After the Rain

 

Upper Cataract Falls

I'd planned to look for interesting fungi in the area around Laurel Dell on Sunday, but Cataract Creek was going gangbusters after Saturday's rain, so I hiked a little out of my way to check out the falls. The creek that begins up by Rock Spring gets steep just past Laurel Dell, and Upper Cataract Falls is just the first of several waterfalls between this spot and the Alpine Lake reservoir. Although I was tempted to visit them all, I took in just the upper falls before heading back up the trail to look for mushrooms.

On the way I was checking out a few sprouting buckeye nuts when I spotted the biggest Helvella crispa I've ever seen. The thing was huge, and I couldn't quite tell if it was actually several stalks that had more or less fused. Unfortunately, it was weathered with age and not very photogenic (I can relate!).

When I first arrived around 9:30 a.m. I parked above Laurel Dell, pulling in next to the only other car there. I must have been in a rush to get going because I dropped my gloves, and by the time I realized my mistake I was too far down a steep hill to go back. When I returned to the car, I found that someone had stuffed them in my car's door handle (thanks!). Every parking space was filled -- including the "No Parking" space in front of the fire road access gate. The Rock Spring parking area was also overflowing, and many cars were still heading up the mountain as I headed home. It was a good day to be an early bird.

Sinuous Section

Moving Water

Mossy Boulder I
(105mm lens, 3-second exposure)

Mossy Boulder II
(50mm lens, 6/10th second exposure)

Moss Sporangia

Phone snap of some old viscid-capped, red-stemmed boletes (probably Boletus zelleri) and their little orange friends.

Two-headed Puffball

Fairy Fingers

Bay Laurel Leaves

Scarlet Cup Fungus

Cataract Creek Section #1

Cataract Creek Section #2

Cataract Creek Section #3

Cataract Creek Section #4

Here's the same section shot at 1/1000th second. 

Mountain Clouds

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King Tides

 

King High Tide at Muir Beach (7 feet)

King Low Tide at Muir Beach (-1.5 feet)

"The objective eye of science,

striving to see Nature plain,

must finally look at 'subject' and 'object'

and the very Eye that looks.

We discover that all of us

carry within us

caves,

with animals and gods on the walls;

a place of ritual and magic."

--Gary Snyder, Earth House Hold

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Making the Big Bucks

 

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Freaky Fungi

 

Psychedelic concentrics: turkey tails radiate from the wet and weathered wood of a coast live oak.

Okay, I'll admit, all fungi are pretty freaky. But in a world where our own human bellies harbor bacteria that have their own genomes and life cycles, and also have the ability to affect our moods and even make us crazy, then what isn't freaky? 

I like that of all the "mushrooms" I photographed this morning, only one looks like an actual mushroom.

I'm not even sure whether this is a cup fungus or a slime mold. I've never seen it before. [UPDATE: I believe this is Cannonball Fungus (Sphaerobolus stellatus).]

Here's a larger group of them. (As always, you can click on an image to make it bigger.)

Nearby were these Eyelash Cup Fungi, with the mellifluous scientific name of Scutellinia scutellata.

A two-headed toothed jelly fungus.

Smiling coral fungus.

Same set-up (let's call it Still Life with Coral Fungus, Lichen, Mushroom, Polypody, and Bay Laurel Leaves), but pulled back a little. I especially liked the mottled bay laurel leaves, and now that I'm home I wish I'd thought to photograph them seperately.

I've always called these fun guys Stump Bubbles, but I'm embarrassed -- nay, mortified -- to say that I've never actually tried to key them out, although I did kinda sorta think they were Psathyrella sp. I took a phone snap of them to see if my little ID app could handle them, but I wasn't sure if the app was correct -- until I also checked iNaturalist's Mt. Tamalpais collection. So it looks like they are called Common Stump Brittlestem (Psathyrella piluliformis), but I'm going to stick with stump bubbles.

I was surprised to find this bear's head fungus still going strong today. I last saw it  the last time I went up to check on my trail cams on 12/10/23.

Wow, a new year and we get bobcats galore!? I wish. This is a composite of still frames from a video clip.

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More Mendo & Bits

 

Mendocino Headlands

Something for a rainy day. A few more pix from Mendocino, plus a little urban mushroom action.

We couldn't resist pulling off the road at the Navarro Winery entrance when this rainbow appeared along Hwy. 128. The photo file info recorded this shot at 1:13 p.m. (but it was actually 12:13 p.m. since I forgot to turn off DST), which explains why the rainbow is arcing so low over the ground (high sun angle). Both ends of the bow touched the ground seemingly just a few feet in front of us, making it a piece of cake to find the treasure.

We'd never seen so many brown pelicans on the sea stacks before. We're actually more used to seeing lots of Canada geese feeding on the grassy tops, but this year there were none (and very little grass left for them to feed on). 

Along with the pelicans, a bunch of cormorants were huddled up.

Looking at sea stacks from Mendocino Headlands toward Russian Gulch State Park on one of the clear days.

Sea stack island with the Russian Gulch Bridge in the background.

View from Russian Gulch back toward Mendocino.

View from the North Trail at Russian Gulch.

The bird feeder at our cottage had probably been empty for a long time before we got there. We filled it up on day one, but the birds didn't find it until day four.

View from our kitchen window.

I was surprised to find several mushrooms growing in my pot of Coast Live Oaks, which I started from acorns collected on Mt. Tam a few years ago. I picked two of the shrooms for identification purposes before I took this picture, so it was actually a bit more crowded. I had just been looking for our cat in my neighbor's yard and found a couple of beautiful and edible blewits under his oak (which also grew from an acorn he planted in the late '60s). Unfortunately, my shrooms turned out to be Hebeloma crustuliniforme, or Poison Pie. I wonder if the spores came with the acorns themselves, since the soil came from Sloat Garden Center.

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Over Time

UCSF Demolition, 9/29/2023

UCSF Demolition, 12/22/2023

Photographs are a great memory aid, and I've always enjoyed "before and after" or "then and now" photos. A couple of things I kept track of over time as I did my city walks last year were the demolition of some old buildings at UCSF's Parnassus Heights campus, an eyesore parklet on Irving Street, and a neighborhood trash dump on Noriega Street. 

The UCSF demolition is really the only one that started out as a before-and-after. The parklet and the trash dump provided unanticipated changes.

The trash dump was actually part of a series that I posted back in May, and I never anticipated the surprise ending. 

The parklet was interesting to me because it was such an over-the-top, hideous disgrace on Irving Street. Eventually the restaurant had someone paint a mural over the graffiti. It was looking good for a while, but the muralist paused work for so long at one point that taggers eventually began to reclaim the territory.

Noriega Street Trash Dump, 1/18/2023

How to Fix a Trash Dump, 12/27/2023

Pandemic Parklet at 16th & Irving, 4/26/2023

Pandemic Parklet at 16th & Irving, 12/27/2023

Parklet gone (no parking meters yet either)! As of 4/10/2024.
[UPDATE]

Coco the Cat, 1/19/2023

Coco the Cat, 12/22/2023

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Mendo Moments

 

Sunset at Mendocino Headlands, 12/31/2023

We were lucky to get a nice mix of sun and rain the last few days. The clearing skies gave us beautiful sunsets and hiking opportunities at Jug Handle State Reserve, Russian Gulch State Park, and the Pt. Cabrillo Lighthouse, as well as around the town and headlands of Mendocino. And when we were indoors, enjoying a warm and cozy cottage, the sound of rain on the roof and skylights was music to our ears. Here's to a great year in 2024.

Mendocino Headlands, 12/30/2023

Crepuscular Rays at Sunset

Sea Stacks at the Headlands

Last Light

Last Flight

Sundown at the Headlands

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