With the daytime weather fluctuating anywhere between the 60s and 70s, fickle Autumn has kept us guessing whether she's truly made her appearance or not. The warm sunlit days walking by giant sycamores with their now golden leaves gives us warmth enough to remind us we are Californians, and color enough to give us a taste of the seasons.
Trail-side there are persevering remnants of flowers bloomed long ago, reminding us that though the days are growing darker and shorter now, fresh new life will yet come again.
California Everlasting (Gnaphalium californicum) A must smell!
Deerweed blooms year round, but never as it does in Spring.
A green pond in the middle of the oak woodland. How odd. We often commented that it must be Shrek's home. It is really, really green.
For years we thought it was just the color of the water caused by algae. Look closer, what do you think it is?
Once when one of our kids stepped into it with their rain boots on, they realized it was only a sheet of green on the surface. Some of it stuck to their boot and upon inspection, we realized it was some kind of little green plant. Now we know it is lesser duckweed. Lesser, not greater, because each leaf has only one rootlet.
The video below is what was captured in one single small scoop of the duckweed from the surface. Snails, dugesia turbellarian flatworms (see their eye spots?) - these worms are free-living, i.e., not parasitic, shrimp-like scuds, and the tiny black swimmers are, I believe, seed shrimps.
