5" snow to green in 1 week + mystery kill = same ol' same ol'

Our greenhouse, post-snow, on April Fool's Day, appropriately enough. 

Shimmery: watching snow fall in the morning as things warm up. 

Meanwhile, under cover of snowness, still growing in the greenhouse:

Basil babies are SO symmetrical, I just love them. CUTE cotyledons. 

Close up of spinach babies, some still sporting their seed case. EXTRA cute.

I didn't crop out the yellow on the right so I'd remember to tell you that I FINALLY figured out
how to foil the mice et al. that would eat my baby plants.
Put 5 gallon buckets (yellow or otherwise) upside down on a table,
put plants on top of that. DONE!

I am SO not a designer, but I love how the lavender & oregano look together.

Happy accident.

I'm taking overview photos of the garden, now and then,

so MAYBE, later this year, I'll have some cool time lapse thing. Maybe.

Depends upon whether my garden ever stops looking like

an "AFTER TORNADO" photo. *sigh*

Was just wondering if we'd see any baby blue eyes (Nemophila menziesii)

post-snowfall, then spied this:

Just the one, but I'll take it.

Such a lovely flower, such a brief show.

I heart them.

And I found a partial spine & pelvis in the back of our property, near the violets,

so I'll probably be looking this pup up today to try & ID it.

This is near where I've seen most of the carnivores cruising through;

coyotes, foxes, bobcats, lion.

Makes you wonder what goes on in the night.

xoxobb

wildlife commute, t-peas & backyard bloomers

Morning commuters

Evening traffic

In the above, the bobcat was eyeing my 2 white hens.
Needless to say, I changed its mind re: what to eat.

Next time I saw it (about 1 hr later), it had other prey in mind. Yay!

Kitty (-like).

Not kitty-like. Giant eye-spots!

And off he goes!

Gorgeous. Can you imagine looking THAT GOOD naked?!? Wow.


T-pea

Gently plunked handfuls of been-soaking-3-days
sugar snap peas into the garden, yesterday.

This crop is nerve-wracking.

Everybody & their uncle LOVES to eat baby peas.

So, I covered the peas w/dirt, dried pine needles, dusty weeds,  

rusty chicken wire, and brainwaves of protection.

Hoping maybe 2 dozen baby pea plants survive to clamber skyward.

ALSO hoping that, like the last time I made a legume t-pea,

said cone-o'-plant will host a bird nest!


Backyard wildflowers

 Baby blue-eyes (Nemophila menziesii) are a favorite native wildflower of mine.
Jepson eFlora says that "Nemo·phila" derives from Greek for "woodland-loving."
How sweet.

 I love the tiny stamen (= white filaments + dark anthers*) shadows.

The above bugs ADORE these flowers.

Now go back up to the 1st flower shot.
See? Take your eye back a few inches & that bug is WAY hard to see.
Petals save lives.**

Okay. I owed you an update.
Busy this time of year.
Going out today and tomorrow and maybe tomorrow and def. next weekend.
As in outside.

Hope to see you out there!!
Please feel free to share any outings you've had or will have;
I think it all inspires people to get out more.

xoxobb

*omg, a botanical mystery novel title: Dark Anthers. You heard it here, first! It's MINE.
** a botanically or bicycle-y themed safety message. Pedals or petals save lives. Also mine. =)

nice buns! gorgeous bobcat strolls past

I am such a nerd, I tweeted this photo

to Jillian Michaels and her podcast producer, Janice Ungaro,

raptor equivalent of staring into the fridge

This red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus) was looking for food,

perched in a big Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa)

on the south side of the open field next to our house (couch photos).

Watching it look all around,

I realized it was doing what we do:

looking for something to eat.

Can you imagine being hungry,

and having "outside" be your refrigerator?

New carnivorous mammal species discovered!

 
Here's the article and pics, to boot. Small, toothy creature, called Durrell's vontsira, cruises the wetlands of Madagascar. A VERY small area. Apparently there are other vontsira species around, but this one has clear differences so they are quite confident it's a new species.

This photo is from the Durrell Wildlife Conservancy Trust. 

As IF I've been to Madagascar--I wish! 

BTW they took some quick data on the few they caught, then released them.

Unfortunately, Madagascar and its wetlands are an ecological mess and there are many endangered and otherwise imperiled species there, including this one. They guess there's only a few dozen of these guys.

Drat.

Looks to me like the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust's involvement is why the creature was discovered, so if you're interested or motivated, I'd go to their site to learn more/donate.

However, it is exciting. At least they are now known, and that is good.

So, next scrabble game, try vontsira on 'em, and have your URL citation ready. That'll learn 'em to under estimate you, and the power of science!

=)