Tiny and white

In the hills above the river, the early spring flowers have passed their prime. The bleeding hearts are gone to seed, the fringe-cups are faded and tattered, the one trillium I saw was dry and brown. The flowers that remain are tiny and white.

Hooker's fairy bells, Disporum hookeri.

Foam flower, Tiarella trifoliata.

Star flower, Trientalis latifolia

And trailing blackberry, Rubus ursinus. These will flower all summer.

Another trailing blackberry.

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En el cerro tras el rio, ya ha pasado el tiempo de las flores de primavera. Las Dicentra formosa, corazón sangrante nativo, ya se dedica a producir semillas; las flores miniaturas de Tellima grandiflora, (¿Porqué se llama así cuando las flores son tan pequeñitas?) se han desbaratado; el único Trillium ovatum que vi ya se ha secado y estaba de color café (fresca, la flor es blanca). Las únicas flores que persisten son todas pequeñas y blancas.

1. Disporum hookeri, "campanitas de hadas".

2. Tiarella trifoliata, "flores de espuma".

3. Trientalis latifolia, "flor estrella".

4 y 5.. Y Rubus ursinus, la mora "del oso", o como la llamamos, mora trepadora. Estas persistirán todo el verano.

Ephemeral

The hostas are flowering.

Buds and flowers on a stalk.

They don't last: already the lower ones are hanging like old rags on a line. But for a few days, they're glorious!

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Las hostas están en flor. Las flores no duran; ya las de abajo están colgadas como trapos viejos al extremo de sus tallos. Pero por unos cuantos días, son bellas.

Just white flowers

Almost all the flowers I saw in the forest on Friday were white.

Serviceberry/Saskatoon. These were high on a tall shrub, in dim woods. Note the long beetle on the upper left.

Starflowers, Trientalis latifolia. The flowers are just slightly pink. The greenish bud beneath is a  trailing blackberry.

Thimbleberries, Rubus parviflorus, buds and flowers and brand new leaves.

Vanilla leaf, Achlys triphilla.

Wild strawberry, with black fly.

And another thimbleberry. Just because.

The elderberry stems now hold tiny green berries. A few deep pink salmonberry flowers were still on the branches, but most have started to form berries, too. And all along the highway (so it doesn't count as in the forest), the horribly invasive Scotch broom is flowering enthusiastically. Yellow flowers: pretty but not a welcome sight.

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Casi todas las flores que vi esta semana en el bosque eran blancas.

1. Serviceberry/Saskatoon. Estas estaban en un arbusto muy alto, en penumbra. Hay un escarabajo largo en una flor a la izquierda.
2. Flor "estrella". El botón verde abajo es una mora indígena.
3. Thimbleberry, "frutilla de dedal". Da frutillas muy suaves, muy dulces, en forma de dedal, de ahí el nombre.
4. Hoja de vainilla. Las hojas secas de esta planta tienen un olor a vainilla.
5. Fresa silvestre.
6. Y otra "thimbleberry".

Las ramas de saúco ahora llevan frutillas muy pequeñas, todavía muy verdes. Hay todavía algunas de las flores color de rosa de salmonberry, pero también la mayoría de estos se están haciendo fruta. Y a lo largo de la carretera (así que no cuenta entre las flores del bosque) el "Scotch broom", Cutisus scoparius, que en una plaga enormemente invasiva, está floreciendo con entusiasmo. Tiene flores amarillas, muy bonitas, pero no es una vista que se recibe con gusto.

Stars underfoot

The coastal forests at this time of year are sprinkled with white flowers.

Starflower, Trientalis latifolia.

These perennials may have from 5 to 9 petals. The name originated because the flower stalks are so fine that the flowers seem to be floating in the air above the plant.

Such glossy leaves! Western lily of the valley, Maianthemum dilatatum.

The flower stalks stand above the layer of leaves, one per pair of leaves.

Prickly! Our native blackberry, with Oregon grape leaves.

The Oregon grape spines are hard and sharp. The blackberry's spines are soft, insidious. They don't pierce a glove (Oregon grape does), but can embed themselves in bare skin.
 

Trailing blackberry, a native. Rubus ursinus. Male and female flowers are on different plants, the male flowers slightly bigger, sharper-petalled.

Thimbleberry. Not a ground-dweller. The shrub grows up to 2.5 metres tall. Rubus parviflorus.

All the thimbleberry flowers I looked at near Lake Roberts were hosting a collection of bugs, mostly tiny brown beetles.

Yummy pollen! The beetles look like tiny rove beetles; their jackets leave the last half of the abdomen bare.

Also seen; foam flowers, vanilla leaf, chickweed, all white, all blowing in the wind.

White

The air has been clear the last few days, the clouds riding high, the early dawn* misleadingly warmed with orange light although the temperature is still below zero. From the highway, as I drove south to join the swan count Tuesday morning, the mountains of the mainland, usually a pale blue blur, stood tall, dazzling in their cloaks of new snow.

10 AM. From the parking lot at Salmon Point. I've been trying to identify these mountains on Google. Maybe the tall, pointed one might be Mt. Denman, 6532 ft (1991 m), going by the shape.

Update: It is Mt. Denman. Thanks, Paul!

Looking the other way, over Woodhus Slough, Mt. Washington.

Snow near roads gets grungy fast; even the logs bordering the parking lot were speckled with grey. But on the trail out to the slough, the ground was as white as the distant mountains.

Last fall's flowers.

Icy snow on a fence post.

Sky, rocks, logs, and our footprints. The trail was just more packed snow. 10:20. The clouds are settling down again, but there's still a hint of orange in the east.

The weather people are promising us two more days of cold weather, going down to 8 below zero (Celsius) this morning, before the rain comes back and the snow melts. Or turns to slush.

*Not really so early these days: sunrise this morning will be at 8:14.

A Skywatch post.

More practice shots: white on white

I'm still learning how to use the new gear, working with different settings and configurations of camera, lens, and reflectors. I decided it would be simpler to practice on something that was not constantly getting in fights, or wandering off for a bite to eat, or just turning his back on me. Not a hermit nor a shrimp, in other words.

I chose, instead, an old sea urchin test, without its spines, and a sprig of dried everlasting flowers.

This first photo is as it came out of the camera; no processing at all, other than resizing for the blog.

Almost lace. And there are a few remnants of spines, after all.

For this next one, I changed the aperture and moved in closer. That produced some noise, which I partly removed in processing. Still, there was minimal work to be done; despeckling, cropping, resizing.

Close-up of urchin buttons and holes. I think they're where the spines were inserted.

And the everlasting; again, with minimal processing; removing a dust speck, resizing, sharpening.

White on white, with hints of pink.

I'm pleased. Depth of field is still something to work with; for example, on the urchin, every part that curves away from the camera is out of focus. And the lens definitely loves light. For these, I had the flash, a spotlight, general room lighting, a white sheet, whiter paper, and two big white reflectors (one is the lid of a big plastic bowl; what works, works.)

More practice shots tomorrow; something alive, again.

Snowy and the Legs

There's another way to work the camouflage trick; be so glaringly white that you look like a sun-bleached piece of broken shell.

Snow-white crab.

This miniature crab was hiding in a shell I brought home on Canada Day. He's about 1/4 inch across, and spends his time hiding under the edge of the clamshell, where he matches the white of the barnacles on top. Only when he ventures out to grab a bite to eat, does he expose those brown and orange legs; they look borrowed, not really his; they don't match.

Pink eyes!

I can't tell what species he is yet. He's too small, and too shy. His colours may change as he grows, too.

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