Wildflowers at Caspers

A short trek up Ortega Highway, just past the Tree of Life Nursery is Caspers Wilderness Park. It's a nice place off the beaten track, less than ten minutes past Ladera Ranch.  

Although we're in our third year of drought, wildflowers can be found if you're really looking for them.

blue eyed grass (sisyrinchium)

A very sorry looking filaree - an invasive plant. 

Pineapple weed, aka wild Chamomile (matricaria discoidea)

And here is the everlasting, it has the most wonderful scent. I once tried to bottle it, but foolishly used Olive oil instead of an oil with less of a scent and it didn't work as well as I hoped.

California Everlasting, aka Ladies' tobacco (pseudognaphalium californicum)

Shepherd's Purse (capsella bursa-pastoris)

Did you notice the heart shaped "purses"? And their mention in Robert Louis Stevenson's poem "The Flowers"

ALL the names I know from nurse:
Gardener’s garters, Shepherd’s purse,
Bachelor’s buttons, Lady’s smock,
And the Lady Hollyhock.
Fairy places, fairy things,
Fairy woods where the wild bee wings,
Tiny trees for tiny dames—
These must all be fairy names!
Tiny woods below whose boughs
Shady fairies weave a house;
Tiny tree-tops, rose or thyme,
Where the braver fairies climb!
Fair are grown-up people’s trees,
But the fairest woods are these;
Where if I were not so tall,
I should live for good and all.

Imagine a tiny fairy looking up at all these little plants!

Wild Cucumber, aka man-root (marah)

London Rocket (sisymbrium irio)

Parasitic mistletoe on sycamore (phoradendron macrophyllum)

Holes made by Acorn Woodpeckers

close-up of holes with acorns 

Spring in Winter

Hiking this time of year is so enjoyable, particularly on those occasional warm winter days, when temperatures jump into the upper 70s/lower 80s, and what little rain we've had begins a process of growth carrying with it the unmistakable promise of Spring.

Prickly Pear (Opuntia) blossom 

The ground where the giant oaks offer damp shade there is a carpet of fresh greens reaching for the life sustaining sun's rays.

Clover (Trifolium)

Crisp, sour buttercups dot the carpet with their pretty yellow blossoms waiting to see if the kids remember.

Bermuda Buttercup (Oxalis pescaprae)

Wild Cucumber (Marah macrocarpus) AKA Manroot

Hard to see, but here is a sundog (look in the clouds in the center of the picture) that was visible on the way home when the sun was low in the afternoon.