Wild Blue Iris

Iris missouriensis

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2010 jim otterstrom

A Wild Blue Iris (Iris missouriensis) blooms near the shore of the Stanfield Marsh this morning.

I sometimes find myself blushing in the presence of such sensual beauty, so feminine in its expression.

I spent half an hour with this Iris today and that wasn't near long enough.

I laid down close to it, touched its soft tender petals, took in its delicate scent, and painted its graceful beauty into my memory. And then I photographed it to share with you.

Georgia O'Keefe was inspired by flowers like this to create some of her most passionate and controversial work.

I share Georgia's love for the passion and sensuality in nature, it's what drives evolution and the perpetuation of life.

~Long Live Sensuality, Passion, And Life~

Alpine Pedal-Path Morning---Slightly Smoky

~Wildfire Smoke from Upstate~

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

For the past couple of mornings smoke has been blowing into the valley from the wildfires burning in the more northern parts of the state, near Santa Cruz, and Santa Maria, to name a couple of them.

We started off this morning intending to ride around the lake but breathing the smoke at our end of the lake (east) was already bothering us a bit, and when we saw how thick it was on the west side, over the dam and Fawnskin, we decided to alter our plan and ride the Alpine Pedal-Path along the North shore instead.

So, our near 20 mile planned ride turned out to be somewhere between 10 & 15 miles instead, but still very enjoyable, as you will see.

~Sagebrush Delight~

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

It seems that everything has it's benefits, the smoke from the fires made for a gently-muted light this morning, almost as if I had a light-diffusing color-saturating filter on my camera.

A Meadow Along The Bike Path
Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

We stopped for awhile by a little stream to contemplate the soft loveliness of a smoke-tinged light falling on this meadow, all the time acutely aware that the sources of this very smoke are causing great anxiety in other parts of California ( and I hope our friends in those parts are out of harms way).

Ancient Juniper - A Veteran Of Many Wildfires
Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

This Western Juniper (Juniperus occidentalis) along the bike path is probably somewhere between 500 to 1,000 years old, and possibly older, which means it has lived through many, many wildfires during its life, and, as raggedy as it looks at the base, it's still very much alive. One tough old tree!

Enjoy your day...

Monarch Butterfly on Narrow-Leaf Milkweed

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

Milkweed is the host plant for the Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus). Here a male Monarch feeds on one of three Narrow-Leaf Milkweed (Asclepias fascicularis) growing in our garden.

Botanical Scans From The Garden...

Please Click On The Following 'Botanical

Prints' To Enlarge For Viewing

© 2008 jim otterstrom


I was looking at some old botanical prints this morning and decided it would be fun to try and re-create something similar by scanning native plants into the computer.

So I picked a few fading flowers from the late summer garden and scanned them with our HP Photosmart C7180 All-In-One printer.

Even though we had some pretty substantial thunderstorms here today, I managed to keep the computer up & running long enough, between lightning strikes, to make some rather nice looking botanical art out of them.

Scanning flowers can give very nice results but it's a bit of a messy process.

As careful as you might try to be, it's inevitable that pollen, bugs, and plant detritus will get all over the scanner screen, becoming part of the image, so considerable time is required in cleaning up the pictures in Photoshop, or some similar program.

Scanning gives three dimensional objects an almost painted quality, the subdued lighting and shadowy details creating life-like impressions.

I spent most of the rainy day working on the pictures, time well spent if you ask me. They are rather large images so you'll need to scroll down to view them in their entirety.

Flower Of The Day - Sunday, August 24th

Zauschneria californica

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2008 jim otterstrom

Zauschneria californica (Epilobium canum), or California Fuschia as it is commonly known, is a profuse late-blooming Big Bear native which thrives in poor rocky soil and full sun at our 6,750' elevation.

It's a perfect plant for the rock garden and an excellent butterfly & hummingbird attractor. Ours are from locally collected seed.

California Fuschia

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2008 jim otterstrom

The above photos are from one of several patches of Zauschneria blooming in the garden today.

For The Contrary Goddess...

Buddha and the Mushroom Click on photo to enlarge - © 2008 jim otterstrom

Fellow blogger, The Contrary Goddess, gave me a "tiny challenge" I couldn't resist.

"Name 100 species which live in your neighborhood", she asked.

Well, here's 117 native (or migratory) species which are residents or visitors to our own yard, and I've barely scratched the surface of the bird and insect visitors.

As I find the time I'll be adding the scientific names to the list below and will include links to various botanical websites for plant profiles.

Earth Home Garden Species

1. Common Yarrow

(Achillea millefolium)

2. Wild Onion

(Allium sp.)

3. Indian Hemp

(Apocynum cannabinum)

4. Rock-Cress

(Arabis pulchra)

5. Prickly Poppy

(Argemone munita)

6. Crimson Columbine

(Aquilegia formosa)

7. Narrow Leaf Milkweed

(Asclepias fascicularis)

8. Green Striped Mariposa Lily

(Calochortus invenustus)

9. Wild Morning-Glory
10. Indian Paintbrush
11. Ash Gray Paintbrush
12. Thistle
13. Miner’s Lettuce
14. Virgin’s Bower (Pipestem)
15. Wild Hyacinth (Blue Dicks)
16. Fireweed
17. California Fuschia
18. Stream Orchid
19. Fleabane
20. Yerba Santa
21. California Buckwheat
22. Pine Buckwheat
23. Sulfur Flower (Sulfur-Color Buckwheat)
24. Wright’s Buckwheat
25. Western Wallflower
26. California Poppy
27. Wild Geranium
28. Gilia
29. Rydberg’s Horkelia
30. Western Blue Iris (Blue Flag)
31. Granite Gilia (Prickly Phlox)
32. Mountain Aster
33. Humboldt Lily
34. Lemon Lily
35. Blue Flax
36. Brewer’s Lupine
37. Grape Soda Lupine
38. Dwarf Lupine
39. Giant Lupine
40. Tarweed
41. Pineapple Weed
42. Coyote Mint
43. Coyote Tobacco
44. California Evening Primrose
45. Anderson’s Penstemon
46. San Bernardino Beardtongue
47. Firecracker Penstemon
48. Bumble-Bee Penstemon
49. Scarlet Penstemon
50. Mountain Bugler
51. Showy Penstemon
52. Desert Blue Bells
53. Mountain Phacelia
54. Sticky Cinquefoil
55. Buttercup
56. Southern Goldenrod
57. Apricot Mallow
58. White Hedge Nettle
59. Stinging Nettle
60. Hedgehog Cactus
61. Beaver-Tail Cactus
62. Cane Cholla (Snake Cholla)
63. Prickly-Pear Cactus
64. Utah Service-Berry
65. Greenleaf Manzanita
66. Silver Wormwood
67. Great Basin Sage
68. Rubber Rabbitbrush
69. California Flannelbush
70. Fremont’s Bushmallow
71. Western Choke-Cherry
72. Antelope Bush
73. Sierra Currant
74. Rose Sage
75. Apricot Mallow
76. Snowberry
77. White Fir
78. Incense Cedar
79. Mountain Mahogany
80. Western Juniper
81. Jeffrey Pine
82. Singleleaf Pinyon Pine
83. Quaking Aspen
84. California Black Oak
85. Pygmy Nuthatch
86. White-Breasted Nuthatch
87. Mountain Chickadee
88. Western Bluebird
89. Steller’s Jay
90. Northern Flicker
91. White-Headed Woodpecker
92. Anna’s Hummingbird
93. Rufous Hummingbird
94. Western Tanager
95. Wilson’s Warbler
96. Yellow-Rumped Warbler
97. Mourning Dove
98. Acorn Woodpecker
99. Hairy Woodpecker
100. Violet-Green Swallow
101. American Robin
102. Black-Headed Grosbeak
103. Rufous-Sided Towhee
104. Band-Tailed Pigeon
105. Lesser Goldfinch
106. Dark-Eyed Junco
107. Cassin’s Finch
108. Mourning Cloak Butterfly
109. Giant Swallowtail Butterfly
110. Painted Lady Butterfly
111. California Sister Butterfly
112. Monarch Butterfly
113. Western Gray Squirrel
114. California Ground Squirrel
115. Merriam Chipmunk
116. Western Toad

117. Western Terrestrial Garter Snake

Yesterday's Garden Pictures...

Calypte anna with Salvia pachyphylla

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2008 jim otterstrom

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2008 jim otterstrom

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2008 jim otterstrom

Currently a daily visitor to the garden, this female Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte anna) was feeding at Rose Sage (Salvia pachyphylla) near our porch yesterday afternoon as I took these few pictures of her just after 4 P.M.

In order to capture some detail in the fast moving hummer (on a cloudy day) I used a relatively fast shutter speed of 1/500th of a second which created images that were between 1 and 2 stops underexposed. I then lightened the images in Photoshop to closely approximate their natural appearance.

Canon S5IS with Canon TC-DC58B tele-converter lens, manual mode, f /3.5, ISO 80, 1/500th second.

Beauty Unfolds...

11:21 A.M. Yesterday

Wild Blue Iris (Iris missouriensis)

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2008 jim otterstrom

Same Iris - 4 1/2 Hours Later

3:51 P.M. Yesterday

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2008 jim otterstrom

I planted several of our native Iris missouriensis in the garden over the past few years and this is the first one to bloom. You'll see these growing wild alongside of streams in the San Bernardino Mountains. Ours are growing around the giant rock bird-bath near the solar waterfall.

Mariposa Lily

Calochortus kennedyi

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2008 jim otterstrom

A Mariposa Lily with attendants.

Photographed on May 19th at Cactus Flats along Highway 18 about halfway between here and Lucerne Valley.

Thanks all, for your kind comments on the previous post, it's nice to be missed.

Sorry for the long absence, but I just haven't been in the mood to sit at a computer lately. It's too beautiful outside and there's always so much to do.

Remember the post from December 5, 2007 about the mountain of dirt I acquired from a construction site down the street? Well, right now I'm occupied with moving that small mountain, by wheelbarrow, to a new rock garden area I'm creating.

Everything is fine here and I hope you are all enjoying spring as much as we are.

Rose Sage

Salvia pachyphylla

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2007 jim otterstrom

A favorite Big Bear Native is Rose Sage (Salvia pachyphylla) and the two photos I made this morning show the color variations this super-fragrant wild sage displays in our garden.

The plant pictured above, with the more intensely rose-colored bracts, is growing in the part of our garden with the poorest rockiest soil & very fast drainage, while the flower below is growing in deep silt-laden soil which retains water longer. You'll notice that the flower above is more mature, with measurable elongation to the stem between the bracts, and it has already lost most of its violet petals, however the paler colored ones, like below, don't usually gain much more color as they age.

I wonder if soil & water variations, sun exposure, or some combination of those, contribute to the difference in coloration, and, although I'll probably never understand that with certainty, I monitor the way they bloom in different parts of the yard anyway, just out of natural curiosity.

Salvia pachyphylla, also known as Mountain Desert Sage, is an extremely cold-hardy perennial shrub which is found in well-drained granitic areas of Southern California, at elevations between 5,000 & 10,000 feet, where it grows to a height of 2 feet or more. Rose Sage can also be used as a culinary sage, and, while it does have a very strong flavor, it's quite delicious if used sparingly. We've used it with good results in bread, as a rub on meat, and in bean soups.

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2007 jim otterstrom

The Big Bear Xeriscape Garden Tour last Saturday was very successful with approximately 407 people (the number who signed in at the beginning of the tour) visiting our garden and seven others throughout the day.

Once again, generously volunteering her time and expertise, our friend Orchid Black came up from Pasadena to sell nearly $500 worth of native plants on our deck for the benefit of Hunter's Nursery who carries the plants in support of the Big Bear Lake DWP/Sierra Club efforts to promote Xeriscape & Native Plant gardening/landscaping in Big Bear Valley.

Thank you Orchid, we couldn't have done it without you!

The local chapter of The Sierra Club also took in a total of over $1,000 from cash donations, sales of canvas shopping bags, and raffle tickets.

We meant to take pictures Saturday, but Orchid, Peggy, and I were all so busy talking with people that it just didn't happen.

Also, our friend and neighbor Cheri Williams added much to the ambiance in our garden throughout the day with her soulful folk/blues singing and guitar-playing. Cheri performed for nearly five hours and still went home smiling, with blisters on her fingers.

Thank You Cheri!

Native Lemon Lily among Wild Geranium

Lilium parryi with Geranium richardsonii

Click on photo to enlarge © 2007 jim otterstrom

The native Lemon Lilies growing in our garden began to bloom a couple of days ago and, this morning when I took this photo, there were six wonderfully lemon-scented flowers open and many more buds ready to go.

Lilium parryi has been red-listed in California as threatened and is a Forest Service 'sensitive species'. The 5 plants we have in our garden were grown from seed at Las Pilitas Nursery where they specialize in rare native plants. The hope is that if people can purchase these plants commercially it will reduce the incidents of them being illegally collected in the wild and enable the Lilies to expand their populations.

During the early part of the 20th Century specimens of Lemon Lily were widely collected here in The San Bernardino Mountains and some were hybridized to create the Lilies you find at today's florests and nurseries.

We've admired Lemon Lilies in the wild for many years and it's nice to have a source for them now, so we can grow them in our own native plant garden, here in the mountains to which they belong.

They grow near streams so we have them planted near the boulder birdbath and solar waterfall where they get more water than the rest of our native garden which consists mostly of drought-adapted natives. The lilies in this small, but consistantly damp, part of our garden are mixed in with other local plant species associated with moist habitat such as Wild Geranium (Geranium richardsonii), Crimson Columbine (Aquilegia formosa), Stream Orchid (Epipactis gigantea), Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis), and the Wild Blue Iris (Iris missouriensis) or Western Blue Flag as it is sometimes called.

The garden is magical this time of year, making it difficult for me to be anywhere else, so I'll catch you later.

Hedgehog Cactus Bloom

PRICKLY and BEAUTIFUL

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2007 jim otterstrom

Taken at 10:21 this morning in the native plant garden.

Today - In Our Native Garden...

SPRING BLOOMS

Click on photo composite to enlarge - © 2007 jim otterstrom

These pictures were taken this morning* in the native plant garden as spring begins to bloom toward summer.

Top left to bottom right:

Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja applegatei)

Wild Geranium (Geranium richardsonii)

Western Wallflower (Erysimum capitatum)-orange variety

Blue Flax (Linum lewisii)

California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica)

Creeping Oregon Grape (Mahonia (Berberis) aquifolium var. repens)

Western Wallflower (Erysimum capitatum)-yellow variety

Grape Soda Lupine (Lupinus excubitus)

Desert Bluebells (Phacelia campanularia)

*Except for the Wild Geranium picture, top center, which was taken last week, and there are several more in bloom today.

And, speaking of today, I hope you are all enjoying the gift that each day is, and the incredible beauty of the nature all around us.

I'm going back outside now...

Along This Mornings' Five Mile Walk

Click on photos to enlarge

A kind of soft gray November morning defined our walk today except for a few brief moments when the sun peaked through the clouds to light up that stately old Western Juniper along the lakeshore for me.

Dallas had a great time playing in the water and shaking the evidence all over me and the camera. But his patience only goes so far as you can see in the photo where he gets between me and the tree I was photographing with his 'it's time to move along look'. He was right, of course, because around the bend the lovely female mallard was waiting to pose for us and a little bit further came the big surprise of the morning. A Great Egret (Great White Heron?) stood fishing for breakfast right before our eyes and I managed to get a couple of hasty shots before Dallas scared it off with his meanderings.

I've seen Snowy Egrets here before but can't remember ever seeing a Great Egret on the lake, what a gorgeous bird!

Addendum 12-02-06

After a question from jules on the comments page, I did a little research and have determined the large white bird is a Great Egret (Casmerodius albus), not a white morph of the Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodius). They're very similar looking but the egret has dark legs & feet, and the Great White Heron is typically found only in the Southeast U.S.

The bird was standing too deep in the water for me to get a look at the legs but I got a quick shot of it flying away and the feet are very dark.

Signs Of Spring...

Click on photo to enlarge

Willow catkins emerging along the shore of Stanfield Marsh on Thursday, March 2, 2006.

For Norene and Clairesgarden, who own the same model camera, this was shot in the manual setting, super-macro mode, f/3.5 at 1/1000th of a second.

...and again

Click on photo to enlarge

Same camera settings as above, except the shutter speed was 1/1250th of a second.

Creek Monkeyflower

Click on photo to enlarge

A Creek Monkeyflower blooming in the Stanfield Marsh.

Desert Willow

Click on photo to enlarge

A flowering Desert Willow (Chilopsis linearis) at Bill & Kathy's 3 acre Morongo Valley retreat.

Willow Catkins At Sunrise

Click on photo to enlarge
The willows know it's Spring, they're bursting out in catkins, like these beside the Alpine Pedal Path at sunrise this morning, 5:58 to be exact.