An Afternoon Nature Walk

in GEMS3 years ago

Time for some fresh air!

Fresh air is a relative term here in Los Angeles, but if you want to get some, Palos Verdes is probably one of the better parts of town to get it.

I've posted before about this location, but I haven't been for a while and the plants have all regrown and changed quite a lot since the last time I was here. On a side note, when I was driving here, I passed by the spot where Tiger Woods crashed his car on the side of Hawthorne Blvd. There are still orange cones sitting there for some reason!

I don't know what these are called, but they are all over and quite beautiful!

This above tree is just near the entrance of the Botanic Garden. I always love it when they are in bloom because the flowers are quite bright and exotic looking.

I recently reinstalled a really cool app that I used to use called Plant.net. You can point your smartphone at any plant, take a photo and it will try to tell you what it is. It does a surprisingly good job quite a lot of the time! Check it out. I keep forgetting that I have it when I go to the garden.

Everything is quite green and flowering right now.

We've been getting a bit of light misty rain lately which may be helping a bit with the plants. Every little bit helps around here. I've noticed before that after even a small amount of rain all kinds of things sprout up, seemingly overnight. We get a light of dry spells when everything goes completely brown.

My favorite trail in the gardens

The Buchloe trail is fairly short compared to what I'm used to being from out East, but as far as this location is concerned, it's the most 'woods-like' area of the whole place. Every time we go, we try to take a walk down this trail.

Leave me alone!

Unfortunately, little Ricky is always so drowsy when we go to the gardens. I always think that he is going to have a blast and enjoy all the sights of nature, but he never fails to fall asleep on our walks.

Although, he did have one adventure on this trip that I failed to capture on my camera. He was speed crawling while chasing a little rabbit!

An open field where we like to take a break

In the above photo, you can see an area that we stop at quite often. This is where lots of rabbits like to congregate and snack on the grasses. The rabbits are surprisingly tame as they are used to people walking the trails all day long. Of course if you get too close, they will run off.

However, little Ricky apparently didn't come off as much of a threat to the bunnies because I put him on the ground and they didn't react much. He bolted off toward them and they back off a little, then would stop. Then they would run a little bit, just out of his reach. It was pretty amazing to watch! It has been a lot of fun watching this baby get more alert and observant each day.

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Well if I get strolled in a park like that I will for sure fall asleep 🤣 That field is so beautiful, I've always wanted to be in a peaceful place like that. When you mentioned about the rabbits it reminded me of Alice in Wonderland lol

I have actually stopped to take a nap here before. Well, not on purpose exactly. I brought a blanket out to sit on the grass one time, and dozed off before I knew it. Best sleep I have had in a long time. haha!

Haha I could tell! Good thing a rabbit didn't fart on your face or something 😂

Oh dang, he is getting so big already! That is crazy! This looks like a really beautiful place to hang out. I grew up around the corner from a nature preserve when I was a kid, so I can really appreciate all of these kinds of places!

I am blown away by how fast he's growing. He already barely fits in his car seat! (And has 4 teeth)

I grew up around a lot of wooded areas and corn fields and never thought I'd miss it back then, but I sure do. I like living in the city, but I have to be able to get to some kind of nature relatively quickly.

I hear you! I love where we live. Close to the cities but woods behind us and farm fields around us.

Nature has been for me the medicine during these dystopian pandemic times. I also got one of those apps that tell me the plant on my old phone but I cannot recall the name and I want to reinstall if you guess the name let me know in a comment, I may give it a try. I've tried google lens before

Hi, @yidneth! I hope you are well. Yes, the pandemic has made me (and everyone else) pretty miserable. Nature definitely takes the edge off!

The app that I use is called plantnet. I have it on both android and iOS. Here is the link to the apple version: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/plantnet/id600547573

It's a lot of fun and works quite well. Sometimes it has problems, but I have had a lot of luck with it. I actually just identified a blackberry bush growing in my yard that I almost pulled out because I thought it was a weed! Nice save.

I'll give it a look, I love to hike though wherever I go there's never signal hahah :) Yes I'm well considering how the world is doing... strange times... glad for that blackberry bush, you're gonna get treats in Summer-Autumn now

You can also take pictures and load them into the app when you get home. I've done this a few times! Not as exciting in the moment, but still fun. Looking forward to those berries!

I'd be looking forward them too... yes there's a satisfaction of the immediate knowing as you forage but i shall give it a try.