I have an impressive inner alarm. Last night I overheard that my mum planned to go for a walk at
A canyon is yet another new ecosystem for me. At the top it is dry, almost desert, with few trees away from the gardens around the houses. As I walked down the trails I started to see cacti and shrubs. All the plants – including the trees – seem to have small, prickly, leathery leaves. I asked my father and he said those are adaptations to a dry climate. At the bottom of a canyon there was a stream. Around the stream were trees, and taller, greener plants. We also saw some Poison Oak down there. It seems to like moister areas.
We just tried to go for the same walk in the canyon we went on yesterday. Our attempt to follow the same route as the day before was ill-fated mission from the first, but the walk turned out fine anyway. We started later, so it was already hot when we got out the door. Momma and I couldn’t
agree on the different turnoffs to take, I was sure we had seen this before, she was positive of the opposite. We saw the same waterfall again, or at least I think it was the same. In terms of wildlife, we saw a turtle and ducks in the pond at the base of the waterfall, and several ground squirrels. We saw more Poison Oak (I hope I didn’t brush up against it) and some bizarre plum-like fruit on trees. We saw the same kind of fruit in the coyote scat that was on the trail. When we got home and looked it up, we learned that the Catalina Cherries (the plum things) need to pass through a digestive tract to germinate. We also saw some very happy cacti – prickly pears in fruit.
For the rest of today I will be staying at home and (hopefully) doing some math.
