Oh well. I sucked up as much fresh air, sunshine - pollen - birds & flowers as I could up to now.
Have lived in Fair Oaks for 15 years and only this week discovered there is a park only a mile or so from my house that has an area set aside for Vernal Pools in Phoenix Field. The park is sandwiched between a Little League field, parking lots, and loads of residential homes. It is amazing the natural Vernal Pools there survived at all. Unlike Mather Field & its Vernal Pools, which is a bit further away, this Phoenix Park doesn't allow visitors to tromp on the pool areas so it looks so... pristine.
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Mind, the rainbow doesn't last forever - in a couple of months these flowery fields will look dead as a doornail - all withered, brown and stark. That's part of the Vernal Pool ecology, so gotta see 'em while they're HOT - in a pretty flower sort of way.
Here's flowers I've been enjoying staring at this past month or so.
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These next few flowers I can still find out in pasture land. They're not necessarily associated with Vernal Pools. The first is Valley Tassel, or Slender Owl's Clover.
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This next one I found growing all over rocks in a field. They're tiny suculents, and they cling to rocks like lichens. Close up they are rather pretty, like tiny golden starbursts.
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Ooo! Check out the Stonecrop here... you see it growing on the rocks in the foreground, and all that yellow in the distance is more of it growing like a golden crust on rock outcroppings.
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So about now you're thinking I've forgotten about my feathered homies. As if!
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These birdie pictures were taken with my tiny digital, not my big-arse SLR Canon, so no close-ups, just casual snap shots.
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