Patchwork rocks

On the hillside where I took the photos of bees and blackberry flowers, I stopped to look at rocks. Again; I've posted photos of some of the rocks on this outcrop twice before. (Here.) But each bit of rock there is interesting. And sometimes beautiful; look at these:

Green and white and orange rock, with lichens and toasted moss.

More moss, more lichen, green patches, brown and cream rock.

Tip of a rock that lay in the shade, so its moss is still green.

A bit of the hillside; most of the rock is barely covered with a coating of moss. The tan flowers are ocean spray, past it's prime; the white flowers turn brown and then stay on the shrub all winter.

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En el sitio donde saqué las fotos de abejorros y las flores de zarza himalayana, me detuve otra vez para mirar las piedras. He subido fotos de las rocas en esta misma ladera dos veces antes, pero cada piedra que encuentro aquí es interesante. Y a veces hermosa; mira:

1. Colores de la piedra; verde, blanco, anaranjado. Y tiene manchas de líquenes. Y musgos bien tostados.
2. Otra piedra, también llevando musgos y líquenes.
3. Esta piedra estaba protegida del sol debajo de un arbusto, y el musgo que lleva sigue verde.
4. Vista de una sección del sitio. Casi toda la roca está cubierta solamente con una capa ligera de musgo. Las flores son las de rocío de mar, Holodiscus discolor; son blancas al abrirse pero pronto se vuelven color crema, luego café; así permanencen en la planta todo el invierno.

Aquí están las fotos de las otras visitas

Berries!

Along the edges of the forest; where unfiltered sunlight reaches all the way to the ground. There the bees and other pollinators keep busy all through the long summer days. I found ripe blackberries, the native trailing ones, tiny, black, and sweet. And wild raspberries, still half-ripe; they'll turn dark wine-red soon.

Wild raspberry, Rubus leucodermis.

Ocean spray, Holodiscus discolor. Far from the ocean, but the flowers hang in foamy clusters, taking the shape of the sea foam at the tip of large waves at the beach.

Weedy.

Hawkweeds, Hieracium sp., are invasive weeds, but the bees do love them. Here, I liked the tight flower buds with their black-tipped bracts. The other weed is, I think, Wall lettuce, Latuca sp. It has tiny, white flowers.

The bee is a Yellow-faced bumblebee, Bombus vosnesenski. This is a native species, and the most common bumblebee on our west coast.

I just came in from tidying up my garden. I found some of the extremely invasive Himalayan blackberry canes hiding in the forsythia bush. Some of the berries are ripe already, and delicious. I cut down the canes anyhow. A young deer came by, looked them over, and turned up her nose. Our local bear would like the berries, but that would just help to spread the plant. Sorry, Brother Bear, but the whole batch went into the trash. 

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En los márgenes del bosque, donde la luz del sol logra llegar hasta el suelo, se encuentran flores y frutas silvestres. Allí los abejorros y otros polinizadores se mantienen ocupados desde amanecer hasta la puesta del sol;  16 horas diarias en este mes de julio. Encontre moras maduras; las nativas, Rubus ursinus, pequeñitas pero negras y dulces. Y frambuesas silvestres, Rubus leucodermis, medio maduras; listas para comer, son de color rojo oscuro.

    1. Las frambuesas.

    2. Flores de Holodiscus discolor, rocío oceánico. Bien lejos del oceano, pero las ramas de flores colgantes se parecen a la espuma en la cresta de las olas en la playa.

    3. ¿Hierba mala? Estas flores amarillas son Hieracium sp.; una planta invasora, difícil de erradicar, pero muy apreciada por los abejorros y las avispas. En esta foto, me gustaron los botones con sus brácteas con puntos negros. Las otras flores (ya caducas) son, creo, "lechuga de muro", Latuca sp.

    4. El abejorro es un Bombus vosnesenski, el abejorro de cara amarilla. Es una especie nativa, y el Bombus más común en estas costas.

Acabo de entrar después de hacer limpieza en el jardín. Escondido entre el arbusto de forsythia, está creciendo un arbusto de la mora extremadamente invasora, Rubus discolor. Algunas de las bayas (y hay muchas) ya están maduras. Deliciosas, pero de todas maneras, corté todas las cañas y las deseché. Vino de pasada un venadito y se arrimó a mirar las ramas y hojas cortadas. Y ni siquiera las probó. Al oso que nos visita le gustarían las bayas, pero al comerlas ayudaría a esparcir las semillas. Mala idea.

Slowpoke.

I was scanning the weeds along a trail, looking for ripe blackberries, when an oceanspray bush erupted. Bushtits! Speeding blurs, gone as soon as I saw them. One hung out a few seconds longer.

Bushtit, Psaltriparus minimus, male. (Females have light eyes.)

Just leaving. Blurry, but isn't he cute?

Oceanspray, Holodiscus discolor, gone to seed.

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Andaba buscando zarzamoras entre las hierbas al lado de mi camino, cuando de un arbusto de rocío oceánico hizo erupción una bandada de Bushtits. Más bien, un borrón veloz, que desapareció en cuanto lo vi. Uno de los pajaritos se detuvo por un segundo ...

1. Psaltriparus minimus, macho. Las hembras tienen ojos claros.
2. Listo para volar.
3. El arbusto, ya produciendo semilla. Holodiscus discolor.

So many flowers!

Here are some of the flowers I saw along the Rock Bay road:

One of the paintbrushes, probably Common red paintbrush, Castillelja sp.

Twinflowers, Linnaea borealis. Very tiny; two flowers on each Y stem.

Hardhack, Spiraea douglasii ssp douglasii.

Oceanspray, Holodiscus discolor. Lake McCreight.

Penstemon, probably Penstemon serrulatus. 

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Algunas de las flores que vi por el camino hacia Rock Bay:

1. Castilleja sp., probablemente C. miniata. En inglés las llamamos "pinceles" (o brochas de pintor: en inglés es la misma palabra.
2. Flor gemela, Linnaea borealis. Una flor muy pequeña; cada tallo, en forma de "Y" lleva dos flores.
3. Spiraea douglasii ssp. douglasii. Muy común cerca de agua; hace masas de arbustos casi impenetrables.
4. Rocío oceánico, Holodiscus discolor.
5. Penstemon serrulatus.

Sunburnt

 A couple of weeks ago I went to look at the cliff faces along the shore of Upper Campbell Lake again, wondering how the rock-dwelling mosses and other plants had weathered the heat wave.

Not well. The moss was brown and crispy, crumbling when I touched it, even the moss in the ditches at the bottom where they could hope to find moisture. Ferns near the top were toasted and shrunken. Here and there curled, brown leaves clung to cracks in the stone.

A few green leaves surviving near the foot of the cliff.

Ocean spray, crispy.

And yet, and yet ...

Some small plants are managing to find water down there somewhere in the cracks.

Up top, where the cliff levels off, the forest stays green.

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Hace un par de semanas fui a mirar otra vez los precipicios rocosos al lado del lago Upper Campbell, queriendo saber como habían aguantado los musgos y otras plantas durante la reciente ola de calor.

No muy bien. Los musgos estaban tostados, color café pardo, crujientes; se desmoronaban al tocarlos, hasta los que crecen al pie de la roca en la zanja donde normalmente se puede encontrar un poco de humedad. Los helechos allá arriba estaban quemados y encojidos. Esparcidas entre las grietas quedaban hojas muertas, secas y quebradizas.

Primera foto: todavía había una que otra hoja verde al pie de la roca.

Segunda foto: Rocío oceánico, Holodiscus discolor, achicharrado.

Pero sin embargo ...

Tercera foto: algunas plantitas de alguna manera han encontrado un poco de agua allí en las grietas de la roca.

Allá arriba, donde el cerro se aplana un poco, el bosque permanece verde.

Assorted questionable plants

 As the summer turns to fall ...

Leaves and flowers drop. Unidentified plant, cliff face, Buttle Lake

Or just change colour. Oceanspray, Holodiscus discolor, in its winter colours.

And I mentioned the horizontal moss on trees facing Buttle Lake winds. Here are a couple of those trees.

This moss usually hangs vertically. The lake is to the right.

And a couple of tall snags. These always make me wonder.

Two dead trees tower over new forest.

How is it that these dead snags manage to stay erect, so high above the forest that would shield them from winds? How is it that they don't crack and join the logs on the forest floor?

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Y el verano se va; y entra el otoño. Y hay cambios: primera foto; una planta que no puedo identificar; perdió las hojas y las flores, pero los tallos y botones perduran.

Segunda foto, las flores blancas de Holodiscus discolor se vuelven cafés. Siguen en la planta durante todo el invierno.

Tercera: mencioné antes como algunos musgos cuelgan de troncos que enfrentan los vientos de Buttle Lake de manera casi horizontal. Estos están en un punto extendido en el lago. Normalmente estos musgos cuelgan verticalmente.

Cuarta: siempre que veo árboles completamente muertos como estos, me quedo con la pregunta; ¿Cómo es que no se caigan, muertos como están, y sin la protección del bosque alrededor? No lo entiendo.

Twilight at Black Creek

It had been a cool, grey day; not raining, but likely to at any moment. I was busy, and not able to get out until after 7:30. But sunset doesn't come until after 9 these days, so I grabbed the camera and went out. Towards the south, a gap in the clouds allowed a few rays of sunlight to warm the trees; I headed that way. But as I went, the light moved south and south again, and then went out.

I found myself near Miracle Beach, passing a trailhead on Black Creek. I parked and went into the bush.

If the light was blue-grey out in the open, here under the trees it was twilight already. A green twilight.

Greens and browns. Present and visible here: evergreen trees (Douglas-fir, cedar), Big-leaf maple, red elderberry, thimbleberry, salmonberry, Vanilla leaf, evergreen ferns, huckleberry, mosses, Ocean spray (white patches in the distance, behind the trees). Not visible, but present; foam flower, salal, polypores.

The trails wind through the bush down Black Creek, connecting with Miracle Beach, the campsite, and two parking lots. When I came to the first parking lot, I turned back; it was already getting dark.

Red-belted polypore. I had to use flash for this; in the dark, it was a greyish blob.

Salal flowers.

At one point, the trail led underneath a canopy of Ocean spray. I'm short, and I had to dodge this one, at face height. Flash used.

In a dark corner on top of a stump, a brown and black mushroom, looking a bit the worse for wear. Flash, of course.

And on a future nurse stump, two baby evergreens in a blanket of moss.

Mossy snag. Out in the open, as I crossed the road to the second section of the trails. I still needed the flash.

8:49 PM. More moss. I call this a "zoo tree". I see mossy critters everywhere: a rabbit, a gopher, a frog, a sleeping sloth, a bird face, a big snake winding itself around the trunk.

A tree ladder, the lowest rung too high to reach. Why?

Black Creek. A wide spot; at other places, it's a trickle under a bed of ferns and fallen trees. From the road in, not the trails.

The rain started as I returned to the car. Just in time.

Goat's beards and creambush

The woods and hillsides are softened this month with large sprays of tiny white or cream flowers.

Holodiscus discolor, aka Ocean spray creambush, or ironwood, against a background of the cliff face below Elk Falls.

Goat's beard, Aruncus dioicus. Beside the trail, Elk Falls. Also known as "spaghetti flower".

When I was a kid in summer camp at Ferrer Point, on the west coast of Nootka Island (to the west of Vancouver Island), one of the cabins had a signpost: "Ocean Spray Cabin," it said. I always wondered about that; the cabin was at the top of a long, steep hill down to the hidden beach below, a beach not suited for swimming, where the waves rolled in from the open ocean. But they rolled, they didn't spray, and anyhow, the spray would never, ever reach anywhere near the cabin. So the name didn't make sense to me.

It wasn't till decades later that I discovered the plant that gave the cabin its name. By the time we arrived for camp, the flowers would have dried on the branches, so I hadn't noticed them. My interests at the time were the edible berries in abundance in the forest; huckleberries, salmonberries, thimbleberries, salal. (It was long ago, before the invasive blackberries had made their appearance.) Tiny dried flowers were not on my radar.

The alternate name, ironwood, refers to the hardness of its wood. First Nations peoples used it for a variety of tools, including halibut hooks, bark scrapers, and as pegs for carpentry, before nails were available.

Why the goat's beard, which kind of, sort of, looks goat's beard-y enough, is also called "spaghetti flower" is a new wonderment.