Natural Color and Texture

The son and daughter of our good friend who died on Monday are staying with us, so a lot of difficult decisions are being made. I wish we could help them more.

The fog was particularly thick and damp this morning and visibility was low, so my Blipfoto eyes were set on telephoto. My picture is a section of a living tree trunk.I liked the textures and subtle shades of color.

A few years ago, an ongoing project to clear as many non-native species from the East Bay Hills as possible began. The two most visible of these species are Scotch Broom, and Eucalypatus trees (a daunting task). The trees are oily and messy and provided something like 80% of the fuel for the 1991 firestorm. The wood is like iron and impossible to split. The stump must be poisoned within hours of cutting the the tree or ten more trees will sprout from it. Many trees still remain but a lot of the cut trunks line park roads and trails, and serve as road markers and benches.

The broom is highly invasive and can obliterate a trail in a few seasons. The bright yellow flowers turn into a million little seed filled pods per plant. Periodically test patches appear with little signs saying what agents were used to try to get rid it. Obviously some have worked better than others

Another fire prevention task in this "woodland/urban interface", is to mow thousands of acres of dry grass, thistles, poison oak and small shrubs. This job is efficiently and quickly performed by herds of goats who can mow down every bit of chaparral and dry grass in no time. They come from a company called Goats R Us along with a goatherd and his little caravan and a couple of sheepdogs. The goats even eat the poison oak. And they are really cute. I love these efficient and ecologically friendly mowing machines.

Tonight I'm providing a salad for a potluck gathering with the widow and children of our friend and hoping that a change of scene and some friends can help ease their way for a few hours.