Nature Knowledge

Last weekend some friends and I attended a Nature Knowledge workshop in the San Bernardino Mountains outside Los Angeles. Below is just a sample of the nature knowledge we acquired: the name of every flower family; plants in forests, chaparral, and riparian (river) ecosystems; a scientific hypothesis of when the "big one" (earthquake) will shake California; mountain bird songs of birds in the San Bernardino Mountains; how to identify butterflies and river larva (stoneflies, mayflies); and how much hot chocolate a human tummy can digest. Enjoy some pictures!


The Gravel Road, like the one we drove on to reach camp



Flowers!


Bugs resting on our hats



River bugs gathered by participants

Silverlake Stairs

Tonight I led my first in a series of three hikes through the public staircases in my neighborhood of Silverlake. We based the hikes on a book entitled "Secret Stairs: A Walking Guide to the Historic Staircases of Los Angeles," by Charles Fleming. Even a local blogger who writes about hikes from the book joined in the hike. She promised a blog post about tonight's hike. Check out her site.

We walked over 1000 steps over the course of 5 miles in 2 hours. One of the stairs we traversed is the famous Laurel and Hardy stairs where Laurel and Hardy carried a piano up public stairs in a 30 minute short. The movie won the first Academy Award for Live Action Short Film (Comedy) in 1932. Today greenery covers the stairs. We also crossed Silverlake's smallest staircase with only 5 stairs. Among other famous places was a home once owned by Lily Tomlin whom you may remember from I Heart Huckabees or A Prairie Home Companion.

Stay tuned for details from the next two hikes. Here is a sideways picture to view. I can navigate through Silverlake but I cannot post a picture.