Today's walk report: 091122

Change in the weather, change in the weather,
Somethin's happenin' here.

And it's about time. I was out early, 74º with a relative humidity of 76%. Not exactly comfortable but after a week and a half of triple digit temps dragging on for up to 8 hours a day, I'll take it. Currently it's 12:35 PM, 84º with a RH of 54%. Late Friday night and just barely seeping into Saturday SoCal was on the fringes of Tropical Storm, Kay. You know, as in every kiss begins with K. For me this meant .16" of rain. 

It was mostly walking and talking on the phone with Docken, there wasn't a lot of action on the photo front. Here are some snapshots along the way...

Drimia maritima, AKA, Sea Squill. Last year around this same time there were three stalks on this plant and the flowering was much more robust. Please note the photos of a year younger male Calypte anna hummingbird known as Dusty in that post.

And here's Dusty today. He was pretty darn active and every time I'd stop to wait for a picture the humidity started to get to me so I preferred not to wait for photos and kept moving. Every time I moved in on Dusty he'd fly off to chase an intruder. It was also all gray skies at this time and that wasn't helping much with the lighting.

I circled around the garden a few times. I also went far west of the garden to look for other photo ops. The only one I encountered was a dime-sized spider on a single strand of silk. It was in the process of finishing breakfast but by the time I got my close-up lens attached, it had scurried off, meal and all.

On my way back to the car so I could drive up the hill and look for birds of prey I stopped here for a moment. I believe this is some type of Cylindropuntia. Maybe not. I'm posting this mostly for Doc because I was talking to her about of piece of it which had broken off and I was actually contemplating taking it home to propagate. What was I thinking? Granted it would take some time to get to these proportions but even at a foot or two, this would not be an appropriate addition to any portion of my yard. Hmm, well, there is the curb strip where neighbors park their cars.

Up on the hill...

You wicked old witch!  Uncle Henry, Auntie Em, don't let 'em take Toto!  Don't let her take him -- please!

Oh, I'm sure she's a very nice person and certainly nothing like Miss Gulch. It was odd though to see this electric bike, flying up along side me with a woman in what appeared to be her pajamas. The little Yorkie seemed perfectly happy too, you know, considering it's oblivious to what a sudden stop might mean. FYI... Toto was a Cairn Terrier. I believe Toto was a Yorkshire Terrier in the book though. Miss Gulch was, of course, a republican. It's all about the cruelty.

The good news, for me anyway, was that the construction on the top of the hill appeared to be about over and I was able to meander around a lot more than I have for the last few months. The Fine Arts part of the campus was now available.

Dozens of trees have been removed from the hillside in recent years. Perhaps this was left for the "still life" class.

I'm not quite sure what this is supposed to be other than to keep people from sitting on the tree stump. I'm sure it took considerable time to make these. If you can't tell, they're bolted down.

Back in the 1970s there was a beautiful (as drinking fountains go) blue tile multi-faucet drinking fountain in this spot. Here's the modernized emplacement. I think it's a good idea.

Back around to the east side of the hill, here's a wide shot of Elephant Mountain along with a perspective of what the weather was like.

Heading back to the west side of the parking lot I almost got in the car but wanted to take a look at the campus livestock below and I'm glad I did. My last outing afforded me some fun shots of a red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) and once again... the star of the day...

This was funny, this was the hawk yawning.

Until next time, I bid you adieu.

Some people's hot
Some people's cold
Some people's not very
Swift to behold
Some people do it
Some see right through it
Some wear pajamas
If only they knew it