• About
  • ART CARDS
  • THE DRAWING ROOM
  • DESIGN WORK
  • GALLERY I
    • GALLERY II
    • GALLERY III
    • GALLERY IV: THE ANCIENT PALETTE
  • Label Design

Backyardnotes

~ All things botanical in photos and words—in my West Seattle garden and elsewhere; seeing and creating art and assorted musings.

Backyardnotes

Tag Archives: Travel

SOME WINTER SUNSHINE

27 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by backyardnotes in Cameras, Desert, Flowers, Travel, Winter

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

clematis, crocus, Death Valley, hamamelis, hellebores, railroad locomotive, sunshine, Travel, winter cyclamen, winter flowers

Hiking above Texas Spring campground, Death Valley

WE TOOK A BREAK IN JANUARY IN SEARCH OF SUNSHINE and warmth. It’s hard to believe it has been more than two months since the last post! And now I’ve gotten out of the blogging habit. So time to do some catching up. We spent a total of eleven days in Death Valley over two visits, and explored some old and new territory in Arizona and California. We took ten great hikes in 30 days and plenty of short walks too. So much to see and explore…

Los Banos Reservoir walk

I’m not used to thinking of my phone as a camera, but on this trip I tried to use it as well as the point and shoot. Mixed results with the phone camera; this photo was taken at Los Banos Creek Reservoir St. Park (California) turned out pretty well. This was our first time here and we were the first visitors of the year!

Front of Death Valley railroad locomotive

I had forgotten to bring the regular camera when we walked through the Death Valley museum so used the opportunity to take some ‘arty’ photos with the phone.

Big logging wagon wheels

I managed to take more than 700! photos in 32 days and still have a lot of culling to do. Will post more later.

WHILE WE WERE AWAY the winter blooming clematis that we planted in 2010 began blooming in earnest. Masses of blooms and still blooming!

Clematis cirrohsa

Everywhere around the garden the drive to spring is in full swing.

Hamamelis x intermedia 'Diane"

A yellow variety of hamamelis x intermedia

WINTER’S SENTINELS. I like to think of crocus this way. A bridge between winter and spring. Some are sunny and cheerful, others taller and stately and in a range of colors.

Giant crocus–purple 'Pickwick' with white 'Peter Pan'.

These giant crocus are quite tall at four-five inches tall. Good multipliers, not too vigorous.

HELLEBORES! These cheerful, nodding flowers also show up in many color variations. White, pink, pale yellow, maroon, green, and nearly black. They tend to be free hybridizers so offspring can be a surprise.

An unnamed, lovely pale yellow specimen

Pink ones from Grandma T's garden

Another dark pink/red variation.

We have lots of sun over the last few days, so I’ve tried to take advantage of the naturally backlit petals.

Dried seedheads of eryngium giganteum 'Miss Wilmot's Ghost".

Even the dried seedheads of long ago bloomed perennials have interest through the winter garden season.

Lichens on ribes sanguineum.

Even the bare branches and trunks of shrubs and trees can be beautiful with the icy, glaucous color of these fluffy lichens and spots of mustard colored ones too with counterpoints of swelling buds of this native flowering red currant.

And to end this sunny day post parade are winter blooming cyclamen. I never tire of their dainty disposition.

winter blooming cyclamen

Share this:

  • LinkedIn
  • More
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Reddit
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

TWO JEWELS OF THE NATIONAL PARKS

25 Sunday Sep 2011

Posted by backyardnotes in National Parks, Travel

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

bison, camping, geysers, national parks, tetons, Travel, yellowstone

IT’S HARD TO DECIDE WHICH PART OF YELLOWSTONE IS THE MOST SPECTACULAR. Yellowstone Falls, the gem of the Yellowstone Grand Canyon has plenty of competition within the park.

To get the best view of the falls you need to walk down 300 steps (and back up!). But worth every step.

Where else can you see the vivid colors of thermal activity up close and be truly awed. This is the Prismatic pool.

Unworldly colors of bacterial mats that form in waters of 130° + in the Biscuit Geyser Basin. Most of the geysers are found in the central/west area of the park.

To the east in the Lamar Valley, we saw several large herds of bison, including this calf and his mother. A few days later on our way to Lewis Lake in the south end of the park, we had to stop while some bison crossed the road and a young calf stopped to nurse, holding up traffic. Sweet.

Yesterday morning we had our first glimpses of the Tetons. Majestic. Soaring. Awesome.

I could not resist this window display in a park store. Automatic giggles.

Share this:

  • LinkedIn
  • More
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Reddit
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

PART TWO: A LUCKY WEATHER WINDOW AT RED ROCK CANYON

26 Saturday Feb 2011

Posted by backyardnotes in Desert, Serendipity, Travel, Wildflowers

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

desert, serendipity, Travel, wildflowers

Sunrise reflecting on canyon walls in the campgroud.

HAPPENSTANCE AND SPONTANEITY ARE WONDERFUL TRAVEL COMPANIONS. It was nothing more than happenstance that we found Red Rock Canyon State Park (check the video with the link) in California on our way to Death Valley last year, so having no formal plans or time frame, we stopped for a few days before going on to Death Valley. Again this year we had warm, clear weather during the day (and 30’s overnight) and on a Wednesday, only two other campsites were occupied. As it turns out, the warm weather we experienced both trips was an anomaly. Normal temperature range for this time of year according to the park ranger, is usually is high of around 40° and low 15°! But luck was with us so we had two good days for hiking in the park.

This year we hiked over the ridge at the south end of the C.G. and west up the main wash behind the campground to its end (the cliffs just right of center in the photo above) in a box canyon. As we began our walk at the bottom of the wash we were treated to rivulets of running water that fell over a series of small falls before falling a hundred feet to a larger wash below.

Lots of colorful, sandy, eroded cliffs line the wash to the north and south. I named this area the toadstools for the way the rock has eroded. The ‘toadstools’ are more than ten feet tall.

The end of the wash or is it the beginning?

As we wandered back down the wash we did some detouring to see if we could find another way back to the campground and up and over some of the ridges. As we climbed up one small rise, Tom spotted a piece of paper rolled up and tied with ribbon snagged in a shrub. At the other end of the ribbon was torn and deflated balloon from a Red Robin restaurant (who knows where). We unrolled it to see the note:

Could it have been written around Christmas time? Sweet. Too bad Gian Marco did not include his address; we could have written to tell him where we found it. Kind of like a message in a bottle.

There were several tiny plants in bloom along the wash edges. This one I think, is mohave brevifolia, the flowers no more than three-sixteenths of an inch across.

A view to the northeast, the big wash below (where the water was headed) and amazing color and variation in the landscape beyond. Next trip we’ll hike this area. There is no end of opportunity for hiking and exploring here and this is one reason we are drawn to Red Rock Canyon. If our luck holds, next year we’ll encounter good weather too.

Share this:

  • LinkedIn
  • More
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Reddit
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

RECAPPING A FINE SUMMER, part one

06 Friday Nov 2009

Posted by backyardnotes in Travel

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

camper, Travel, tufa, Yosemite

JUNE was uncommonly dry and warm this year. I barely returned from the Washington/NYC trip to translplant tomatoes, peppers, melons and more lettuce when we departed to Oregon to pick up the new camper in Albany, Oregon. It is a pop-top slide in camper so it has a low profile. We started with a half-ton truck but in July traded it in for a heavy duty three-quarter ton truck to better carry the load.

Camper_1

camper_2

Our first trip with the new set-up was to Yosemite National Park. Neither one of us had been there so it was a new adventure. I would say that everything I have ever read or seen about the park is true. It is spectacular in just about every sense. Overwhelmingly vast, geologically stunning and beyond human scale. In early/mid-June the park was not overcrowded, but the park campgrounds were full or reserved so we had to stay in a forest service campground about 8 miles outside the park. On the way into the park on the first day we pulled over to take in a view of the canyon walls rising up from the Merced River and this tree was growing alongside the rock wall of the pullout on Big Oak Flat Road.

Torreya californica

It was baffling; flat needles like any coniferous tree, but instead of a cone there was a nut. And, because I have to know the answer I searched the books in the visitor center until I found out what it was; Torreya californica, also known as California Nutmeg. This tree is a species endemic to the western slopes of the Cascade-Sierras and Coast Range Mountains of Northern California; not uncommon, but not abundant. I just found out about The Sibley Guide to Trees so it may have to join my traveling hort library.

After looking down into the Merced River canyon we traveled on into the valley, our first views of  El Capitan and Bridal Veil and Yosemite falls opened ahead of us. All breathtaking for their sheer size. We spent all day in the park. The continuous shuttles make it easy to get around. We took the short walk to Mirror Lake where we sat and ate our lunch and then walked to Ahwahnee lodge.On the walk from Mirror Lake we spotted the last few blooms of Mariposa lilies and the leaves of Asarum,  a native wild ginger and finally Asclepias californica (I think) also known as milkweed or butterfly weed.

mariposa

asarum

asclepias

The lodge is beautifully restored and like all early national park lodges, massive in scale and use of local materials. Early June seems a pretty good time to visit and we didn’t feel overwhelmed by large crowds everywhere and the weather is fair.

The following day we had planned to hike off of the Tioga Road, but extremely cool weather and forecast snow kept us mostly in the truck and stopping for the big views, most notably Olmstead Point which looks back south towards the valley and Half Dome where we glimpsed a long line of hikers along the cable trail. We drove east through the park and down into the Mono Basin and then to Mono Lake. Another place of  unusual geographic features created by the interaction of two forces, high alkalinity and fresh water springs that created the tufa spires. Also home to largest numbers of nesting California Gulls. We saw quite a few birds species and a couple pairs of osprey nesting on some of  the tufa spires–quite safe from predators.

tufa

The temperature at Mono Lake was a comfortable 60 degrees when we left the lake and fifteen minutes later we were at the Tioga Pass entrance to the park and the temperature was 38 and we saw hail, snow and rain on the road back to the Big Oak Flat entrance to the park. We headed back towards home the following day by way of Woodson Bridge state recreation area on the Sacremento River, just east of Corning, CA. We stayed 3 nights. It is a lovely, quiet park and a bird watchers paradise. On one of our morning walks we saw a pair of fledged Great Horned owls –very exciting! This park was one of many on the closure list due to California’s massive budget problems; say it ain’t so. We plan to go back to Yosemite and spend more time exploring and include Sequoia Kings Canyon in the trip.

Share this:

  • LinkedIn
  • More
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Reddit
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

Archives

Recent Posts

  • OUT WITH THE OLD POND, IN WITH THE NEW WATER FEATURE
  • WINNING SUBMISSION AND NEW DIRECTIONS
  • WHISPERS OF SPRING
  • NOT EXACTLY CANNING…
  • A GIFT OF WINTER APPLES

Art

  • ABC Typography
  • Annerose Georgeson
  • ArtPlantae Today
  • Drawing in Color
  • Fonts
  • Gage Academy of Art
  • Kapitza
  • Kathleen McKeehen
  • Katie Lee
  • Late Start Studio
  • New York Central Art Supply
  • Painting of the day
  • PastelPointers blog
  • The Postman's Knock
  • Wagonized
  • Wordle

Birds

  • Bird Note

Blogroll

  • A Gardener's Table
  • A Way to Garden
  • Annerose Georgeson
  • Backyardnotes\’s Blog
  • cold climate gardening
  • Homeward Bounty
  • The Fresh Loaf
  • West Seattle Blog
  • West Seattle Herald
  • WordPress.com
  • WordPress.org

Bugs!

  • BugGuide
  • What's that bug?

Butterflies

  • North American Butterfly Association

Canning & Preserving

  • A Gardener's Table
  • Canning Across America
  • Fermentista
  • Food in Jars
  • National Center for Home Food Preservation
  • Phickle.com
  • Well Preserved

Creative & Handmade

  • Aunt Peaches
  • BackyardDesigns
  • RedClothespin
  • Whirlygig Fashion

Design

  • ABC Typography
  • Before and After Magazine
  • Clients from Hell
  • Communication Arts
  • Font Bros.
  • Fonts
  • Kapitza
  • My Fonts
  • The Graphics Fairy
  • The Postman's Knock
  • Typographica.org
  • Wordle

Font Love!

  • Emigre
  • Font Bros.
  • Fonts
  • Hoefler & Co. Typography
  • Kapitza
  • My Fonts
  • The Postman's Knock
  • Typographica.org
  • Wordle

Food & Drink

  • David Lebovitz
  • Indian Simmer
  • Jeffrey Morgenthaler
  • Punk Domestics
  • Rose Levy Beranbaum
  • Serious Eats
  • Tapas Bonitas
  • The British Larder

Gardening

  • A Gardener's Table
  • cold climate gardening
  • Cornell Plant Pathology Vegetable Disease Web Page
  • Hellebores
  • Hosta library
  • Johnny's Seeds
  • Naylor Creek Gardens
  • North American Butterfly Association
  • Not Dabbling In Normal
  • Territorial Seed Company
  • Wells Medina Nursery
  • West Seattle Nursery
  • What's that bug?

Inspiration

  • Toom-ah? What Stinkin' toomah?

It's About Life

  • Toom-ah? What Stinkin' toomah?

Let's Eat!

  • Anson Mills
  • Five and Spice
  • food52
  • Northwest Sourdough
  • The Artisan
  • The British Larder
  • The Cook's Thesaurus
  • The Fresh Loaf
  • Wild Yeast

Painting & Drawing

  • Annerose Georgeson
  • ArtPlantae Today
  • Draw a stickman
  • Drawing in Color
  • Gage Academy of Art
  • Kathleen McKeehen
  • Katie Lee
  • Painting of the day
  • PastelPointers blog
  • Wagonized

Plant love

  • Flower World
  • Hellebores
  • Hosta library
  • Naylor Creek Gardens
  • USDA Plants database
  • Wells Medina Nursery
  • West Seattle Nursery

Shops

  • BackyardDesigns
  • RedClothespin
  • Whirlygig Fashion

Vegetables

  • Johnny's Seeds
  • Territorial Seed Company

West Seattle

  • West Seattle Blog
  • West Seattle Herald

Categories

Blogs I Follow

  • grow it cook it can it
  • Red Road Diaries
  • A Gardener's Table
  • Backyardnotes
  • WordPress.com

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 64 other subscribers

apples Art birds black radish brussels sprouts cabbage camelias camping canning clematis compost cranberries crocus dahlias Daikon radish Death Valley desert Drawing fall fava beans food friendship gardening Gardening garlic hamamelis harvest hellebores herbs hiking hostas iris lavender mangoes mixed media mustard greens narcissus nature New Orleans nicandra painting pears peas peonies peppers pesto Pickled asparagus pickles pickling planting plants poetry poetry exchange poppies preserving Radishes rain roses Sandhill Cranes seedlings Sisters snow Spring Spring flowers sunshine tetons tomatoes Travel trillium tulips vegetable garden volunteer plants volunteer seedlings wildflowers winter cyclamen winter flowers

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 64 other subscribers

April flowers Art Canning & Preserving Cooking & Eating Fall Flowers Fun in the Garden Growing Harvest Inspriation Jellies & Preserves March flowers Spring Spring bulbs Spring flowers Summer! Tomatoes Travel tulips Uncategorized Vegetable garden Weather West Seattle garden Winter Winter flowers

No Instagram images were found.

BYN_IG

No Instagram images were found.

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

grow it cook it can it

Red Road Diaries

Musings from the back roads

A Gardener's Table

Celebrating the Harvest

Backyardnotes

All things botanical in photos and words—in my West Seattle garden and elsewhere; seeing and creating art and assorted musings.

WordPress.com

WordPress.com is the best place for your personal blog or business site.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • Backyardnotes
    • Join 64 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Backyardnotes
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: