Sediment-in-reservoir

Sediment-in-reservoir
Originally uploaded by tardigrade.

It was my birthday today so, I visited the mountains with a friend. What better way to cheer on another year.

The last couple of days the mornings were cool with some fog and then the sun, in early afternoon, would peak out and warm things up. Two days ago it was 87 Fº in Pasadena - nice. I have been planning to go visit the upper watershed and hoped it would stay warm, but alas, the winter clouds won. Still all in all it was lovely.

Water was still pouring in the East tributary of the San Gabriel River. Most of the small waterfalls off the sides of the mountains have been spent. All summer Public Works have been hauling the sediment from the bottom of the reservoir to another location in the mountains to make room for water in the reservoir behind the dam for next year's winter's rains - and to supply water for drought impacted Los Angeles County.

Dams are funny things. We build them to save water and yet they have a limited 'life' span or usefulness. Rivers are a bodies of water which flow from high places to a lower places - they have a much larger body of water beneath the surface in the soils flowing generally in the same direction, albeit slower.The trees and rocks and animals are swept up in the water, too. The flotsam and jetsam that flow on the surface bring minerals to the iron starved oceans and the sediments enrich the effluvial fans surrounding the rivers. The process distributes the plants, animals and water to the surrounding lands, eroding the mountains away. Before people, the washed out trees, brush, and sediments provided protection from predation, material for breeding, and food in the form of islands for the various ocean going organisms.

We build dams. Then rains and snow-melt, which soak through the soils in the mountains, fill the rivers with water. The force of the water washes sediment down the mountain. The sediment fills up the reservoirs behind the dams, which lowers the depth of the man-made lakes. Depending on the amount of rain, and the decomposition of the mountains' soil and rocks, the man-made lakes can, with some bad luck, be filled and useless in ten to twenty years.

I need to visit the new mountain Public Works created from this summer's dredging of sediment....

hanging-cloud

hanging-cloud
Originally uploaded by tardigrade.

Last Thursday before Christmas the sky was full of these strange clouds. It looked like the clouds wanted to have rain - if you can HAVE rain - but something kept happening to the water droppets. The drops would fall and then get sweeped up back into the air. These silly vapor bags were hanging all over the central vlley of the Los Angeles basin. They somewhat reminded me of a sow's teats.

Dark-eyed-Junco

Dark-eyed-Junco
Originally uploaded by tardigrade.

Originally uploaded by tardigrade.

Down under in the bushes and roses, this small bird was turning up the leaves on the floor looking for little yummy bits to eat. Perhaps, a ground beetle, or a earwig, or a snail, or a centipede hiding under a twig in the moist soil. All I could hear was the shushing of the leaves below.

Birds are funny little animals. They are curious, and if you make the right noise they will stop what they are doing and come out from hiding to look at where the noise is coming from. Two sparrows were just above the Junko and my walking closer made them fly away. "Chi-Chi! Chi -Chi!" I said and up came this little bird to look.

Ginko-leaves

Ginko-leaves
Originally uploaded by tardigrade.

Ginkos, a friend once said, never learned how to be trees - they were too ancient. They grew branches and stems like the lobes on Equisetum, also an ancient plant prior to the Cretaceous Period, sticking straight out perpendicular to the trunk. Oh, but the leaves are so unique and so yellow in fall and early winter here. In China, I have heard people eat the fruit.

Oh , the fruit! They drop to the ground in fall and when crushed, smell like a mixture of dog poo and cheese. However, it is said that they offer good medicine in the form of a vaso-dialator used to help those who forget stuff... Some formulations suggest only using the leaves. Even the yellow jackets that buzz in fall, stay away from the smelly things.... I use them as a deterrent to stepping on my plant beds next to the street. First time steppers in fall are reminded that something was rotten where they last parked...

I'm-so-pretty-oh-so-pretty

I'm-so-pretty-oh-so-pretty
Originally uploaded by tardigrade.

Aix gatericulata, Mandarin Duck

Back at Desconso Gardens... the camellias are revving up this winter and many are open. Some are loosing their petals. All are beautiful and delicate..

How is it that SOME males, like this duck, know how pretty they are and need just that special position to show off? Perhaps prance a bit. Bat its eyelashes. Maybe, take a deep sigh just to show how the rest of the world doesn't come up to its standards....

The male Aix sponsa, Wood Duck, isn't someone to sneeze at. He's beautiful. He's willing to sit next to the Mallards.... Anas sp..

green-road

green-road
Originally uploaded by tardigrade.

Cicindela no longer run in the San Gabriel Mountains. There are streams and ephemerals that flow all summer long and would be perfect for tigers. When and why they disappeared is not known. Perhaps corralling the streams and rivers into a single flow into a reservoir and the aquifer for the valley below, destroyed their habitats. We will never know.

mysterious-oaks

mysterious-oaks
Originally uploaded by tardigrade.

In a forest of California scrub oaks on a rainy grey day, the dark craggy branches remind me of monster movies with Bella Lagosi or Vincent Price.... Perhaps, Roger Corman comes to mind...? My grandfather worked with Roger and Vincent and Bella ... and even let Ed Wood use his studio on Yucca to do some of his ... eh hem, films. Ed Wood scared my mother (who was a kid) when, for a lark, he took his teeth out to prove his disability from World War II. Peter Lori used to visit at my grandparent's home and was apparently quite a funny man despite his dower appearance. Vincent Price was an art collector and loved my grandfather's work. It is too bad I wasn't there to enjoy the ghoulish crowd.