Monarch Caterpillars

This morning (Sunday) I ran down to Casa Romantica with Launa to see what's changed in the gardens. Here's a little baby caterpillar that will turn into a beautiful Monarch butterfly.

Here's one that's bigger and fatter! They really were striking to see!

Launa pointed out a trellis the Casa has put up for the caterpillars to hang and form the
chrysallis

Here's one that's attaching himself to the lattice, hanging upside down...

Next step is the chrysallis - these are beautiful light green with shimmering gold on them that looks like glitter...

Then there's the brown stage and you can kind of see the outline of folded butterfly wings...

Finally they fly away!

Oso Creek Trail

This weekend was another fun two days learning about plants and how to care for them at the Garden Study School. Friday was a "field trip" at the Oso Creek Trail and community centers in Mission Viejo. What a lovely place!

"Oso" means bear

Spring "Snain"

"Snain" is my word for the wierd snow/rain combo we sometimes get in Tehachapi. I'm sure it has a more formal term, but I like saying 'snain' just 'cause it's fun to say! Well, to "celebrate" spring, apparently the Tehachapi mountains wanted to give a final send-off to winter with a brief snow storm yesterday. It was largely rain, but mid morning there were some nice sized snowflakes and some even stuck to the ground and roof. This is why we 'locals' wait just a bit longer to start full gardening for the season - but I think overall I can probably start pulling out my hummingbird feeder and watch for their return. :)

What's Under Your Couch?

A bit of spring cleaning -- Michelyn shampoo-ed the sofa while Derek cleaned up the garage. I think there were two green peanut M&M's, a poker chip, pistachio shell and several other unidentifiable objects...let us not even mention the amount of dog hair and dust bunnies I swept up as we moved the couch sections away from the wall! No money unfortunately!!! So tonight we're hanging out in the blue room while we wait for it all to dry. I think it took me about 2 hours but will be well worth it!

Wii

OK...Derek and I figure that we are pretty well caught up to date with electronics! This weekend we got ourselves an early combined birthday gift and splurged for a Wii...competition will be fast and furious in the Devine household!

We played bowling for a while and then moved on to tennis. Of course in real life, I barely am able to make contact between racket and ball. Unfortunately, the same still seems to be true for the virtual world. For some reason I do better when I'm serving, but it's still so sad to see my little Mii fall flat on her face after swinging the racket spasmodically!

And apparently you know that you live a very sedentary lifestyle when just a few games of Wii tennis makes your right arm sore for the whole next day!

San Joaquin Kit Fox

Tuesday night I went to a monthly meeting of the Tehachapi Mountains Birding Club -- just to do something interesting to me and nurture my nature interest :) They had a speaker about these cute little foxes that are endangered but inhabit the Bakersfield area. So many of the pictures they showed were actually right around my office building and where I drive/go to stores on lunch breaks. Of course, now I look for little foxes everywhere but none spotted so far!!! Apparently these little guys don't go up into the hills of Tehachapi (we have only grey foxes up here, so I learned) but aren't they just too cute!...and apparently when they're studying them and trapping them for research (they release them afterward), they bait them chicken and of all things hot dogs!

Spring is on It's Way!

This morning was a BEAUTIFUL drive to work. The hills between Tehachapi and Bakersfield have been very green with the rain and snow in the last weeks. And now...the reward...blankets of orange flowers nestled on the green hillsides. I think they may be poppies but driving by them at 70mph, I'm not entirely sure. I didn't actually take this picture, I found it on the internet - but it's very much like what I saw!!!

I've also noticed my own plants at home "waking up" with little shoots of new growth. I'm very excited for the gardening season to arrive! Yay for Spring!