Trees at Fun Friday: The Juniper Tree

We are on our 5th week of Trees for Fun Friday, hosted by Melissa, of Blogging For Fun.

Gnarled Juniper Tree @ Olmstead Point, Yosemite National Park, CA

This week, I am featuring a tree with admirable strength in character, the Juniper tree. As you can see from the picture above, despite living in a very harsh condition, with hardly a soil on this giant granite rocks, buried in ice and snow for about half of the year or more, directly exposed to the blazing sun and supplied with lesser oxygen at more than 8000 ft of elevation, this juniper tree continues to survive. I see the twisting and the gnarling of its branches as depth in character, its limbs so wrinkled showing admirable wisdom and strength in age, yet its leaves so green showing it is still very much alive.

Lone Juniper Standing on top of this Granite Cliff, Olmstead Point, Yosemite National Park, CA

In the next 3 Fridays, the last 3 Fridays we will be featuring trees, I am saving my last 3 tree posts to 3 California trees where a National Park has been named after them and established for their preservation. If you are very familiar with National Parks or California, you may be able to name these 3 National Parks named after trees.

Before I end this post, let me make an announcement regarding the change in url of our group's site, The Salitype Society. Unintentionally, we lost our old url, but luckily we are able to keep all our posts. You can now visit us at http://www.salitypesociety.org/. To my fellow bloggers and friends, who also follows us at The Salitype Society, I would really be glad and thankful if we continue to see you there.

Trees for Fun Friday: Palo Verde

We are on our 3rd week of Trees for Fun Friday, hosted by Melissa, of Blogging For Fun. However, for me, my Fun Friday falls on a weekend :)

Blue Palo Verde ( tree with yellow blossom) and brittlebush

Palo verde is the Spanish word for "green wood" or "green stick", which alludes to the greenish branches and trunk of the tree.

Snowy Egret Perched on the Greenish Branch of Palo Verde

The palo verde is the herald of spring for many Southwestern United States, because of its huge display of yellow flowers.

Bumblebee Frolicking on Palo Verde's Yellow Flower

Palo verde trees are originally from the Sonoran and Mojave deserts of Southwest USA (Arizona and Eastern California) and Mexico and Baja California. This is a true desert tree and is extremely drought resistant. Because of its minimal water need, palo verde has become a popular landscape plantings as a shade tree along roadways and parks all across Southwest USA. 

There are two species of palo verde that are common in the Southwestern USA, the foothill palo verde and blue palo verde. Both species are spiny, multi-trunked trees.

An Egret Perched on the Spiny Branch of Blue Palo Verde

Palo verde photosynthesize through their green bark, which is a very important adaptation for a tree that lost its leaves during the warm season. Aside from dropping its leaves during the warm season, palo verde also drops its stems and branches to combat drought. There are numerous birds that forage, perch and/or nest in the abundant branches of palo verde.

Egrets Nesting on Palo Verde

The Beauty Behind

I have been going to the same hairstylist for years. He has moved to different salons for better opportunities and I have followed. My hope is he stays local so I won't have to fly to get a haircut ... lol Throughout our history I have developed trust with his expertise in the hair care business. It is easy for me to follow his advice about long hairstyles and hair care in general. He also give me tips about hair care products for specific needs, and of course I believe him every time he tells me the haircut style he suggested for me added allure and made me look more beautiful and younger. During various visits he makes suggestions on skin care. He has convinced me I do not have to spend a ton of money for beautiful hair, flawless-looking skin or gorgeous makeup. His suggestion was many times the less expensive brands produce just as effective results as more expensive brands. Knowing just a few tips can make you a pro at shopping for beauty products to improve your hair, skin, and enhance your cosmetic selections.
Here are the tips I follow to care for my hair and skin:

1) As a general rule, healthy life style means healthy looking hair and skin. Stress, smoking, drinking, not exercising and poor nutrition are not good for skin and hair.

2) For my hair, I use mild shampoo and conditioner. I don't stick to just one brand of shampoo, I like variety and I like to experiment on different brands. I wash my hair three times a week. I only use a blow dryer to dry my hair when I am in a hurry or my husband gives me that "we are late" look. I also deep condition my hair and scalp once a month to give it that shiny look.

3) For my skin, I use unscented body wash and unscented lotion. I try to stay away as much as I can from harsh chemicals. To be really safe, I use baby care soap and lotion most of the time. Also, don't forget to put on generous amount of sun block when you go out playing under the sun.

4) Eat lots of vegetables and fruits, drink a lot of water, maintain good hygiene and get as much sleep as you can.

5) Get your hair styled and cut at least every two months if you can afford it. I don't know what it is, but for me, I feel so much better every time I have my hair done. Plus my hair stylist always tells me when he is done styling my hair that I look beautiful and young looking with my nicely done "prom hair" look, and that makes me feel good inside.

~ by Chay ~

The Naked Coral Tree

Naked Coral Tree Blossom

It is now Sunday, and am late for the Fun Friday post on trees, hosted by Melissa. For 8 weeks, we will be featuring trees, and we are now on second week.

Me and the Naked Coral Tree @ Balboa Park

The naked coral tree or flame coral tree ( Erythrina coralloides ) ranges from Arizona to Oaxaca, Mexico. The beautiful red flowers are used as food but its seed are very poisonous. The blooms are typically pollinated by hummingbirds. 

Hummingbird Pollinating the Naked Coral Tree Blossom

The long, probing bill of the hummingbird is well-adapted for reaching the liquid nectar at the base of the petals deep inside the tubular corolla.This is probably the most cold tolerant coral tree. They can be propagated by stem cutting or by seedlings. During spring, the tree is bare with red flowers. In the summer, the tree is covered with lush large bright green leaves. At Fall, the green leaves turn into yellow. And in winter, the leaves fall exposing the coral like branches, and probably the best time to prune the tree.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Mother's Day weekend.

Trees at Fun Friday: The Torrey Pine

Torrey Pine in Fog

It is Fun Friday again in our group, Blogging for Fun, hosted by Melissa. For 8 weeks, we will be featuring trees, thus the title, "Trees at Fun Friday". 

Torrey Pines Lining the Trail

Inside my favorite nature park to hike in San Diego, are the rarest pines in the United States, the Torrey Pines. This rare pine grows naturally in the wild only in two places: at Torrey Pines State Reserve in San Diego, California, 

Stunted Torrey Pines growing in poor sands on top of sandstone cliffs

and in a single grove at Santa Rosa Island of Channel Islands National Park, off the coast of Santa Barbara, CA. The Torrey Pines that grow along the exposed western portion of the reserve are growing in poor sand, these trees are exposed to very strong winds and the scorching sun. Probably, because of its exposure to harsh elements, some of the Torrey Pines show an aberrant growth referred to as gorilla's nest or witch's broom.

An aberrant growth ( gorilla's nest) on top of Torrey Pine

(found this tree at Razor Point, at the exposed western slope of the Reserve)

The cause of this unusually very bushy growth within the tree is unknown, possibly due to a genetic disturbance. The beauty of Torrey Pines lies in its character, in its survival amidst the nutrient clad sands, surviving drought ( after-all, San Diego is in a semi-arid environment), whipped by strong chilly ocean winds and cooked by the sun.  

Silhouette of a Torrey Pine at Sunset

The Torrey Pines State Reserve was established to preserve these rare pines. The Torrey Pines Golf Course, host of the 2008 US Open Golf Championship, which is located right next to Torrey Pines State Reserve is named after this rare pine trees.

Torrey Pines Golf Course

To learn more about the Torrey Pine tree, please click here. 

Have a good weekend everyone. 

Enjoying Spring

Yellow Carpet of Wildflowers

Spring is around almost everywhere, literally. However, the poppy fields at the trails in Blue Sky Ecological Reserve to Ramona Dam and Toothrock Mountain in Poway did not bloom as much this year, I guess because it warmed later, and the chillier winds depressed their growth and invaded by the taller weeds. However, the bloom at Torrey Pines was still as beautiful as the previous years I had been enjoying it. The yellow carpet of wildflowers above is at Mission Bay, by Pacific Highway and Sea World Drive. This field of wildflowers is actually right next to Sea World. We parked at Fiesta Island,

Jetskiing @ Mission Bay

and took the trails from there to enjoy these wildflowers.

Yellow Amongst Yellow

The tower that you can see at the very far back of the picture above is Sea World's Tower, and am so glad that despite thousands of people inside Sea World, only very few would take time to enjoy the outdoors at Mission Bay.

Anyhow, the walk at Mission Bay was too flat for me that I was back to my favorite place to hike in San Diego, which is at Torrey Pines State Reserve.

@ Broken Hill, Torrey Pines State Reserve

Hiker @ Broken Hill

This is my kind of walk, up and down trails right next to the sea.

Beach Trail from Broken Hill

Trail to Yucca Point

and enjoying the fluttering sea dahlias amongst other wildflowers with the sea breeze.

Sea Dahlias

Lilac Mariposa Lily @ Torrey Pines State Reserve

I thank you all for your continued support and visits here despite I can only update this once a week the most :(. Sorry if I had not been commenting often as well, I will try my best to visit when I get the chance again. Meanwhile, just sharing this piece of information from my side of the world today. I am looking forward to my summer break already when I can write here some more and posts more about the simple joys in of simple life out of the doors :)

Hope you had a good weekend.