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