Hillside walk, 12 January 2014
Continuing dry weather, and mostly warmer than average during the past week. The native vegetation continues to progress, albeit slowly, with four o'clock (Mirabilis laevis var. crassifolia) blooming at last, in sunny places on the north hillside. And the first flowers of hoaryleaf ceanothus (Ceanothus crassifolius) have appeared. I'm reporting fuchsia-flowered gooseberry (Ribes speciosum) as flowering (since two weeks ago) although so far this season I've seen only a single plant in bloom. In some other instances, gooseberry plants look to be completely dead. Whether or not that is the case will presumably become apparent as the season progresses.
The only thriving liverworts I saw this week were just one or two in a small, recessed, damp crevice in Canyon 5.
This week I explored Canyon 8 in greater detail to see the remains of the old water system from many years ago. That is the subject of a separate web page.
