What a whirlwind celebration! Sketchbook Revival (SR) 2025 Binge Fest was so much fun. And Wow! Two jam packed weeks of creativity was over in the blink of an eye!
Karen Abend, SR creator, host extraordinaire, and wonderful artist, came up with a brilliant idea for the SR 2025 session. I would swear the creative gears inside her head were spinning with delight as she declared, “Yureka! I’ve got it!”
Beginning on May 27th thru June 9th, Karen generously opened up the SR historic vault and set free all of the workshops conducted the first 5 years of SR (2018-2022)! That unbelievable offering came to more than 130 one-hour-long workshops of inspiring, hands-on, and creative play time all instructed by well-known experts in artistic fields associated with Sketchbook Journaling.
Challenge presented ……. Challenge accepted.
Since I’ve been participating in SR each year since 2018, and attended most of these workshops in the past, my goals and strategies to tackle the challenge were these:
Complete a minimum of 4 workshops daily;
Two workshops should involve a project outside of my comfort zone, such as portrait drawing, fantasy, word play, collage, and properly stitching my own SR sketchbook so it wouldn’t fall apart during the 2-week challenge, etc.;
Two workshops should involve projects within my comfort zone, such nature subjects, urban sketching, whimsey, and lettering, and those using watercolor pencils, graphite, and ink;
Develop fresh, interesting, and imaginative sketches during the workshops;
Allow Flambé to play along;
Slow down, breathe, and enjoy the 2-week marathon without becoming overwhelmed;
Recognize and gather take-away tips and techniques to bring into my Nature Journaling practice and Zentangle storytelling.
Keep sketching and sharing.
After two weeks of play, I was able to fill up my handmade and successfully stitched SR 2025 sketchbook! With a total of 46 pages completed (doubling up workshop projects on a handful of pages), including several pockets with inserts, I was pretty happy (and a bit exhausted).
If you’ve participated in SR in the past, or maybe took on the 2025 challenge as your first time, you know how intense (in an exhilarating way) it can become. If not, and would like to learn more, check out this link
This link will take you to Karen Abend’s website where you can ask for more information about Sketchbook Revival. https://karenabend.com
Hope my collection made you smile and laugh! I certainly got a kick out of the experience.
Well, until Sketchbook Revival next year, thanks for coming along!
Front and back of the concertina book that tucks into the pocket above.My hand sewn, one signature SR 2025 Sketchbook.
Such an awesome-inspiring place to spend a Spring week in New Mexico!
Three of the five big boys! Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep.
Rio Grande del Norte National Monument …..
comprises a breathtaking 245,000 acre area of the northern Rio Grande rift valley in north central New Mexico. Established as a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) national monument in 2013, the rugged wide-open plains average 7,000 feet in elevation before dropping into steep narrow canyons carved into the landscape by rivers that have been flowing for millennia.
The confluence of two of these rivers, the Rio Grande and the Red River, occurs in the northern Wild Rivers area of the Monument. It’s at this confluence where the gorge is its deepest at 800 feet, and its widest from rim to rim measuring 3/4 mile. It’s an impressive view from the la Junta (“the Meeting”) Overlook. All of the views from anywhere along the rim are impressive.
We backed our RV (‘Felix’) into what must’ve been the best designated camping site ever ….. #9 on the southern loop in Big Arsenic Springs Campground. After setting up, we discovered that Felix rested only a few steps west was the rim and the long plunge down to the Rio Grande! But immediately south of us, the rim formed a small peninsula where nearly every afternoon I could be found sketching the plants growing from the basalt cliffs, or the swifts and turkey vultures soaring along the cliffs and over the river aided by the canyon’s updrafts. This skinny little peninsula quickly became my favorite sit spot; then late one morning it became priceless …….
Can you spot our RV? We were precariously perched above the Rio Grande, right on the rim of the gorge!
I could hear them approaching, like a swarm of bees. In a matter of seconds I was witnessing a cacophonous chorus of 100’s of pinyon jays. These noisy birds quickly moved in and onward while descending, like they were famished, on this year’s piñon pine cone-laden trees in large erratic groups, all the while screaming, “Hurry, Hurry, Hurry, Hurry!” Where exactly they came from or where they went remains a mystery. All I know was the spectacle must’ve lasted a good 10 minutes or more, as I watched wave after wave of these birds pass by. I still get goosebumps (jaybumps?) recalling those exciting moments.
We had planned to spend only one day camping in the Monument, but every morning we decided to stay at least another and then another day. We hiked every rim and interior trail (sometimes more than once), spent hours at all of the Overlooks getting ‘High on the Views,” were thrilled with our chance encounters of five (5) Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep rams (twice in one day), and marveled at how the forces of nature* collaborated to carve the narrow and steep 800 foot deep gorge within the Monument.
But alas, it became time to pack up our home away from home. Even tho a string of completely clear days allowed sun to shine on our solar panels from sunup to sundown, keeping Felix’s battery purring happily our entire stay, it did nothing to recharge our potable water tank. So the morning we found the water indicator light teetering on ‘Empty,’ was the day we headed for home (after enjoying a farewell hike, of course) with my nature journal full of sketches and memories for a lifetime!
Do you have an especially special place where you can spend time in nature? Please share your discovery and what makes it so awesome!
As always, thanks for stopping by!
*Geology 101
From the overlooks throughout the Monument, we could see stacks and stacks of basalt and ash lining the narrow canyon walls of the Rio Grande Gorge. It’s hard to imagine the volume of material deposited during two very active periods of volcanic activity that occurred 5 and 3 million years ago. Soon after these events, water moving through the major drainage in the area (today’s Red River) began eroding pathways into these deposits as it flowed downstream into the 10-16 million year old rift valley. Geologists refer to the ancient Red River drainage as the ‘original Rio Grande’ because the still-closed San Luis Basin to the north (in south central Colorado) would not overflow for a few million years. Then 400,000 years ago, coinciding with a change in climate resulting in an overabundance of snow and rain, the San Luis Basin filled and spilled. As water does so well, this new and powerful river, today’s Rio Grande, moved ‘downhill’ towards the ‘original Rio Grande’, cutting through everything in its path (including the ancient volcanic deposits). When it converged with the ‘original Rio Grande,’ the erosive force of both rivers became enough to eventually carve out an 800-foot deep gorge in the Rift.
Confluence of the Rio Grande and Red RiverSunset on basalt cliff
On a warm Spring morning, wandering around a grove of American Sycamore, I became curious about these magnificent trees: where in the US are they native; why are some leaves larger than the palm of my hand and some half the size; what about those odd pingpong sized seedballs lying on the ground everywhere you look ….. why don’t they roll away in search of an ideal spot to pop open so the seeds can germinate …… when the seedballs are kicked, stepped on or crushed beneath a car tire, do the 1,000’s of seeds inside blow away to sprout ….. are the seeds (all or some of them) even viable ….. do the seedballs make a good ink or dye or maybe they’re edible or even medicinal……. what, if any wildlife species eat the seedballs or seeds; and ooooohhhhhhh, sycamore bark! Why does this tree’s bark flaunt a pastel palette of greens, yellows and pinks. These and many more questions came to mind that it seemed about time the American Sycamore became a subject for my nature journal, until ……………..
There! In the tree above my head, I spotted a most curious thing. Parting a few of that sycamore’s beautiful Spring green palmate-shaped leaves was a bundle of dead brown and beige leafy bits and sticks all haphazardly glued together. Wishing to get a closer look at that elongated ornament shaped “thing,” I found it was securely suspended from a branch. Trying to puzzle out this fascinating mystery while searching for my pen knife, a stiff breeze blew through the tree. It was then a I noticed hundreds of those 2-3” long bundles all over the tree; from the base to its crown!
Curiosity is the Essence of Nature Journaling
What continues to draw me to nature and nature journaling after so many years are the surprises in the familiar and in the unknown. I know well enough that new encounters in nature are infinite; you just have to open your eyes and look. Having learned by carefully observing what appears to be familiar, often leads to new discoveries. That’s when my curiosity kicks into high gear ….. when it’s time to engage in some serious poking around to figure something out; to learn what the “thing” is.
Curiosity, for me, is the very heart and soul of nature journaling. The ‘art’ of curiosity even precedes skill in observation. It’s what drives me out the door in the morning and fuels my exploration. Curiosity fills the mind with countless questions if for no other reason but to develop a deeper understanding of the natural world.
But I “wax philosophical.” Needless to say, my curious discovery on that warm and breezy Spring morning prompted an abrupt change of mind for my next blog post (this post). Anxious to learn about the “thing” suspended from a tree branch, probably minding its own business, I proceeded to cut it down (along with two more) and popped them in a bag along with a few sycamore leaves and seedballs.
Later that same day …….
Upon completing my journal sketches of sycamore leaves and seedballs, and posting a few photos to iNaturalist for an initial ID, it was time to take a closer look at my discovery. Reaching into the bag for one of the “things” (wiping my hand free of spider webbing?), I placed it on my examination table surrounded by several hand lenses, a larger magnifying glass, a penknife, and 2 pairs of tweezers. Before beginning the dissection, I noticed about a dozen black pepper-sized bits moving about the “thing.” Thinking tiny spiders had come from the bag, I didn’t give them a second thought (should’ve been curious!).
This bagworm bag was the subject of my dissection. Notice the pepper-sized black dots next to the bag ….. those are wiggling 1st instar larva.
iNaturalist ID Pick :::::::::::::: BAGWORM MOTH ::::::::::::::: iNaturalist ID Pick
(awaiting genus/species ID)
A Bagworm Moth!
How cool is that!?!
The opened bag of a female Bagworm moth. She’s very dead, but her progeny are escaping as fast as they can.
Dissection resumes ……
After finding out the “thing” I’ve been pondering over is the Bag of a bagwormmoth, I learned the Bag was built during last Spring, Summer and Fall by either a male or female bagworm moth. If a male, the Bag would be empty; if a female, the Bag would contain her remains …. she would’ve died last fall after a male fertilized 500-1,000+ eggs she overwintered inside her body until Spring when newly-hatched larvae would emerge from the bottom of the Bag and begin the species’ life cycle all over again.
The Bag, that took about 10 minutes and all my dissection tools to open, contained the black and mushy remains of a female and 100’s of wiggling/dancing larvae! They were on the move; escaping from the now wide open Bag, and quickly covering my examination table like a pepper grinder out of control.
And my effort to open the Bag? This made sense after reading about the high tensile strength of the silk they produce. These thin strands of silk, 10x stronger than that produced by silkworms, is used in abundance to construct their Bags.
The coolest thing ever! Notice the either late 2nd or early 3rd instar larva, no longer naked, but swaddled in very chewed up leafy bits glued together with strong silk. This dude was hiking up a sycamore branch, continually chewing, wiggling, and gluing.
After disposing of all the naked 1st instar larvae waggling and dancing across my examination table, I placed the dissected Bag, the two whole Bags, and collected leaf material into a clear plastic ziplock to observe what would happen. Over 10 days, the number of larvae multiplied and the naked 1st instar caterpillars grew in size (at least to 2nd instar) while building their individual Bags from tiny bits of leaf litter! Their wiggling dance seemed to be the way their silk strands wrapped and secured leafy bits around their bodies. It’s been fun to watch all the activity.
Have you ever encountered one or more of the 1,350+ species of bagworm moths? What materials were their Bags made from? Please share your experience with these fascinating members of the butterfly/moth family of insects.
A selection of basal rosettes that popped out of the ground this Spring.
Have you ever noticed a dandelion? Oh sure …… you’ve seen hundreds, probably thousands of those ubiquitous sunburst yellow flowers blanketing a lawn or brightening an abandoned field. But before all that brilliance magically appears, have you ever looked below all those flower stalks? Have you ever noticed a dandelion before it blooms?
It’s early Spring in the mountainous areas of central New Mexico, and it seems like the high desert is slow to bloom this year. Anxious to spot even a hint of green during this transition time is always challenging, but if you look closely …….. Tucked beneath dry grasses and piled-high tumbleweed skeletons wedged next to swelling cholla you’ll find the green. Clusters of new leaves hugging the ground no more than an inch high, are beautifully arranged in a circular pattern like the unfolding petals of a rose.
Rosettes!
Rosette arrangements are found throughout nature,1 but in the flowering plants they are particularly common in the following families: Asteraceae (like dandelions), Brassicaceae (like cabbage), and Bromeliaceae (like pineapple). Many other families display the rosette morphology too. The needle sharp leaves of yucca and the bayonet-shaped leaves of century plant (in the Agave family) form tall rosettes. The intricate leaves of wild spring parsley (a tiny member of the Parsley family) and the petite red-stemmed stork’s bill (Geranium family) both form ground-hugging rosettes.
A century plant displaying a beautiful basal rosette.
Where Rosettes Form
Basal Rosettes grow close to the soil at or near the plant’s crown (the thick part of the stem where the roots attach). Their structure is an example of a modified stem in which the internode gaps between the leaves do not expand, ensuring all the leaves stay tightly bunched together and at a similar height. A protective function of a basal rosette makes it hard to pull from the ground; the leaves come away easily while the taproot is left intact (have you ever tried to pull a dandelion without snapping off the root?). Generally speaking, basal rosettes improve a plant’s odds at survival. For example, overwintering rosettes, like the basal leafy growth produced in year #1 of the 2-year life span of giant mullein, protect the plant and its roots from extreme cold temperatures. Emerging Spring rosettes, like those found in long-stemmed poppy, also protect the plant from late winter frosts. Basal rosettes are also more protected from changes in microclimate, gravity, wind, browsing, and mechanical damage if they are closer to the ground than tall leafy stems would be. help in water balance and conservation, especially important during periods of drought.
Lichen that has form small rosettes on rock.
But don’t only look down. Another form of rosette occurs when the internodes (those areas between leaves) along a stem are shortened, bringing leaves closer together as in lettuce and some succulents.2. And although not as common as basal rosettes, some plants form rosettes at the terminal or top end of their often naked stems, branches, or even trunks. One plant that does this is the native sedum called wild stonecrop. The top of the plant stems usually terminate in whorls or three fleshy leaves. Another example is the Hawaiian screwpine, which has a terminal rosette of sword-shaped leaves which sits atop an erect trunk, often supported by prop roots.
Know Your Local Rosettes
A number of desirable and undesirable (weedy) plant species produce rosettes, particularly basal rosettes. Being able to identify a species that pops up in the Spring by its rosette is so helpful in preventing a removal mistake by inadvertently digging them up. Many weedy, non-native plants gaze first at their world through rosette “eyes.” But not all plants with rosettes are undesirable. Do you know your local rosettes by their other names?
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1Rosettes are found throughout nature, not just in the flowering plants. Here’s some examples you may have seen or heard of:
In bryophytes and algae, a rosette results from the repeated branching of the thallusas grown by plant, resulting in a circular outline. Lichens also grow rosettes.
Tiny wasps and midges can induce the development of galls that become leafy rosettes.
Jaguars, leopards and other feline species display rose-like markings on their fur, referred to as rosettes.
Malaria parasites are known to form spontaneous rosettes in uninfected red blood cells.
Neural rosettes in the human brain are being studied to learn how new cells are born.
It is unknown why the Rosette-Nosed Pygmy chameleon, at home in the mountains of Tanzania, has evolved a distinctive, rosette-shaped, fleshy protrusion on the end of its nose.
The Rosette nebula, named for its rosette-like appearance, is a beautiful collection of gas and dust 5,200 light-years from Earth in the constellation Monoceros the Unicorn, and stretches about 130 light-years across.
A gorgeous lichen decorated rock from Colorado. Note the rosette patterns of growth (the thallus)
2 The horticultural definition of a succulent describes a drought-resistant plant where the leaves, stems, or roots have become fleshy and their tissues are able to store water. Succulents include aloe, euphorbia, sedum, the garden favorite hen-and-chicks, and bromeliads. But horticulturalists do not include cacti in the succulent group. huh? Even though cacti are frequently found in books describing succulents based the definition of a succulent, succulents are not cacti. In agreement with that last statement are many botanical and other scientific experts. (Can this get any more confusing?). So basically some experts are lumpers, while other are splitters. Which are you?
Basal rosette of a yucca in the NM foothills.
P.S. Cacti have stems that are thickened fleshy water-storing structures, and are considered to be a stem-succulent group of plants. Are there any cacti species that develop leafy rosettes? Because the spines are the leaves, greatly modified, in all my rabbit-trailing thru the internet and perusal of my collection of botanical references I’ve yet to see any spines forming whorled/rosette-like patterns. If you have, please contact me immediately!
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Are you ready to explore the wide diversity of rosette forming plants in your neighborhood? Get on out there before those circularly-arranged leaves become disguised by an overabundance of gorgeous wildflowers!
As always, thanks for stopping by! And Happy Earth Day (week)!
When the urge to nature journal is too hard to resist, but everything around you is still brown, crispy and covered in dust, I begin looking for any curious phenomena suitable for rabbit trailing (even rabbit tracks work!). The other day while hiking a steep hill, I was looking for sign the oaks were close to breaking bud. Spotting a string of little dark red beady objects lining many of the mostly leafless stems of am oak was certainly encouraging. From a distance they appeared to be swelling leaf buds; at least their color seemed right. But an up-close inspection revealed my hopeful find as last December’s vacated “homes” occupied by oak gall wasp larvae. Having never seen this species of stem gall before, naturally this would be a perfect most curious phenomenon to tackle. And that’s just what I did!
The Honeydew Gall-Wasp Gall
Arriving back home with a small collection of oak stems crowded with tightly packed galls (resembling miniature bread loaves), my work began. Assuming the host oak was a Gambel’s (Quercus gambelii), I began my search of stems galls on that species. Carefully scouring the literature the genus appeared to be Disholcaspis, but none of the species seemed a good match. So after many days in quandary, I consulted my favorite oak gall ID specialist, firing off a lot of questions, written descriptions and photos. Patiently awaiting his reply, I continued to find more resources to review. Gall wasps have a complex life cycle, and their galls are a challenge to identify.
After 2 weeks a welcome reply arrived from the specialist. Boy did I feel silly, knowing I should’ve known better! The oak host was not a Gambel’s but a cross between Gambel’s and Shrub Live Oak (Q. turbinella) which produces a hybrid called Wavyleaf oak (Quercus x undulata). Correcting my mistake was key to identifying the stem gall! Picky little wasps, huh? Happy the specialist agreed the genus is Disholcaspis, the obvious species responsible for the gall was turned out to be D. spissa; the Honeydew Gall-Wasp ….. making my discovery the Honeydew Gall-Wasp Gall!
Lesson Relearned
When nature journaling, despite how excited you may be to find answers, it’s always, always best to slow down, breathe, carefully observe, ponder, question, make connections, and enjoy the journey ahead of the destination!
Some Gall Descriptions and A Prize!
Outside appearance: Young galls of this wasp are yellowish and hairy. Mature galls have beige-brown to weathered grey sides, are black on top, and have a dull matte surface. They can have a round to ovoid to a rectangular ‘bread-loaf’ like shape. Texture appears mealy-granular. Galls sit snugly directly on the stems (sessile), and singly or in clusters of long compact chains that form all around the stems of host oak species.
Inside the gall and back outside again: Each gall has one thin walled cell or chamber (known as monothalamous) that sits above the bottom of the gall. This is the larval chamber and is imbedded in dense cellular tissue that becomes a pulpy flesh with age. While the larvae are actively feeding and growing, they produce a copious amount of sticky-sweet honeydew that accumulates on the top of the gall. All of this honeydew attracts hordes of hungry ants and yellowjackets. The ecological importance of these secretions is unmistakeable; it provides a high energy food source for the insects. And while the ants and yellowjackets feed, they inadvertently protect the gall, like little bodyguards, from parasites and predators intent on infecting or eating the growing larvae inside. And another interesting ecological thing ….. the reason the tops of the galls are black and not the same color as their sides, has to do with a fungus called black sooty mold. The sugary secretions produced by the larvae accumulate in quantities too irresistible to the sooty mold. Colonies of the fungus develop rapidly on the honeydew giving the gall tops a dusty or powdery black color. So honeydew is the perfect medium for black sooty mold to complete its life cycle.
What about that Prize? Read on to learn more! Close-up inspection of the galls I collected, and there were about 25, revealed all but one had a single exit hole in a side just below its crusty red-black top. I learned the adult wasps emerge from these stem galls by late December; sometimes waiting for warmish temps until mid January. What happened to the adult wasps in the one gall without an exit hole? Because the gall had a sooty top, implying the larvae had been eating, growing and secreting honeydew, maybe the larvae died at some point or failed to develop into an adult? Had to know! Cutting the gall to find out wasn’t easy. The outer crust fell away first, then using steady knife pressure on the punky innards, the gall popped open, like a box of ‘Cracker Jacks!’ And there, near the bottom of the package, was a single sealed chamber. Carefully I was able to tease out the contents with fine pointed tweezers until out blurped the Prize! An intact cream colored gooey looking larvae, followed by a small puddle of viscous liquid. Even though the larvae filled up most of the chamber, there wasn’t any sign it was alive. And after an hour, when there still wasn’t any movement …. well, darn, I felt he must’ve died sometime before morphing into adult form. But peeking inside the gall did answer the question about the absence of an exterior exit hole.
And now an interesting note about these types of cynipid oak gall wasps: On my diagram, I used the term ‘agamic’ which is a formal label included with the genus/species name (i.e. Disholcaspis spissa ‘agamic’). This means these wasps have an asexual all female population that emerges from galls in late fall/early winter to lay fertilized eggs without needing to mate with males. Then a bisexual generation follows where adults emerge from galls in late winter/spring/early summer. This is the typical 2 generation annual life cycle of cynipid gall wasps, where the galls developed from each generation usually look very different and even occur on different parts of the host plant (on stems vs leaves). It’s interesting that nothing is known about the bisexual generation of D. spissa, but the asexual generation is common, well documented and abundant.
Known host oak species for D. spissa: Look for these galls on Shrub live oak (Quercusturbinella), Wavyleaf oak (Quercus x undulata), Mexican blue oak (Q. oblongifolia), Arizona white oak (Q. arizonica), and Shinnery oak (Q. havardi).
Hope you found my post interesting. Have you ever been curious enough about plant galls to look inside? Recalling the first time I saw a gall, I had no clue what it was and why it was precariously clinging to a plant leaf. It was round and hard, and reminded me of a tiny rusty red ping-pong ball. Was there something inside? Would it be squishy, alive, have teeth and bite, or perhaps whatever it was was dead and oh so smelly? Maybe it was some weird kind of flower bud, or a fruit lost under the leaf? Despite being a bit nervous, I needed to know what, if anything was inside. So I cut it in half, and in the center of the ball, suspended on hundreds of delicate threads, was a tiny, wormy creature twisting and turning and wriggling to music only it could hear! That was over 45 years ago, and to this day I still find galls irresistible!
As always, thanks for stopping by!
A Few References
Russo, Ronald A.: (2021) Plant Galls of the Western United States, section on tree galls; oak galls of the SW, page 173.
Oops! I was caught without my sketchbook ….. but that didn’t prevent me from making a few interesting collections while waiting for a ride.
My curiosity unleashed, I began by wondering what voracious insect(s) tried to eat 1000x their weight in fresh cottonwood leaves. Then I noticed a very lovely leafy tree growing next to a stately pine, both of which were mysteries to me.
So I spent this afternoon sketching, painting, and looking over ID and reference materials, as much fun as collecting my three parking lot treasures!
If you find yourself “waiting,” how do you pass the time?
After a longer than planned for blog break, I’m glad to be back and sharing a few pages from my nature journal. Beginning in April, the riot of wildflowers popping up everywhere has, and still keeps me scurrying about my backyard, the “back 40,” and local hiking trails just to refresh my memory about familiar plant species while searching for new discoveries. I’ve been sketching daily, learning about new-to-me plants, and growing my knowledge about favorites.
Recording first seasonal sightings, it’s interesting to compare previous years’ emergence and abundance, and wonder why timings vary. For example, last year the white-stemmed evening primrose (Oenotheraalbicaulis) blanketed the hillsides with white; this year those beautiful white blooms have been scarce. Last year the tall crowded flower stems of White Point-Vetch (Oxytropis sericea) were few and far between. This year an explosion of these graceful plants that belong in the pea family (Fabaceae) began blooming in April and are still going strong!
White Point-Vetch, also called white locoweed, whitepoint crazyweed, and silky crazyweed, makes a striking bouquet that glows like a bright light as it blooms along tall flower stalks 15+ inches above bare brown ground. New stems push up through multiple dried stems packed with last year’s empty seedpods. But it’s obvious this species is an aggressive re-seeder; there are so many new plants this year where last year there were none!
It’s been a spectacular show!
Enjoying researching this species, dissecting a few fresh flowers, and searching for remnant seeds in the dried pods, kept me delving deep into the bits and pieces of what defines this group of plants. This large family, which houses well over 10,000 species world-wide, includes peas, acacias, mimosas, and licorice (see the list below for more residents).
The dried stem was drawn and shaded in graphite.
But one species at a time, please! Actually the locoweeds, which fall into the genera Oxytropis (like the White Point-Vetch) and Astragalus, contain over 600 species world-wide, 21 of which grow in the U.S. Many plants in these two genera are toxic, particularly to domestic ungulates. More about the toxin and what happens when these animals ingest even small quantities, along with other interesting facts are described on my two journal pages. ……
There is so much more to learn about this important family of plants, but I’ll save that for another post.
Thanks for stopping by and have a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend!
Thanks for stopping by …… have a safe and happy Happy Memorial Day!
It’s Spring in my neighborhood, and not a day too soon!! Along with gusty winds carrying clouds of yellow pollen come drifts of an outrageously bright yellow ‘sunflower’ named Perky Sue.
How Perky Sue got its common name is a mystery. My best guess is this herbaceous forb, native to New Mexico, has to be the Perky-est, Happiest Spring Flower, Ever!
What is your favorite native flower signaling the arrival of Spring in your world? Does its bloom cause you to smile; perhaps you break out in your happy dance?
Thanks for stopping by …… and Happy Mother’s Day to all!
Reading this poem not only gave me the “lift” I was seeking on a dreary winter day…….. it was clear I wanted to design an illustration to further heighten the “lift” in anticipation of Spring and the new season of imaginative creation that was fast approaching!
Thanks to Michele Lee for allowing me permission to reprint her wonderful poem, Paper Airplane Pilot (March 6, 2024). Michele is a talented and prolific writer of poetry and prose, and a published author who lives in the heart of the Sonoran Desert. I look forward to her almost daily posts featuring something new and inspired on her widely-followed blog.
If you enjoyed Paper Airplane Pilot, your sure to enjoy her regular posts by becoming a subscriber to her blog, myinspiredlife.org
Seems like we’ve had tons and tons of snow this winter. And the closer we got to the official date of Spring (the equinox falls on March 19th this year), the more intense the storms became.
So when the forecast called for four straight days of snowstorms and piles of snow, I had an idea. ……. build a Jolly Snow Glob and journal his Life and Tymes.
Jolly Snow Glob, “Glob” for short!
Friday, March 15h was the birth day of the “Glob.” Constructed of freshly fallen snow that was the perfect combination of wet and fluffy, he seemed to hold together beautifully. If the weather forecast was accurate, he might even hold together long enough to witness the arrival of Spring.
Did he? See for yourself!
All four snow days and the 1st day of Spring …… from the beginning to the end of a Jolly Snow Glob
a curious nature 