Blue and Gold Wildflowers!

Continuing on with my flower addiction, here are some of my recent wildflower photos. We've had an amazing amount of rain this winter/spring, and I'm already seeing more of some species than in past years. I still have a gazillion photos to go through, but if you're a flower addict, too, I hope you enjoy these blue and gold beauties:-)

"Face the Sun", these sunflowers bloom year-round here. They get a bit raggedy looking in winter, but they keep going. They're always a joyful bright spot in the landscape:-)

"Blue Beauties", Baby Blue Eyes, Nemophilia menziesii, a native California wildflower. I love these little beauties, and have spotted more patches of them this year than in the past - yay!

"Poppy Perfect", poppies are the best flowers to catch the light going through them! They glow from within, and are so gorgeous:-)

"Sun Seeker", Common Fiddlenecks, Amsinckia menziesii (another Cali native), are just about the 1st wildflowers to start blooming here, and light up the hillsides.

"Simply Blue", another Baby Blue Eyes flower - such a soft, delicate beauty:-)

"Light Dancers", and more poppies in the light:-)

Blossoms!

If pink and white flower blossoms are your favorite, then this is the post for you! It doesn't seem to matter how many photos I take of these beauties, I can't get enough:-) This first photo was actually taken by my mom, Nancy, and edited by me. She realized she could see a different perspective from where she was sitting in the car, said how good her view was, and so I handed her the camera. She was right - look at this gorgeous view, and what a great photo!

"Pink Path"

"Pink Think"

"Pretty Pink Petals"

"Light Up"

"Soft and Bright"

"Delicate"

"Reach Out"

"Bright Beauty"

"Clouds of Pink"

"White Light"

Bees!

I have lots of new photos to share, have been taking way more than I can keep up with, lol! Starting with just a few bees, though, because I love them so much. Plus, while they might make some people nervous, when I'm in an orchard or around flowers with the sound of bees buzzing in the air, it just feels like I'm surrounded by the most wonderful energy:-) As you probably know, honey bees are in crisis right now, so plant lots of flowers and garden organically to attract them to your garden - bee prepared to bee mesmerized;-)

"Embrace"

"Bee-lieve!"

"Don't Let Go!"

"Eye Spy"

"Bee Ballet"

I don't think I've ever shared any bee wisdom or medicine on my blog. I've researched them on several sites - here are just a few of the traits they represent:

*Accomplishing the impossible - looking at the bees above, hanging on determined to get their pollen; they prove you can reach your goals:-) Also, the way bees are built, they shouldn't be able to fly, but they do.
*Be productive without overdoing it, remember to "savor the honey of life". Also, are you actually working and being productive, or just being busy?
*Bees show the value of working as a community.
*Enjoy the sweetness of life.
And, two of several traits from my favorite quick reference site Animal Spirits:
*Prosperity
*Understanding female warrior energy

These photos are of honey bees and Anthophora urbana (I believe, but if not, please let me know). All are available in our shops (which the photos link to), because I bee-lieve I'm not alone in my love of bees:-)

"I Wanna be a Cowboy"

Well, okay, not really;-) Last Saturday, though, we took a drive, and stumbled upon a big round-up/branding gathering on our favorite road. We stopped, I asked if I could take photos, and was told yes. So, parked, hopped out, and got to see our first-ever real-life round-up. It was so cool! The action took place in a fairly small pen with a tall fence around it, not the greatest for photos, but at least we got to see it and I got some fun shots.


Yes, it can be a bit harsh (which is why no branding photos here), but to me, it was so great to see this lifestyle still in existence - especially here in California. Plus, though they may eventually head to market, the calves up in the foothills still have much happier lives than the ones down here in the factory dairy farms (veal crates, anyone?). The foothill calves get to stay with their mothers until weaning age, and enjoy freedom and green grass for a while. They get to be cows.






It was really awesome to see all of the cowboys at work! I've seen reining and roping in the show ring, and have to say that the real thing makes you appreciate just how hard it is to rope and wrangle a calf. It was a great trip back into the past, and I hope you enjoy this short photo journey into being a cowboy for a day:-)

Goodbye, January

Dear January,

I know I've missed the whole month with you on my blog. However, January, you've been so dull and grey, I just wanted you to be done. So long, farewell to the foggiest, dreariest, wettest January since we've lived here.

Here's to sunnier times ahead, and prettier days!

A cheerful farewell,
Erica

P.S. Despite the dreary weather, there actually were some bright spots in January which I will share soon:-) And, yes, that's a rare sighting of the sun in my photo.

Merry Christmas!

I hope you and yours are enjoying a wonderful holiday season!!! No "white Christmas" here, but the hills are coming alive with green:-) This photo was taken yesterday, and this first deer we've seen in the entire time we've been taking drives on our foothill road - perfect timing!

Hummingbirds!

Well, once again, it's been too long! So, I decided to remedy that by doing a post of some of my hummingbird pictures taken over the past few months. Despite one really cold snap, it seems like we still have more hanging around than normal for this time of year. Yesterday, I counted ten around the feeders - not nearly as many as a couple months ago, but they're still emptying the small feeder once a day. So glad to have them, and I love being able to share my photo addiction with you:-) All are Anna's Hummingbirds, the one species that we do have year-round here. Hope you enjoy!

"Attention!" Sometimes, the males' heads are almost magenta like this, other times they have a deeper maroon with gold highlights like the next pic depending on the light when they flash. It's always gorgeous to see:-)

"Shine!"

"Ta da!" Female Anna's - I always seem to share photos of the males, but the females are lovely, too, don't you think?

"Ascension"

"Hello Down There!"

"Bat Bird" - I've done this before, shouldn't work, but it does in a weird way. On camera flash at dusk, so ISO 400, and shutter speed was just 200. This is one of the few times flash eye isn't bad, lol!

"Proud!"

"Up Close and Personal" - bad background, but he's so close and detailed:-)

"Target Locked!" - My favorite hummingbird photo this year, just because it's a shot I've never gotten before. It usually winds up as a blur. This photo even made it to the front page of Etsy in a Treasury a while back:-)

"Bottoms Up!" - Bye for now!

A Creepy, Crawly Halloween!

"Just Hangin'!"

I saved these photos especially for Halloween - I thought they were appropriately ghoulish;-) Let me just say I'm a big baby when it comes to spiders, and have been known not to enter a room when a spider is present. However, I recognize that they are usually beneficial visitors to gardens. So, when I saw this spider setting up residence in our plants, I let her be. At first, the Skippers kept getting caught. I didn't like seeing them being devoured, but there were so many, and I figured that Miss Spider needed to eat, too. I also figured, incorrectly, that Skippers would be as big as she could catch and eat... Then she caught a Common Buckeye. I left her alone, though, because Common Buckeyes didn't visit that often, so I hoped it would be the exception, not the rule. The very next day, this insatiable spider caught an Anise Swallowtail!!! I couldn't believe my eyes:-( At that point, I decided Miss Spider was uninvited, and needed to find a new home. I caught her and her prey on the bottom of the broom, and gave her a gentle ride over the wall. Sorry, but I wanted the butterflies to be safe while visiting my flowers. I had really hoped the grasshoppers would get caught, but I guess they're too wily, and are still out there munching my roses. P.S. These photos were taken over the course of four days in August. I never knew spiders were so voracious! There was initially a second spider, but it disappeared... or did it get eaten??? HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

"The Mummy"

"Monster Mash"

"Gory!"

"Spider Bat" or "Bat Spider";-)

"Gift Wrapped"

"The Last Supper"

"Creepy Crawly!"

Hey! How did he get in here? Sighted last weekend on a drive:-)

HAPPY 10th BIRTHDAY, SKYE!!!

Yup, Skye's a cat, and he was born on Halloween, 2000. He came into our lives in May, 2001. He's a purebred Persian, and the sweetest cat you'll ever meet:-) We've had other Persians, who have since passed, and they've all been lovebugs. While they are high-maintenance cats, they're also very laid-back and don't get into much cat trouble (no counter surfing unless there's a way for them to step up to it, no curtain swinging, etc.;-).

Skye spends most of his day in true cat fashion, asleep. Because of his flat face, he snores, lol! When he is awake, he just wants to be petted and loved. He'll meow (loud and raspy!) and make a pest of himself until you do:-) He's also got the fine art of plopping down the spot where you're most likely to trip over him - or getting up when you do, and running right in front of your legs.

He's not big on being held, but he loves to be petted - he'll make biscuits the whole time, and purrs as loud as a freight train. He doesn't have a mean bone in his body... Well, except for when it comes to getting a bath. Persians tend to get oily/dandruffy and their hair starts to mat if they don't get bathed. Our others didn't mind that much, but Skye hollers and screams so loud the whole time that the neighbors probably think we're killing him! He doesn't get too many baths nowadays, to keep his stress level down - it wears him out too much. He doesn't mind being shaved (the full body pic shows a little of this year's haircut), which keeps him cleaner longer. We've had to shave him since moving here because summers are so hot. He loves being groomed, and will follow you around when he sees the brushes come out:-)

Skye is strictly indoors, and always has been. We believe all cats should be indoors for a variety of reasons (however, we know how hard it can be to turn an outdoor cat into an indoor one). Persians are foo-foo cats, though, and aren't meant to survive outdoors. They were created at the whim of humans, and are dependent on us to take care of all that hair and to clean that smooshy-face.

Anyways, Happy Birthday to the sweetest cat in the world! Skye, it's been an honor to have you in our lives, and we hope there are many more years still to come. You are so very special, and I wish everyone could know the joy of such a wonderful cat:-)