Monarch (male) Butterfly

If you look closely at the hind wing set of this newly emerged butterfly, the black spots mark this butterfly as a male. It's hard to believe the caterpillars are still going at it on the milkweed and continuing to morph into butterflies at this time of the year. Around the house, I see a few chrysalis' don't make it through to completion, but then these guys seemingly pop out of nowhere. So, here's my proof of how nice the weather is in San Diego:

Even though they're in the same Class as cockroaches, people don't seem to be scared of these insects as much. Check out this close-up:

Spider Brood

I saw this brood of newly hatched spiders in the front of the house near an outdoor light. I wonder when they'll start cannibalizing each other? I'll snap a shot of the matching adult when/if I get a chance. The adults tend to make huge webs around this time in San Diego.

A close-up gives you an idea of what patterns would be found on the adult spiders:

Halloween Weekend

The props are up and ready for Halloween 2011. Using some fluorescent paint on some Styrofoam tombstones really makes these props pop with the help of a black fluorescent light bulb.

Oh, gotta remember to return this to the medical school when we're done! The poor guy gets to have fun once a year. He really digs the vampire get-up this year.

Would a velvet Elvis be appropriate here?

Octopus part 2

I added tape to the tentacles to reinforce them to the head. I know, it's going going slowly.

The Octopus

It starts out with a left over Papier-mâché ball from the last project. I cut a hole underneath and emptied out the balled up newspapers. Then, I poked holes and inserted four wire hanger wires.

Using masking tape, I twisted curled up strips of newspapers and taped them to the wire hanger wires.

To create curls, I used an old PVC pipe found in the garage.

I always think these Papier-mâché projects are going to be easy, but then they get complex as I start working on them. I mean, there are 8 legs on this dang thing! At least I've tried to keep the creature a bit smaller overall. Regardless, there's going to be glue and paint flying everywhere! I guess I should implant a hook somewhere in this piece to make it easier to get around those legs. I wonder if I should make the legs a little thicker where they join the body?

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.

More cactus and succulents

New cacti and succulents were added to the front courtyard last week. It's funny how all those little $10 specimens add up!

2010 Big Bay Balloon Parade

It was a nice day for a balloon parade back on Dec. 30, 2010. I had to use the link to figure out the names of some of these balloons.

An Over-blown football

Thomas the Tank Engine

Miss Boop

Jay Jay the Jet Plane

Bob the Builder

Wally the Octopus

and, Shamu the Killer Whale