Early summer outings

It is easy to forget that summer is here when you work on or near the ocean in much of northern California. "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco" is a pretty apt description of the temperature differential between inland locales and the coast. This year, June Gloom has been in full swing thanks to the heavy fog that blankets the coast most days. Pete has been wearing a rain coat when he bikes to work in the mornings because the fog is so thick and wet. The fog tends to burn off by midday, giving way to warm summer days. The garden seems to be thriving in the morning fog and afternoon sun rotation, with the plants seemingly doubling in size between the time I leave Monday morning and return home Thursday night. 

Our new hive of bees is also benefiting from the rapid vegetation growth all around. They were a little slow to find the nectar and pollen sources, but in our hive check today we saw quite a bit more pollen stores than we had seen a couple weeks ago. We have not been super impressed with this batch of bees. They are, by far, the laziest hive of bees we have had, so it is nice to see that the girls are actually starting to put up some food stores and generally figuring out how to be industrious bees.

a bit of capped honey at the top of the frame
and some capped brood in the middle

The conditions this year have also been good for an infrequent bloomer at the UCSC arboretum. The puya is a native to the Andes Mountains in South America. It is in the bromeliad family and is the only species that grows in the ground instead of on other plants. The plants tend to bloom only once in their lifetime and can take up to ten years to bloom. The plant is about 6 feet tall and the flower spike is another 4-5 feet tall. It is a pretty impressive plant. The color of the blooms is also incredibly beautiful and like nothing else I have ever seen. The arboretum is also a great place for watching (and getting buzzed by) hummingbirds, and they did not disappoint that day. 

 Pete's favorite - the California quail

Anna's hummingbird

Last weekend we headed out for another camping trip in the Wish 5. The Los Padres National Forest is a vast stretch of public land that stretches from Monterey to Ventura. We've spend a lot of time on the western side of the forest along Big Sur, but have not explored the eastern side of the range much at all. Some friends pointed us in the direction of some good campsites and we were off. The eastern side of the coastal range is significantly warmer than the western side, so we were quite happy to find a camp site close to a small creek with lots of shade and some good swimming holes. There are some neat rock formations in the area that seem to be of a similar origin to the rocks at Pinnacles National Park where we hiked earlier in the spring. The camping spots in the area are all unimproved so we had to bring in everything we needed for a couple of days. We have a new list of improvements to make the Wish a better platform for that kind of camping. Given the demand for improved sites nearby, this place will be a good option for future trips close to home.

 there were at least five different kinds of dragonflies - so lovely!

lots of mating pairs too

and an otherworldly molt from the nymph stage

bouldery Santa Lucia Creek

cool sycamore trees in improbable locations

yucca blooms

there were tons of clarkia blooming everywhere

We had to ford this stream - a first for the Wish 5

By the time we finished hiking around on the rocks, the temperature was rocketing towards 100 degrees. We started our drive home and stopped at the Mission San Antonio de Padua, the third mission established by the Spanish Franciscan order as they moved their way north through California in the late 1700s. This is one of the few missions where no town grew up around it. The closest sizable town is about 30 miles away. As a result, the Mission has been struggling to stay in existence since the early 1900s.

Father Junipera Serra, founder of the California Missions

I had never seen this before - the cattle brands for
many of the Missions. Notice any similarities between the Mission
San Diego brand (upper left) and the San Diego Padres logo?