Weekend walk report: Ripples never come back

 Walks taken on Saturday, September 5th and Sunday, September 6th. 

I'm not gonna lie, Saturday's walk was a bitch and I didn't walk very far (total walk was only 1.63 miles). The walk started out really well, out of the car and the first 1/4, mile I was feeling much better than I usually do at the start of a walk. One mistake, the assistant curator for the campus arboretum and botanical garden was working in the arboretum. I stopped to chat. Stopping, standing in place— that’s not something I’m good for these days. First the left side QL started screaming at me. QL--quadratus lumborum, a deep lower back muscle connecting the pelvis, spine, and ribs.Shortly afterwards, it was both shoulders. The main tendons are chronically irritated, and the bone ceiling above them sits a bit too low, creating a tight bottleneck. Nevertheless, I seem to insist on sleeping on my sides. 

Anyway, standing in one spot is notoriously brutal on my lower back and hips compared to staying in motion. Once I stop moving, my QL (both sides) has to work overtime as a static stabilizer to hold my torso upright—and when it's already exhausted or tight, it goes into full spasm mode very quickly. The night before I needed to rearrange 118 lbs of kitty litter in my garage (among other nonsense). Coupled with chronic tendinitis flared up from sleeping on my sides, standing still to chat was a recipe for intense pain.

Here are some pictures from Saturday...

Once again, starting into the local campus arboretum, there was one Cereus peruvianus cactus flower still open from the evening. It was just about 9:00 a.m. when I took this picture. 

 Friday night into Saturday morning I also apparently put a bunch of body weight on my right hand/wrist which is still healing from my being tripped up by a pine cone back on April 26th. Not only did I wake up with pain, I also had a dream about the incident. Further down the path I was taunted once again.

 ×Chitalpa.

 Some same old subjects, different days. Amaryllis belladonna.

 It has been cooler this past week. In fact, I walked every day this week except for Monday. Monday was reserved for dealing with a rather massive amount of ficus debris with a blower and vacuum/mulcher. I only need to work that about another dozen times, and maybe it'll be cleaned up. With the cooler temps, it seems some plants are recovering from the recent heatwave. Unfortunately, it appears we're going back into triple digits this week. Here, this Alstroemeria, Peruvian lily, has been pushing out fresh flowers again.

  Bouteloua hirsuta, AKA, hairy grama or eyelash grass.

Cuphea hyssopifolia.

 

 Salvia farinacea and a bee.

 

 A female monarch playing hard to get.

 

 Once again, my main goal was to spend quality time with at least a couple of hummingbirds. This female Allen's hummingbird (Selasphorus sasin) was the only one I saw and she wasn't very cooperative. I have found that, unlike Anna's hummingbirds (Calypte anna), Allen's hummingbirds need some time to get acquainted with me. That generally means multiple visits. 

 

 That was it for Saturday. The discomfort in both shoulders was brutal and I headed back to my car parked 0.65 miles from that little hummingbird. It was a long 0.65 miles. No more talking when I'm out walking. 

 

Sunday, September 6th (that's today, if I get this finished).

 

Currently, it's about 5:30 p.m. and today we got 1.15" of rain (so far). Growing up in the San Fernando Valley, a weather event like this in late summer was essentially unheard of. Historically, the Valley in early September was defined by relentless Santa Ana winds, bone-dry brush, zero humidity, and triple-digit heat. Getting a quarter-inch of rain was a rarity, but pushing past an inch from a tropical plume is an absolute anomaly. This is due to Hurricane Marie, as I type, categorized as a Category 1 hurricane, that is weakening into a tropical storm. 

 

Here's a screenshot from this morning.

 

 And here's a screenshot of incoming precipitation into SoCal this morning. 

 

 I was watching out the windows and watching the radar all morning for an opportunity to go for a walk and take pictures. It was mostly the window watching that got me out the door. I was on foot just minutes before 1:00. It was 69ºF and the relative humidity was 87%. I didn't find that particularly comfortable, but a lot of people would. I was also moving pretty fast. Contrary to yesterday, for the most part, I felt wonderful. 

Here are some pictures from today (yes, some same stuff, but it's different 'cause it's wet!).

This myrtle tree had the first dripping wet flowers I saw. So, I took pictures.

 There's a massive few crops of narrowleaf milkweed (Asclepias fascicularis) and a lot of it had been pummeled by the rain. This was hanging down a couple feet over the sidewalk I was on.

 This Coreopsis verticillata plant just amazes me. It seems to always be loaded with flowers. I am going to swipe some seeds from here.

Puddle pictures. These are depicted as I saw them. I like turning obstacles into photo ops.

The Amaryllis belladonna once again, but it's wet. Can you see that? It's wet. With rain! In September!

The agapanthus is not blooming.

I discovered that I could not get a picture of a reflection and ripples both in focus. So, where is the reflection?

 Moving from the arboretum to the botanical garden, 

Rose hips.

 

 Fresh new growth on the wild rose bushes.I'm pretty sure this wasn't there yesterday. 

 

 13 new barrel cactus recently went in, right off the path. Don't ever back into one of these when you're out mowing your yard and you're trying to avoid kicking up dirt onto the neighbor's parked car, so you're not paying attention to where your big feet are. It was also the neighbor's barrel cactus by the way. Close up...

 

 And the granddaddy of the golden barrel cactus (Kroenleinia grusonii).

 

 

 California buckwheat.

 Another puddle, another ripple. No plant IDs inside the puddles.

 

Crimson bottlebrush (Callistemon citrinus).

 

A fresh leucadendron sprig. 

 

 Puddles heading baack to my car. It wasn't a very long walk, 1.42 miles but my clothes were sticking to me from the warm humidity. It's still raining by the way.

 

Sail away, away
Ripples never come back
They've gone to the other side
Look into the pool
Ripples never come back

 

Today's butterfly (and Tuesday's too!)

 With recent cooler temperatures comes more time in my office (on Wednesday, 08/26, it hit 98º in here, 110º outside). More time in my office means more time gazing out the windows into the backyard. Most of my backyard sightings of butterflies take place while sitting at my desk. Currently, it's about 82ºF outside and 85º at my desk. Unfortunately, the office fan is out in the hallway, pointing into Junimoon's room, and I'm not inclined to move it because Juni is asleep in my lap (yes, my lap is quite warm). 

These images were taken at 12:49-12:50 this afternoon. The bougainvillea were in full sun. The last image is a different western giant swallowtail and was taken on September 1st at 4:29 p.m. The plumbago was in the shade this afternoon too, but the butterfly wasn't interested. Western giant swallowtail (Papilio rumiko) are extremely hyper, which makes them difficult (!) to photograph. 

 

Okay, Juni loves the warmth in here and in my lap, but me... not so much. Plus, it's way past time to eat something. I had a Boost nutritional drink before my morning walk, and that's not cutting it. Oh, good. She just hopped down. It's always best when it's the cat's idea. 

This song during today's walk... I was just trying to go the distance, but instead, I accidentally underwent a profound spiritual awakening near a trash can.

 

Today's walk report: I got a halo 'round my head

 This made me chuckle. This song came up on my phone just as I was crossing one street and saw the yellow hoop on a lawn off the sidewalk ahead. 

Meanwhile, lovely a.m. weather today. Out the door without a rush (although I skipped a shower), I walked 1.92 miles, which was further than I thought I'd have time for or be inclined to do. Temperature for the duration was 68º to 70º F.

 Note: This track features a sharp, cynical commentary on religion and dogmatic beliefs.

 

In the Dead of Night

 That's when I woke up this morning, in the dead of night, 2:50 A.M. and it became apparent rather quickly that I was not going back to sleep. So Lucy and I just hung out until she ultimately retreated to her nightstand fort and left me to fend for myself. I started moving around at 5:00 and I was showered, dressed, took care of all three kitties (Vit, the feral outdoor dude, had been AWOL for three days), had a nutritional beverage along with coffee, chugged down about 20 oz of Gatorade, and was out the door and in the car at 6:43. It was a record three minutes to my preferred walk starting point; on my way to the local botanical garden at 6:46. 

Weather-wise, it was 66º F with hazy sunshine. Recent weather has been abysmal. A dictionary moment: Abysmal primarily means extremely bad, appalling, or wretched. Wretched, yeah, I think that's a better word for it. Yesterday, Saturday, August 22nd, the high was 106.6º. Today's high was 107.3º. My walk was about 2.2 miles, and I was back to my car at 7:48, temperature still quite pleasant at 73º. The music playlist was outstanding. 

Here are just a few pictures taken. I once again was looking for a good hummingbird photo op. I thought early morning is prime time for hummingbirds. They feed heavily at dawn to replenish the calories burned overnight, especially around flowering patches where the nectar hasn't been dried out by the midday sun. There haven't been many hummingbirds to capture this summer, and today was no exception. 

I detoured south to the campus horticulture department because I knew there would be some flowers there. That's when I realized a better idea for picture taking would've been alive vs. dead. The contrast was certainly everywhere. The juxtaposition of living tissue against heat-scorched dieback would have been a nice thematic direction; capturing the raw, miserable summertime reality of this valley during these triple-digit stretches much better than standard blooming portraits would. And I thought of it several days ago when I revisited this post from 2017. The problem with it today was not having the proper lens combo. Maybe next time. 

Sunday, August 23rd. 

 Amaryllis belladonna, the Jersey lily, belladonna-lily, or naked-lady-lily.

 This Coreopsis verticillata was still flowering nicely.

 This Indian blanket shrub is what gave me the, "I could've had a V-8!" moment--dead vs. alive.

 I spotted two hummingbirds and decided to stay still under a tree they were attracted to, with some Salvia shrubs below. Suddenly I had several bees seemingly upset with my presence. In fact, I had at least a couple crash into me. Seems they have a hive inside the base of this tree. Yeah. I think that's animal poop in there. Note the one bee heading inside.

 Once again, it was early enough in the morning for many Cereus peruvianus flowers to be open. AKA, the Peruvian apple cactus, also called the Queen of the Night, they produce large, fragrant, cream-colored flowers that open exclusively at night.

 My only cooperative hummingbird. This is a female Anna's hummingbird, Calypte anna. So she gets special attention. The light was extra hazy here.

 Finch party of 14, Finch party... your table is ready. I was looking around but I was already heading back to my car at this point.

 Yes, this is a stupid, ugly picture but the story is... It was pushing 8:00 and right next to that palm frond, just off the sidewalk, was a coyote poking around. I was considerably farther away when I spotted it but this is where I decided to cross the street. Also, I’m a lot farther away than it appears, the lens is at 300 mm and the photo is cropped. When I was directly across from that errant palm tree (they are everywhere), there was no sign of the coyote. I could not figure out how, but it must've gotten on the other side of the fence. The chain-link side is an Occupational School's neglected botanical garden, the cinder block side is a private community (once a cow pasture and water run-off from nearby hills--kinda swampy).  It's not unusual to see coyotes but that late in the morning is very odd.

 That's it. Fingers crossed for a good night's sleep.

Are you one of mine who can sleep with one eye open wide? 
Agonizing psychotic solitary hours to decide