Succulent Valentines

'Hens and Chickens' decorate these wooden hearts

Um... probably not what you're thinking, the succulent Valentines that is. Am in Monterey visiting with friend Barbara. She wanted to take a run to one of her many favorite plant nurseries, Succulent Gardens. The nursery has been around five years but it was my first visit. The nursery is famous for its classes teaching how to plant succulents on wall hangings. This is an impressive wall hanging that actually is a wall.

Pink Floyd got nothin' on this wall
of hundreds of mini-succulents

 First thing I zoned in on were the many Valentine themed goods for sale.

One can purchase these letters and fill them in with nursery seedlings.

Yes - fairly pricey!

You feeling the love yet? The Succulent Nursery is a HUGE greenhouse. I like to try and get in a certain amount of daily walking, and this was the perfect place to achieve my day's goal.




Walked up one aisle on its left, then down the same aisle on the right

Then it was over to the next aisle and repeat.

I got quite the walking work out. The entire time I thought of my mother, who adored succulents and would have had a ball at this giant warehouse of plantlets. 

Barbara had long since bought the few things she had come for, and she texted me 'Come on, let's go!' Happily, I had my phone turned off, and wasn't going to leave unless unless the whole place went up in flames - was having that much fun toodle-ing around.  

Then I spotted what I've been looking for for about two years now - cute and adorable planting pots! Used to be lots of stores had cutesy pots and planters, but there seems to be a dearth of them the past couple of years. I even searched nurseries in the Bay Area which back in 'the day' used to have loads of adorable pots. 

Chicken Pots, no pie

Was sooo tempted by this colorful sea turtle pot

Settled on a cute terra cotta baby quail pot and a colorful rooster pot

There were also large terra cotta pots in the shape of terriers, bunnies, chickens and such, but decided to leave those for another time. Now I finally have nice pots for my 'string of hearts' plant.

Got in my 2K plus steps at the nursery and a bit of shopping and I was finally very-nearly-almost ready to leave. Barbara had to sit in the car and wait while I got my fill of succulents at this awesome plant nursery.

lots of blossoms

Brother Sun, Sister Moon

Birding the Boondocks

Yesterday morning, after running an errand or two it seemed time for some birding; you know, to keep one's sanity. Brewer Road was picked, a boondock-ish area with lots of farmland, and after the recent rains, muddy enough to put the 4-wheel drive to some use.

Below is a picture taken late in the day. It's first up because it had a cute group of 8 Tundra Swans; a family group that just flew into the Central Valley here from the Tundra of Alaska or Northern Canada. The pair on the left are the Swan parents, and to the right are the grey-ish juveniles, the 'babies' of the year. These six overgrown tykes flew with their parents, making mental notes, to learn the route. Or do millennial swans jot notes down on their iPhones like our youngsters do?

A family of Tundra Swans

Here below is a close-up with the parents on the left, and 2 of the juvies on the right. You can better see here  how gray the juveniles are - they'll gradually get snowier plumage as they molt.  These kids will stay with Mom & Dad, and even follow them back up to the tundra come Spring. Then they will be in for a shock; Mom & Dad start work on a new nest and family, getting get grouchy and chasing their over-grown babies away. The poor things will then have to fend entirely for themselves, the poor widdle things. 

The little family will stay together though this winter

There were loads of other birds in massive flocks I saw today: White-faced Ibis, Greater White-fronted Geese, and umpteen Snow Geese. This humongous flock of Snow Geese below, were on Nicolaus Road, maybe a mile west from Brewer Road. The photo was taken through my windshield, and I was also surrounded by Snows to the left and Snows to the right. Noisy birds they are too!

Snowies straight ahead, to the right...

and Snowies to the left...

I was pleased to see a few Blue Phase Snow Geese. The Blueies used to be treated as a separate species but they are actually just a color phase of the Snow Geese. This is the first time I've been able to photograph a Blue Goose. A car makes a handy 'blind'.

Nice little Blue Goose

There are partially blue plumaged Snow Geese, next to the blue goose. Siblings maybe?

All the geese, the blue and the white, are stained yellow around their bills from digging in the iron rich, muddy soils. I am certain that somewhere in the massive flock there had to be a second species, a true species, the smaller 'Ross Goose'. The Rosses are smaller, with warty sort of lumps on their shorter bills. Looked all over the flocks and couldn't spot a single Ross. Still I'd bet a whole bag of birdie grain, those Ross were out there somewhere in that massive flock of Snows.

So let's see... today I saw huge flocks of Swans, Snow and Greater White-fronted Geese, hundreds of pintails and not a few Northern Shovelers (a duck species). Saw more American Coots than I've seen in a long time; at least a thousand of them spread up and down Brewer Road. The big treat for the day however, was spotted, some distance away, on a farm berm. Looking at the photo below, there is an arrow pointing to a brown and white blob.

Note the arrow pointing to the brown & white blob

Only a few seconds later, the brown and white blob took off into the air.

Bald Eagle! 

It is surprising to see a Baldie so close to home. They've been spotted along the American River and that is where I expected to see one - didn't expect one while rummaging around along Placer County's Brewer Road.

This very silly Gull chased after the eagle, trying to convince it to drop its lunch

Shortly after the gull began harassing the eagle, a massive flight of waterfowl entered the sky, coming from the opposite direction. I kept my camera shooting away. It wasn't until I got home I could further pick out the eagle amid the Northern Pintails and Greater White-fronted Geese. I don't know if the waterfowl saw the Bald Eagle had already accounted for its lunch or being in such greater numbers didn't really have anything to worry about from a fish-eating eagle.

Nothing like flying against traffic

I quickly lost track of where the eagle headed off to. Hope it managed to hold on to its lunch with all the hoopla of geese and gulls.

When I left Brewer Road and traversed Nicolaus Road with its Snowy geese, I kept going, ending up in Woodland and Davis. Didn't hit the Fazio Wildlife area because it was getting close to afternoon gridlock-time. Oh well, that'll be another day.

Here is a short clip of the Snow Geese, whose noisy calls give you the impression that the Bedlam is busy.

All Hens to Asilomar

The Pacific; photo by Rhonda

Time for a Hen Party, the 2nd of 2015. Hen Ingrid put the weekend event together rather quickly, and the weekend seemed to shoot by just as fast. Happily, one can hastily stuff a weekend's worth of fun and togetherness with friends in short order. We took possession of the luxurious new roost late Friday afternoon. I drove down, picking up Barbara along the way, and we arrived at dusk.

the Director's Cabin

Arriving at first I thought the cottage two different buildings. Nope, not a 'cottage' - it was more like a mini-mansion. Three bedrooms, three massive bathrooms, huge kitchen (you're getting the general idea), a sitting room with a convertible couch/bed and a patio deck big enough for a party of 30.




We divied up the many rooms. Practically needed a map -->
to navigate around...



As Ingrid prepared chicken Chicken in Grape Sauce and Polenta with a Salad ala Nancy, the reconnective chatter proceeded.  Note to those concerned, all Hens and their varied dependents are faring well. Most are now mercifully retired with Hen Robbie the next to join the ranks of those no longer in need of an alarm clock.

Ingrid cooking up polenta, while Rhonda & Robbie attack the Clementines

Quorum of Hens over dinner with wine... lots of lovely wines, compliments of Rhonda

Saturday morning, all woke and followed a trail of breadcrumbs to find the kitchen for breakfast.

Lolling about

Post-breakfast, a brief brainstorming session happened. Decisions were made for what activities - if any - would fill the day. Energetic Hens, Rhonda, Ingrid, Nancy and Robbie were off for a hike to Pacific Grove to see the Monarch Butterflies.

Ingrid and Robbie enroute

Rhonda's photo of Monarch Butterflies roosting in a Eucalyptus 

If you assumed I forgot to mention that everyone went on the 'energetic Hen's hike', you are sadly mistaken. One hen stayed to stand guard at the so-called 'cottage'.

While I went for a not-terribly-long walk to the Asilomar boardwalk,

There are interesting old Asilomar buildings nestled in the sandy scenery.

Shady boardwalk leading off to the dunes and overlooks

View of with the Pacific

Soon I met up with a few of the locals.

I guess it is not amazing that deer, who roam a land saturated with people become quite tame. I was able to walk right up to a doe and speak to her, for which she was annoyed, as we had not been properly introduced.

Despite both of us holding still, iPhone photo is still a little blurry

All my pictures were taken with the iPhone - becoming a bad habit really. Barbara mentioned "Think of families taking all their children's photos on cell phones, and will in a decade or so, be in for a shock, as we were, the children of the '60s with all our childhood photos now tinted in decade-revealing pink."  And that, my dears, is what photo-shopping is all about.

Post hikes, of the energetic and the sluggish types, it was time for the usual cheesy, winey Hen celebration. A galaxy of cheeses were provided courtesy of generous Rhonda: smoked gouda, Wesleydale with cranberries, and for amusement, if not flavor, there was Fat Bottom Girl Bleating Heart and Buff Blue Bleating Heart.

Creatures with udders worked hard to make our treats

Umm.. some rich 'Humboldt Fog'

And some garlicky 'Vampire Slayer'!

We had a nice selection of wines, and we weren't stinted on the beers. Rhonda brought this favorite for us to share, from Fort Bragg on the California Coast, some 'Brother Thelonious' a rich as Midas, Belgium ale.

And back to our weekend get-together, when Sunday morning rolled around, we were all in shock. Truly, for some mysterious reason, of all the Hen Parties we've held, this one shot by the quickest. It felt to all concerned like it had lasted only half a day, tops. Had some wizard or witch of another dimension cast a time relativity spell on us? How could 2.5 days and 2 nights shoot by so 'don't-blink-or-you'll-miss-it' rapidly? We will never know, and we can only conclude we need to have another Hen Party, and fast!

Ah me! In closing, enjoy a few of Rhonda's wonderful sunset photos from Saturday night, from Asilomar's coastal dunes.