Wildflowers and Mother's Day

On Thursday this week I went on my weekly run in the mountain, thanks to the generous free babysitting that a friend offers every week. At the end of my run I had about 10 minutes so I did a cool-down walk along the edge of the reservoir dam. The morning weather was perfect, light breeze off the lake, sunshine, cool temps with the promise of more warmth later in the day. As I walked along I caught a whiff of lupin in bloom and seeing the bright yellow mustard flowers and purple lupin brought me back to my childhood on the Central Coast of California. As I walked along I even spotted fiddleneck thistle amongst the lupin. My siblings and I mistakenly called this "fireweed" because if you stepped on it or brushed against it man did it sting! And tiny thistle hairs were very hard to get out, even with a good pair of tweezers.

It was lovely to have a quiet morning to myself outside and time to reflect and reminisce on living here and enjoying the beauty of spring. This weekend I delved more into wildflowers as part of a plant workshop at the community college. Friday night was 3 hours of slides and lectures. The next morning I waited with another woman for the college van to pick us up at a nearby grocery store parking lot as it made it's way from the main campus in Weed, CA (real name) and up through Yreka and Hornbrook.

Our first stop was Pilot Rock, just over the border in Oregon in the Siskiyou-Cascade Nat'l Monument area. Besides being a prominent landmark, it also has the claim to fame of being the place where the last Grizzly Bear in southern Oregon was shot. Rather sad if you ask me, but there you go. Pilot Rock is also on the Pacific Crest Trail and I was excited to finally take a freeway exit that I'd never had the courage to explore on my many trips north. Exit 1: Siskiyou Summit, NO RETURN NORTHBOUND. As enticing as that sounded to my adventurous spirit, not having a good map in the car and not knowing what roads I'd have to travel on before I could continue northbound on I-5, I'd never taken this exit. Now I know what lies beyond. That in itself was a fun part of the day's adventures.

Our group of 15 or so listened to our elderly adjunct faculty member patiently identify wildflowers and answer our many questions. His wife and our knowledgeable van driver added to his expertise. There were only a few actual college student in the group, the rest were curious adults or retirees out to further their knowledge of the area. We stopped at a few places along the gravel road that leads up to the trailhead for Pilot Rock and broke for lunch when we arrived at the parking area there. The weather was lovely and we were looking forward to our next stop at Mt. Ashland ski bowl about 45 minutes of backroads away. We loaded back in the van and that dreaded click-click-click-click of a dead battery was all that greeted us. No one had jumper cables. We were a good 30 minutes of gravel roads away from the next available place to borrow some. Fortunately we had cell phone coverage since we were high enough up and near the summit so cell towers were in range. One of the cars that caravaned with us went to get some cables so the rest of us waited and wandered around the vicinity that we'd already explored prior to lunch. I wanted to hike up Pilot Rock in the hour we had to wait, but there was some school policy that we had to stay with the instructor or something for liability reasons so that was a no go.

So we reviewed the Chocolate Lily, Giant Trillium, Creeping Phlox, Daggerpod, Snakeroot, Indian Paintbrush, Yellow Bells, Fawn Lily, Milkmaid, Western Spring Beauty and many other flowers as we waited. Here's some pictures.



In the end we got the van started and drove down to the Hilt, CA exit to return the battery starter contraption and to get some very good milkshakes at the Stateline Service diner/gas station there. We didn't have time for Mt. Ashland so we stopped along the Klamath River Hwy on our way back and looked at some lower elevation wildflowers. Despite not having hiked around all that much, I was pretty tired from just being outside in the sun and wind all day. I took a little nap when I got home. :) After dinner, I went on my own to see a documentary on the Klamath River. More on that in a separate post.

What was the rest of the family doing during all this? Matt and the kids went to Medford that morning to do some top-secret Mother's Day shopping or some such un-disclosed business. Upon opening my cards and gift the next morning, it turned out that my favorite yarn shop in Ashland and the Harry & David store in Medford were two of their stops. : ) They also went by the airport and got to climb around a real airplane. Matt properly spoiled me by providing lots of time off this weekend and cooked some very yummy meals: bacon and eggs this morning with some very yummy blueberry muffins and a favorite Cook's Illustrated Penne and Summer Squash, Tomato and Basil casserole for dinner. The kids had fun picking some iris and lilacs this morning for a bouquet and "secretly" helping with all the preparations. Evalyn was especially cute because she's finally learning how to keep a secret. Henry's still at that "share all" stage so it's a good thing he isn't always 100% clear in what he's saying!

All in all it was a great weekend and I'm actually looking forward to getting back into the daily routines this coming week. We have a trip planned to meet up with friends in Sacramento and my younger sister April and her family will be here for Memorial Day weekend. Plus there's the garden boxes to build and TONS of neglected yardwork to do. Gotta love the spring!