Weekend walk report: The color of truth is gray

 Walks and picture taking along the way for Saturday, June 10th and Sunday, June 11th, 2023.

 Forget about symbolism, the moral ambiguity and impartiality of the color gray and how gray is emotionally distant and disconnected. Forget about your graying hair and how it makes you feel old. Let's not concern ourselves over studies which have found that people with depression or anxiety were more likely to associate their mood with the color gray, while happier people preferred yellow. You can always resort to this post for some happy yellow. We have this deal in Southern California called June Gloom that typically starts with a marine layer in May, which we coin, May Gray. However this shit’s been going on since April and by June it usually clears up between mid-morning or early afternoon but nope... not so fast, it's been hanging out pretty much 24/7 where I am. My 10 day forecast is showing it might finally be moving along in a week to 10 days from now. Then it will start getting too hot. "Everybody complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it." ~Charles Dudley Warner.

 Saturday, June 10th

 I was out early, in the seven o'clock hour. The sky was so uniformly gray that no matter where I panned with my camera it couldn't find any focus. Here are some pictures taken on a dimly lit morning.

This female Calypte anna hummingbird was being bothered by and was going after what I believe was a American bushtit. Bushtit birds usually travel in flocks so it would be unusual to see a single bird. They are tiny, kinglet sized birds and I don't know what else it could have been. No, it wasn’t a kinglet. This tree was rather dense with foliage (despite these two images) and I had to pick one bird and stick with it.

 
Here she was presumably squawking at the intruder.

See, can't you tell? She's a little pissed off.

This mourning dove simply sat on the path as I walked by. There you go, the bird of peace.

Tecoma capensis, AKA, cape honeysuckle. Despite that name it's not closely related to the true honeysuckle. I have both a Tecoma capensis and a Lonicera japonica, known as Japanese honeysuckle here at home. The Japanese honeysuckle requires a lot of work at least a couple of times a year since it's so invasive but it smells heavenly.

The Japanese honeysuckle along side my back gate. Taken moments ago even though I'm certain I have photos on this computer somewhere.

There was some odd clutter in the garden. Some of it I'm not going to bother with here. I suspect film students because I've seen it before, they decide they are done and don't bother to pick up after themselves. However, this object somehow seems fitting for me. I'll see how long it lasts. Emperor Frog of Frog Fountain.

The famous male Calypte anna hummingbird known as Dusty was hanging out on his usual perches.

Not a lot of walking, again the weather and lighting were pretty awful so I decided to head home. But wait! Hours later, around 4:00 PM, I gave myself an ultimatum of sorts. Earlier I had gone out into my side yard and did a bunch of overdue work with a line trimmer, a weed whacker if you insist. I decided that I either had to go out and rake up my mess or, I could go for another walk. From inside the house I thought, it might even be a little sunny now. Well, I was wrong on that count but it was considerably brighter outside than it was in the morning. So, off I went...

 Saturday, June 10th, walk number two

Subjects were mostly the same, so not much to write. 

I have always found this sign a bit creepy weird but it somehow seemed ironic after a second trip to the campus.

On the way into the garden I took a slight detour to avoid some people and found that there were two Chilopsis linearis (Desert willow) trees that I'm not sure I've noticed before. If I have they have since become huge. I have a Chilopsis linearis just off the side of my garage and these two made me question just how big it might get. If you look closely near the bottom 3rd of this image you can make out the rooftop of the building behind it. So that's about 8' and there's several more feet of tree above my image.

More Dusty...

Here's a little better perspective on where the Emperor Frog statue is situated. Those are olive trees coming in from each side.

This mockingbird is almost always in and around this tree. You can also find him in my post from Sunday, May 21st. You can hear him singing throughout the garden. I whistle back to him frequently. I'm not sure if he's responding or thinking, quiet, idiot human. Probably the latter.

As the day draws closer to an end, for years, I have noticed more mourning doves hanging out in higher perches. I always assume that it's in anticipation of the setting sun.

It was good to add the second walk. It was even better not to rake. Raking sucks. Besides, my green waste bin is already full.

Sunday, June 11th (today)

Not out quite so early this morning, it was precisely an hour later than yesterday.

Look! I was able to get the camera to focus on the sky just to show you what kind of gray day was today. Both yesterday and today there was a very light amount of sprinkles coming down. Just enough so pointing a camera up at the clouds was not a great idea.

 Apache Plume (Fallugia paradoxa) in bloom.

Guess who? Not only was he singing loudly but he also let out what sounded like a child screaming. I was seriously taken aback for a moment. I could go into a huge dissertation on the subject and I won't but it's not at all surprising that mockingbirds may be adding children's screeching to their repertoire.

Lower in the same tree. I assumed these two mourning doves were a pair but they sure wanted to push the other one out of the tree. They went back and forth a few times.

This is a panorama, shot vertically at 70 mm, of the largest patch of Salvia darcyi. This is part of Dusty's domain and I'm kind of surprised he's not having to defend it more than he is. Typically by this time of the year there are a lot of Selasphorus rufus on migration into this garden and all over these plants. Some things seem a little wacky, some things just don't seem quite normal with birds and bees and flowers and trees.

I'm sure it's not a problem for Dusty but I think it's rather peculiar. Here was Dusty today. I talked a bunch to Dusty. Absolutely no questions in my mind about Dusty knowing me.

I did two laps on my typical lower campus loop today, just because. I still can't wander around on the top of the hill much because it remains fenced off for construction. I thought about doing the stairs and then thought better. So, two passes by the ancient car worshipers. My arriving onto the campus later than usual showed me just how many people show up for this, hanging out, talking about torque and superchargers, double clutching and cubic inches. Stuff like that.

Not just a hot rod, it’s a rock and roll hot rod.

The second time around I got the picture of this E-type Jaguar with the hood down. I remember a time in my childhood, I was probably 8 or 9, when this was my favorite style car. This particular model though is probably around a 71-74. Looking at this today my first thought was, there's no way I'm fitting in that car.

Beep-beep, beep-beep, yeah!