or whether the wood somehow favors frost flower formation.
Tiny burst frost “flower” growing out the end of a small stick. It is uncommon for such small sticks to have such a nice formation; it is likely because the bark prevented any from extruding out the sides.
Frost flower and hair ice are two terms used semi-interchangeably. As far as I can tell, the distinction is mostly based on the type of formation. If it’s a burst formation (e.g. from the end of a stick), it’s a frost flower. If it looks like hair growing out of the middle of a stick, it’s hair ice. Even though most of what we get is probably more hair ice than frost flowers, I like the latter term better ?
Stick 1 closeup of “wave” growing from the broken end of the stick.
Frost flowers and hair ice are relatively rare worldwide. They require specific conditions to “grow”. In climates with cold winters, you might be lucky enough to see a few in the autumns.
Stick 1 extreme closeup
Here in the Puget Sound area, the winters are mild and tend to only dip below freezing occasionally. We also have an abundance of alders. That gives us the ideal conditions for hair ice and frost flowers.
The moss is growing on the bark of this stick. The hair ice can only grow out where the bark is split.
To see them, go out on a cold morning and check any local alder groves. They tend to be more common at the edges of alder groves, where the sticks are a bit more exposed… but that depends on the temperature range. On a very cold morning (25-28F) there may be such formations deeper in the woods.
They are most common on mid-sized twigs and branches (~1/2-2″ diameter), but occasionally they grow on larger or smaller branches.
Ginkgos are wonderful and ancient trees that are unusual in a number of ways.
One of their unusual features is Ginko Drop “Day”: they drop their leaves in a very short period, a day or two or three, rather than over the course of weeks like most deciduous trees.
These pictures were taken November 9th, when the leaf drop began in earnest, and November 13th, when it was pretty much done. The tree lost 90% of its leaves in about 3 days.
I’ll call “leaf drop” day November 11th this year. It was similar in 2023.
Tracked over the years, it makes a good indicator of local weather patterns.
The spring has flown! Work deadlines have kept me tied up through the glories of mid-spring. Most of those glories have been wonderful, but familiar.
A major exception has been the Angelica!
I purchased it as a young plant two years ago, and expected it to bloom last year (it is categorized as a biennial). It turns out to be a “soft” biennial, that might wait an extra year.
I was very excited when the stalk first started going up in late March.
Over the next month, it got taller and taller, until it finally developed the umbel that I was expecting.
I expected it to open into a white-flowered umbel… rather like a giant Queen Anne’s Lace.
Nope!
It took another two weeks to open, but I could really only tell because it was covered in foraging pollinators… the flowers stayed green, a little like giant, spherical parsley flowerheads.
The resulting show has been both less pretty, and far more amazing, than I expected.
I expected one big flower. There are dozens!
The earliest flower is now developing seeds, but I can tell which heads are in bloom at any time based on the cloud of bumblebees.
Yesterday morning, I went out early, and was surprised to spot a bunch of bumblebees clinging to the bottom edge of the flowers. Napping!
I’m surprised such an open flower makes a good bivouac, but they’re the experts 🙂
All parts of the Angelica are good to eat; it tastes like a potent combination of celery and fennel. I’m guessing the seeds should be good for cooking, and I’ll be sure to plant some for future years.
The Angelica also has one offset on the main plant, so I’m hoping that it might survive the flowering. Otherwise it will be three years before I have this fun again!
Pacific Trillium. These native beauties were photographed at Cougar Mountain park in Renton 3/30
Based on my photo rolls, everything is running 1-3 weeks earlier than usual.
Earliest red rhodie at our home. Taken 3/30.
Our early big red started opening a week ago, and is now in full bloom.
Big red, 4/6/24
Last year, it was at a comparable bloom point 4/22.
I admit I’m enjoying the warmer weather, even as I worry about this summer.
Rob helped me set up a new nursery area in some excess driveway space. I’ve been busily up-potting a lot of the native trees and shrubs that we’re growing on.
A lot of them will go in the ground this fall.
I have a lot of native seeds in the “wait and see” stage. They require both stratification and patience!
Fortunately, I also have garden friendlies like signet marigolds to give me instant gratification in the meantime 🙂
I grew them for the first time last year, and thought them utterly adorable, so I’m doubling down this year!
I’m growing seeds from this beauty, some compact orange signet marigolds, and some burgundy signet marigolds. I have no idea how true they’ll come from seed, but only one way to find out!
We had the correct conditions for frost flowers (hair ice) two days last week: overnight Tuesday (with pictures Wednesday morning) and overnight Wednesday (with pictures Thursday morning).
This sort of clustering is common, because the clear day/cold snap (for us!) conditions required for frost flowers tend to cluster.
Olympia, March 7 2024, iPhone 15 pro
Yesterday I talked a bit about the conditions that allow frost flowers and hair ice to “grow”; today I want to talk a little bit about photographing frost flowers, with a focus on my latest experience with the iPhone 15.
Olympia, March 7 2024, iPhone 15 pro
I have been photographing frost flowers for a few years now. I saw my first frost flowers on a cold morning along the Elwha river in 2015. The following winter, I discovered them growing in our home woods in Port Angeles.
Elwha River frost flower, 2015, photographed with an iPhone 5
When we moved to Olympia, I was delighted to discover that our local woods “grew” frost flowers even more frequently than our Port Angeles woods. Since moving, I have been photographing frost flowers happily with an iPhone 10, sometimes in combination with a hand lens.
Olympia Frost Flower, January 2022, photographed with an iPhone 10
I was able to get some great frost flower pictures with my iPhone 10, and was generally delighted with its macro quality. However, it did tend to lose detail when there was any degree of light; it would all just go to white (as in the top of this picture).
When I got my iPhone 15 pro a couple weeks ago, I was initially extremely excited about its macro potential. However, a couple experiments with flowers had me concerned. This flush of frost flowers was my first opportunity to try my new camera (phone) with one of my favorite subjects.
Olympia, March 7 2024, iPhone 15 pro
Overall, I’m very pleased with the results. The macro setting did not have the same issue it did with flowers. I think the flowers failed because the sensors got confused about what to focus on; with the frost flowers, it was a larger field of focus, so it didn’t get confused.
Olympia, March 7 2024, iPhone 15 pro
The macro setting allows me to focus close-in at least as well as the iPhone 10 plus hand lens, which is lovely. They have also done some fancy footwork to take care of the whiteout issue that I often had with the iPhone 10. Each strand really stands out.
Olympia, March 7 2024, iPhone 15 pro
Is it hands-down better than the iPhone 10?
Well… no. I love that it captures all the detail, and makes it easier to see the individual strands. But I think its focus has some issues, and everything winds up looking super crystalline (partly as a result of the lighting fancy-footwork). The pictures lose some of the satiny quality of the frost flowers.
Olympia, March 7 2024, iPhone 15 pro
I feel like the best of my iPhone 10 photos were better than my iPhone 15 photos, but the conditions had to be just right. With the iPhone 15, I can easily capture the wonderful detail of the frost flowers, but the feel is a little different. And it can capture frost flowers that would have just been a mass of white in the iPhone 10, such as this candy-floss type.
Olympia, March 7 2024, iPhone 15 pro
Anyway, I’m generally pleased, but I really hope Apple fixes the macro focus issues before (botanical) flower season is here in earnest!
