The Daily Bucket is a place where we post and exchange our observations about what is happening in the natural world in our neighborhood. Bugs, buds, birds - each note is a record that we can refer to in the future as we try to understand the patterns that are quietly unwinding around us.
Los Angeles. March 26, 2012
Daughter bwren and hubby moved into their casita three years ago and immediately set about working on their postage stamp sized garden. First came the vines. Passion fruit, pink jasmine, bougainvillea. Many pots of succulents began to collect at their feet, some with just two or three leaves on a stem.
When I arrived on Saturday I walked into a jungle. Stuff grows incredibly fast in LA! The passion fruit vines and pink jasmine have intertwined, covering a fence and now reaching up and over onto a makeshift arbor. Outside the kitchen window red bougainvillea is blooming in a massed column that finally blocks the view to the apartments just across the fence.
Some of the succulents are thigh high now and blooming, some still creep over the ground. I am always surprised and fascinated by their architectural beauty, so unlike the leafy perennials that grace our northwest gardens.
Yesterday morning we walked through daughter bwren's neighborhood to the local farmers' market. The local birds were out. A pair of Mockingbirds played tumble and chase through the utility wires overhead, pushing aside doves (mourning doves?) and house finches. Our route took us by a huge empty lot. Perhaps 70% of it was a bare loamy earth that to me is quite exotic. The rest was filled with plants, many of which I couldn't identify. One of them, probably a DYC, (damned yellow composite) was covered in fuzzy seed heads and Lesser Goldfinches. Such a treat! Lesser Goldfinches don't come north. The females seemed a bit drab, beige and yellowish. The males sported natty black caps and not quite bright yellow breasts. Feeding on the ground were a few House Sparrows, a small drab sparrow I didn't recognize and something with pale petticoats that dashed into the vegetation before I got a good look. I'm guessing it was a Dark-eyed Junco.
Our excursion was met with rain. Seattle sprinkles at first, then harder and harder until we were drenched and silly with wet.
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Your turn. Where and what? We're off to explore again today so I may not be back.