That 2nd photo ... 😂

Pressed 2 small trellises into my raised bed (for future pole beans) fm the beloved pile of garden infrastructure available in the corner.😍 Then I flung straw, 'cause of impending possible freezing temps & snow. Gotta protect ma baby plants!! ❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️ 🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾 🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱 #gardening #CommunityGarden

Today on a desert slope, I found frosted Christmas stars: a rare succulent (Apteranthes burchardii) that produces starbursts of blossom after it rains:

How one transports a bag of straw when one no longer owns a pickup.😅 Safety first!! #gardening #CommunityGarden #UrbanGardening

We sequenced the genome of 'desert ginseng' (Cistanche deserticola) - a leafless parasitic plant that gave up photosynthesis - and found it lost huge chunks of its own genome…but started stealing genes from its host! Thanks to my collaborators Prof Huang + her talented team👏🏻 lnkd.in/evF5iU9G

The big kitty who visited our Calif neighborhood at least twice last week.🤩

This is the largest sunflower painting I've ever done! www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkIE... #sunflower #bloomscrolling #art #dailyart @bsky.art

Monday visitor to the old neighborhood.🐻

This little dude was just V comfortable on my row tag, and stayed there while I (carefully) wrote over the pencil in sharpie.😅🥰 Put him back onto his sunny spot. And apparently he stayed through my sprinkling twigs n stuff atop newly seeded rows.🥰 ☀️ 🌱🌱🌱🌱🪰🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱 A new friend!

Scarifying nasturtium seeds, you? 😊 #gardening #spring

Happy spring! 🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

Spectacular.😲🤩 Imagine living where they are not. As in anywhere NOT in the western hemisphere. We are SO LUCKY to have these here!😍🥰🥳

The Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) can fit both themes for #BirdOfTheDay being #YearRound and having 3 or more colors. #Tricolour 📷🪶🖤❤️🧡💛

Baby plant love. 💚🌱💚🌱💚🌱💚🌱💚🌱💚

Turtle side-eye .... 🐢

Sign we've moved NORTH: I am upstairs in the love seat, clad in long johns top & bottom, jeans, long-sleeved T, wool sweater, quilted vest, wool socks, the heater is ON & my hands & feet are STILL COLD.😅 What I learned from previous moves is that it'll take me a year to acclimate.👍💪❄️⏳

Currently attending NOAA CA/NV drought webinar. Mike Hittle at CNRFC: “In many locations we expect the snowpack to fall below 2015 levels in the next week or so. We have seen April and May melts that are on the same order... A melt of this rate is a big deal any time, but in March it’s unheard of.”

Blossoming trees in Greenwood Village, A sign of new beginnings… #morning #running #colorado

Seems to be enjoying the proffered padded resting area at the heat vent (as well as the salmon treat that inspired this bathing fest). 🧡🧡🐱🧡🧡

We found no meteorite chunks in our six hours walking around local parks today, but look at all the wonderful things my mom and I *did* find! DeKay's brownsnake, green frog, painted turtle, and my first Tree Swallows of the spring

Georgeous rhododendron, espied during my walk, today.😍👍 #walking

Jumpin Gnat Flash 🪶

A ‘first year’ male Hooded oriole just finished a bath in the blue fountain. As youth can be (rebellious), he decided to try out the ‘big boy’ water pool! I haven’t seen orioles in Gary’s pool. 3rd pic - yep, water’s fine. 4th pic - “Come on in dad!” May or may not be ‘dad’ 😁 #birds

hmmm, where might the heat vent be?🤔😻🔥

Yesterday's walk introduced me to this beauty, which I assumed was a landscape/planted plant. It's not--it's a NATIVE!! Oregon grape (Berberis aquifolium), right in my neighborhood.🤩 It will have purple berries later this year🥳💜

omg, YES, PLEASE!😅 Signed, Morning Person Who Loves to Dance

Sometimes you just get that shot. Anna's hummingbird with a little friend, in my yard. Davis, CA. #birds #ants

6% illuminated waxing crescent phase or more commonly - Cheshire Cat moon! Seen from San Diego county tonight. 🌙 Nice craters at the edge.

First of year ‘first year’ male Hooded oriole for the equinox! His throat patch is fairly dark and wings are more dark gray and white. Last photo is an older male at an adjacent feeder earlier - bolder blacks and in the shade, the yellow is darker. #birds

Violets blooming in the low mow region. #Garden #Gardening #BloomSky

Thank you all so much to your incredible kindness in your responses to story. I'm so moved and overwhelmed; I took some time offline yesterday with Pepé, so my apologies if I haven't responded, but please know that I have read every note and it means the world.

Seems to be a bee fly kinda day! Dangly-legged flying teddybears.😍

Friday #Flyday! This fuzzbutt is a bee fly from the Mojave Desert last week. They are good pollinators, and excellent plush-toy candidates. There are lots of species; most parasitize ground-nesting bees, wasps, and beetles; females hover in front of a burrow and flick their eggs into it. #Bugsky 🐙🌿

Ah, SPRING!!! 🥦🫛🌶️🍅🍆🍉🥬🫜🥔

Seemingly approves of both the new fuzzy blanket (extremely soft) and the fireplace. 😻 #FloofyBunz

They put the gophers on a patch of pumice covered ground for ONE DAY and then picked them up again

Weird bug alert

Maybe a sip of cool water. 👀 🪶 Gary the Cooper’s hawk

#Evening #Sky #With a #PurpleHaze. #Silhouette #samsung #photography #phonephotography #eastcoastkin #skyscape #clouds #cloudscape

How delightful to change my alarm from 3:45 a.m. to 7 a.m.😅

☘️ St. Patrick's Day has arrived! ☘️ Here's one of our green friends from the underwater world. This is a Costasiella kuroshimae, commonly nicknamed "Shaun the Sheep." Prints: buff.ly/Yye2jdV #macro #nudibranch #underwaterphotography #critters #scuba #scubadiving #philippines #tiny

California’s lowest snowpack since 2015 means water storage is below normal. Reservoir levels are above normal but the paltry snowpack (which normally accounts for ~30% of water storage in CA) is putting the Sierra Nevada millions of acre-feet short of normal Source: cw3e.ucsd.edu/water_storag...

I find these paintings so soothing! Minimalist heaven, amazingly realistic, lasting record of different varieties of agricultural products back in the day. ❤️❤️❤️

Pumpkin-spiced duck sounding forth his barbaric QUACK over the treetops of the world 🪶

What a BOSS.😅😎

Today is Octidi the 28th of Ventôse in the year 234. Ventôse is the month of wind. Today we celebrate the maidenhair fern.#JacobinDay More information on the maidenhair fern

1st time looking out of the 3rd story window.😼 Brave little girl! Was chatting w/a v kind TSA woman when taking our girl thru security (via pvt screening room). I said 🐱 only likes me & it can b embarrassing when we have visitors. She said that makes her less likely to be kidnapped.😅 I'll take it!

🤘😶‍🌫️ Good morning peeps! Happy St. Patrick's Day! ☘️ This morning I caught a quail with his topknot between two bokeh balls...🫧🪶🫧 ...surely that means something. 🤔 📸 Gambel's Quail, today's #birding! 🌿 #Quail #BirdLovers #Photography #TopKnotTuesday

They are the only Australian bird that can fly carrying more than their own body weight, so it's not just looks.