#my local climate is temperate chaparral

[snackugaki]

“Dear Moon... tell the Sun I said, ‘Knock it off with this bullshit, I have sweated clean through 80 pairs of underwear in under 3 hours. I will come up there and fight you myself, watch. I hate you.’”

#i can draw things other than turtles #illustration #it is so goddamn hot down here #local news predicted a HEATWAVE #my local climate is temperate chaparral #why the FUCK is my inside temperature skirting near three digit heat #i'm kidding I know why #I will fucking 2 v 1 Bezos and Musk and every NFT motherfucker no mods #using cool colors only marginally gave me the illusion of cooling off #but now I'm mad about it because I drew cool-looking water and I want nothing more to lie face down in there #the thermostat of hell is always at the devil's preferred temperature

[fatehbaz]

one of my favorite photos of the wonderful Bipes biporus. a photo by Jesus Gordolomi. it’s a reptile. sometimes called “Mexican mole lizard.” completely endemic to Baja California, isolated from the world, as the Sea of Cortez separates Baja from the rest of the continent. relatively small. two little arms, with five toes each. only other animal closely related is in the same genus, another Bipes, which also is endemic to a small region of western Mexico, on the continent. since they live nowhere else, not easy to find good photos of Bipes biporus. even harder to see images of Bipes that include a good look at their habitat. so i love that Gordolomi included the cactus in the photo.

the biodiversity of the Pacific coast in the western hemisphere.

cannot emphasize enough how big a fan i am of temperate rainforest, Mediterranean-climate chaparral, Sonoran Desert, Baja California, and the Pacific coast of the Americas in general. one thing that i love most about the Pacific coast of both continents is the dramatic juxtaposition between wetter rainforest/chaparral and arid desert, which sometimes exist very close to each other. (a phenomenon replicated in both in PNW/California and in coastal Chile, existing at similar latitudes in the northern and southern hemispheres, like a mirror of each other.) and specifically, the coastal chaparral of California and geographically isolated landscapes of Baja California both host many unique endemic species of reptiles found nowhere else. and despite the proximity of the deserts nearby, the western slopes of mountain ridgelines in SoCal and Baja California face the Pacific, and with the help of orographic uplift of the marine air, they receive more fog and moisture, and can harbor populations of endemic moss, fungus, and even salamanders like locally-endemic subspecies of ensatina. (so that you can find moss beds on the western slopes and true desert on the eastern slopes). and of course there are many endemic plants, as both coastal chaparral and Sonoran Desert region are unique habitats for plants.

one artist who has done some cool photography (i think, at least) of Baja ecosystems is Jesus Gordolomi. so i like seeing the imagery of cactus juxtaposed with mushrooms. i really like that they depict the “smaller” creatures, and their photos also depict the diversity of the region, the contrast between wet coastal landscapes and the drier deserts. also, my favorite way to look at or depict reptiles and amphibians is to see or photograph them “in situ,” with their habitat visible, so that you can see the creature in ecological context with the rest of its multispecies community, and appreciate the vegetation and geology and landscape, etc.

Gordolomi’s fl!kr account seems undiscovered (less than 25 followers) but i wanted to share how much i love these. all photos here from Gordolomi.