On the Way to Red Hill

 

The Russian River

Mr. Glad and I took our friend from college days on a hike at the coast. Up from Shell Beach, near where the Russian River flows into the ocean and sea lions sleep in clusters on the sand, a trail winds toward Red Hill. We didn't make it to the top of anything, and the fog would have obscured our view anyway. But the overcast skies made it easy to photograph flowers.

Before we got to the trailhead we stopped on the bluff north of the river and looked down on the pale shapes of the sea lions, with a bunch of dark birds nearby, cormorants perhaps. 

 

  The slopes were covered with lovely pink grass, which contrasted nicely with white yarrow, and with yellow and blue flowers, too.

The blooms of this unknown plant remind me of a bouquet of fat and curling pipecleaners. It liked to grow in the poison oak and brambles.

Rattlesnake Grass - Briza maxima

 

Rattlesnake Grass is darling. Plantations of the stuff hid in the pink grass. It occurred to me to take some home and send it in a box to a grandchild, and as it didn't look endangered I had no qualms about stealing.  Indeed, just now I found that it's not even native to California, and is on the list of invasive plants, though its invasion is termed "limited."

The giant yellow lupine bushes that one often sees near the coast weren't in bloom, but smaller and mostly blue ones 

dotted the sides of the trail. 

Looking down on a lupine

As we trotted along comfortably, the breeze blew warm, though the sun was obscured. Noises from the highway down below were muffled, and the wild rose hid herself among some dead branches.