Today's walk report: 111814

A big gap since my Halloween entry, pushing 3 weeks, here's what's happening...

We had been waiting for a strong confirmation for rain in order to plant wildflower seeds for spring. Coincidently, or perhaps intuitively, we had gone to a home garden center for firewood and soil amendment. It looked curiously gloomy out so I checked the weather forecast and lo and behold we had a 100% chance of rain for Halloween night. So... we got busy...

Docken and I ceremoniously toss the first seeds.

5 pounds of mixed seed and 5, 3 cubic foot bags of soil went down along with a great deal of cleanup  effort and we were ready for the rain!

A week later...

Seedlings, everywhere and more and more with each passing day. Here's the look as of this afternoon.

It's not much of a "lawn" right now but when you realize that each of those little sprouts is a flowering plant it becomes much more significant.

Photos from before the back issues and from a walk on 111514...

A flattened rose.

Bee on Senna bicapsularis.

Bee on Senna bicapsularis.

Missing ID.

Scarlet bugler, dying back.

Vanessa cardui on Lantana.

Waverly sage.

Changes 1.

Changes 2.

Curious about the garden? Here are some shots from last spring. Spring 2015 should be even nicer having based seed selection, for the most part, on what did the best this year.

Scarlet flax.

Plains coreopsis.

Papaver rhoeas.

Baby Snapdragon (Linaria maroccana).

The full effect...

Today's walk report: 101514, last weekend

Busy with other "stuff," last weekend's walks and picture taking took a back seat but here's what I've got...

Saturday, 101114.

Blue-eyed Darner (Aeshna multicolor, syn. Rhionaeschna multicolor).

A wild rose.

Vanessa cardui aka, Painted Lady, or the Cosmopolitan.

Vanessa cardui on lantana.

Another Blue-eyed Darner.

Sunday, 101214.

A small tribute to the southwestern fence lizard. Things are finally cooling down in SoCal and that'll mean goodbye to the lizards for awhile.

Some species of Banksia, plant family Proteaceae.

Common Buckeye butterfly, Junonia coenia. With its wings closed at 1.5 meters amongst the wood chips and dirt the butterfly seemed to disappear every time I pulled the camera away. This butterfly REALLY blends in well.

The red-eared slider turtles, like the lizards, will disappear soon too. Red-eared sliders brumate over the winter at the bottom of ponds or shallow lakes; they become inactive, generally, in October, when temperatures fall below 10 °C (50 °F).

So ends our tail, er, tale this week... Stay tuned for more and thanks for coming along on our walk.

Today's walk report: 030814

Only pics...

Male Anna's hummingbird. 1, 2, 3, 4. Choose your favorite. We had a hard time.

Carpenter bee (need plant ID).

 

Carpenter bee (need plant ID).

Need ID, same as this.

Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui) on Lantana. 1&2.

Tattered Monarch on Purple sage.

Cabbage white (Pieris rapae) on Borage.