Whitewater River

Every time I drive east of Palm Springs, I pass an exit on I-10 called whitewater. If driven up that way before, but never all the way to the Whitewater Preserve. Leon and I were trying new spots for hiking this time around, so we thought we'd give it a try.

When we first arrived, it didn't look like much- lots of mowed grass around an old fish hatchery. The overall effect was like a city park. Eventually we found the trail system, and discovered a lovely bit of wilderness where the mountains meet the desert.

The Whitewater River drains out of the mountains around Big Bear. It's a year-round water source in an otherwise rather arid region. The trail begins by going upstream. Eventually it crosses the river, goes a short distance up a side canyon, and then switchbacks sharply up hill to a plateau overlooking the valley. The weather was just about perfect, and the views were magnificent.


There was not a lot in bloom this late in the season. I'm always a bit disoriented when I venture out in a part of the world that I don't know well- the few blooming plants that I saw were mostly unfamiliar. The pale pink blossom appears to be a composite, possibly related to chickory. Down by the river we saw a few plants with amazing bright orange flowers that I thought might be some sort of Justicia. You would think that such a showy, conspicuous flower would be easy to identify- but so far I've had no luck.



We didn't see many insects, either. There were a couple of cloudless sulphur butterflies, and a very active little carabid beetle. When we stopped for lunch, a darkling beetle ventured out of its hiding place and started eating a crumb from my sandwich.




I would love to go back at a different time of the year when the insects might be more interesting. Still, I wouldn't hesitate to return in November- it was a beautiful spot in very easy reach of Palm Springs.

Forty-nine Palms

Leon and I are on our annual autumn trip to Palm Springs. We are having beautiful weather, and decided to venture up to Joshua Tree National Park yesterday. This year, we wanted to see a part of the park that we had not previously visited. The guide book listed a hike to an oasis called 49 Palms. It sounded intriguing, so off we went.

View along the ridge line

The trail runs up to a ridge line, then down into a valley where the palms are found. The book mentioned abundant barrel cactus at the ridge, and they were quite impressive. What I really liked about the barrel cactus here is how vivid red the spines are. We saw some orange and yellow examples, too, but the red really dominated.

Barrel cactus with rock

Red spines!

The oasis at 49 Palms is particularly lush, probably because there is surface water here year round. The pools of water and tiny stream that trickled just enough to be barely audible lent a serenity to the late morning- something I always love about the desert.

A pool at the oasis

The guide book mentions a second grove of palms upstream from the first, and cautions that the hike involves some rock scrambling. The hike actually involves quite a bit of rock scrambling, and progress was quite slow in places. There were very few insects about, and not many blooming plants. There were a few chuparosa in bloom and some pretty yellow sedums.

Chuparosa

Sedum

We kept encountering pine cones in the watercourse, and saw one large pine log that had washed downstream during a flash flood. We never did encounter the second grove of palm trees, but eventually got high enough up that we started seeing scattered, scrubby pines. The huge log must have washed down from considerably higher up- none of the trees that we were seeing were anywhere near that big.

Large pine log

Pine tree

Even though we did not get up to the second grove of palms, we enjoyed the scenery, the botany, and the company. I'm not sure that we will hike upstream from the palm grove again, however I hope to visit 49 Palms again.

Cool cactus tree about 6 feet tall

Leon at the point where we turned back

Valençay

Through my friends Iva and Kevin, I have recently gotten a source for raw goat's milk. A few months back, I got my first batch and used it to whip up a goat version of Camembert. It turned out fine, and it was very exciting that I finally had the chance to get real curds from goat milk. The goat milk that I had previously used was from the store and ultra-Pasteurized. I could only use it to make soft cheeses, and then only with difficulty.

As happy as I was to be able to use it for making Camembert, the results were not as exciting as I would have liked. The raw bovine milk that I typically use just tastes better in the final product. Late last summer I was reading through one of my cheese cookbooks and found an interesting recipe for a goat cheese called Valençay. About a month ago the opportunity arose to get more raw goat's milk, so I thought I'd give it a try.


There were several features of Valençay that intrigued me. The cheese is made in pyramid-shaped molds (which I had to buy), and uses food-grade ash (which I also had to buy). The rennet is added to the milk at room temperature, so the milk has to incubate for a long time- overnight- before the curds have fully formed. The curds are not cut as they are with most of the other cheeses I have made. Rather, some of the whey is decanted off of the top, then thin slices are cut from the curd and piled into the molds. After two days, the newly-formed cheeses are unmolded and the surface dusted with ash.

The ash serves several purposes. It inhibits the growth of unwanted bacteria, it promotes the growth of the desired white Penicillium mold, and it helps firm the surface of what is otherwise an extremely soft cheese.


The aging process is relatively short for Valençay- just 2 weeks. We opened the first one the other evening, and I was really pleased with the results. It's very different from any of the other cheeses that I have previously tried to make. It had a great flavor, the texture was wonderfully soft and creamy, and it's a very pretty cheese. Leon loved it. I predict that this one will go into my regular cheese-making rotation.

Five Things

I've been shorthanded at work for the last month and a half- hence my lack of posting. In celebration of National Coming Out Day (tomorrow!) I have previously blogged about my own coming out- but I've now told most of that story (the bits of the story are here, here, and here. UrSpo recently did a post that serves nicely as a meme appropriate for a day dedicated to honesty in identity. The question is simple:

What five things would you pick to symbolize yourself?


1. Leon. This should surprise nobody. I have spent over half my life with the man. He has helped me to become the man I am today and my life would be greatly impoverished without him.


2. A butterfly net. Butterflies have at various times of my life been my hobby or my career, but they have always been my passion. Most people who know me strongly associate me with them. My current net has accompanied me across the country, and to many exotic places including Ecuador, Malaysia and Mexico, so it also represents my love of travel.

3. Home made cheese. Although a relatively recent interest, cheese making represents a lot of what I like about food and cooking. The end result is something that I really enjoy sharing with family and friends. For me, cheese making appeals to both head and heart. My heart responds to the nurturing aspects of making something good for people who mean a lot to me. For a while I was teaching the process to a friend and felt similarly about that experience. My head really enjoys the chemistry involved.

4. A Spo-shirt. This object is really about friendship. UrSpo makes fabulous Hawaiian-style shirts, and I am the proud recipient of several of these. A handmade gift such as this (or, for example, jam or tomatillo salsa) is a beautiful expression of friendship. I choose this item both as a specific emblem of my friendship with Spo and as a more general symbol of the importance of friendship in my life.


5. Bluff Spring Fen. I got the Fen at about the same time that I got Leon. It has been a joint project and a labor of love for nearly thirty years now. I would have had no idea when I started volunteering there, but the fen has influenced huge parts of my life: where I live, my job, my marriage. As with all great loves it has been the source of both joy and heartache. My decision to become involved remains one of the most fulfilling transformative experiences of my life.

Happy Coming Out Day to all!

Indiana Metalmarks

Our visit took us to the banks of the Ohio River

Unlike populations further to the north, swamp metalmark butterflies in southern Indiana have two generations annually. The second one flies in mid August. Last year, members of my department visited and found dozens of individuals, the largest population we have yet encountered. A couple of weeks ago, I returned for some further work with this population. My goals were:

1. Do a mark/release/recapture study, incorporating GPS to measure dispersal rates of the species
2. Obtain a few specimens to test for an insect pathogen called Wolbachia
3. Obtain females from which to obtain eggs in order to try to develop methods to hold larvae from this species over the winter

This year, I went down with Andy. a member of the horticultural staff at the museum. We had beautiful weather, but were disappointed to find far fewer metalmarks than we did last summer. We were unable to complete the dispersal study, but did manage to to GPS mapping of the capture location of the 18 or so specimens that we marked. Having been able to mark very few individuals, we recaptured only one. No statistical analysis possible here. Still we got four females and have a bunch of eggs in the lab. We also have sufficient material for Wolbachia testing.

Marked metalmark
These guys are so tiny that it's really hard to mark them

Although we found few metalmarks, we did see lots of other butterflies, including three lifers for me: Hoary-edged Skipper, Goatweed Butterfly, and Gemmed Satyr.

Goatweed Butterfly (Anaea andria)

Hoary-edge Skipper (Achalarus lyciades)

In addition to new species, I was able to get some better photographs of familiar species. I was most pleased with the Tiger Swallowtail and Least Skipper.

Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus)

Least Skipper (Ancyloxypha numitor)

What do do when the big experiment of a trip for field study turns out to be a bust? I consoled myself with a stop at Falls of the Ohio State Park on the way home to check out the tiger beetles. I got some decent photos, including the Coppery Tiger Beetle, another lifer for me.

Coppery Tiger Beetle (Ellipsoptera cuprascens)

Hentz' Red-Bellied Tiger Beetle, Revisited

Three years ago, I made my first visit in many years that took me back to my home town in mid summer. On a walk in the woods, I stumbled upon a tiger beetle subspecies (Cicindela rufiventris hentzii) that is endemic to the Boston area. The beetle was on Agassiz Rock, a large granite outcrop that is owned and managed by the Trustees of the Reservation. Several months later, I was contacted by the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, informing me that this is a state-listed (Threatened) species, and that this population was not in their database.

Agassiz Rock

For the first time since then, I'm back in Massachusetts at the right time of year to see hentzii. I went back today with several goals. I wanted to see that the population is persisting. I have a much better camera than I did in 2008, and wanted to try for some better photos. I am aware of a second rock outcropping about a half mile away from Agassiz Rock, and wanted to see if the beetle could be found there as well.



I was successful at all three of these goals. The population at Agassiz is small- I've never seen more than one individual per visit, but I did see one this time. I was able to get a series of photos with the new camera. I'm much happier with these pictures than with the ones from my old camera.

Cardinal Flower and Pickerelweed

The walk to the second rock outcropping is lovely. The land is owned by the Manchester-Essex Conservation Trust. A beautiful wetland stretches between Agassiz Rock and the other outcop. The Pickerelweed and Cardinal Flowers were potting on a spectacular display.

The Second Granite Outcrop

I've never been to the second granite outcrop before, though I have seen it from the highway many times. The tiger beetles are very well camouflaged, and fly less than many other species I am familiar with. Perhaps they persist better on the tiny islands of bare-rock habitat if they are reluctant to fly. I managed to see two individuals on this site.


On Wednesday, Leon and I are heading off to Martha's Vineyard. Who knows, maybe we'll see the last Massachusetts population of Cicindela dorsalis.

Goat's Milk Camembert

I've been wanting to try my Camembert recipe with goat's milk for some time now, but I've been stymied by a lack of a source for the milk. Some months ago, my friend Iva mentioned friends in Wisconsin who raise their own milking goats. We have been talking about getting some for me to try. Last week they visited and had two gallons plus a quart. I made chèvre with the quart and was pleased with the results. On Sunday I tried a Camembert.

Part of the problem with store-bought goat's milk is that everything that I have found has been ultra-pasteurized. Although this process increases the shelf life dramatically, it denatures that milk proteins. The result is that you can never get a "clean break" after you add the rennet to the milk. As a result, there is no solid curd mass to work with. That wasn't a problem with this milk. It yielded beautiful curds.

So far, I've been very happy with my first experiments with the raw goat's milk. My main surprise was that the yield of curds is smaller from the goat's milk than from the same volume of cow's milk. It will be a couple of months before this is ready to try. I'm really looking forward to that.

Since I was already working with cheese on Sunday, I decided that it was time to scrape the surface of a couple of blue cheeses that I had started about a month ago. The blue mold is growing nicely on and (I hope) in them. When the cheese looks like the photo above, you have to gently scrape away the moldy surface with a knife. Below is the after photo.

This cheese will be ready to try in a few months. I may try to hold out and save it for the Christmas holidays.