I took a short hike at Arasterdero, on up to Foothill, scoping how the wildflowers were doing. Not great, but a few of the hard flowers were out, mostly lupine, and under the trees, hounds tongue and trillium (just starting to open). I saw a few poppies, and a fair display of fiddlenecks (the yellow flower, not the fern). Oh, and of course, daffodils at the site of the old house up on the hill.
It's been sort of strange weather this winter, warm, cold, freezing, very dry, soaking wet (and last night, snow again on the Hamilton Range, rather late in the year for that), and it was quite gusty, making it even harder than normal to get good flower pictures.. It seems strange to have green hills, lots of fungi, lots of toyon berries (christmas berry), and the start of wildflowers, all at once. I saw one small group of castilleja (indian paintbrush).
The only big display I saw today was on the trail out to Bobcat Point, where I saw one hillside pretty well covered with lupine. I also saw some zigadine on the same trail.
This is most of the pictures, not thoroughly culled, so take it for what it's worth.
Click on pictures for a larger image, usually around 700 pixels.
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Full size images, 5 Mpixel (2560x1920) or 7 Mpixel (3072x2304) are
available if you would like them. Taken with my Panasonic Lumix TZ3
All images Copyright © 2009 by Dave Olson unless otherwise noted.