chick lupine ~ 05/22/10 ~ Fort Ord

best guess chick lupine
best guess Lupinus microcarpus var. microcarpus
Fabaceae

Again, another I thought would be easy to identify. I checked all the Lupinus records from the Fort Ord plant list with CalFlora and CalPhotos, and this is my best guess based on the hairiness and it being wider near the top in profile.

manzanitas ~ 05/22/10 ~ Fort Ord

manzanita

Arctostaphylos sp.
Ericaceae

If there was one plant that differentiated Fort Ord - BLM Creekside from my other local favorite hiking places, it would be the manzanita shrub. The last picture looks very similar to a previous manzanita posts, but what can I say, I adore the artsy look of the bare bark.

I have not been able to identify these to species, but I am now utilizing the Fort Ord plants list compiled by the CNPS. In fact, the 4 pictures above may very well be 4 different species. Here, with links to CalPhotos and CalFlora, are the species listed for Fort Ord:
~ Santa Cruz Mountains manzanita (A. crustacea ssp. crinita)
~ brittle-leaf manzanita (A. crustacea ssp. crustacea)
~ Hooker's manzanita (A. hookeri ssp. hookeri)
~ Monterey manzanita (A. montereyensis)
~ Pajaro manzanita (A. pajaroensis)
~ sandmat manzanita (A. pumila)
~ shaggy-barked manzanita (A. tomentosa ssp. tomentosa)
Can anyone give me hints as to how to differentiate between these?

cobweb thistle
Cirsium occidentale var. occidentale
Asteraceae

posted 08/27/10 - Was looking up past pictures from Fort Ord - Creekside this morning and found this thistle I neglected to post previously. It's appropriately named. Interestingly enough there's another variety of the same species that also includes the venus thistle.

does anyone know about parkour?

Monterey Custom House Plaza, CA
May 22, 2010

This is what I like...
District B13 - David Belle chase scene
Kat - 2008 - Female Parkour

For the longest time we couldn't figure out this sign on the plaza walls. It's poorly written. Then, my hubby found a G4 Ninja Warrior try-out vid from these same walls. The guy was good, but I can't find him online anymore.

Like my mom always insisted, get outside!  Although, she preferred for us not to be bleeding, or covered head to toe in mud, or holding a bucket full of stinky crawdads to boil, or... well, you get my drift.

ps 06/23/10 - Continuing with this post, I get a good laugh at the odd looks I see from people while out and about during my early morning "walks" in addition to exclamations of "Holy ****, how'd you do that!?!" Here's another YouTube video that inspires me: click here.

pss 06/25/10 - For some reason, I've been getting more comments lately from complete strangers who see me. Today I met an exuberant mom with her two young children on the summer trolley. She said they spotted me earlier and thought I looked like I was having so much fun jumping around and that she wished she had as much energy so early in the morning... Um, hello? Don't have kids! Well, I didn't know quite how to respond in a nice way, so I thanked her and started a conversation on what she and her family planned to do while they were in town during her husband's business conference. Another couple sat on my favorite hopping rocks while I was passing through. I told them to not move as I jumped around them. I again laughed as their exclamations of "Huh? Whoa! Did she just do that?" faded away.

I dunno, maybe in my own mind I'm better than I really am, but it's kinda fun to hear these things. Mainly for me, it's all about finding my own inner balance. Many days I'm off kilter and take it slow. Other days, I feel entirely comfortable in my own body and the space around me and just go for it. It's a great feeling when that happens.

ps 01/07/15 - Love, love these: Iranian girls do parkour in Tehran and Assassin's Creed Unity meets parkour in real life.