Keats called autumn "The season of mists and mellow fruitfulness". I don't think we're quite there yet but in the past week or two the light has definitely taken on the quality of late summer sunshine.
 The raspberry canes on the allotment are well on the way to being fruitful.

 Tahoe trails part 9. The Desolation Wilderness is the area to the north of the Meiss Meadows on the western flank of Lake Tahoe. On day 9 -the penultimate day- of my hike I was close enough to do an in and out day hike into Desolation having made camp near the Echo trailhead the night before. Here the Pacific Crest Trail enters this stretch of wilderness via the Upper and Lower Echo Lakes.
 The first photo gives a sense of the stark grandeur of the terrain as I headed to the shores of Lake Aloha as seen in the second photo. The landscape is characteristically alpine but the sun was beating down and it was very hot. The waters of Aloha were actually a lovely temperature for paddling and there were a number of people swimming. Nonetheless there was still a lot of snow on the heights- en route I met a couple heading higher still with skis strapped to their backpacks!
  Tahoe is well known as a ski resort in winter but skiing in late July is unusual even by Tahoe standards.

 The history of making dyes and pigments from plants goes hand in hand with using them for food and medicine. I would go so far as to say that the desire to create colour seems to be as strong an instinct in human nature as the need to nourish ourselves.
 When I began working the allotment a couple of years I noticed some very interesting and unusual plants were growing on the neighbouring plot. Subsequently I met Susan and Ashley and learned that most of the plants they grow are dye plants. Indeed they know a great deal about the subject and are highly skilled practitioners.
 So when they mentioned they were inviting a few people to join them at the weekend to do some dyeing I was very happy to join in.

 We utilised a number of plants including the flowers of Dahlias and Rudbeckia and in particular the leaves of Woad. Isatis tinctoria is the traditional Dyer's Woad of this country being a biennial of eastern origins that reached our shores in ancient times.
 The first step was to gather up bucketfuls of leaves then steep them in hot water. Susan says they smell of the colour blue to her but I must admit I was only getting a slightly cabbagey whiff as they are of the Brassicaceae family of plants!

 Ashley and Susan are expert in the art and science of using mordants, alklisers, reducers and all the tools of the trade to produce colourfast dyes in conjunction with various natural fibers. They have a very informative (and very lovely) website/blog which is well worth checking out: www.naturesrainbow.co.uk

 It's said that the Ancient Britons dyed their bodies with Woad before going into battle (the original Blue Meanies?). Susan noted that Woad is associated with antiseptic properties and speculated this may have been part of the reason they did so.
 She also mentioned that the traditional blue of French window shutters is Woad which has wood preserving qualities!

 For textiles the reason for processing Woad is to produce the beautiful hues of Indigo. And sure enough we dyed various samples and fabrics in the characteristic blue/violet tones that made Indigo a mainstay of the dyer's palette.
 So thanks Susan and Ashley for a great day and sharing your knowledge.

 Tahoe trails part 8. Big Meadow is about 4 miles to the north of Dardenelles Lake and this was my final stretch on the Tahoe Rim Trail on day 8 of the hike. Beyond Big Meadow I cut west on some back roads to a very steep trail known as the Hawley Grade which took me up to the Echo Summit area thereby completing a looping route round the Meiss Meadows.
 Big Meadow is exactly that- a big meadow surrounded by pine forest. The Washo people lived round and about Lake Tahoe for thousands of years but were decimated by the colonisation of America. They migrated with the seasons around their territory- Big Meadow for example was known to be rich in plants for food and medicine.

 Tahoe trails part 7. I camped at Dardenelles Lake for three nights [see part 5] which gave me the opportunity to do a couple of day hikes without lugging all my gear. On day 6 of my expedition I walked down the steep and rocky Lake Valley Trail (and back up again). This was a shady, forested trail for the most part which opened up to some very scenic vistas looking towards Lake Tahoe itself (and the first time I had a glimmer of a phone signal since setting off!).
 On day 7 I hiked out to Scott's Lake and back. As I have mentioned previously the Meiss Meadows are known for their waist-high wildflowers in summer but due to the severe winter and heavy snowfall their peak flowering was still a week or two away when I saw them. The trail to Scott's Lake is the best part of a thousand feet lower (approx. 7000 feet above sea level) and here the wildflowers were in full bloom and they were indeed waist high. 

 Here is a pretty (though unintended) flower bed on the allotment. The mauve/purple spikes in the middle are Anise Hyssop (Agastache foeniculum). The sea of white flowers are Radishes (Raphinus sativus) that have bolted. I seeded them a couple of months ago then didn't get round to picking them because I was away.

Spot the white butterfly on the white flower!

 Tahoe trails part 6. Water is life. Streams and creeks were plentiful on the trail thanks to all the melting snow. The surrounding mountains drain into the Meiss Meadows and thence into Lake Tahoe itself. It became second nature to refill my water bottle every time I came to a crossing.
 Water was scarcer when I hiked to Mount Eddy last year (and it was considerably hotter) so I was glad to keep hydrated on this trip.

 Michaelmas Daisies are a catch all name for the Asters which put on sprays of flowers roundabout now. Various species have been introduced to this country. In particular A. novi-belgii and A. novae-angliae from North America have become in effect wildflowers and spread all over the place, notably along railway lines.
 To all intents and purposes these two are indistinguishable from each other and equally prolific. I should note that the numerous American Aster species bar one have been reclassified and given other names which I should look up but I'm not going to. The Eurasian Asters for the most part remain Asters and the plant family for both continents is still Astereae.
 So Michaelmas Daisy works fine for me, though unscientific. 

 Tahoe trails part 5. Dardenelles Lake is about 6 miles walk from Showers Lake following the Tahoe Rim Trail via Round Lake. Having spent three nights at Showers I decided to do the same at Dardenelles so I could do a couple of day hikes in the immediate area without having to carry the full backpack.
 It was another enchanting locale. I loved this spot from the moment I set eyes on it- note my tent in the bottom left corner of the photograph. Again the shallow waters were perfect for swimming and thankfully mosquitoes were minimal by comparison.
 The weather was mostly hot and sunny but turned cloudier at times. At one point it felt like a storm was brewing with thunder in the mountains and gusting winds; I had a sense of nature as an awesome force.

 Globe Thistle (Echinops ritro) is a great garden plant for late summer in a sunny spot. Both honey bees and bumblebees forage on the spiky, spherical flowers:

 Tahoe trails part 4. The Meiss Meadows were a feature of days 3, 4 and 5 on the trails. At the far end of the meadow in this photo you can just about see the Meiss cabins which stand to this day from when they were a homestead for the Meiss family who farmed here in the 19th. century.
 On days 3 and 4 I headed further south on the Pacific Crest Trail to check out wildflowers in the Carson Pass area [see part 2]. On day 5 I broke camp at Showers Lake and turned east at the cabins to pick up the Tahoe Rim Trail and backpack to Dardanelles Lake.
 The Meiss Meadows are renowned for their wild flowers which are usually waist high by mid-July. The meadows were verdant but the blooms were at least several weeks behind schedule after the exceptional snowfall. 

 Indeed the lingering patches of snow tell the story that peak growth and flowering was still a week or two away for the taller plants.
 In my visits to the alpine areas of California and Oregon it's been a mix of judgement and luck to arrive at the right moment i.e. after the snows have melted and before the landscape becomes parched. The wildflower season generally falls between mid-June and mid-August but that's give or take a few weeks depending on conditions.

 That's not to say that the Meiss Meadows were a disappointment however. They were spectacularly scenic and a fellow hiker noted that we were seeing springtime in the meadows (albeit in July). The smaller, daintier spring ephemerals were there in abundance. For example on a side trail that ran towards the cabins I saw a haze of exquisite low growing magenta flowers along a marshy streamside.
 I noticed another hiker inspecting them closely and I asked if she knew anything about them. She said it was rare to see them and told me their name: Alpine Shooting Stars.

 Looking this up in one of my reference books I learn that their Latin name is Dodecatheon alpinum and they are of the Primrose (Primulaceae) family. So that's the correct botanical nomenclature but I shall always think of them as Alpine Shooting Stars.

 Getting a good crop of Runner Beans on the allotment and they're still flowering so more to come. Once they get climbing they're hardy and reliable- one of the best for the veg patch in my experience. Apparently they were introduced to this country in Elizabethan times as an ornamental; a cane frame or wigwam covered in flowers and pods is indeed a great sight.   

 Tahoe trails part 3. Snow capped peaks, wildflowers and the trail- as I sift through the photos I took on my recent trip this one seems particularly evocative.
 The exceptional winter in the Sierras meant there was still a lot of snow in places and the snow melt is followed by an eruption of wildflowers. Lupins and Woolly Mule's Ears were the most prolific species in bloom (often growing together as seen above).
 The trail in the picture is the Pacific Crest Trail looking south towards Carson Pass. If you walk about 1100 miles in that direction you arrive at Campo on the Mexico border. If you head north for around 1500 miles you get to the Canadian border.
 This is my fourth substantial hike in the States and I've met quite a few 'thru-hikers' on my travels. Perhaps one day I might be able to set aside four or five months to do the whole thing but until then the PCT has proved to be a good way to get to the middle of nowhere in search of wildflowers and far horizons.

 I planted Soapwort (Saponaria officinalis) in the garden a year or two back and it's slowly spreading and sprawling. Not a tidy plant but that doesn't matter in a 'wild' garden.
 Centuries ago Soapwort migrated across Europe from the Middle East. The leaves contain saponins and can be boiled to make a mild detergent. The wool and cloth trades of their day made use of this property so it was probably propagated as a crop of sorts. A simple soap can also be made by rubbing the leaf between the hands with a splash of water which results in a thin (and very green!) lather. 

 Tahoe trails part 2. Wildflowers were abundant on the slopes approaching Carson Pass and I took a couple of days to wander back and forth. Having parked my tent at Showers Lake several miles away I was able to walk out each day in a more leisurely fashion with just a few of the essentials: water, some nuts to snack on and the camera.
 A single wildflower is beautiful in its own right but en masse the effect is particularly stunning. This hot, dry sandy stretch of the Pacific Crest Trail was carpeted with the bright yellow blooms of Woolly Mule's Ears (Wytheis mollis), the fiery red flowers of Scarlet Gilia (Ipomopsis aggregata) and the mauve/purple spikes of innumerable Lupins. There are the best part of two hundred species of Lupin in North America- these may well be Crest Lupin (Lupinus arbustus)?
 I like a bit of botany but William Blake said it all really: "To see a World in a Grain of Sand/And a Heaven in a Wild Flower".  

 The shrubby Persicaria amplexicaulis looks good wherever I see it. I have it in the garden (above) and a couple of weeks ago I came across it growing extensively round a lake in a San Fransisco park. Yet it originates in the Himalayas, China and Pakistan!
 Intense as they are the crimson red flower spikes seem to blend harmoniously with their surroundings and the stems and leaves have the toughness of a wild thing. Various cultivars are available, this one is either 'Firedance' or 'Firetail' I can't remember which (there's probably not much to choose between them). It prefers a bit of moisture but P. amplexicaulis is of the Knotweed family and these are very hardy plants; I can imagine it in some valley in the Himalayas.
 NB Several weeks ago [30th. June] I posted a photo of our native Persicaria bistorta which I saw by a babbling brook in Edale, it's different but clearly related.   

 Tahoe trails part 1. The Amtrak train got me from Oakland to Sacramento where I connected with a Thruway bus to the town of South Lake Tahoe. The lake is one of the largest and deepest freshwater lakes in the States and functions in effect as a resort for holidaying Americans (including gambling which is legal on the Nevada side of the Stateline which runs through the middle of the lake).
 I was bound for the great outdoors so I headed to the edge of town where an abandoned road provided the most direct route into the backcountry.

 As I ascended from approximately 7000 feet above sea level to around 9000 feet vistas began to open up all around. I had gazed upon some mighty landscapes from the windows of the bus and now I was walking into them.
 The Old Meyers Grade as this road is known took me up about 700 feet over a mile and a half or so at which point I could connect with trails to Echo Summit and beyond. It used to be a section of the Lincoln Highway, America's first intercontinental route circa 1915. Now traffic thunders in and out of Tahoe on Highway 50. Meyers Grade is closed to motor vehicles but popular with hikers and mountain bikers.

 Beyond Echo my first night's camp provided me with a big sky and plenty of forest. Actually this was also the site of my last night's camp 10 days later. Essentially I did a loop of sorts round the territory known as the Meiss Roadless Area using sections of the Pacific Crest Trail and the Tahoe Rim Trail.

 For the next 10 days my hiking alternated between forested sections and high mountain meadows. Tahoe and the Sierras had a massive amount of snow over winter, and it was still very much in evidence on the peaks...

 ... and sometimes on the trail. On day 2 I had a gruelling hike uphill on thick snow and I was relieved to get past it after a couple of couple of hours.   

 The PCT and TRT follow contours where possible which makes for somewhat easier walking when not ascending or descending the steep passes.

 On my second day out of Tahoe I reached the idyllic Showers Lake and camped by its waters for several nights using it as a basecamp for some hiking round and about without the full backpack.
 I particularly wanted to explore the section of the PCT between the lake and Carson Pass which is renowned for wildflowers. In alpine areas they begin to bloom in great profusion as the snow melts. Alas, so do the mosquitoes -they were pretty fierce in the early morn and later in the evening- but the flowers and dips in the crystal clear lake were sublime.

 Returning to this country after several weeks away I see clear signs that high summer is moving into late summer. Various plants are going to seed and the seed heads can be as striking as the flowers- like these Papaver somniferum on the allotment. No, I haven't been growing a crop of opium; they seeded themselves so I'll let these self-seed in turn.

 Similarly the Honesty (Lunaria annua) that flowered so vigorously in the front garden [see entry dated April 3rd. 2019] has produced a great many of the characteristic papery seed heads with the seeds clearly visible within:

 NB It's worth collecting the seeds of a particularly good form of a plant. It's a great deal cheaper than buying them and the next generation may have similar characteristics when propagated and grown on. This single specimen of Honesty has produced hundreds of seeds, some of which I'll scatter and others I'll grow in small pots to be planted out in spring.   

 Postcards from California- the streets of San Francisco and the trails of Lake Tahoe. I flew to the States July 15th. Spent a few days in the Bay Area then traveled by train to Sacramento where I connected with a bus that took me to Tahoe. I backpacked for ten days before returning to Frisco for another short stay, arriving back in London August 1st.
 I'm in the process of sifting through many photos and will be posting a selection in the days ahead.