A Ten Year Old's Idea of Cake

My original plans for this weekend were to go camping,
but I felt icky, so I stayed home.
My nephew came over,
and we baked a cake.

He had been wanting to make a marbled cake.
So he mixed it together in my Kitchen Aid
(with some supervision from me.)
He did think the batter was yummy:

Got to be some more in there...

Now to marble that chocolate batter into the vanilla:

Ready for the oven:

Mono Lake

On my way out of Yosemite I stopped by Mono Lake.
I had seen photographs, but the reality was amazing.
Tufa spires spring up from salty waters:

Rabbit brush was blooming through the spires as well:

There were plenty of seabirds, too,
including this obliging gull:

Stopping there meant that I didn't get home until 2 am,
but it was worth it!!

High Country Yosemite

View of Tuolomne meadows
(pronounced, near as I can tell,
TWAL um nee)
east toward Lembert Dome:

Cold water!
I waded right in,
thanks to my nice amphibious Chacos.

A closer look at Lembert Dome:

I just had time for a mite of Yosemite,
but I'd really like to go back!

Mystery Tree B

For this tree, I could not get a needle closeup.
(The needles were WAY too high up.)
But this silhouette view determines that there are no 'packages.'
So, either a fir or a spruce, right?

The distinctive bark again is the real giveaway:

Here's a look at more of these trees,
growing everywhere in the eastern Sierra Nevadas:

Identified it yet?
Of course,
it is a CALIFORNIA RED FIR.

Mystery Tree A

The needles are a first step at identification.
I always remember the mnemonic I was taught as a child:
'Firs are flat and flexible,
Spruces are sharp and square,
Pines come in packages.'
Well, this 'package' consists of twinned needles:

And the cones are small- less than 2 inches,
with little pointy bits in the sections
(the tree book had a more technical way of putting it,
but it amounted to basically that):

And the bark was definitely distinctive.
Scaly, almost smooth.

Have you guessed what it is yet?
You are right:
It is a mature LODGE POLE PINE.

Tree Identification

You are in the eastern Sierra Nevadas.
The elevation is approximately 8,000 feet.
Can you identify these two tree types
by their distinctive trunks?


With the aid of my handy-dandy tree identification book,
I figured it out!
(See next post.)

Morning Spiderweb

You may need to enlarge this,
but if you look closely,
you can see the delicate spiderweb in the thick folds of this tree bark.