Wildflowers in Winter - Part 2

My friend at Wildflower Morning has a new challenge for the week in her "Wildflowers in Winter" post. This time we are to post images of flowers in winter. I live in one of the few places where we actually have flowers in winter. I took my camera out yesterday afternoon and captured a few images of wildflowers growing on our property.

All the wildflowers (aka weeds when they are in my garden, but allowed to grow freely elsewhere on our five acres) I could find currently blooming were yellow which makes the cloudy, rainy days especially brighter. I have also included two images of flowers in my garden that are still blooming even at this time of year. The white flowers (2nd picture below) are Argyranthemum "Neptune." The pink flowers are Argyranthemum frutescens "Pink Elf." The yellow is Euryops, and the blue is Felicia amelloides "Blue Marguerite."Many of my flowers lie dormant at the moment, but promises of good things to come are visible. The wintering leaves of my lobelia, "Cardinal Flower" are one example.

Planting Fruit Trees

Today we started planting our orchard. We have the holes for the trees and trenches for irrigation dug, and most of our 19 fruit trees purchased. Now we have to lay the irrigation lines and plant the trees. I am looking forward to having fruit on my own trees to pick when they are ripe instead of getting green-picked fruit at the grocery store. There's nothing like freshly picked, tree-ripened fruit. Yum!

Rainbows

One of the advantages of living on a hill where we do is that we frequently see rainbows when it rains. This afternoon as the sun shone through the clouds, we saw a beautiful, complete rainbow that was even double on one end. I couldn't get the whole rainbow in the picture, but this is what one end looked like.

Tidepool Update

The ultra-low tides will soon be gone during daytime hours until late fall and winter. So we have to try to get in as many visits as possible before they are gone. Over the weekend, we had opportunity to visit again.

We found our octopus again, although this time she was very shy and reluctant to show herself and not very hungry. Perhaps she had already been fed before we got there, or perhaps she is guarding some eggs back in her lair. We suspect the second octopus we saw last time was there to breed. If indeed that is the case, she may well have some eggs, and unfortunately it also means that her days are numbered. Octopuses only breed once in their lifetime, and once the eggs hatch (about two months later), the female dies. While guarding her eggs, they typically don't eat very much, if at all. Their lifespan is only around two years or less. We'll have to wait and see what happens.

We did find two sea hares.

We also found another sea slug (navanax inermis) like the little one we found last time.

We found a shell that a lobster molted. It was amazing to see how wonderfully designed a lobster's exoskeleton is! It's perfectly designed with tiny little hairs along the joints to keep sand and other debris out so the joints move smoothly. It's also amazing how the lobster can pull itself out of the old skin without hurting itself.

Wildflowers in Winter

A friend of mine has started a "Wildfowers in Winter" project on her blog. She has invited people to put their favorite wildflower pictures on their blogs while we wait for Spring to spring.

For me, it's a little different. Winters in Southern California are my favorite time of year. The hills are finally green, the skies are clear with very little smog or haze, and temperatures are cool instead of deathly hot. So I'm not anxious for winter to end - here anyway. Having lived in the north for several years, I can relate to the longing for Spring, the browsing through flower catalogs and dreaming about what new posies I would add to my flower gardens. Here, I still have flowers blooming in my garden. But I thought I would add a few of my favorite wildflower pictures I took back in 2005 when California had so much rain everything bloomed profusely. We took a trip to Death Valley and saw the once-in-a-lifetime wildflower show. Incredible!

Gravel Ghost - Atrichoseris platyphylla
Desert gold - Gerea canescens
Purple mat - Nama demissum

Some sort of evening primrose - not sure which kind

This picture was taken in King's Canyon. I'm not sure what type of lilies these were, but they were beautiful backlit. The picture at the top of my blog was also taken in King's Canyon. The flowers are a penstamon and some sort of mustard-looking flower. Not sure of either name.