Life Happenings: the Best Sea Glass Haul!

Thursday's morning walk was full of nice surprises! I woke up feeling a little cranky because I'm in the 3rd week of the Whole30 program, but I decided to walk off my frustrations. I'm glad I did, because the ocean waves were fabulous today. 

My favorite finds of the day:

• A lime-green glass piece with swirls 
• A triangular mint piece
• A nice chunky piece of light blue sea glass
• A piece of red sea glass

I'm especially stoked with the red piece. When I took a trip to Fort Bragg, I stopped by a Sea Glass Museum, and I read that red sea glass is especially rare, because most of the red glass comes from old taillights from cars. Nowadays most taillights are plastic, so it's very rare to find a nice, pitted piece of red glass. HOW EXCITING~~

Life Lately: Succulent Babies, Coastal Life, and Mossy Mount Davidson

Brief update on my succulent babies: lots of propagation! The rains have actually jump-started their growth and I'm so excited to make more itty bitty terrariums for my friends!

I've been walking along Ocean Beach and I love when the beach is empty and the skies are overcast. Gloomy weather is the perfect time to walk along the beach and listen to music. I haven't had as many opportunities to go to the beach ever since I started my new job, but every time I do go I leave feeling refreshed and rejuvenated. I know I say this all the time, but I'm such a water/earth baby--I find peace of mind when I'm surrounded by the ocean, trees, mountains--you name it. It's a place of refuge for me. 

Weekends seem to be the only times I am free to explore, so on Sunday my friends and I hiked to Mount Davidson, where the fog and mist makes its home within the trees...

I spent some time scanning the floors and rocks and spotted a ton of different mosses and lichens...

Even more exciting, I spotted lots of gorgeous fungi coming out after the rains!

Lots of strap coral fungi on some fallen trees...

Spotting tiny little mushrooms always make my day, I still got the eye for spotting the tiniest little mushrooms! 

This was my favorite find of the day--some jelly fungi that reminded me of yellow skittles or jelly beans.

Spotting all the fungi made me especially happy and excited, because I haven't spotted any cool mushrooms lately. If you're into mushroom hunting, Mount Davidson has the perfect micro-climate for them--it's usually really wet and misty, and if you venture off the trails *just a little bit* you might be surprised at what you find!

As I mentioned in my previous post, most of my photos are on instagram (@terrariumtherapy), but keep checking back here--I have pictures from Portland, OR coming soon :)

Is it Mushroom Season Yet?

I've been on campus all week and have been spotting mushrooms here and there. Yesterday I spotted this basket stinkhorn (clathrus ruber) that hasn't fully come out of its egg sack, otherwise known as the volva. 

This is one of my favorite mushrooms--the basket/lattice structure amazes me. 

I went to Science Neat on Tuesday and a ton of researchers and mycologists set up demos and talks to learn more about fungi. This may sound silly, but I finally learned how to pronounce certain words. Like fungi. Almost all of the researchers say fungi with a 'juh' sound and not with a 'guh' sound. Is it interchangeable?! I am definitely not a scientist. 

Anyway, I really enjoyed the talks, which were held at El Rio in San Francisco. Science? Bar? That's a good pairing! It would probably be godsend if I were a frequent drinker. 

A demo on identifying mushrooms

Here are some of the things I learned...and I'll be brief (If i truly allowed my nerdy side to come out I probably would have been jotting notes in my notebook):

•fungi are more like humans than plants

•picking up mushrooms doesn't kill them...one of the speakers compared it to picking an apple, the mushroom itself is the fruiting body. 

•some fungi are predators--they "hunt" using toxins that paralyzing flies, worms, and nematodes.

•zombies may actually be real--well in the insect works. Some fungi invade the bodies and brains of ants and other insects, causing them to alter their behavior. The insects, ants in this case, climb to a tall grass/branch and clamp on using their mandibles and die. Once the fungi has dissolved the ants internal organs, a large structure comes out of the ant's head and releases more spores that other insects pick up. WEIRD but fascinating!!

I'm planning a mushroom hunt tomorrow, and I hope I spot some cool fungi. The rains are coming down hard today in San Francisco...hope this is the start of mushroom season! 

Adventures in Hawaii -- Oahu

 I'm baaaack! The month of July just breezed on by, and now we are in the middle of August. It's been a few weeks, so let me recap more of July and the first week of August... I was in Hawaii for about a week, and I loved every moment of it!

I had the best food in Oahu. I've been waiting almost 2 years for some fresh poi, chicken long rice, kalua pork, lomi lomi salmon, and lau lau!

Outside of Helena's,  I found a survivor. Giant cacti can grow anywhere--even in a parking lot.

On our way up to Haleiwa I found some kelp near Mokoliʻi that reminded me a lot of fungi and lichen...

I got to explore some wonderful tide pools in Haleiwa...

...and ate lots of shave ice!

I also got to try a wonderful new shave ice that *in my opinion* is a lot better than Matsumoto's shave ice. House of Pure Aloha makes their own syrups without any artificial flavorings or added sugars, and I got to try the Kalespin, which is made from fresh kale, spinach, apple juice and lemon. Think of juice in the form of shave ice--it was pure heaven.

"At the House of Pure Aloha, there are no strangers – only ohana yet to be met." Uncle Clay, the owner of HOPA, is a wonderful soul. I walked in and was instantly greeted by him, who quickly welcomed us into their ohana. If you're craving shave ice, go to HOPA, it's such a wonderful experience!

I also stopped by Paiko, a gorgeous botanical boutique in Oahu and met with a fellow Courtney, who presented me with this gorgeous pink tillandsia!

I think this was the best photo I captured in Oahu:

Summer Life: Creative Energy is All Around!

I get so active in the evenings, while everyone else is winding down, I have all of this energy that I need to use before I sleep. Last night I worked on my watercolor project and some illustrations.

Let it be known: I have been watching too many shows on Netflix, particularly Adventure Time  and Doctor Who:

Lumpy Space Princess

Succulent-Propagating Dalek

There, it's out. I am a Whovian. I love Doctor Who and I love succulents so what better way that to pair the two together?

I love not having a schedule right now, I think I might have found my ideal sleep time too! Lately my mind has been going crazy with ideas and thoughts in the late evening, from 10pm and on. Normally I try to go to sleep, but it's difficult because I have so much on my mind. So now I've been sleeping in until 10 and just begin my work later on in the day. It's a little strange, because I noticed this change within the last year. Is this something that happens with age?

So I've found my most creative spurts occur in the late evening, and I like it! I've been doing some more painting, and I'm also starting some new projects. I gathered all of my old succulents (even the ones I left in my parent's backyard) and decided I'm going to have a succulent planting party today:

Most of these succulents were left in my parent's backyard with the intention of returning to them, but I ended up forgetting. But that's the amazing thing about succulents--unlike vegetables or flowers, they tend to thrive on neglect (and I'm good at giving them that) and still look pretty amazing. Most of them just need to be pruned and replanted, so that's today's task.

Tiny hens and chicks that need to be cleaned up a bit

This succulent planting party is actually taking longer than I expected, so I plan on continuing this planting project next week. Stay tuned for updates!

Post-Grad Life: Napa and Santa Cruz

My first week post-grad has been an amazing one--I spent a day in Napa with my grad school cohort, painted some 'thank you' post cards for family members, slept in till 10am, and took a day trip to Santa Cruz. I've also been working out on a regular basis again! Hooray for self-care!

Some of our cohort (as well as respective partners) having fun in Napa, CA

My painted postcards (You can see more photos in this post).

I can't believe a year has passed since I spent a summer in Santa Cruz. As much as I love San Francisco, I can't help but return to a warm(er) place surrounded by forests and coastline. It's much quieter and slower than San Francisco, but hey, I'm okay with that for a couple of months. I started a garden last year and that was one of the most successful gardens I maintained. I like when the weather is on my side! I missed going to the tide pools, redwood forests, and riding my bike without fear of dying.

Gorgeous coastline off of HWY 1

Tide Pools

 Tide pools along the coast resemble underwater 'terrariums'! I love how the algae and seaweed resemble moss and lichen.

Nothing happened. My lungs are weak :(

Cool find of the day: I was trudging through a field and found this giant dandelion. I was immediately reminded of the humongous dandelions in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze (1991):

Comic Alliance

Well, that sums up my first week of post-grad life. Next week is dedicated to thesis revisions and job applications, but lots of fun in-between. I have plans for some tutorials that I'll post on this blog, and I have several garden projects that I'll share in the very near future.

Adventures: Treasure Island

Yesterday I escaped the traffic and bustling streets of San Francisco by taking a drive out to Treasure Island, CA. I learned that Treasure Island was created in 1936 and was once owned by the U.S. Navy. The entire island is built on landfill, and some areas on the island are contaminated with toxic waste. Today's goal was to revisit some abandoned naval barracks:

 Sage Hall

 A courtyard

 A familiar sight, little lawn mushrooms

The buildings are boarded and painted, but even walking around them gave me chills. It's so quiet and eerie, but for some reason I was excited this time around. It's sort of strange to be in a place that is no longer inhabited, it definitely felt like a ghost town. There are plans in place for redeveloping Treasure Island, so I'm sure these sites won't be around for much longer.

Adventures: Glass Beach in Fort Bragg, CA

 Lately I've been craving more beach time, so my partner and I made a (very unplanned) day trip to Glass Beach in Fort Bragg, CA. We planned on waking up early so we could also visit the Botanical Gardens and the Pygmy Forest in Jughandle State Reserve, but we ended up arriving around 4pm. Nevertheless, the beach was beautiful and we got to watch the sun set. We thought about spending the night there but after getting spooked by strange folks at the local Safeway, we decided to return home for the evening. I still enjoyed the trip and we'll definitely return later this month.

On hwy 20-- 3 hours North from San Francisco and the scenery completely changes...

 

...and so does the leaf "litter"

Mushrooms: little surprises in places you normally overlook!

Glass Beach at dusk

 Collecting is not allowed in at Glass Beach, however there are areas right outside the state park boundary where you can look for sea glass. 

Glass Beach is comprised of mostly sea glass and occasional pottery that came about from years of dumping garbage over the cliffs of Fort Bragg.

 My handmade collection jar necklace filled with sea glass collected near Fort Bragg, CA

 Looking forward to tomorrow's adventure: Muir Woods!