I got through most of this process yesterday, at least the photo editing portion was taken care of but with this other delayed post from Friday's backyard butterfly activity, two posts in day was too much. I also have other stuff to do. Right now, Juni is curled up in my lap purring away and that might cut the banter... good for you and me.
Here are some photos taken on yesterday's 2.37 mile walk.
Sunday, April 12th
Hong Kong Orchid Tree (Bauhinia × blakeana). I last took close-up images of flowers on this tree on March 28th. I was taken aback yesterday by how loaded it was with flowers since then.
Also in that March 28th post I mis-ID'd this flower as, Turk's Cap (Malvaviscus arboreus). I did that because Google told me so. I thought too it looked familiar but none of the buds were fully open. It's actually Pavonia-missionum AKA, red mallow.
Onto the first monarchs and monarchs because they have been unusually plentiful--not so overall in the grand scheme of things but in my recent walks, yes. The shrub is Cotoneaster pannosus, known by the common name silverleaf cotoneaster.
I have taken pictures of this canna lily many times but this might be the prettiest I have ever seen it.
Same deal with this Iris germanica 'Immortality'. It typically has looked rather beat up when I've seen it flowering.
If you notice water drops, that's because we got .25" of rain yesterday. That was greatly appreciated because I needed to water at home and wasn't feeling especially inclined to walk around with a garden hose. Left rear, an absolutely massive Salvia canariensis (Canary Island Sage).
In this post I mentioned the 120 yard line of pomegranate trees loaded with flowers. Here are some of the larger ones. That small ramp leads to the campus weather station. I rely heavily on data from that weather station.
Another update. This is the palo verde tree that had lost two large branches last week. It appears to me that was a rather sloppy cut by the clean-up crew. I forgot to get a picture of the "cleanup" cut on the other side break.
Back to the monarchs. Those last images were taken in the arboretum. I'm now in the botanical garden a little over a 1/4 mile away.
Monarch butterfly and a no-ID Callistemon.
Monarchs on Salvia rosmarinus. These are two different butterflies. there were three. I believe one of them is the same as the one on the bottlebrush.
Classroom building's rock roof with treetops (an oak and palo verde trees) in the background. The sky was beautiful post the early AM rains.
One more monarch shot in a small eucalyptus tree. A rather diminutive male monarch.
After that I continued walking just for the sake of walking. On the way back to my car I detoured into the garden one more time for a few minutes of bench sitting. Not a great shot but this Pistacia chinensis tree has been consistently a perch for many male Calypte anna humminbirds I have followed over the years. Expect to see this bird again (we may have seen him before, I still need some familiarity).
I almost always post a song off of YouTube at the end of each post. Sometimes the song is post-relative and other times it's more relevant to what I was listening to or to my general mood. Sometimes it's just a song. This time I wanted to post something different. Many viewers have probably already seen photos from the recent Artemis II space mission and certainly have been moved by them. I was actually brought to tears yesterday watching this and seeing again the first Earth rising image. Earthrise, taken from lunar orbit by astronaut William Anders on December 24, 1968, during the Apollo 8 mission. That image at least started the emotional roller-coaster for me. All of the images are stunning in their inherent beauty, but also driving my feelings was how this beautiful planet is being destroyed by a handful of greedy, gluttonous, narcissistic humans, with no moral compass. I watched much of this without sound.
PS, Juni slept (mostly) in my lap for the duration.
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