Stories from the mountain.

It's been over 100 degrees most days this week, so we're spending as much time as possible by the swimming hole. One of my best friends is here and he's a fantastic photographer. Chris has taken a bunch of great photos while he's been visiting the …

Bees work so hard, but never seem overwhelmed. I aspire to be more like them; staying busy but also remembering to take time to just be. :) One thing I added to my schedule this week is posting videos to TikTok. When I first found TikTok, it seemed…

Summer is my favorite season for having visitors up on the mountain. You can be outside almost all the time, and there's no shortage of fun and relaxing things to do, like floating away the afternoon down at the swimming hole. I got to do that this…

The wildflowers are wrapping up their blooms as we head into summer here on the mountain, but I found this picture I took a few weeks ago that I wanted to share with you. These firecracker flowers, Dichelostemma ida-maia, are native to Northern Cali…

This was a difficult week for me. Some things I'd been working on didn't go as I'd hoped, and the weight of everything we've all been through these past 18 months just felt a bit crushing. It was hard to escape the frustration and sadness I was feel…

Clarkia amoena, or farewell to spring, are some of the last flowers to bloom in spring here on the mountain. They seem to love the dry soil, but don't last all that long because of it. Sometimes you'll see whole hillsides covered in them. This is…

Clarkia concinna, or red ribbons, is a Northern California native that can only be found here. Right now, they are popping up near where the innocence is blooming most heavily. Those few acres of shady hillside under the oaks and buckeyes seem to be…

Calochortus tolmiei, or pussy ears, get their common name from their remarkable resemblance to the ears of a cat. If that cat was purple and white. :) They grow everywhere around here and bloom in early May. The fields and forests are dotted with t…

Collinsia heterophylla, or innocence, is another one of my favorite flowers. Every May, it pops out in towers of purple flowers that sometimes cover entire hillsides. They are native to California and here they grow best in the shady oak and buckeye…

I got my wish. It rained today. :) So I spent the morning out listening to the black-headed grosbeaks. They show up around this time every year and stay for a few months. Their distinctive song is so beautiful. It relaxes and calms me so I thought …