The third and final sketching class held under the auspices of the Morro Coast Audubon Society took place on Saturday, at White Point, where the Morro Bay Museum of Natural History is located. Our local expert this time around was Faylla Chapman, a longtime resident of the area, and a former acquaintance of my wife’s father; they were at Stanford’s marine biology station in Pacific Grove in the early 19xxs (exact decade redacted to protect my growing sense of alarm at how young everyone seems these days!).
Over the course of these three weekend sessions engaging with the sketchbook, I’ve discovered a few things: the first is, sketching and journaling really isn’t my jam. I’m a technophile; I relate much better to a subject through a lens and keyboard than through a pencil and notepad. I also discovered that I really enjoy reading other people’s nature journals. So I was more than happy to tag along with M over these past few Saturdays, hitting up the local nature spots, and just relaxing/hiking/taking pictures.
I also really love listening to experts talk about their subjects of enthusiasm: from Max and his birds at Sweet Springs, to Nishi and his serpentine-soil-based ecosystems at Froom Creek, to Faylla and the geology and history of Morro Bay today. During our walk, Faylla pointed out numerous lichens and introduced us to the broad outlines of lichenology: foliose, fruticose, and crustose were the big three that we encountered on the site.
She also acquainted us with the different rocks of the area: White Point is mostly tuff (volcanic ash that falls from the sky after an eruption and is compacted and hardened by its own heat and/or burial pressure and mineral cementation over time), while the famous rock at the other end of the estuary–the Morro itself–is made of dacite which, like tuff, is an igneous rock, but it differs in various characteristics that I am incompetent to relate.
While Faylla was acquainting us with the history of the site, both natural and anthropological, I was reacquainting myself with the Nikon and its macro lens (my brief fling with a budget macro lens on the Sony is o-v-e-r!). So much so that I was disappointed with most of the photos from the excursion, but here are a few general photos of lichens from the site:
My favorite photo from the trip, though, was of this sapling pine (I suspect a Monterey Cypress) growing out of a crook in a eucalyptus stump:
I love the vibrant green foliage and the bright brown trunk against the faded gray of the old stump.
Here’s a map of my wanderings during the trip:
