Visitors 61
Modified 15-Feb-23
Created 29-Mar-21
113 photos
Inspired by Alison Cabell and the bright cloudless days, I venture up Coal Mine Ridge for a third dose of Spring 2021.
Quiet flowers gather the spreading dawn light up Old Spanish Trail. A little way back down Bay Laurel Trail is the Shooting Star extravaganza that Alison alerted me to. On a hillside just off the Fire Road, scattered bones give mute testimony to a violent encounter.
Mid Old Spanish Trail traverses meadow and forest, past Valley Oaks sprouting fresh new bright-green leaves, Madrones scattering blossoms on the trail.
Coalmine Trail leads back down the ridge from the Grandmother Tree. Warrior's Plume carpets the clearings beneath the oaks, sharing nutrients via buried roots. Hound's Tongue appears again and again, a welcome familiar friend. Many are going to seed; soon they will yield place of prominence to another showy flower.
Cutting across to Toyon Trail, I turn back uphill for a while, to catch a glimpse of more Shooting Stars and even a lone baroque Zigzag Larkspur. Plus Checker Lilies, Blue Dicks, Man-root, and more. Soon: lupine!
Back down below the bridge, lower Toyon Trail gives a reprise of this spring: the red, white, and blue of Warrior's Plume and Trillium, Milkmaid, and Hound's Tongue -- plus graceful Star-flowered Lily-of-the-valley. The highlight of the morning is a male Anna's Hummingbird browsing a stand of Warrior's Plume, the flashing red of the hummingbird's cap vying with the flowers’ exuberant crimsons.
