We had some amazing rains this winter, and now there are hordes of new Painted Lady (similar to Monarch) butterflies visibly flying down the hill after emerging from the ground. Sorry about the wind noise, but if you stick it out it calms down and you’ll hear some nice birdsong.
Tag Archive: julian
It’s about 3/4 of an inch tall now, with several leaves!
Yesterday the fire departments conducted a controlled burn on nearby Middle Peak:
Tarantula hawks use live tarantulas to impregnate with their young. The tarantula is paralyzed from the hawk’s sting, while the hawk lays its eggs inside the tarantula’s body cavity. The young hatch and eat the poor tarantula from the inside out. There’s been a lot of them flying around lately. This one was trying to drag its host under the house.
The arrival of spring has brought wildflowers with it. This stuff is called Scotch Broom, and it’s highly invasive. We tear it out every chance we get. But sometimes we miss one, at least until it goes into bloom. Lovely sprays of honey/citrus-scented yellow blooms, but left alone, those blooms will turn into bean pods that will further propagate your property. So they get cut.
We also have these purple lupines growing all over the place. They look amazing, and smell exactly like artificially-flavored grape soda.
Put them both into nice art glass vases.
And finally, our African Queen Irises are blooming again after three or four years of dormancy! YAY!
First I cut a few purple wildflowers from our yard:
Then I met up with some friends in Julian for some walking, then after my friend Lynn and I went for brunch at the Candied Apple Pastry Company. I’d heard they were serving proper food now, instead of just sweets. And boy did they deliver. A number of savory crepes stuffed with all sorts of goodness, and also paninni sandwiches, plus breakfasts. I got the “Califoronion” crepe, with smoked ham, brie cheese, and caramelized onions inside, and topped with sliced avocado, a perfectly poached egg, and hollandaise sauce. It was to die for.
In the back you can see Lynn’s “Le Vegetarien” crepe, filled with spinach, cherry tomatoes, portobello mushrooms, brie cheese, and Bechamel sauce.
Later Rich and I enjoyed a killer sunset…
While Mini practiced his stretching skillz…
Then we shared a treat I brought home from the bakery: a Chocolate Bomb. Again, it was to die for.
Death by chocolate.
Mini can sleep in the wonkiest positions:
A pair of birds hanging out on some iron hoops found on the property:
Some recent sunset action:
Got a bunch of lovely fragrant lilacs from our (still recovering) bushes:
Rich & I had a picnic a few miles away, amongst the Cuyamaca meadows. One of these pics is of a bank of Indian morteros. This land has been occupied by humans for hundreds of years.
Random assortment of stuff:
The sunset from a couple days ago:
A gorgeous double rainbow this morning:
Mini is still coming inside every night. He goes back out in the morning. Such a chill cat – he and Cisco are getting along just fine so far. Tomorrow (hopefully) he goes to the vet to get fixed. Wish us luck getting him into the carrier. Here he is making muffins on his color-coordinated fleece blanket:
My mom got us a magnetic knife rack for Christmas. Rich just got it installed. Sure clears up a lot of room in the utensil drawer!
Managed to balance four rocks on the kitchen windowsill. I can usually get three to last for a while, but with four, they fell as soon as we opened that window. The wind blew them down. But they stayed up for an hour or so!
Finally, the other evening, the marimo moss balls were floating up and down in their bowl, when two of them settled right on either side of the third ball on the bottom, creating Mickey Mouse ears! (Couldn’t get the camera to focus on them properly, though.)
It’s been some weeks since we’ve seen Brindle, but Mini is still hanging out at our property. Rich has made up an elaborate shelter that slides under the shed he’s been sleeping under. But this past week, after some nasty weather, we’ve coaxed Mini inside for long stretches of time, usually overnight. In the morning, he meows to be let out. Mini and Cisco have been surprisingly chill around each other, too, thank goodness.
Still wet here.
Stretchies!
Gazing at Rich in adoration
Totally on board with this “warmth” thing. He’s got a super loud purr, like a motor, but it’s hard to hear on video for some reason.
And the belly rubs are acceptable, too. You will DIE when you see the stretch at 0:20.
Some deer hanging out near the salt lick:
We have a handful of junked-up properties here in our area, but this disintegrating ruined trailer in another neighborhood nearby takes the cake. This was taken from the road. What a travesty.
For Christmas, my Mom gave me a piece of heirloom jewelry: my father’s 1958 West Point pin. It was the very first gift he ever gave to my Mom.
It’s not the sort of thing I’ll wear, plus the pins on the back are super tiny. After searching Etsy for a “pincushion frame” I decided I could make one myself.
