Fall Fennel - Sing it Gilbert and Sullivan (Palo Alto Baylands Field Trip)

Put on some good walking shoes.

Head to the Palo Alto Baylands.

Click on that Pirates of Penzance recording and sing along....

Foeniculi - Foenicula - Foenicula ha ha ha ha!

Fennel

It's just Fennel

No, I don't know if it's safe to eat. I wouldn't take a chance - especially as some of the nearby flowers are from the carrot family and look suspiciously like poison hemlock. Yah, that's the stuff Socrates drank and three hours later - no Socrates.

So just sing along. 

OK?

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Resources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palo_Alto_Baylands_Nature_Preserve

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foeniculum

A fan of Gilbert and Sullivan Pirates of Penzance - I thought the song was called 'Tarantula' now am wondering..... Is it called 'When the foreman bears his steel'?

When the foreman bears his steel - Tarantula!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pirates_of_Penzance

http://stageagent.com/shows/operetta/385/pirates-of-penzance/songs

Pumpkins - Special Delivery from New York

Country Squash from Rosie

Who lives high in Manhattan

Does she miss California?

Edgewood - Western Style Autumn Colors (Hiking Edgewood)

Our version of fall

Toyon berries in orange and red

California!

California Asters In Bloom - Hiking Windy Hill

California Asters - Aster chilensis

Hey, Purple Asters!

Autumn pollen can be found

Though Windy Hill dry.

Not All . . .

Not all who wander,
Are lost

Vancouver B. C. - Fall Foliage (Field Trip, Travel)

How 'bout them leaves hunh?

This Californian is 'mazed!

Bring on fall color.

Frost nearly there, on the Half Moon Bay Punkins

Click on the illustration above to more fully enjoy these Half Moon Bay punkins!

We lunched with Aimee!

Pumpkin patches on the way home,

Show their fall colors

excerpted from  "When the Frost is on the Punkin" by James Whitcomb Riley  

They’s something kindo’ harty-like about the atmusfere

When the heat of summer’s over and the coolin’ fall is here—

Of course we miss the flowers, and the blossums on the trees,

And the mumble of the hummin’-birds and buzzin’ of the bees;

But the air’s so appetizin’; and the landscape through the haze

Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days

Is a pictur’ that no painter has the colorin’ to mock—

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock.

Half Moon Bay Harbor http://postcardfromcalifornia.blogspot.com/2013/08/half-moon-bay-harbor.html

Three cheers for the San Benito House Deli on Main Street in Half Moon Bay with it's lovely outdoor seating

 I vote for the Olive Walnut bread every time!

http://www.sanbenitohouse.com

When the Frost is On the Punkin, James Whitcomb Riley http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174222

Fairy House, Toad's Stool, or Simply Spoors End? (Haiku)

Fairy houses or merely seats for a toad
Fungi dwell on the path I often walk, along the railroad tracks
towards San Francisquito Creek.

Thread-like hyphae spread,

Find food decomposing here.

Your spoors drop and fly.

Autumnal Drama Queen - Pistache Fall Foliage

A Pistache Tree in full Autumn Dress

Walking along the in-town path that leads to one of the bike bridges that crosses San Francisquito Creek (the middle bridge, closest to El Camino) I met up with this Pistache tree. She's full of airs in her fall dress.

You know how those Pistache sisters are, don't you? They are such drama queens!

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Locale

Start out at Burgess Park, Ravenswood and Alma

Walking Path runs along the railroad tracks on Alma Street, Menlo Park. The bike bridge will take you into Palo Alto (if you turn left) or Stanford Shopping Center (turn right)