What a weekend! Lovely weather - absolutely perfect.
It was a weekend of butterflies madly skipping NW-ward. Thousands of them. I have no idea what the butterflies are - they were here and gone before one could do anything apart from appreciate the speed with which they moved. These butterflies were on A Mission. We think they were Painted Lady type butterflies but who knows? they certainly were not fluttering by in the usual butterfly manner - no barely able to fly for these chaps! These were the ferraris of the flutterby world. Hwnce no photos.
Also we've been seeing heaps of fuzzy black caterpillars on one bit of sidewalk on the way to downtown Campbell. They look totally black and are right by a "wild" patch by the freeway. There's oxalis pes-caprae, redwoods, ashes, thistles, and wild oats and other grasses in the area. We have not seen them feeding on anything there. We would love to know what they are. I might be able to get a pic of one before it is squashed.
Monday, 30 March 2009
Thursday, 19 March 2009
Umm, where am I again?
This 'ere's the wattle,
Emblem uv our land.
You can stick it ina bottle,
You can 'old it in yer 'and.
(Thanks, Pythons!)
Silver wattle and gum trees against a blue blue sky.
I took these pictures at Vasona Lake Park, Los Gatos, California, USA. Ahem.
South Bay Spring
Nearly a week ago, after getting my first ever flat on any of my bikes (and getting it fixed), I went for my oft-proposed ride up the Los Gatos Creek trail. I had been itching to ride up the creek for weeks and finally the planets were in the right places, etc etc and I could ride!
My goodness it was lovely!
I shall let you judge for yourselves. Click on any of the pics to go to the Flickr sizes page. :-)
(Redbuds - natives)
(the creek from a bridge - all green and growing!)
(A rather small egret in said creek)
(Another small egret further up the creek)
(common fiddleneck - native)
Something lives in this hole, a Californian Ground Squirrel I think but it dashed away before I could get a shot of it. It was being stalked by a presumably feral calico cat.
(Statice - weed)
(Canadians walking on water)
(Percolation ponds looking northish)
(Percolation ponds looking southish/Los Gatos-ish)
(Weedy but very very native - I love Californian poppies!)
(Lupinus succulentus - native)
(Male ?swamp? Baccharis - native)
(Female ?swamp? Baccharis - native)
(Some of the prettiest weeds you'll ever see but boy are they pests. I doubt if there is one native species in that shot.)
(Just below the Vasona Lake weir)
(lake outlet)
I am really enjoying this spring - it is quite exuberant :-)
My goodness it was lovely!
I shall let you judge for yourselves. Click on any of the pics to go to the Flickr sizes page. :-)
(Redbuds - natives)
(the creek from a bridge - all green and growing!)
(A rather small egret in said creek)
(Another small egret further up the creek)
(common fiddleneck - native)
Something lives in this hole, a Californian Ground Squirrel I think but it dashed away before I could get a shot of it. It was being stalked by a presumably feral calico cat.
(Statice - weed)
(Canadians walking on water)
(Percolation ponds looking northish)
(Percolation ponds looking southish/Los Gatos-ish)
(Weedy but very very native - I love Californian poppies!)
(Lupinus succulentus - native)
(Male ?swamp? Baccharis - native)
(Female ?swamp? Baccharis - native)
(Some of the prettiest weeds you'll ever see but boy are they pests. I doubt if there is one native species in that shot.)
(Just below the Vasona Lake weir)
(lake outlet)
I am really enjoying this spring - it is quite exuberant :-)
Wednesday, 18 March 2009
Spring prettiness
I am a total sucker for these.
Crab apples?
No matter what they are, their daintiness, whiteness and pinkness pull me in like a moth to a flame.
Crab apples?
No matter what they are, their daintiness, whiteness and pinkness pull me in like a moth to a flame.
Sunday, 15 March 2009
A circular drive
Today we went for a nice drive, courtesy of Nathan's boss. We showed a potential new hire and his girlfriend around a bit of Santa Cruz and then up the coast and across through the redwoods in the coastal range. (I am pleased to report that we didn't actually drive through any trees, just past them.)
We had lunch by the marina, where it was grey when we first sat down
and then brightened up by the time we had finished:
The heiferweizen was a little shaken up it seems - someone had problems pouring it without a huge head.
We walked up almost to the mouth of the river (you can see the dredger and its pipeline in the pic above) to admire the Pacific and the lighthouse.
The breakwater/groin that the lighthouse sits on is made up of concrete "shapes" which totally fascinated me. Obviously the local sandstoney type rock is not impervious enough to the pounding of the waves. (see natural bridges below)
We then found Cliff Road after doing a little tour of the boardwalk area (no pics) and drove up to Natural Bridges. Looking south from the carpark, we saw
BLUE!
And looking north?
GREY! (note there is only one bridge left - I guess the same fate befell the second arch to the mainland as befell our London Bridge in Victoria.)
Which direction were we going in? Guess? Guess why there are no pics of the coastline or of the wildflowers (native and weedy) along the coastline? So we drove up to Pescadero, with brief views of a cloudy and veiled Pacific Ocean on our left, no kite surfers, past rudey nudey Bonny Doon Beach.... Interestingly it was a little clearer up in the mountains! So we stopped on Alpine Road for a little walk through the redwoods.
These are only bubby coastal redwoods - nothing like the ones we saw at Muir Woods and not to be confused with the giant sequoias that live say at Yosemite.
Quite a number of plants are in flower at present in the redwoods or are about to be in flower.
Redwood sorrel, or Oxalis oregana, or Oregon sorrel. The flowers were not very open.
Cardamine californica or milkmaids (different to our milkmaids at home!). The one in the pic below has pointy leaves - I presume it is the same plant as it has the same flower structure.
After a long afternoon of looking, gawping, knitting (for me) and blathering (oops, me again), we hopped across to the Sonoma Chicken Coop for dinner with knitty/crochetty friends and home with a magnificent sunset at our backs.
We had lunch by the marina, where it was grey when we first sat down
and then brightened up by the time we had finished:
The heiferweizen was a little shaken up it seems - someone had problems pouring it without a huge head.
We walked up almost to the mouth of the river (you can see the dredger and its pipeline in the pic above) to admire the Pacific and the lighthouse.
The breakwater/groin that the lighthouse sits on is made up of concrete "shapes" which totally fascinated me. Obviously the local sandstoney type rock is not impervious enough to the pounding of the waves. (see natural bridges below)
We then found Cliff Road after doing a little tour of the boardwalk area (no pics) and drove up to Natural Bridges. Looking south from the carpark, we saw
BLUE!
And looking north?
GREY! (note there is only one bridge left - I guess the same fate befell the second arch to the mainland as befell our London Bridge in Victoria.)
Which direction were we going in? Guess? Guess why there are no pics of the coastline or of the wildflowers (native and weedy) along the coastline? So we drove up to Pescadero, with brief views of a cloudy and veiled Pacific Ocean on our left, no kite surfers, past rudey nudey Bonny Doon Beach.... Interestingly it was a little clearer up in the mountains! So we stopped on Alpine Road for a little walk through the redwoods.
These are only bubby coastal redwoods - nothing like the ones we saw at Muir Woods and not to be confused with the giant sequoias that live say at Yosemite.
Quite a number of plants are in flower at present in the redwoods or are about to be in flower.
Redwood sorrel, or Oxalis oregana, or Oregon sorrel. The flowers were not very open.
Cardamine californica or milkmaids (different to our milkmaids at home!). The one in the pic below has pointy leaves - I presume it is the same plant as it has the same flower structure.
After a long afternoon of looking, gawping, knitting (for me) and blathering (oops, me again), we hopped across to the Sonoma Chicken Coop for dinner with knitty/crochetty friends and home with a magnificent sunset at our backs.
Tuesday, 3 March 2009
A dog question for you
I was having a discussion with an older, American, lady the other day. We were talking about cattle dogs. They are quite fashionable here in the States. People think they will be good family dogs. (But they are not - they are bred to run all day, they will herd anything - ducks, chooks, children - and tend to look to one pack leader.)
She considered it cruel to have such a dog on a "running line" - a leash that allowed them to run around the back yard but did not allow them to jump the fence or otherwise escape a yard. Under no circumstances was it acceptable to put the dog on a running line.
She thought it much better that the dog be confined in a cage whilst its owners were out.
Quite obviously I think it is cruel to have a very active dog confined for 8-10 hours a day. As long as the dog has access to water, shelter and entertainment (and there are no mountain lions/etc) I can't see the problem with the running line. Free roaming of the yard is better but if the dog is an escape artiste.... (Some of these dogs love jumping fences and will go in search of something to herd if they are not entertained enough at home.)
You may be able to tell that I don't think that active dogs in apartments are a good idea either. AFAIK most apartment dogs are kept in cages when their pack leaders are out.
What do you think?
The other think I abominate is the docking of dogs' tails. Some dogs in Oz have docked tails (eg corgis, Jack Russells and some other short haired terriers are allowed stumps as are dobermans and other pointer dogs) though the practice is on the way out. Here - all sorts of dogs have docked tails. The other day I saw a cattle dog with a tail docked as short as a corgi's - there was no tail left! It wasn't the first one that I had seen docked so short. How do dogs tell tales if they have no tail? Taking off a dog's tail is like making us mute - the dog cannot talk properly. You can tell a lot about a dog's mood by how it is holding its tail. People carry on about how horrid it is to neuter a male dog - how can he take his greatest pleasure? (or what men think is his greatest pleasure cos they sorta envy the dog's flexibility) - but think nothing of docking the tail to "improve the dog's aesthetics" and to make sure it can't sweep the cups and dustables off the coffee table. It seems to be a very odd double standard.
OK, off my hobbyhorse now. You might get some local pics again soon! I have plenty to share.
PS If you hadn't already worked it out, I am a cat person.
She considered it cruel to have such a dog on a "running line" - a leash that allowed them to run around the back yard but did not allow them to jump the fence or otherwise escape a yard. Under no circumstances was it acceptable to put the dog on a running line.
She thought it much better that the dog be confined in a cage whilst its owners were out.
Quite obviously I think it is cruel to have a very active dog confined for 8-10 hours a day. As long as the dog has access to water, shelter and entertainment (and there are no mountain lions/etc) I can't see the problem with the running line. Free roaming of the yard is better but if the dog is an escape artiste.... (Some of these dogs love jumping fences and will go in search of something to herd if they are not entertained enough at home.)
You may be able to tell that I don't think that active dogs in apartments are a good idea either. AFAIK most apartment dogs are kept in cages when their pack leaders are out.
What do you think?
The other think I abominate is the docking of dogs' tails. Some dogs in Oz have docked tails (eg corgis, Jack Russells and some other short haired terriers are allowed stumps as are dobermans and other pointer dogs) though the practice is on the way out. Here - all sorts of dogs have docked tails. The other day I saw a cattle dog with a tail docked as short as a corgi's - there was no tail left! It wasn't the first one that I had seen docked so short. How do dogs tell tales if they have no tail? Taking off a dog's tail is like making us mute - the dog cannot talk properly. You can tell a lot about a dog's mood by how it is holding its tail. People carry on about how horrid it is to neuter a male dog - how can he take his greatest pleasure? (or what men think is his greatest pleasure cos they sorta envy the dog's flexibility) - but think nothing of docking the tail to "improve the dog's aesthetics" and to make sure it can't sweep the cups and dustables off the coffee table. It seems to be a very odd double standard.
OK, off my hobbyhorse now. You might get some local pics again soon! I have plenty to share.
PS If you hadn't already worked it out, I am a cat person.
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