We’re, of course because we’re in California, still reaping the vegetable and fruit harvest of the season, as we ready to plant for the fall/winter/spring harvests. We have tens of pounds of tomatoes still to pick, pasilla and serrano chiles, bountiful bell peppers, copious cucumbers and squash. We also still have fruitful figs on the [...]
Well, Carlotta was (yes, was) female. She placed her egg sac on the cactus pad and, after attaching it with the fine filaments of her silk, she left. We haven’t found her body and we haven’t found her. Further reading indicates that her life’s work is done after reproduction, and that her time here has [...]
On spindly, but stealthy, multi-hued legs, Carlotta scuttles across the light green nopal (cactus) pad. Her uniformly mottled abdomen is plump in brownish-black and yellow, accessorized with orange. Upon closer examination, we find Carlotta’s hairy face and head resembles that of a minute monkey. Eight bristle-haired legs, articulated in three places, stretch as she moves [...]
No, I’m not speaking of the vehicles. This evening I watched three hummingbirds flit and chase each other around and around a flower bed. Their frantic high-pitched cheeps let me know they were serious and this wasn’t a game. They kept at this “hummer-war” for a good thirty minutes before I finally walked away. Their [...]
