"Walking in the woods" pictures: share yours

Walking the woods around here, harvesting wild mushrooms and plants, is one of the things I live for. I can't wait for the time when everything is green again.

Here are some pictures from last year

leila hamaya wrote:

Cj Verde wrote:

leila hamaya wrote:...some more big leaf maples, these are everywhere here, wish i had actually gotten around to experiment with tapping them!

Probably not worth tapping for several reasons. If they aren't sugar maples, the sugar content is too low to bother with. You can only tap when the sap is rising in the spring when the temps are above freezing during the day and below freezing at night. Just a week or two away, here in Vermont.

yeah it could be tricky, but i have read of some people doing this out here with the big leaf maple.
it would be more experimental than trying to get a ton of it, well thats if and when i actually try

here it is often below freezing at night, and above freezing during the day, at least in december and january...into early feb...but by now its almost spring here, although futher north its still possible.
and if i was going to do it this year i pretty much missed my last chance a couple of weeks ago....when it was totally freezing at night and sunny during the day in an exceptionally cold winter for these parts. this was probably a good year for it anyway....

unless it takes a turn for freezing suddenly, which actually could happen. i guess thats part of the issue with people experimenting with doing this in the west with the big leaf maples...trying to get the timing right, cause our weather is rather unpredictable, you d have to have a good sense of the weather and get the feel for when to do it. plus theres so many microclimates, even going a half hour in any direction you get different microclimates.
but its been catching on anyway, people all up and down the west coast have been doing this, though this far south one has to be up in the mountains for it to get cold enough.

heres some more info, if anyone is curious...one of these years i will get to it!

http://www.blmaple.net/

http://waywardspark.com/the-great-bigleaf-maple-syruping-experiment-of-2013-has-begun/

http://www.farmwest.com/book/export/html/918

an aside, but i enjoyed these myths
http://www.mi-maplesyrup.com/Information/info_hist.htm

Snowshoeing today. A milestone.

I broke my leg in June. This is the first week I've been able to "do stairs" "foot over foot".

And the first time I've been snowshoeing this year, even though it's been the snowiest in many years.
It was easy! And it was SOOOO beautiful! My pics don't do it justice, but I was moved to share 'em...

Mariamne

(edited to get my captions right!)

My wife is currently at a retreat on Ossabaw Island off the coast of Georgia. She's been posting pictures from walks she's been taking...

The pig in the picture is a wild Ossabaw island pig - the same breed we raise. They are interesting animals - one of the rarest pig breeds, and also one of the most recently domesticated. They still retain most of the foraging characteristics that their wild counterparts have - much different than most domesticated pigs.

http://mytotalpv.blogspot.com/2014/02/conversation-chewing-day-two-at-ossabaw.html

http://mytotalpv.blogspot.com/2014/02/ossabaw-island-day-4-pictures.html

http://mytotalpv.blogspot.com/2014/02/pictures-of-ossabaw-day-3.html

Walking at Bull Lake Montana

For anyone living in Wales, the recent storms have provided the perfect opportunity to visit the remains of a 5000 year old forest which according to legend was once part of the lost land of Cantre'r Gwaelod



Full details here.

And here's another site with more pictures - WalesOnline

The 'wild bit' of the olive grove, replete with flowers.

Burra, here is your chance to educate me! What in the world are those flowering plants?

Found this fellow (mama?) on our first real tour of our new lot. Don't know if we scared him up that tree, but nearly scared me up one! Pretty big, about the size of a medium-sized dog.

VP

They like to live in hollow trees & we have lots of those on our property.

The $400 vet bill from my dog getting quilled inspired me to get myself my very first gun - a 22 for Mother's Day.
Do you live along the route 7 corridor? I do.

Cj Verde wrote:
The $400 vet bill from my dog getting quilled inspired me to get myself my very first gun - a 22 for Mother's Day.
Do you live along the route 7 corridor? I do.

Hey CJ - Readsboro.

Hmmm, never shot anything. But I don't have dog either. Thanks for the warning, I'll make sure my guests know!

VP

Virgil Porter wrote: But I don't have dog either. Thanks for the warning, I'll make sure my guests know!

May & October are the months my dogs seem to get quilled so, yes, warn guests with dogs.

I still haven't shot a porcupine though - only my turkeys who are just a little too free range. Two years in a row I couldn't get closer than 3 feet.

^^^^^
this reminds me of the old joke about how do the porcupines make love?!!?? very very carefully!!!

ok not that funny but my ex boyfriend used to tell me that one and it was weirdly fitting/funny in that context =)

heres some pics, since i have been wandering about in this lovely weather and taking some photos.

thimbleberries and some wild mugwort, this is everywhere around here and i have been enjoying making tea with it



our local wild roses are in bloom:



the mighty klamath river







this town loves bigfoot =) some of the most convincing photos, like the really famous one, come from this area.

Nice bigfoot pic! Must be in the area where I went on vacation to last summer!
Most of the woodlands in the immediate area here are small <5 acre groves or follow the rivers. These photos were taken at my home along the river.

Top to bottom:

Haven't tried to ID this one but it made a nice photo!

We had a couple of very tame fawns hanging around.

I'm lucky enough to have a small spring on my farm. Just a slight trickle but the cool thing is that it's always there even through droughts and the ground around it doesn't freeze in the winter. I'm slowly trying to open up the canopy of trees over it and want to take advantage of the unique conditions it creates. Downhill from the spring I've sunk a large concrete storm sewer pipe section into the ground to collect some of the water for siphoning off for livestock. So far the vertical cylinder doesn't hold water yet and I should have the water tested for chemical contamination too.

I'm rather flattered that your township erected a statue of me.

Nice shots all around. I wish I could ID that shroom for you and that I had some of my own photos to add. I've been plying the woods a lot lately and harvesting mushrooms and skullcap. Today I found probably 3 acres worth of polyculture forest meadow groves which are primarily skullcap. I also came across this awesome standing dead alder. Its like 75 feet tall and nearly 2 feet at the base. From 15 feet up to 30 feet up it was absolutely covered with oyster mushrooms. A scrappy little 6 or 7 inch hemlock was growing up right next to it so using it and body leverage I was able to shimmy up and harvest and amazing haul of mushrooms. It's the most bad-ass I've felt in a while. Then I slid down and ate berries.

yum oysters ! score!

heres some more pics, i've been taking a lot lately and wandering around the woods and going swimming =)

first strawberries of the year


a new plant friend - ceanothus, "mountain lilacs" or "deerbrush".
apparently a nitrogen fixer, though i dont know of any other use besides looking lovely, its still been capturing my attention lately.
some of them are lilac, purple and some are white, but its all the same plant....





and this wildflower i dont know what they are, but they are quite lovely:

^^^^^^ i like it when i can get an ID about plants i am curious about.

figured it out, and its sort of a no brainer.
those wildflowers are the siskiyou iris, a native iris species that only grows here in siskiyou county up into southern oregon. think i will save some seeds when the time comes, theres thousands of these around right now =)

http://facstaff.hsc.unt.edu/rbarton/Iris/calif1/I_bracteata.html

http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?query_src=photos_index&where-taxon=Iris+bracteata

Spring time in Wyoming!

I love beautiful big trees, and funny little insects!  Look at th yellow cross on this spiders back.  Super neat!

I used to live where walking in the woods looked like the first picture, now the second picture is what I see:

Recent trip to Utah

The view at my place. My entry road is a kilometer long. Lots of nice views.

What better time than the middle of winter to post some pictures of the more verdant, lush seasons?

An older picture of one of my favorite places, the Alsea river:



Pacific Rhododendron



Oregon grape blossoms with a bunch of insect friends

One of the reasons I moved to TN was the excellent hiking. Fall colors will be here soon! Here's a few pix from previous hikes.

another time ... another place

Some photos taken near Croft Castle, Herefordshire.















Couldn't resist having a little chat with this old chestnut - two mother trees sharing a private moment...

I've been doing weekend hikes on the AT







View back down the valley










Early Start





Boardwalk through a marsh



Heading Up

I love the forests so much! But I’m very utilitarian in pictures, so many are for identification’s sake rather than good views but often they still come out well.