This past month has been an exercise in nostalgia– we’ve been revisiting our earlier FRGE sites to record a more in depth survey of the vegetation. We’ve also been ‘data mining’, a phrase I’ve never heard. It basically means we spend hours in the office pouring over old rare plant site forms. It’s a hoot~
We still get to see the bird’s eye view of these little towns sometimes~
Visiting our old sites is pretty exciting because we get to see how the plant communities have changed over the summer. At the beginning of my internship the oak trees were just starting to bud and we had to use fallen leaves and acorns to identify them. Now, we walk through fully leaved oak woodlands. It feels magical and it’s a major relief from the harsh and relentless sun.
This hillside is a beautiful oak woodland, but you can’t really tell from this picture.. but you can see highway 238!
Not all of the sites we are revisiting are our old sites, however. Some are contractor sites that we don’t have site forms for. It’s been interesting to go to these new sites, especially ones that had quite a few FRGE plants. Seeing flagging with nothing under it strikes me as funny, for some reason.
We found a dried up seed FRGE seed pod underneath a dried up FRGE plant. It’s been lovely watching these plants go through their life cycle!
One of the sites we went to was in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. Stacy joined us, and along the way we were walking on a decommissioned road that was paved with Calochortus greenei. It was exciting to see this rare and beautiful plant! But commingled with it was a startling amount of invasive and noxious weeds. I wondered how different the road would have looked if it had been left to nature’s devices rather than turned over and seeded.
A very pretty plant! The cup the petals form is so deep, I was surprised. It’s a warm little hiding place for bugs!
We’ve been seeing a lot of pretty lilies on our hikes this time around! They’re so big and beautiful, they lift morale instantly!
This lily is tall! We’ve seen some that are taller than me! (But, if we’re being honest, I’m a pretty short Lillie)
These lilies have huge flowers!
Our hikes don’t go quite as deep into the backcountry as they used to, but we still work up a sweat and see interesting things. Kiki and I have had a busy field season, so it’s odd to be in the office so much. It makes me nostalgic for the days when I would complain about how sore my feet were and how much plant material was in my hair. Our longest hikes were the ones we avoided for our revisits, but I almost wish we would have gone back to some of them. Almost. One thing is certain– office days don’t provide much material for good blog posts.
This trunk is interesting to me, it reminds me of Freddy Krueger’s face.
This bee impostor sat next to me all during lunch one day.
You can’t stop Kiki from climbing trees and pretending they’re horses.
We always make time for selfies.
It’s berry season here in southern Oregon and we have been reaping the benefits. Blackberries grow all over town, making it easy to stroll around in the evenings (tasty free snacks are good incentive for casual exercise). We stumble on blackberries, thimbleberries, and strawberries on our hikes as well. These boost morale even more than seeing the pretty lilies! There’s nothing better than a handful of wild strawberries after a hot hike.
These blackberries are a bit more tart than the ones in the store. Kiki says it’s because they’re not totally ready yet but I like them this way~
Wild strawberries are the most delicious food to eat. Just thinking about them makes me swoon~
On our off time, Kiki and I visited a lavender festival. It was very hot but we cooled down with some delicious lavender ice cream. We walked through the growing fields and reflected on how hot it was that day. The lavender plants were very pretty though!
There were quite a few different varieties of lavender but they all smelled the same to me.
We also went on a backpacking trip to the Devil’s Punchbowl! It’s a big snowmelt lake at the top of a mountain. The hike was pretty, with blankets of twin flower (Linnaea borealis) lining the sides of the trail for most of it. The punchbowl itself was very bowl-like indeed– it seemed as if the devil’s hand might reach over the rim for a taste at any time. The water was cool and refreshing~ I recommend it!
The sign is spooky, especially in the middle of the woods!
Our cute little campsite~
We, of course, made time for scrabble on our journey.
There’s nothing like a game of scrabble next to a beautiful lake.
I went home for a week to see my sister before she moved away for graduate school. It was really nice to be at home without any responsibilities, but I’m glad to be back.
Officially, I went home to see my sister. But seeing my dog was a huge bonus.
I’ve now entered my last month here. My heart aches to think about it!
Lillie Pennington
Grants Pass, OR