At home, drinking juice

My silver Nissan Leaf order finally arrived yesterday, and I was able to trade in my old 2004 Murano and set up a lease (to take advantage of the Federal $7500 tax credit that only the dealership could handle). I'll also be receiving a $2500 state rebate (instead of $5000) if the paper work is to be believed. So, the price level was sweet enough for me to accept.

I've already set up my iTouch to use Bluetooth communication to play music through the Leaf's audio system. Although, using the USB connection allows for more options such as song titles, mix settings and playlist access, etc. I can finally listen to music without the hiss of an FM station interfering!

I'll be commuting about 40 miles round trip daily. So, I'm well under the 100 mi (or 80 mi, or 55 mi - I'll get a solid, personalized number someday...) range that a fully charged Leaf is limited to. I'll have to gather stats over a few weeks to figure out how efficiently I'm driving and what alternate routes I should take. If I run into any power shortages, I still have a dealership charging location in the middle of my commute as well as a charging station near my work.

Here she is trickle-drinking the juice from the solar-powered home in the garage (I'm still waiting on the installation of a 220V ECOtality's station):

I didn't care to order the extra "Zero Emission" decals, but the EV came with these on both doors, instead:

Monarch Chrysalis

The milkweed garden that was planted has been decimated by the Monarch caterpillars as expected. But, new leaves are just starting to emerge from the leftover branches. Meanwhile, I found a dozen or so Monarch chrysalis' not on the milkweed, but outside the periphery of the main plant. The caterpillars tend to migrate away and up the house and other structures. The chrysalis' that I could see in plain sight were on the house stucco, under the eaves, under the outdoor furniture and near a water fountain. I almost stepped on a newly emerged butterfly after watching it unfold its wings one afternoon; it had flopped onto the brick pavers and I had forgotten that it was there.

The chrysalis (one of three) pictured below was on the garden hose storage roller where it gets rotated like a chair in a Ferris wheel ride when watering is needed in the garden. It looks just about ready to release a butterfly.

Sunflower head

The sunflower head has been open for a few weeks now. This plant is standing at about 8 feet tall. There are two other sunflowers grown from the same seed stock, but I'm not sure if I planted them too close to the larger plant as they are 1/3rd the size. Maybe there's some competition for nutrients going on underground? Or, they're just odd hybrids?

The sunflower is actually composed of many small flowers called "florets" where the seeds will eventually mature. The future seeds are white in this close-up picture. Read more about Sunflowers!

Sunflower

I grew this sunflower from a seed. It's now about 7.5' tall. Wow.

 

Spring

Spring brings new colors and animals to the backyard. This yellow crab spider's color contrasts with the blue/purple flowers of some lavender flowers.

The epiphyllum bloom time is starting. Don't blink, or you'll miss the bloom!

I've got a patch of milkweed growing from the seeds I collected last year. The Monarch butterflies have already found it and the catepillars are feeding off the leaves.

Highway 52

A new section of Highway 52 was opened to the public for biking/jogging/walking this morning. There was a lot of free stuff like popcorn, coffee, cookies, t-shirts, live bands, cotton candy and automobile clubs.

Backyard Show

Currently showing in the backyard this morning and ready for their close-up shots:

The honey bush (Melianthus major) has two flower stalks about to bloom. the flower and leaves are showy, but the plant is toxic. You won't find any grasshopper bites or aphids on this plant!

This plum tree has 100's of flowers on it, so it's about 10X more than what I've seen it do in previous years. There's going to be a lot of fruit, so I should look into how to make plum sauce and plum preserves and plum bread and plum pudding and ....

The native flannel bush is budding several yellow flowers. They haven't opened fully, yet.