New Years Day along the Sonoma County, California Coast

We are getting the first sun here in 3 weeks, as we
start to dry out abit from several weeks of rain. My
small front lawn is looking more like a rice paddy
than turf, and I am trying to keep off it, or sink
into the mud.  Having spent New Years Eve at Sea Ranch
on the Sonoma County Coast, it was incredibly green
and wet.  The amount of standing water in the fields,
full flowing creeks, and verdant green everywhere
reminded me of the lushness of Bali, except no coconut
palms!  

The Myrica californica, Salal, Coffeberry, Huckleberry
and Western Sword Ferns were in their element, and
there were even a few native Iris already blooming,
(not sure if they were I. douglasiana or inominata),
but not much else with any color, just green and more
green.  Immediately along the coastal bluffs, not even
the Lupinus arboreus or Dudleya farinosa were blooming
yet.  The draping lichen Old Man's Beard was very
abundant on many of the pines and alders and left me
musing why it seems to grow so abundantly on some
trees and not others, even when side by side.  

Hiking in the woods turned up a few Snow berry,
Symphoricarpuos albus with remnant white berries, and
lots of Ribes sanguineum still in leaf, but without
any signs of bloom.  If memory serves, the form R. s.
glutinosum can be blooming this early as seen at
Strybing Arboretum in Golden Gate Park.  

The mountains along the Sonoma Coast received about 5
inches of rain in two days, and at the height of the
runs, water was simply gushing everywhere.  I have
never seen so much muddy water running off the slopes
and repeatedly covering the highway, almost a foot
deep in many places.  The ocean was also very muddy as
a result, distinctly brown for at least a half mile
out.  

On a positive note, there didn't seem to be much signs
of die back on the native Pinus contorta and P.
muricata along the Sonoma Coast as we are getting on
the Pinus radiata in Monterey/Santa Cruz and San Mateo
Counties.  With all this rain, the wildflowers should
be spectacular this year.  The drier growers are
looking rather forlorn, I've seen many Agaves such as
A. parryi already rotting out from too much rain, and
the Cotyledon orbiculata don't look too happy either. 


For flowers on a New Years Day, one had to look for
the naturalized plantings of Calla Lilies, Aloe
arborescens and Kniphofia uvaria in patches along the
highway, which were the most colorful things to be
seen.  These all seemed to be quite happy with the
flooded conditions, alternating with no additional
water during the dry season.



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