California Oaks & Other Trees ~ Dedicating this Post to Hayley-Eszti

Dear Hayley-Eszti, I would like to dedicate this post to you, as I feel that you have the strength of these ancient oak trees. The strength to deal with this horrible illness.  I sincerely hope more research will be done and someone will find, if not a cure, at least tools to help you and others manage it. It is being talked about more, and the Niagara Falls were colored blue, after all. Take good care, my blogger friend.

Only found in California, the Blue Oak (Quercus douglasii) is the most common oak tree in our area, but since there are at least five different species of oak trees around here, and I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to identifying plants and trees, I can't say for sure that all oaks pictured here are indeed Blue Oaks. 

There are other trees here also, I hope you will enjoy their beauty, and not ask me to name them.

Thank you so much for reading and leaving comments on my post about M. E. I hope that this devastating illness will get a lot more attention in the years to come. 

Looking back at these pictures, I'm amazed at the beauty of the blue and green colors of this place, so different from the canyon. 

Our Picnic In Stallion Springs

In a post a while ago, I mentioned that my husband and I went to Stallion Springs, a community on the west side of town, for a picnic lunch in a nice little park by a small lake.

After our picnic, my husband enjoys the view.

On the other shore is the golf course; there is also a resort attached. 

We disturb many red-winged blackbirds on our walk and they become quite agitated when I linger trying to capture them with my camera. It's spring after all and they have eggs  or baby birds to protect.

I like the way the church spire peeks through the branches.

Another red-winged blackbird, balancing on a thin reed. 

Many Great-tailed Grackle make their home in the park. The males are lovely sounding birds; the Spanish call them clarinere, the clarinet player. Of course, I read that in my Audubon bird book.

Ground squirrels in the park look different from ours in the canyon, with darker fur, no white rings around their necks, and definitely better fed. Chubby little guys, probably thriving on picnic leftovers.

Getting ready for a vermin closeup.

A lovely day.......



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Note: I have not been able to access my new hotmail account since last Wednesday or Thursday. Outlook took it over and requires a MS password, which I established, and then everything went wrong. Having neither time nor energy to deal with it now, I have switched back to my ingerwiltz@aol.com account for the time being. Sorry about any inconvenience this may have caused those of you who reply back via email.