McHugh Creek And Potter March Beat Out Computer Screen

 

I remember as a kid, in the city in LA, there were so many more butterflies than I see nowadays.

Spruce tips.

This robin led me along the trail, presumably away from the nest.  It kept look back to see if I was following.

The nasty thorns of the devil's club shining in the sun, the leaves just opening.

The Arctic Terns are back at Potter Marsh and on high alert when a gull strays into their territory. 

And the swans are passing through.  

And while geese are all around in town, I don't get good opportunities to catch them flying.

Meanwhile. . .

I did check the Supreme Court docket.  There are two new filings today.  Scott Kendall informs the Board he's representing minority Board Members Nicole Borromeo and Melanie Bahnke.  He also asks if the Court won't allow them in as Board members, then they'd like to be  Amicus Curiae.  

Yesterday, Nicole Borromeo file a notice to the Court that the Board's motion asking for a stay and the brief explaining why was illegitimate because the Board never voted to approve it as was their procedure.  She included the vote to have the Board as a whole needed to approve such actions.  

This is starting to seem like the plot of new Netflix drama.  

Tomatoes And Other Odds And Ends

Red tree and clouds.  A bit of urban natural beauty.  

Here are some of the tomato seedlings last April 20.  Tomatoes don't do well in Alaska.  It has to stay above 50˚F (10˚C) at night for them to bear fruit.  But I found a sub-arctic variety that was supposed to bear down to 40˚F.  I left some inside by a south facing window, put some in the greenhouse in the backyard, and left one outside.  The one outside had the strongest plant - it had a sturdy stem, didn't get all leggy, and had lots of flowers and a dozen or more little tomatoes.  The ones inside (the house and the backyard greenhouse) also did well, but were not very strong.  They grew much taller and needed lots of stakes to keep them from falling over, or worse, breaking.  But we have been getting cherry size tomatoes since early September.  But then I decided I needed to bring them in when we had snow warnings.  So here are some I picked the other day.  Some are the smallest tomatoes I've ever seen - pea size.  

I enjoyed my tomato plants this summer, but it also proved my basic sense of tomatoes in Alaska - they aren't worth the effort.  I'd rather spend the time of plants that reward more spectacularly without all the work.  I still have some plants inside by the windows with small green marbles and lots of yellow flowers.  Let's see how many tomatoes we end up with.  I'd say we've had maybe 20, but not a lot in total volume.  

So when I made a couple of breads yesterday - the sour dough starter wants me to use it at least every two weeks - I made one rosemary/olive bread and one tomato/basil.  One gets eaten right away, the other goes in the freezer.  I wanted to try the tomato bread since I've never made one before, but I sliced the wrong one, so I'll have to wait a week to learn how it came out. 

 I really wanted to get the shiny asphalt covered apparatus at the back of this truck, but I was on my bike and he was moving.  But I had to settle for the wet new layer in the street.  

I decided I would like a wall with this wall paper in one room

Mushrooms And Other Late Summer Delights

 

These artichokes were growing outside the Legislative Information Office.  There was a big round flower bed full of flowers and edible plants.

You don't see that many artichokes growing in Alaska, but, obviously, they can.

I thought this giant cabbage plant had a great design.   And then I played with it some more with Curves.  That's a technique that messes with the colors and the light and dark in different programs like Photoshop and, in this case, Apple's Photo.

I played the same kind of tricks on this curled leaf decorative cabbage.  You get to see patterns that you didn't see in real life. 

When I take the Goose Lake route for my bike ride I always enjoy this spot.  On the way out this morning I noticed ripples emanating from the shore and stopped to look for ducks or grebes.  Then ducks headed out.  And then toward me.  I held real still and a couple walked onto the shore right next to me.  I took this picture on the way back. The ripples were gone, but ducks started heading in my direction again.  I realized I wasn't the duck whisperer I thought.  Obviously, this is a spot where people feed the ducks and any human standing here attracts the ducks.  

This big brown mushroom has made an appearance in the yard in the last few days.  I think the originally is more interesting than the one I played with in curves.

And these bright red amanitas are performing in the front yard today.  Didn't think that curves would do anything worthwhile.

We hiked along Power Line Pass on an always threatening to rain day.  The rain didn't come until we were in the car and almost home.

Raspberries from below.  Been picking them every other day for a week now.

And two of the downstairs tomatoes got red the other day.  They were tasty.  The ones in the outside greenhouse are still green as are the ones on the deck which are still a bit more than pea sized.    

The moon was full the other night.  I still think it's neat that people all around the earth can see it - many at the same time you can even though their thousands of miles away from you.  

[Added Aug 29, 2021 in résponse to Mike's comment:  No bears, but the next day these two moose were on the side of the trail in that stretch where I'm extra bear careful.  This was on a downhill part, and they were far enough off the trail so I could stop easily (rather than stopping on the uphill part) (But I guess that depends on which direction you're going.)  They were maybe 40 or 50 feet from the trail.  You can see how easy it is for huge brown animals to blend into the scenery.  I guess after many years I'm just better than I was at seeing brown blobs as something to pay attention to.  If you can't see them they are just left of center.  Their heads are down in the grass eating.  I'm putting this picture here since I can't put pics in the comments. That doesn't mean it's not possible to put pictures in the comments, but I've never figured it out. . . Of course, that made me google the question, and yes you can upload images into comments. But it has to have a url and this one isn't posted to the web.  I could do that, according to the article, but for now I'm just going to leave it here.]

Trying Out My Wife's New Phone's Camera In The Yard

 

My wife just upgraded her iPhone at High Fidelity (a phone repair store) because ATT has told her that her old phone isn't going to work much longer.  My interest was in how much better her camera might be than mine.  

Much.  

Here are some pics I took in the yard today.  

Something took a chunk out of this amanita.  Hope it had a good trip.

These are astrantia.

A small broccoli.

High Bush Cranberries

Lysimachia, or loose leaf.

Snapdragon

Snap pea.

These are sub-arctic tomatoes.  Tomatoes require a lot of work in Alaska - the nights drop down below 50˚ F (10˚C) and the fruit doesn't set.  But these are supposed to set down to 40˚F.   

I've got some inside the house, these in the old greenhouse in the backyard, and one plant out on the deck. There are some tomatoes in all three locations.  The earliest were in the house.  But these in the backyard greenhouse are doing ok.  There are lots and lots of flowers, but not that many tomatoes.  Will the redden before it gets too cool?  This is an experiment.  I ended up with lots of plants because every seed I planted seemed to sprout two or three plants.  That part was successful. I don't think I'll be gathering that many tomatoes in the end though.

These are still very small cherry tomato size.

Without a doubt, J's new camera is significantly better than my old one.

Good Time To Visit Anchorage Botanical Garden

 There's a great display of rhododendrons right now at the garden.  The early ones have big seed pods.  It's just past the fire station off Campbell Airstrip Road.  Same parking lot as the Save High School.

And then there are the ones that are in full bloom.   

Someone had a camera set up to take time-lapse photos these.  

Rhododendrons play a huge role in traditional Chinese art.  Next time you see a Chinese scroll look at the flowers carefully.  

And, of course, there are plenty of other things blooming as well.  I try to stop by at least once a week on one of my bike rides so I can check out the every changing selection of plants to buy.  

I think this is a globe flower, not quite in bloom yet.

And below are Martagon Lilies.

Lighter Fare - The Garden's Doing Great

 

This fat king bolete showed up in the back last week and I quickly snatched it before the little worms that share my taste for boletes showed up.  This is one of the easy to identify and one of the best for eating.  Below is a picture of it sliced.  There's a lot of mushroom here.  I grilled a couple pieces and stir fried the rest with garlic and onion.

Of the flowers I planted from seed this year, the bachelor buttons were the first to bloom.  New ones are opening up daily in a set of beautiful colors.  The daisies are perennials that come up on their own.

Thalactrum, or meadow rue  The aphid love these plants, but this year I've been hand watering and using the hose to get the aphids off each morning.  The plant does fine with a strong enough spray to get rid of the aphid that cluster massively.  Here's a 2015 post which shows aphid larvae on this plant.  

If this is not a mutinus elegans, it's certainly one of its close relatives.  It showed up in the front yard this morning.  

"MushroomExpert.com

Mutinus elegans, M. caninus, & M. ravenelii

[ Agaricomycetes > Phallales > Phallaceae > Mutinus . . . ]

by Michael Kuo

Stinkhorns frequently bewilder people by popping up in lawns, thrusting their slime-covered tips into the world within a matter of hours. They have been much maligned over the years, probably because--well, because they stink and they often look like penises (human, canine, or alien). Unlike other mushrooms, the stinkhorn distributes its spores by applying an odorous, spore-thick slime to its tip, which flies and other insects are attracted to. The flies then carry the spores to other places."

I made a seaweed bread recently.  

And the tomatoes are flowering.  The trick now is for the tomatoes to set and grow.  I was advised to tap each of the flowers so they would self pollinate.  This one's in the outdoor greenhouse and while there are lots of way for bees to get in, it's not as exposed to those outside.  These are subarctic tomatoes that are more likely to fruit in Alaska.