The wetlands in Legacy Park are alive with red-winged blackbirds, great-tailed grackles, mallards, coots and egrets. I like to sit by the tules and watch the interactions. Today there were a lot more drakes (9) than ducks (2); the females were getting persistently pursued and didn’t seem too happy about it.
I am admiring the vase of pretty purple chive flowers here on my table, and feeling inspired by the botanical illustrations of Swedish botanist Carl Lindman (1856-1928). There is so much to learn from artists like him.
Chives are widespread in nature across much of Europe, Asia, and North America. A. schoenoprasum is the only species of Allium native to both the New and the Old Worlds. As well as producing edible flowers, leaves and bulbs, chives have pest-repelling properties that make them a great companion plant for most other vegetables and herbs. The plant also provides a great deal of nectar for pollinators. Gotta love ’em!
What’s the equivalent of bed rest for a pregnant citrus tree? Compost and rock dust?
Who knew that sitting inside a huge concrete tub could be so interesting? Grateful for my extremely close focusing binoculars and my macro lens.
Correction on a previous blog post, and an attempt at a comic-style nature journal page (probably only entertaining to me). A reminder that sometimes we see what we want to see.
It’s always fun to poke around the tide pools with Suzanne. We saw several California brown sea hares (Aplysia californica), so-named because their rhinophores look like long ears. Like all sea hares, the California sea hare is hermaphroditic, acting as male and female simultaneously during mating. A. californica is known to form mating chains with up to 20 animals. That would be a sight to see!
There were a bunch of these tiny orb weavers inside a dead maguey leaf (Agave americana). One was green, but most were pretty well camouflaged. So cute!
Carrying ladybug larvae to an ailing plant then watching them crawl all over the leaves is a very satisfying way to spend half an hour. Just sayin’. But then I decided it would be best to plant the sage in the ground. Hopefully it will soon bounce back to good health, with or without the help of ladybugs.
I’m pretty sure these are native, not invasive, ladybug larvae. I think the invasive Asian ones are orange all the way down their sides.
I just discovered the South African visual artist Peter Clarke; I had to check him out because one of my brothers shares his name. I was inspired by his teapot linocuts to try my own rendition with fude fountain pen and watercolour.
