Hollis
MY BLOGS
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In the Company of Plants and Rocks
http://plantsandrocks.blogspot.com/
Natural history blog focusing on botany, ecology and geology ... from the field as much as possible!
LATEST ARTICLES ( 431 )
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Street Plants in Laramie in December?!
From asphalt and snow, some grass will grow.When Lucy suggested we post about street plants four times a year, I was not optimistic for December. We live at 700... Read more
Posted on 22 December 2014 OUTDOORS -
Recommended Reading: “Photographing Trees”
the air frost and heavy mist offered the potential for creating a great winter scene ... I left lots of room around the tree to make the photograph more... Read more
Posted on 19 December 2014 OUTDOORS -
Lost Water Found
Precious water flows from vertically-tilted limestone at Big Spring.Much of the American West is dry country, where farmers and ranchers lust after and fight... Read more
Posted on 13 December 2014 OUTDOORS -
Tree-following: Bark
tree-following (noun): informal The practice of observing a tree over the course of a year, and reporting on it monthly, usually online. Read more
Posted on 07 December 2014 OUTDOORS -
Death, Destruction & Douglas Fir
“The plant world exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice.”(historian Will Durant, adpated by botanist Arthur Kruckeberg)I love Douglas fi... Read more
Posted on 01 December 2014 OUTDOORS -
A Random Hike on a Reef
Behind the San Rafael Reef – the answer to geo-challenge 2.Wild Horse Canyon – one of those beautiful Utah slot canyons – has been calling me for years. On a... Read more
Posted on 23 November 2014 OUTDOORS -
Life of a Goblin
Rock goblins in the prime of life.On Halloween I posted a day-appropriate geo-challenge. The answer is ... Goblin Valley State Park in southeast Utah. Here... Read more
Posted on 16 November 2014 OUTDOORS -
A Visit to the First Ice Art of the Season Exhibition
As you may have heard, the jet stream curved far north around a ridge of good weather and then curved south, followed by the infamous polar vortex ... or... Read more
Posted on 13 November 2014 OUTDOORS -
Cottonwood Houses, Cottonwood Stars
Many years ago, in the heat of summer, little girls sat in the shade of cottonwood trees and made tipis from the leaves.These they made in numbers and placed... Read more
Posted on 09 November 2014 OUTDOORS -
Cottonwood Encounters
Cottonwood leaf in mud.Cottonwoods are common in the American West, even in the drier parts (they often mean water's close by). I was pleased to meet three on m... Read more
Posted on 05 November 2014 OUTDOORS -
On the Road: Final Geo-challenge
Where am I? what's all that weird orange rock?! maybe I was out too long.Plants and Rocks is back from vacation, with one more geo-challenge to share. But I... Read more
Posted on 31 October 2014 OUTDOORS -
On the Road: Geo-challenge 2
Where are we now? View is from behind, as the sun sets.Plants Rocks is still on on the road and finding it hard to blog, so here’s another quick geo-challenge. Read more
Posted on 27 October 2014 OUTDOORS -
On the Road: Geo-challenge 1
Where are we? Plants Rocks is on vacation. First destination was an east-west mountain range often described as an anomaly because contemporaneous ranges... Read more
Posted on 22 October 2014 OUTDOORS -
Walking the Devil’s Backbone
Driving home from Rocky Mountain National Park we stopped just a few miles west of Loveland, Colorado, to examine the Devil’s Backbone. How could we not?! Read more
Posted on 12 October 2014 OUTDOORS -
Tree-following: That First Question
Do you remember that first question ... back in February when the cottonwoods were leafless, the ground in snow, and the river under ice? “Is this a single... Read more
Posted on 07 October 2014 OUTDOORS -
Urban Tumbleweeds -- Free & Hardly Lonely
Tumbleweeds are integral to our beloved American West -- a land of wide open spaces where tumbleweeds, cowboys and other free spirits can go wherever the wind... Read more
Posted on 30 September 2014 OUTDOORS -
Shear Beauty Along the Highway
Crenulated beds (chevron folds) with alpine phlox.Wyoming Highway 130 crosses the Medicine Bow Mountains west of Laramie. Immediately beyond the turnoff to... Read more
Posted on 27 September 2014 OUTDOORS -
Fall Flower Selfies
Sunflower selfie (Helianthus annuus).“Selfie” was the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year in 2013: selfie noun, informal (also selfy; plural selfies): a... Read more
Posted on 22 September 2014 OUTDOORS -
Ypsilon Mountain, Handiwork of a Master Sculptor
Ypsilon Mountain above blue hat, part of the Mummy Range in northern Colorado.Abbott and Cook say “Ice is Earth’s master sculptor, and in Colorado, Rocky... Read more
Posted on 14 September 2014 OUTDOORS -
Tree-following: Pilgrims from the East
Being a dedicated Tree-follower, each month I report on my tree, a lance-leaf cottonwood along the Laramie River in southeast Wyoming, USA. Read more
Posted on 07 September 2014 OUTDOORS