I'VE DEVELOPED A BIG INTEREST IN THE LOCAL WILD FLOWERS AND TREES UP IN THE MOUNTAINS

I decided to sketch one of my favorite wildflowers which is called Mountain Dollar plant.  These buds are really about the size of my thumb tip and if they appear big it's because I took close ups - some of them turned out - others fuzzy but it shows what they look like.   After the blooms fall off and more towards end of summer and then fall - the seed pods have turned a silvery transparent color and you can see the seeds that have formed inside.   

This season has brought an abundance of which I've never seen before in seven years, to the mountains up here.  They seem to only be up to about the 5000 altitude mark and after that I rarely see them.  They are all over my yard at this point but the blooms are fading.    However, the wild grape soda lupine is blooming more abundantly at higher altitudes and I'm always trying to capture them on photos as we drive up to different areas.  We've been going to Big Bear quite a bit lately and there have been fields of these beauties which I hope to sketch some day.  

A quote for the day - something i hold on to and believe.

Martin Luther King Jr.

I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.