Backyard Blooms!

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a few more SoCal beauties...

[sluckey]

Jalapenos are in bloom! Had to make a trip to Walmart for some fat boy bacon.   

[sluckey]

Texas Stars are shining over Alabama!

[sluckey]

Luna Hibiscus...

[PRR]

> Texas Stars are shining over Alabama!
 
Pretty!

I give you Porcupine butt over Maine: 

[EricR]

Real nice thread! Some beautiful pics. We are living at 7400ft in Tahoe. Snow up high is finally disappearing. Ill keep an eye out for some wild flowers. The trees are real happy right now though. Technically this is my backyard right now.

[shooter]

 mighty fine backyard you have!
i'm at 800', had to drive 5-8 hours to get to the eastern/southern mountains, worth EVERY mile!

[EricR]

mighty fine backyard you have!
i'm at 800', had to drive 5-8 hours to get to the eastern/southern mountains, worth EVERY mile!

I feel ya! Sometimes ya just gotta get lost in them form time to time. Here is out house at peak snowfall this winter. It was some real work keeping up with the snow but what a year!

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Some SoCal beauties on the way up to the flag on Bell View trail

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few more plus a vista

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Last of them :-)

[shooter]

haven't seen that much snow since '66/67 when we tunneled out of the house, you win, keep it   

[shooter]

coupe from the park/yard/woods/swamp
the stick-tights photo-bombed my black raspberries!

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Prickly pears are almost in full bloom in SoCal
So cool how the buds are deep pink and the blooms go from orange to yellow
All on the same plant.

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And another beauty from Whiting Wilderness SoCal

[shooter]

knowing "edibles" in the wild can save your butt when things go sideways, you need to be real hungry to peel n eat prickly pears, food that fights back   

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A field of California Tree Poppies from todays adventure in O'Neill Wilderness in South Orange County
These beauties are 6-8ft tall and the size of a big fist.

Also witnessed a doe and new fawn jumping an old horse fence.
Not fast enough to get pic.

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Some Wavyleaf Mullein from SoCal Wilderness.
First time I have noticed it.

Seems that it does everything....
The health benefits of mullein essential oil can be attributed to its properties as an analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, disinfectant, diuretic, expectorant, febrifuge, relaxant, and tranquilizing substance.

[shooter]

domestic eatables
purple taters n Cayenne twins


black raspberries (no-pic) are smallish since we're in a bad drought, still tasty 

[PRR]

Tomato blooms.

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California Brittlebush flower that I snagged on a paved path close to home.
Last year I posted some fields of them from the trail (see #64 and 83)
Also known as Cali coast sunflower.

[PRR]

Of COURSE Google has a thing for that!

We found a tiny frog on a fence. What do I know, frogs is frogs.

My new phone has a Lens button and it suggested Chorus Frogs Genus Pseudacris, possibly spring peeper (Pseudacris crucifer), but hard to say because "hybridization between species". (BTW, for the yellow flowers above it suggested Tomato.)

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wildflowers from a few days ago.
Summer blooms are here...

[shooter]

suggested Tomato.)

i'll stick with my field guides


Marshmallow bush?  what we've been calling it.  grows in the same swamp area as most of my other swamp pics.  was hoping to make inroads in that are this year, but.....
Steve mentioned listening to pine beetles, they killed this one about 4 years back, last nights storm finally out matched the Ivy that's been holding it up

[sluckey]

Look at all the woodpecker holes in that tree! Now they know how to find those larvae without a screwdriver! 

[shooter]

they do love a dead tree.  the beetles must be into mathematics, their larvae holes are symmetrically spaced, circling the tree at the same height.
1st time I saw the new holes, i peered into the hole and a grub started twerking me. considered tweezing them out n selling them at the the beer bait n gas, decided it wasn't worth the $ getting skeetered n fly bit diggin 'em out.

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Couple of wild flowers from SoCal summertime

[shooter]

the 1st sunflower to bloom, it's a mutant plant though, has 7 heads, hasn't tracked the sun since the bloom opened, all the other plants are tracking even without any flowers.  Guess with 7 inputs it's cpu is overloaded; "No, turn, no, the other way"

[Lectroid]

Guess with 7 inputs it's cpu is overloaded; "No, turn, no, the other way"

Should have evolved a FIFO stack model.

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A few from Colorado visit
photo bombers too

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Some more from Durango area

[PRR]

All you hot-heads plucking tomatoes in April--- I finally got mine.

[sluckey]

Those look very tasty!

[shooter]

I grabbed some pieces for lunch, pick'n beans when the dew burns off, then it's Lunch-time.

[PRR]

Tomato blooms. (June 27, 2023)

Annnd..... tonight is cold enough that we pulled the tomato off the deck to ripen the last few fruits in the kitchen. The lawn grass is loving this mild/cool weather, the chives thrive, but the tomatoes will turn sour and fall off.

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A few weeks ago we had some light rain, very odd this time of year for SoCal
Seems that the grasses and some flowers think it is spring
Hope it doesn't upset the ecosystem.
Some flowers from todays hike.

[shooter]

Hope it doesn't upset the ecosystem.

i've noticed more "double nesting" with the birds, re-flowering of plants.  The crows are standing out this year, they seem to be ~25% bigger than "typical" and numbers like they were back in the 60's/70's.
pretty sure "the eco-system" isn't clocking at the same rate as humans.

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Speaking of birds I am going through about 24cups of nectar a day!
They say that each hummingbird consumes 0.25oz a day
So that means that 768 birds visit my yard each day.
Its a full time job to keep them filled.  :-)
Looking forward to migration and return of field flowers to catch a break

[shooter]

only seen one nesting pair this year, we don't feed, they really love the sunflowers I planted though, there'd be 20 honey bees and a hummingbird sucking down on the flowers

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Its apple season in SoCal

[sluckey]

Don't need a ladder to pick those!   

[PRR]

> Don't need a ladder to pick those!   

We put a notch in the top of a plastic cider jug taped to a 10 foot pole, and pull apples off the tree.

However prickly-pear is a different animal altogether. More in the porcupine family. Tongs help. I've had prickly-pear candy on Olvera Street....(gah, that place changed since 1959). I don't know how they do that.

[shooter]

I'd learn't the basic edibles of nature, tried using the prickly pear for hydration n food, preferred to just die after picking the spines outta my hands

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they are delicious but tough to enjoy
even when I'm extremely careful it seems some pricklys get to my fingers or lips  :-(

[shooter]

haven't tried but someone said to burn off the spines 1st, i typically never carried a torch in the back woods, deserts, now camping....

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Christmastime in SoCal...
Snowy Plants
Holly
Mistletoe

[PRR]

> Snowy Plants

Can't fool me. We got 2.7 inches wet snow in the last 30 hours and are expecting another inch tonight.

[shooter]

 
we got a batch of it coming, it's being created over Lake Michigan now, radar says 6am.   had 3" last week, then the rain washed it all down the drain, so it's all wet slop, soon to be covered with 1-3" of lake snow.  good day to cut wood.

[acheld]

. . . good day to cut wood.

From a former Michigander:   It's a good day to BURN wood.   

[shooter]

yep, started the season OCT 10, got a big 'ol window to look out at the beauty of winter with south Florida temps inside 
although it's a mud-fest currently