Back to normal: soggy

 So it's been raining off and on for a few days. Not heavy rain, just a steady dripping, but enough to wet down the fallen leaves and turn a few lawns green. I went to the museum to look for mushrooms, without much luck. There were a few, around stumps, but none of the usual ones that grow in the lawns. I'll try again in a few days. But I walked through their little wood, uphill and downhill. Again, there were no mushrooms, but the juncos were out in force, digging through the soggy leaves. And the air smells of autumn spice. Many of the big-leaf maple leaves have fallen, but the huckleberries and some of the alders still hold onto theirs; the woods are still green, with tan and yellow blobs.

Since there were no mushrooms, I took photos at random along the trails.

Big-leaf maple leaf, still on the tree.

Big-leaf maple leaf fallen into a hollow stump.

In the centre of the woods, a big rock waits, carelessly dropped by a glacier on its way down the hill.

Detail of roots clasping a nurse stump.

A tangled wood, with one junco who sat still for a moment.

Rock, moss, leaves.

A few more maple leaves.

I'll post the few mushrooms I did find around the lawn tomorrow.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Por fin está lloviendo, desde hace unos pocos dias. No es mucha la lluvia, solo una salpicadura, una llovizna, pero fue suficiente como para mojar las hojas caídas y volver el color verde al césped. Fui al museo a buscar hongos en sus alrededores, sin mucha suerte. Encontré unos pocos en muñones viejos, pero ninguno de los que crecen normalmente en el césped. Trataré otra vez en unos cuantos dias. Pero subí a su bosquecito y seguí los senderos cuesta arriba, cuesta abajo. Tampoco hubo hongos allí, pero una bandada de juncos escarbaba entre las hojas, buscando comida. Y el aire olía a otoño. Muchas de las hojas del arce de hoja grande han caído, pero los huckleberry (arandano nativo) y los alisos todavía retienen sus hojas verdes.

Ya que no veía hongos, saqué fotos casi al azahar a lo largo del sendero.

Fotos: 

1. Una hoja de arce, todavía colgada del árbol.
2. Una hoja de arce caída dentro de un troncón hueco.
3. En el centro del bosque, una roca grande, dejado caer descuidadamente por los glaciares en su prisa para llegar al mar.
4. Detalle de raices que se agarran fuertemente al muñon enfermera.
5. Bosque desordenado, con un junco que se detuvo por unos segundos.
6. Roca, musgos, hojas.
7. Y más hojas de arce.

Y mañana subiré las fotos de unos cuantos hongos.

Odds and ends. And middles.

 A few random shots taken along the trail by the river:

A fallen log, trimmed where it fell across the trail, bursting out in small, white fungi.

A bald-faced hornet, Vespula maculata, digs through the duff on a log.

The river reflects a sun-drenched, mossy hillside.

View from a bench where I rested; big-leaf maple dressed for fall.

In the understory, the Devil's club spreads its large leaves high enough to catch the sunlight.

Another big-leaf maple, this one, in deeper shade, with a trunk covered in lumps of moss.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Algunas fotos de cosas vistas en el paseo por el bosque y a la orilla del rio. Sin ninguna organización.

1. En un tronco de un árbol caído, cortado donde cruza el sendero, brotan muchos hongos blancos.
2. Una avispa Vespula maculata busca entre el detritus encima de un troncón viejo.
3. Reflejos de una ladera asoleada en el agua del rio.
4. Visto desde un banco donde me senté un rato; las hojas del arce de hoja grande, Acer macrophyllum, ya empiezan a adquirir sus colores brillantes de otoño.
5. En la sombra debajo de los árboles, un garrote del diablo, Oplopanax horridus, levanta sus grandes hojas hasta alcanzar la luz.
6. Otro arce de hoja grande, este en la sombra llevando en el tronco masas de musgos, cafés y amarillentos.

All the colours of the rainbow

Bright colours, wild and tame, from flowers to critters: I'm tidying up the "to be posted later" folder, making space for May's findings.

New grass just leaping up from under the moss.

Bleeding heart in a pot at home.

Big-leaf maple flowers

I don't know what this is, or how it got into my garden. But I love the colours.

This year's new evergreen fern fronds, unrolling.

Coiled pre-fronds.

And now, the critters:

Green shore crab, with dried shrimp treat.

Close-up of the underside of a sea urchin; tube feet with cog-wheel tips, mouth, spines, and the red seaweed the urchin has decorated itself with.

Pale blues, and yellow legs. A greater yellow-legs, Tringa melanoleuca.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Una variedad de colores brillantes, domésticos y salvajes, desde plantas a bichos: estoy organizando mi folder del mes de abril, haciendo espacio para lo que encuentro en este mes de mayo.

Fotos:

1. Un brote nuevecito de pasto, recién surgido de debajo del musgo.
2. Corazón sangrante, en mi jardín.
3. Las flores del arce de hoja grande.
4. Esta flor apareció en mi jardín, no sé de donde, ni que es.
5. Los helechos de hoja perenne se empiezan a desdoblar.
6. Y debajo, unas hojas todavía están enrollados.
7. Y ahora, los animales: aquí un cangrejo verde, Hemigrapsus oregonensis.
8. Viendo muy de cerca un erizo de mar verde; se ven aquí sus espinas, sus pies ambulacrales, con sus extremos en forma de ruedita dentada, la boca, y el alga roja con que se adorna.
9. Azul claro del agua, y patas amarillas: un chorlo mayor, Tringa melanoleuca.

Sweet tree

 Big-leaf maple flower buds, half open:

Acer macrophyllum. Big-leaf maple.

The flowers open before the leaves appear. Fully open, they dangle in long clusters. 

"They" say the flowers are edible and sweet, a nice addition to spring salads. Stands to reason; it is possible to make maple syrup from the sap, although it is not as sugar-heavy as the sap from the eastern sugar maple.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Estas son las flores del arce de hoja grande, apenas empezando a abrirse. Las flores aparecen un poco antes de las primeras hojas. Una vez completamente abiertas, cuelgan en ramos largos.

Se dice que las flores son comestibles, y dulces, un buen componente de ensaladas primaverales. Es lógico; hasta se puede hacer jarabe de maple con la savia, aunque no sea tan dulce como la savia del acer azucarero de la costa del Atlántico.

Foto: Acer macrophyllum

The colours of flame

It's the tail end of October. The skies are grey and usually drizzling. But on the ground, the colours are the colours of flame.

Big-leaf maple leaves and moss-covered rock. Campbell River museum grounds.

More leaves and rocks.

In a shady corner, the hosta glows after the rain.

Random shot of the garden. Hydrangea, volunteer parsley, stonecrop.

Last spring, I came across a patch of stonecrops beside an abandoned road through the bush. I brought home two stalks and set them in water to root, then planted them. They weren't doing well, so I moved them to the garden, where they sat sulking. Later, I transplanted the hydrangea beside them, too close, but I wasn't expecting the stonecrop to survive. Now, checking out the garden and clearing away dead leaves, I discovered them again, thriving under the shelter of the hydrangea. You never can tell.

Even on a cold and rainy day, a shaft of sunlight reveals warm colours. Quadra Island from the museum grounds with a totem pole looking over the channel from the park across the street.

A few minutes later. The sun has gone, but the shoreline trees still retain the heat of dying bonfire coals.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Estamos a fines de octubre. Los cielos están nublados, gris, casi siempre produciendo lluvia. Pero en el suelo, tenemos los colores de fuego.

1. Hojas caídas de arce de hoja grande, con una piedra y musgo.
2. Más hojas, más piedras cubiertas de musgo.
3. En un rincón sombreado, las hostas resplandecen despues de una llovizna.
4. Limpiando el jardín, encontré esto. Una hoja de hortensia, ya pintada de rosa y amarillo, hojas de perejil voluntario, y unas ramitas de sedum que traje a casa en mayo del año pasado. Las puse en agua en la casa, y luego las sembré en una maceta. No andaban bien, así que les mudé al jardín, donde no más se quedaron alli, como de mala gana. Más tarde sembré allí la hortensia, sin fijarme en los sedum, que parecían estar al borde de la muerte en todo caso. Y ahora, ¡ahi están, felices! Nunca se sabe.
5. Aun cuando llueve y las nubes cubren todo, un rayito de sol ilumina los colores de otoño. Esto es la isla Quadra, vista desde los jardines del museo, con un totem que vigila el estrecho desde el parque.
6. Y desaparece el sol. Pero las hojas que todavía se cuelgan de sus árboles siguen mostrando los colores de fuego, éstos, de las brasas de una fogata que se extingue lentamente.

Trapped

Seen from the main path into Miracle Beach.

Bigleaf maple leaf catching a few rays, caught in winter-bare shrubbery.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Una hoja de arce de hoja grande, Acer macrophyllum, capturada por los tallos de arbustos desnudados por el invierno.

Vista desde la entrada principal a la playa Miracle Beach.

As the year turns

The nights are crisp, the days bright. A chill wind blows, tossing branches, bending dried grasses. Leaves, yellow, brown, orange, red, sail across our paths, blanket the trails, rustling as we walk through the heaps. The wind smells of spice, of warm wood, of ripe brown leaves. Eagles pipe overhead, riding the breeze. Late October on the island!

Along the Myrt Thompson trail. Fallen leaves blow across the old pavement.

Trail-side shrub.

Frozen leaves on the Ripple Rock trail.

Big-leaf maple leaves, Baikie Island.

Sit and rest a while. Trail-side log, Baikie Island.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Finales de octubre en la isla: las noches son frías, los días llenos de luz. Un viento fresco agita los árboles, inclina la hierba en el suelo. Hojas amarillas, rojas, anaranjadas, cafés, vuelan, cruzando nuestros senderos, apilándose contra la hierba, acobijando los caminos, haciendo un sonido crujiente mientras caminamos. El aire huele a especias, a madera recalentada, a hojas maduras. Las águilas chillan allá arriba, haciendo círculos, como flotando sobre la brisa. 

Las fotos son de hojas en tres senderos: el camino Myrt Thompson, el sendero que va a Ripple Rock, y la isla Baikie.

Spring green

Big leaf maple, putting on a show ...

Beautiful yellow-green of the new leaves. And dangling flower streamers.

Tiny greenish flowers, with white threads in the centre. And a beetle.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Los maples de grande hoja (arce, Acer macrophyllum) estrenando flores y hojas. Y un escarabajo chiquitito.

Soaked leaves

Under the shelter of bigleaf maples and Douglas firs, where the sunshine never reaches, the forest floor becomes a layered bed of wet leaves, broken twigs, leaf skeletons, fir cones, fir needles. In the winter, it never dries out, even on sunny days.

In the rain yesterday, its colours (brown, dark brown, red-brown, and brown) were intensified, glowing.

Mushroom hiding under wet bigleaf maple leaves.

Slug dinner, with springtail, surrounded by leaves: salal, alder, fragments of bigleaf maple. And maple seed "wings". Douglas fir needles and cones.

A small mushroom makes a good umbrella.

Leaves and shrooms

It was raining. And a few minutes past sundown. But the leaves fallen on the edge of the museum woods were bright yellow and orangey-brown; I stopped to collect a handful.

And the duff was full of mushrooms. Wet and shiny, some slug-eaten, white and beige and a marvellous purple. And the pocket camera was in the car.

Like a pool of red dye. Cortinarius sp.?

Big leaf maple, with small mushrooms

These very purply mushrooms have white meat. Slugs feast on them.

Big leaf maple and red alder leaves.

With Oregon grape leaves.

And then there wasn't enough light for the camera to focus. I decided to come back the next day in daylight, with the Nikon. And then it rained and blew and rained some more. Maybe tomorrow; I hope the slugs haven't eaten them all by now.

On the wet forest floor

A few leftover photos from Canyonview Trail.

Layered fallen leaves on an upside-down fern frond. Fern, Bigleaf Maple, Red alder, Bigleaf Maple (3) and Red alder on top. As found. On a foundation of decomposed leaves and ferns plastered on a stump.

Licorice fern on a downed branch. I lifted the branch and found that it has entirely decomposed; all that is left is the moss and the fern rhizomes, still holding the shape of the branch. 

Oregon beaked moss on a stump.

It's snowing again. Third day in a row. Winter is finally here!

'Shroom heaven

The sun shines through dripping curtains of hanging moss, warming layers of black bark and orange maple leaves. Slugs feast on white mushroom meat. In the dark crevices between the fallen trees, polypore fungi gleam. It's fall in the rainforest.

Sunlight and hanging moss

Blending in. Big-leaf maple leaves and five big mushrooms to match.

This creamy-capped mushroom has slightly purplish grey gills.

Red-belted polypores with a pinkish cast.

Spore-laden firs and glistening mushrooms

These gilled mushrooms are common in the Grove. They all have freckles in the centre of a slightly pinkish cap.

Down in the mud under a log, we found these large, muddy boletes, identifiable as boletes by the dense pores instead of gills. I had to "see" them with my fingertips, as there was no way I was going to put my cheek in that cold mud.

More to come, tomorrow. This was a mushroom-rich forest!