luzula: a Luzula pilosa, or hairy wood-rush (Default)
[personal profile] luzula
I and [personal profile] podfic_lover are currently in a motel in Brookings, and tomorrow we're heading towards the Redwoods. Here are some photos of our trip through the Pacific Northwest so far. Basically we are hiking around in nature reserves, and also meeting up with fangirls, and I love it! Although my cold is still not gone. /o\


[personal profile] podfic_lover is disappointed that American motels do not actually look like they do in Supernatural. The most quirky one we've stayed at so far was yesterday--it was cheap and a bit seedy, but hey, it had chickens in the back yard! We fed the chickens with bread crumbs from the window.


Okay, so I hope you know that when I say "photos of the Pacific Northwest", what I really mean is "photos of plants of the Pacific Northwest", because that's what I tend to photograph. This is lettuce lung Lobaria oregana, which is a lichen I find very cool. There are benefits of an oceanic climate.


Shore pine Pinus contorta, living up to its name. Probably the tree most hated by Swedish environmentalists, because it's planted as an exotic in large plantations by forest companies. It's fascinating to get to know it in its native habitat, and I quite like it now.


A baby seedling of seashore lupine Lupinus littoralis, with the cotyledons still on it. (Yeah, I had to look up cotyledons--in Swedish we call those "heart-leaves". They're the first leaves that grow on a seedling, often looking very different from the later leaves.)


Evidence that everything is larger in the US (the country is larger, the mountains are larger, motel beds and restaurant portions are larger, the squares on the waffles are larger). This particular instance shows a big tree stump with a blueberry bush on it. In Sweden, blueberry bushes never go higher than your knees.


Sea lions! Wow, they are so cool. They're like a cross between a seal and a dog or something--so much more active than seals. I could watch them for hours (and I probably did).


Flowering salal Gaultheria shallon, which is a new genus for me. Pretty, yes? I have also fallen in love with madrone, which is just an incredibly beautiful tree.


Ugly clear-cuttings: not just in Sweden. This is in the area of Mt. Hood.


I will end this with a picture from the Oregon aquarium of a sea otter sucking its own cock. Fun times.

(no subject)

Date: 2012-04-13 02:38 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mackenziesmomma.livejournal.com
I did not know about the 50 mile range.

I didn't either until I went to Northwest Trek a few years ago. That was where I also learned about the slug goo for stinging nettles thing. *nods*

I thought for sure that some places I've seen them (Zenia, California, to pick one of those most familiar to me) were surely farther than 50 miles from the ocean, since it takes more than two hours to drive there from the coast... but nope.

You have to take into account that it takes so long to drive there because generally roads aren't straight they take you this way and that way and the other way to get where you wanna go. *nods*
Page generated Jun. 23rd, 2025 10:40 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios