Off The Beaten Track

I know the sign says "Stay on trail"

...but my husband says "let's go"

and... well... what can one do?


So we peek into places like this...




that turn into this...




and this...




and this...




and catch a glimpse of this...





This box didn't have a sign, but I knew we're not to touch it

...but my daughter's curiosity got the best of her

So she opened it...




and was thrilled to find a nest with three of these...





The Road Not Taken
by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Early Wildflowers

Wondrous truths, and manifold as wondrous,
God hath written in those stars above;
But not less in the bright flowerets under us
Stands the revelation of his love.

~From "Flowers" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


Monkeyflower



Indian Paintbrush



Blue Dicks



Bindweed with crab spider and what looks like a tick



unidenfitied yellow flowers - identified! These are fiddlnecks - don't know why I thought they weren't, they didn't seem as curled as the ones we saw in Chino Hills last year. Goes to show you what a year will do. I believe it's called "Momnesia" :)



unidentified white flowers - identified! These are popcorn flowers :)





Wild radish



Miner's lettuce



unidentified purple flower



bluedicks



bush sunflower (encelia)