10 June 2007

Sunday driving, yeah

Goldie and I decided (ok, greyhound mutts are not much on the decision-making process, so I decided) to see where we would end up if we drove exactly an hour from our house. We left at 2:57 p.m.



These yellow flowers lined the road for hundreds of yards at a time. They perfumed the air so it smelled exactly like lovely corn tortillas. Yum. I am not sure what they are, but my sister would have answered "Castorbeanii californica." Works for me.


At 3:57 p.m., we arrived here. It is what we call "the Sespe," north of Ojai, in the Los Padres National Forest. Not many people around. It is pretty quiet out here.


We saw beautiful wildflowers like this lupine. I tried to remember what Dr. Shirley Pimentel said at Cal Poly about lupines during the two hour lecture she gave my plant taxonomy class on the subject. Man, I was lucky to be taught by an international lupine expert. I wish I could recall something, anything, she said. That would make this post so much more interesting, don't you think? Oh, the little petals on the bottom are called the "keel"petals. And lupines are related to beans and peas, but they are poisonous to cattle. Thanks, Dr. P.


We saw some fauna, too, like this giant carpenter bee. Go ahead, correct me, all ye entymologists.



Goldie got to wade in a creek.


We saw the Matilija Poppy (the fried egg flower) in its native habitat.


We did a little hiking. Goldie led the way. We did not break the digital camera, though we tried. It is surprisingly tough.

What did YOU do on Sunday?

13 comments:

mamatulip said...

Argued with my husband.

Your day looks much better than mine was. Great pics!

super des said...

I played video games and made jewelry. Your day has lots more flowers than mine, so I'm glad you had fun.

Anonymous said...

:( Worked by painting a woman's bathroom. And I had my head near a toilet all day.

SO not as fun (or pretty) as your Sunday!

Wanna trade next weekend?

lizgwiz said...

I did very, very little. Which was intentional, actually. I wanted one whole day of doing as little as possible. I didn't leave the house. It was great.

But your day looks fabulous...maybe next weekend I'll try something similar.

meno said...

Scooped cat shit out of cages. Yeah!

Whenever i go hiking, and i see a flower that i don't know the name of, it becomes a star flower. So those are yellow star flowers. :)

Anonymous said...

The scenery is beautiful where you live. I love the floral photos the best. And Goldie is quite adorable, too!

Anonymous said...

I cleaned my house and unpacked more boxes. And more boxes.

Lupine reminds me of my childhood. When I was a kid, we would take those little yellow flowers and pretend they were buttercups. They grew in my schoolyard in T.O.

I miss all those crazy wildflowers. And iceplants. We don't have those up here either.

Serena Woodward said...

One Word: Laundry

Your day looks like it was MUCH more fun than mine. Thanks for sharing those beautiful pictures.

Day Dreamer said...

I enjoyed the only day off I had in a week! WooHoo!

Plus, I had a very decent time chasing toddler all over the house!

And trying to convince new dogs that I'm not evil....

I'd like to have been where you were, tho. Bootiful pics!

Anonymous said...

Nothing that exciting. Sadly, I'm not even sure I left the house.
I love the pictures and I love the idea of driving just to drive with Goldie by your side. It sounds like you've been having a lot of adventures lately.

Anonymous said...

I went to Target and bought underwear because I'm on Laundry Strike. I'm sick of doing laundry, totally sick of it. I'm not going anywhere near my washer until I absolutely have to. I'd rather go buy a new package of panties even though they were the wrong brand. I wore my ill-fitting panties with pride.

I'm glad you got out for an adventure and had a good day. Driving with the dog is always a good thing!

Suzanne said...

Wow, that is really beautiful. I love that you have such beautiful scenery only an hour from where you live. I have suburbs. Lots and lots of suburbs. So it goes...

LittlePea said...

I went to the beach. I would have preferred your outing. I love California. I love Florida but one thing I love about California is the mountains. It's so flat here.

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