Oceanside

This morning we flew to Los Angeles, rented a car, and drove an  hour south to Oceanside, California. Here we are up on the pier after walking the beach. Sections of the beach are cordoned off for swimmers followed by sections for surfers. Lifeguards wearing red suits and holding life jacket belts run up and down the beach from their huts just like on Baywatch. We saw several brown pelicans, Pacific cormorants and a few gulls. This beach  has very few shells and very few weeds.

To be on the beach again is a real treat.

 

Vacationland

John Hodgman is the author of Vacationland: True Stories From Painful Beaches. This is a series of humorous chapters detailing his childhood and life in Massachusetts and Maine. He used to work on the daily show with Jon Stewart writing "fake" news. He tired of that in 2016 because fake news was so common. Now he is in his 40's and trying to raise two children. His stories are funny because they are painfully true. 

Full Moon

 

Last night was a full moon although we couldn't see it until about midnight. We were out on the 3rd frog and toad survey. The night was quiet if you discount the buzz of blood thirsty mosquitoes in our ears. I am sure our head nets frustrated them. My feet and pants and hands were covered in mosquito repellent so I don't think I got many bites but they tried. Fireflies flickered in the night sky. The day was hot so the frogs were quiet. We heard some tree frogs. a few toads, some green frogs and some mink frogs. At the 8th stop we stood on the road facing west and watched the fireworks going off in Hinckley. At the 10th and final stop we were skunked. No frogs sang at all and normally we do hear frogs there. Driving to Minneapolis from Mora, I saw the moon come out from behind the clouds and show itself.

Braiding Sweetgrass

 Robin Wall Kimmerer is the author of Braiding Sweetgrass. This book was recommended to me by the young woman who led a foray at the local nature center on edible and medicinal plants. The author is a botanist who teaches in Syracuse, New York. She is also a member of the Potawatomi Nation. Her chapters are not limited to the New York region. She writes about plants in Oregon and New Mexico and Florida as well. She writes about fields and forests and ecosystems. In one chapter she describes a ten day long ecological experience with college students out in nature, collecting cattails to eat and also weaving matts from the cattail leaves and collecting pollen from the flowers. She writes about climate change and pollution. She explained that plantain is a plant that was not on this continent until the Europeans came across the Atlantic. I didn't know that. She explains that plantain has found a niche in the paths of the white people and has naturalized much like the immigrants have naturalized. She has an interesting perspective and I enjoyed her educational book.

How Often Can You Tell A Person That They Have Your Vote?

 I have been spending some time lately sitting on my front steps whittling walking sticks for the grand girls. I used balsam poplar because they are light weight. Whittling is best done in the summer and outside. While I was busy attaching rubber cups to the bottoms of the sticks I was visited by the mayor of my fair city. She was with another woman and they were handing out political material before the primary on August 8th. She looks so different wearing a baseball style cap. I was pleased to meet her. I told her I approved of her decisions. She said she might put that on her literature - Sue approves of her decisions. How often can you tell a person that they have your vote?

Crocus Geometer Moth

This crocus geometer moth came to visit me today. I admire the pale yellow coloring with faint brown streaks.

 

Aspen Oysters

 So today I was walking the trail along the waterfalls in Congdon Park. A family of five had stopped their bicycles to swim in a pool. Farther up the stream I came across an aspen tree with oyster mushrooms growing out of it. Last week on a mushroom foray I saw aspen oyster mushrooms twice. I harvested some of the mushrooms, picked out the pieces that had bugs in it, and stuck a cup full of aspen oyster mushrooms into the pocket of my shirt. I walked the 2.5 miles home wearing a bulging shirt. I cleaned the mushrooms and ate them for supper. This meal brings me to my third meal of foraged mushrooms. The first was morels at Afton State Park. The second was Dryad's saddle from a stump in my front yard. And the third was aspen oysters from Congdon Park. M m m good!