I was working next to a writer friend today. The story she was working on inspired me to draw this stumbling drunken lab rat.

Santa Cruz, CA
7/30/12

Last week my friend, Jon (http://pellinorepress.com/about/about/about/jspecimens.html), took me on a bicycle explore through Baltimore City. Despite having lived nearby for a long time, I'd never ridden a bicycle in the city before. It was great! There were paths through lush green areas that I had no idea existed, winding overpasses and lake views. Our last stop of the day was the Rawlings Conservatory and Botanic Gardens, where we stopped to sketch. It was a whole new perspective on Baltimore for me.

Baltimore, Maryland. 6/13/12

I went for a hike with mom in a little park off of Vollmerhausen Road. The forest was lush and green and in the underbrush were little tiny frogs. The first one I saw, I thought was a insect it was so tiny. Smaller than a dime. We found six more, and then two larger toads.

Columbia, MD
7/10/12

A guest post by Juna Kurihara (http://www.science-graphics.net/), she shares her tillansia drawing with us!

Tillansia is blowing in the wind, draping from the city park trees on Bull Street. I'm out exploring with Alice and Juna. We are sitting on a park bench and each drawing the Tillansia at a different distances.

I found this small flowering herbaceous plant growing at the edge of a trail, under a fern. I just loved the tiny white flowers.

Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park
Santa Cruz, CA
6/11/12

After a picnic with some friends, I decided to flop out in the sand and soak in some sunshine. I was visited by this tiny menacing black spiky insect. It laboured uphill in the sand being blown around by gusts of wind. Martha, a park interpreter, and I have decided that it's a ladybug larvae. The eight legs confused us at first, but I found more individuals once I started looking, and all the rest had six legs. I'm guessing its a hox gene mutation… More to the point though, who knew a baby ladybug could look so creepy? Now I like them even more. 

It's a hot, sunny California afternoon and I went out hiking with Jen. The hills are yellow and dry, and most of what is still green and lush is poison oak (Toxicodendron diversilobum). We found this sticky monkey-flower in one of the few shady spots on a gravely slope.

Jen wrote an article this week on field sketching. If you want to join us outside, here are some tips: http://noteasytobegreen.wordpress.com/2012/06/16/want-to-feel-connected-to-nature-go-field-sketching/

Freemont Older Open Space
San Jose, CA 6/19/12

Sitting in San Lorenzo Park on a sunny afternoon, Arthur and I sought shade to read beneath cork oak trees (Quercus suber). As we read Game of Thrones and watched kids play on the slide, I noticed moths flitting around the bark of the trees above our heads. They seemed to be living in the deeply ridged bark of the trees. By the time our friend, Scott, joined us the moths were getting quite bold. The first one landed on Arthur's shirt and refused to leave, we named that one Mothra. By the time I finished drawing Mothra another dozen moths had settled on us, they were climbing in my pencil case, crawling over my toes and ornamenting all of our clothing. The city arborist, Leslie says, "The moths are California oak moth (Phryganidia californica), they eat leaves & defoliate trees but do not kill the tree,  it is a symbiotic relationship where the tree temporarily loses but will be fine when caterpillars turn to moths."