Succulents and More™

This has nothing to do with plants, but there is a flock of wild turkeys that regularly shows up in our part of town, just walking about like they owned the place. What is amazing to me is that they don’t seem to be afraid of people. They just go about their business (usually foraging for food) as if it’s the most natural thing in the world. I guess it is to them. To me, seeing wildlife in the middle of the day in the middle of town is a cause for excitement!

Day 3 was spent on and around the Salton Sea. The issues involving the Salton Sea are complex to say the least, so instead of trying to summarize them here, I’ll simply refer you to this site . From there you can click through to a number of other sites if you’re interested. This is the desert distilled to its essential elements: earth, sky, and water. However, unlike elsewhere in the desert, there is plenty of water, except that it’s saltier than the Pacific Ocean and hence of no use to humans. This bizarre and hostile environment offers little for tourists looking for National Park-type beauty—in fact, its fetid odor drives them away in a hurry. It’s not until you spend a little time here and try to understand the land and the people living here that you start to appreciate this unique place. North Shore, mid-afternoon A dream that never materialized—failed subdivision Motel in Niland Salvation Mountain has been called a masterpiece of folk art by some, a toxic d...

On Christmas morning we not only found presents under the tree but also a surprise on my in-laws’ back patio: These footprints were right next to the house. My father-in-law got out a tape measure for scale: For comparison, these are our black lab’s footprints: So who was our nighttime visitor? A mountain lion , also known as cougar or puma. My in-laws see tracks occasionally, but never this close to the house. For all we know, this particular mountain lion could have watched us watching TV in the living room. Or maybe it was after my father-in-law’s private stash of MGD , stored in the snow right outside the kitchen door:

My 9-year old daughter didn’t have school today so she and I went for a walk this morning. We live on the edge of town, right near a greenbelt beyond which are open fields. The greenbelt is much used by people walking their dogs, riding their bikes, jogging, etc. There are a mature valley oaks—the most majestic trees native to the Central Valley—as well as English walnuts which typically produce a copious crop. Valley oak along the greenbelt This morning my daughter and I came across a large flock of wild turkeys. It looked like they weren’t scared of us at all but eventually they did take off. Some ran into the underbrush, others flew off and landed on the oak trees. One must have landed on a rotten branch because we heard the branch snap and the bird whoosh to the ground. Wild turkey who didn’t seem too scared of us It’s still a bit early for fall color in our part of the state and we don’t get a lot anyway. However, I was happy to see some of the walnut trees starting ...