Week 2

Date: 04/14/13

Time of Day: 10:23- 11:30 am 

Weather: Cloudy but mostly sunny

Temperature: about 45 degrees Fahrenheit

It was a gorgeous sunday morning as the sun was shining through light clouds in the sky, birds chirping and a couple of crows cawing here and there. The temperature was a little chilly but warming up surely into the afternoon. When I had reached my location, I was excited to see what has changed or not changed. Of course the same western red cedars and douglas firs were standing tall. I noticed more ferns blooming and was able to identify the Lady fern nearby the western red cedar. I was able to identify it by how the the leaves start from small to big and then small again. I also noticed a thimbleberry, that I had missed last week, the leaves had 5 lobes and attained tiny hairs on both sides of the leaf and was serrated. I found a couple smaller plants in the ground cover, I  sketched it as well and later ID the plant to maybe a Tall Oregon grape or Cascade Oregon grape. It was small and the flowers were budding in the center of the plant near the ground, which had a greenish/yellow color to them. Where the leaves of the plant grew around and they were long and serrated and pointy (like holly?), and grew symmetric of each other. There was another shrub that looked similar but was bigger. I think it was a Pacific Red Elderberry. The stems were really weak, I accidentally pulled to hard on one of the stems to get a closer look but it broke, I felt horrible. The leaves on this shrub was very elongated and serrated, they were "light", and grew opposite of each other. I also noticed the flowers that bloomed in the center, they were white/ivory in color, and grew in conical clusters. I was excited to see the salmonberry from last week. It had bloomed more flowers! But still no berries. 

I did the 4 sketches based on memory sketching:

Possibly an Oregon Grape. I sketched the leaves first and then drew the flower buds after.

Thimbleberry!

Pacific Red Elderberry

Small, just blooming fern

 I did exercises 1-8 (labeled 3-8) with Salmon Berry!

I wanted to show some color with the study drawing

A shot of the Oregon grape

I was able to get a quick picture of the fly-like species that landed on one of the Pacific Red Elderberry leaves.

Another shot of some salmon berry (I chose this one to sketch). 

I wish I took a picture of the small fern, I have one from last week (picture not posted) but not this week. I took advantage of the sunshine and mostly sketched, rather than taking pictures. Hopefully in future posts I will provide repeat pictures of my area and of species to better see the progress along the quarter.