Emergence

A butterfly emerged last week... I photographed it, and then three more followed suit!

Drinking Gatorade

It was very exciting to wake up one morning to a fresh butterfly! I had to move it out of the small cup that the caterpillars had arrived in, and cocooned in. Now they are all in this larger glass bowl with the coffee filter on top, which has the last cocoon dangling from it. Two of the butterflies were released yesterday and flew away beautifully! The two we kept have damaged wings because they were born in the night and I wasn't able to get them onto anything before their wings dried. I feel really terrible about it. Now there's a branch in there, for the last butterfly to attach itself to. It was just kind of a shock to have one butterfly come out, then three more almost the very next night. The last one will take longer since it didn't cocoon until quite a bit after the others.


Anyway, Spring is officially sprung, and I took a wet, spring walk the other day...

New pink rain boots!

I'm so glad that it's finally warming up again. It's been a bizarre "winter". Cold, yet no snow to speak of, and now that it's spring earlier than last year, it stayed kind of chilly... we've had freeze warnings the past couple weeks. 

Forget-me-nots

Dogwood blooms are out, but smaller than last years

Also, I thought I'd found a meteorite and was very excited! I researched and thought that I had been the lucky finder of a space rock... check it out:

Turns out that it's probably just slag. But it sure had me fooled for a while! I'm keeping my eyes open, though! You just never know!!


I hope you're all doing well... happy and healthy! I'm spending lots of my free time hiking and connecting with nature. Getting grounded. I really need it.


xox

My Favorite Season

Ever since moving to the east coast, I have come to adore Autumn. It's brilliant here! It sparks my imagination and love of nature like no other season... and reminds me that although life comes and goes to all, it's cyclical. Things don't disappear into nothingness. Life recycles. 

These are some of my favorite pictures that I've taken with my iPhone recently. Most of them are fall photos, though some of them are of the plants in and around my apartment. I'm looking forward to getting a new phone, though I've loved my little iPhone 3GS. The newest one, the 4S, is supposed to have an even better camera on it! Woo hoo!


I hope that wherever you are, you're enjoying the outdoors... it's a beautiful world out there.


xox

An Early Fall Walk

I had some time today to take a little walk... I haven't visited my cemetery in a while, and thought I'd pay a visit to see if there was anything exciting going on. (Ha ha) Well, as it turns out, there was!


As I walked into the cemetery, I saw a great bird swooping below the branches of the old trees... it was a hawk! She was on the prowl for prey...

I tried to get a photo of her flying, but none of them turned out. So I finally caught up with her while she was perched in a tree. See above.


Most of the trees are still green, but a few oaks are starting to turn.

I collected a few acorns to use as decorations in the house. I love the acorns from the pin oaks. They are small and have little stripes!

I noticed this little bunch of fur while I was acorn-collecting. I think it's from a squirrel's tail. Could be that there was a scuffle, or maybe the hawk got a little too close to one of the little nut collectors?

I saw some cool flowers along the way, too...

Also, there are a few trees that have truly started turning... one stood out from a distance, as it's amid its greener brethren!

Almost looked like it was on fire, right? And I almost missed this monarch while looking up at this golden tree...

It was a very lovely walk that I'll be taking again later today, after a couple hours at work. K is excited to go for a walk together... the weather has been warm, yet not humid, and is perfect for leisurely strolls. I am loving this autumn!

SF Botanical Gardens, Redux

Okay, without much narration, I'm just going to share some photos with you... I had wanted to get my nicer photos from my camera uploaded while in San Jose, but it didn't work out that way. No biggie! Here they are... starting with some strange, unusual or pokey plants.

Next are spirals and petals that radiate harmoniously...

Next are trumpets, fuchsias and other favorites...

Lastly are the stragglers... including a friend that we made at the park. He/she was a cutie!

K loved this rosemary... bonsai-like!

prehistorically pokey

Oh yeah, and here's a cool pic of me that K took... it's in the area that felt like jungle, but I can't recall what it was called.