On Sunday the unusual threat of snow had passed and it was actually warm enough to bear being outside, so D. and I went back to Windy Hill Open Space Preserve (because the parking lot at our first choice of destination, Arastradero Preserve, was full, and Windy Hill was the next nearest place). Here's my pics.
Blossoms (probably almond) are popping out in the parking lot.
The canopy above us.
Milkmaids are in bloom now.
Maidenhair ferns love all the rain we've had lately.
Nestled among patches of lichen on a log are these jelly fungi.
A typical forest scene: fungi and ferns.
Giant trilliums are about to pop into bloom.
Bracket fungi sprout from the end of this log.
New leaves are popping out all over.
More blossoms are blossoming.
Bramble leaves glow like jewels backlit by the sun.
Poison hemlock leaves in a patch of sun.
A meadow, with the Santa Cruz Mountains on the horizon.
We catch a glimpse of the http://www.airshipventures.com/theship.php Airship Ventures zeppelin Eureka as it floats past Mission Peak (some snow patches still visible).
The last puffy clouds of the recent cold rainstorm pass by in a brilliant sky.
Corte Madera Creek is up from the rain.
A fallen log in a meadow next to the creek is a study in textures as well as in microhabitats.
Bay laurel trees are in blossom now too.
A mushroom near the creek.
Teasels.
A pied billed grebe and a coot on Sausal Pond.
Looking up the spillway toward Sausal Pond.
.
