The Annie Cat is black-and-white and loves self-scritching her mouth and cheeks (don’t all cats?)
Photos
Another Bee’s eye view. Gorging on a Gilia. Early 2017.
Hummingbirds love these cultivated native California fuchsias so here’s their bird’s eye view of them.
Daytripping in mid-October can result in this view of Mount Lassen from Brokeoff Mountain. 2019.
Fissures bisect land in the Yolla Bolly-Middle Eel Wilderness. The massive landslide is moving to the left. Late 2019.
A quaternary lava flow at ʻĀhihi-Kīnaʻu Natural Area Reserve on Maui. Haleakalā is in the background. Late 2018. #mbaug
There was (and must still be) absolute peace in the Haleakala erosional crater. Late 2018.
A bug that we call the European honeybee, enjoying cultivated native California sage flowers. 2017. #mbaug
Jellyfish floating in an aquarium at the Birch Aquarium, La Jolla, CA in 2004. #mbaug
What used to be Up at Coyote Point just south of SFO. #mbaug
Mantis on the cherry tree.
… and peppers! Though ants are trying to farm aphids on them.
Cultivated native California grapes. Seedy & thick skinned but good to eat. Since the birds aren’t.
Bulgogi.
Beef Bulgogi (asada cut) hot off the grill.
Today’s harvest. Brown turkey figs and a small ripe jalapeño.
Orange Grove Update
Friday, July 24, 2020
This year, our Mandarin orange will provide plenty to eat in January. We’re lucky it’s not alternate bearing (this year, anyway). Meanwhile, this is the first year our Meyer lemon has produced more than a couple fruit. Super exciting! It did lose a lot of leaves earlier this summer, though. I attribute that to overwatering. Oops. Finally, our Valencia is also producing more than a couple fruit:The lemon grass coming in strong. It came back from last year’s planting and a cutting we took.
Change your AC and/or furnace filter with high flow MERV-8 every three months or sooner if you’ve got pets (long haired cat in our case). The HVAC blower and evaporator coil will thank you with less repair bills. Fresh filter at the top.
Here’s a drooping Brown Turkey fig — means it’s perfectly sweet & tender for eating. Don’t wait too long after a Brown Turkey fig reaches this stage else it may start to ferment and/or critters will get to it first.
Brown Turkey figs are rapidly ripening. Patiently waiting for them to start drooping as a sign of ripeness.
The birds aren’t eating the grapes, so we might as well. 😋
Here’s an adjusted/“developed” version of NEOWISE (see the original straight from Night Mode)
Anaheim pepper with a surprise mantis for scale. Then a jalapeño. Just popped out of nowhere while I inspected the peppers this morning. It’s protecting our garden!
Garden Update
Friday, July 17, 2020
Experimental pepper garden update: Cayenne, jalapeño, Anaheim, Hungarian wax. We will ripen all peppers to red for making hot sauce and tastier eating. Direct seeded March 29.Scrub jay!
Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) at 04:17. Very cool. The last quarter moon washed it out a lot. iPhone 11 Pro, night mode.
Watering the front yard and this hummingbird was really curious about the water and I swear the bird took a drink.
Our cultivated native California grapes are ripening! The birds will hopefully soon find them. Or we’ll enjoy them despite their massive seeds.
Our peppers are doing okay despite the very late seeding. Just a bit of brown rot initially but some Jobes organic fertilizer seems to have stopped that.
Somewhere around Tehachapi, CA.
The last two days of 110°F heat has also resulted in our cultivated native California grapes turning to raisins on the vine.
