Our neighbour friend gave us a most practical gift, with the caveat that she hopes we never have to use it. Given that we relocate rattlesnakes a couple of times a year, I’m glad to have this device. It should be safer than the much shorter kitchen grabber tool we’ve been using.
I’ve started a dedicated garden journal, to keep track of my plantings and also the pests. Here’s a new one for us, the three-lined potato beetle. I noticed the cape gooseberry leaves were being munched. Close inspection revealed plenty of eggs and larvae, along with a single adult. There‘s surely more — I need to add beetle-hunting to my morning routine for a while.
The coyotes at our place have been unusually bold lately, coming within meters of the house in the middle of the day. We always ‘haze’ them to discourage their presence, yelling and chasing them. Bodie puts on a good show, but she’s getting old, and the coyotes seem to know she’s not much of a threat anymore.
I’m preparing for a trip to the Western Sierra Nevada Mountains; this book is coming with me. Quote by John Muir from the intro: “The coniferous forests of the Sierra are the grandest and most beautiful in the world, and grow in a delightful climate on the most interesting and accessible of mountain-ranges, yet strange to say they are not well known.” At minimum, I hope to learn to identify a handful of new-to-me trees while I’m there.
Our nature journal club met at Charmlee Wilderness Park last Sunday; a good time was had by all. The rattlesnake in the bathroom was a highlight!
For my tiny dancer friend.
A family of young deer walked through our garden the other morning. That’s not a rare sight in these parts, but a friend of ours only a few miles away had a black bear in his front yard, which is extremely unusual for Malibu.
On Draw with Me this week, we tackled a classic art school subject. John Singer Sargent, I am not.
hashiworks 