Parking

I do not understand myself some days! At the last meeting of the California Parks docents I volunteered to participate in the July 4th parade. The costume for said parade is 3/4 finished and the parade is what, about 34 hours away. I think I can wrap things up in an hour or so, and in that sense I'm not panicking, but it certainly is getting down to the wire. You'll know what I'm doing tomorrow....

Feeling rushed and unprepared, I'm already longing for the next trip to the woods. These photos are from Donner Memorial State Park, last weekend's trip that I'm still relishing. You can see the lodgepole pine trees which dominate the area. They have small pine cones, about two inches long, and are characteristically striped of all needles on the lower branches as the upper ones compete for the light. The top photo shows a stripped tree in the lower right hand corner. The needles are in bundles of two.

I'm almost to the point of measuring my weeks by how many parks I get to see. This afternoon, for example, I spent a couple hours in Howarth Park, an urban setting in Santa Rosa, California. So I guess it's been a two-park week, but I was at Donner for four days so really, most of the time has been "parked."

Leaves as soft as felt

I don't keep a dedicated field journal - or a dedicated anything else journal, for that matter - but every now and then I do attempt a field journal page. While Youngest Daughter and I were camping in the Sierra last weekend I was fascinated by the abundance of bright yellow balsam root that lived in clumps all over the campground, including our own site. I pulled up a chair and studied it as closely as I know how. I really am starting to need a class on how to observe the natural world, but have only attended two day-long workshops so far.

There's no place like home

Youngest Daughter and I just returned from a four day trip to the California Sierra mountain range. It's one of my most favorite places to be, especially at this time of year when we averaged 12 degrees cooler than the folks at home. Demi went with us.

We stayed close to camp the entire time, something that was planned ahead of time. We made one foray into Truckee, but we've been there many times, as recently as January, so camping had more allure for us than town. We can do town at home!

My favorite part was the chipmunks, of which there were so many! The squirrels were in abundance too, the noisy chattering kind. The only thing noisier were the Steller's Jays, but usually the squirrels won out because they were more insistent.

Tent camping in well-maintained public parks is my preferred way to get away from usual routines and Donner Memorial, one of California's best parks (in my opinion) is a destination on my annual itinerary from now on.