A very interesting feature of the Steinhart Aquarium is a clear tunnel under a moat in the Rain Forest. Looking up, you see fish, trees, people and sky.

Spring in northern California is heralded (for me) by the blooming of California and Icelandic Poppies. One, very natural, the other, not-so-much. Still, it means color and contrast are coming soon.

Rain has begun in earnest and it seems to mark a seasonal transition. Shorter days are upon us and Halloween can’t be too far away.

Mendocino Coast Botanical Garden

After an early morning at the Golden Gate and a most welcome rest stop at Peets, we headed to Muir Woods National Monument. It is an astonishingly beautiful place that’s very hard to capture in photographs. There are deciduous trees among the redwoods and they are starting to turn. This one stood out because of the dark bark.

Mendocino Coast Botanical Graden

Regional Parks Botanical Garden, Tilden Park.

I first saw this flower in Oregon and added it to my own garden some years later. It grows from corms and self propagates. In New Zealand it is considered an environmental weed. Photographed at a school near my home.

Last evening while a good friend and I were in the John Muir National Historic Site for a glimpse of the full moon rising over Mt. Diablo, we met up with a Park Ranger who was going to lead a moonlight walk in the hills adjacent to the homesite. He mentioned to us that there was a particularly large Live Oak tree called “Wanda’s Oak” or “TenTrees” near Mt. Wanda (named for one of Miur’s daughters). It’s an impressive specimen to be sure with it’s first lateral branch 11′ in diameter. While photographing it we saw a hawk (likely a immature Cooper’s Hawk [Accipiter cooperii] )land nearby and it appeared to have caught a vole. To our astonishment, when it was finished it flew nearer intent on a second vole which it missed. The third time was a charm and brought him into the open where we could get a look. Then as we were setting up on Mt. Wanda, a white tailed Kite started to hunt nearby. The full moon was nice but being in the presence of these two magnificent birds was a treat.

Honeybees again, this time on Buckwheat. Amazingly busy and resourceful creatures.