Conclusion: the place where you got tired of thinking!
Early and time to walk…I don my walking shoes and headed out the door (after a glass of champagne with my bride). Today I had to limit my walking to two miles as the sciatic nerve was acting up but that’s OK, I will do it tomorrow!
The short walk was interesting as I tried to count the butterflies…ran out of fingers very quickly. There was no way to get my iPhone to capture the picture so I borrow one from the net!
Did You Know? Swarms of butterflies are invading inland sections of Southern California as a result of an unusually heavy migration of a common species making its way from Mexico to the Pacific Northwest to breed, experts say.
About 1 billion butterflies, known as Painted Ladies, are flying at speeds of 20 miles per hour in a northerly direction from the deserts of Mexico to reach breeding grounds in Oregon, said Tom Merriman, a director of Butterfly Farms, a nonprofit in north San Diego County dedicated to restoring the health of butterflies as pollinators.
Vanessa virginiensis is most easily distinguishable by its two large eyespots on the ventral side, whereas V. cardui has four small eyespots and V. annabella has none. V. virginiensis also uniquely features a white dot within the forewing subapical field, set in pink on the underside and usually also in the dorsal side’s orange field.
The largest spot in the black forewing tips is white in V. cardui, pale orange in this species, and orange in the West Coast species. The latter also has a purer orange background color of the dorsal side, as opposed to the darker and (especially in V. virginiensis) redder hue of the other two.
A less reliable indicator is the row of black eyespots on the dorsal submarginal hindwing. In the American painted lady, those on the opposite ends of the row are often larger and have blue “pupils”. In V. annabella, this applies to the inner two spots, while in V. cardui some of the black eyespots may have tiny blue pupils in the summer morph, but usually have none at all, and the eyespots themselves are all roughly the same size. The size of the wings are about 5 cm (2 in) across.
Do we love our family… indeed! So much fun. Between Robin & Bob, Colleen & Mark, Michele & Franklyn, Lisa & Pete, Joe & Amy, and Mitch plus the older grandkids…we just relish the ringing of the phone to get the latest and greatest! Now we can see/talk to them all the time! Thank you Alexa Show!
Today, Colleen called first and we shared for about twenty minutes. Flash! There was sunshine in New Hampshire!
My voice must carry as we heard noises in the background and Cassie and Logann popped up! I am now called “Pop-Pop” by Logann! She recognizes Sue and I and gets all excited when we talk to her. Of course, Calhan goes bonkers!
Talked to Aunt Kaye today as we now do every day…teice…and she was doing great!
Success! We finished off the puzzle this morning. Sue, sometimes called “Eagle-Eye”, came to my rescue and we did the last 20 pieces in a flash! The sky was difficult…really difficult! We got to the point of trying to fit every pieces remaining everywhere remaining…brut force worked!
Old picture time… Jonathan and me many moons ago. Jon and I “talk” several times a week. It’s nice to see how he has grown up and to know we had something to do with it in a positive sense!
Old Memories: When Jon was little, he and Colleen (his Mom) stayed with us while Pete, the Marine, was on duty overseas. We got a lot of now cherished time with Jon…and Colleen. That time formed a bond, especially between Jon and Grandma Sue. I still have memories of Jon’s apron, chef’s hat, and his pots and pans when he and Grandma would go cooking! In fact, I think we still have them! We spent hours and hours in the kitchen.
Now he cooks, along with Sarah, his bride and we still discuss “what’s for dinner” during the week!
We itroduced Jon and Sarah to Indian food and they love it…we ar goint o bring them out this summer and I plan a surprise Indian cooking class (I have asked our favorite restaurant to arrange for a cooking class at our home so it will be a blast!)
Afternoon…time to go to work. The garden needed some TLC and it was 79 degrees so out into the garden I went, pulling weeds and moving eight 100 pound bags of Grow Mulch Soil Conditioner…I might be getting too old for this! Monday I will roto-till the amendment into the ground and await the rain on Wednesday! A farmers work is never done!
The clock is racing toward 5:40 PM which is takeoff time for us. We went to Yorba Linda Country Club for a Starlighter’s Dance Club formal St. Patrick’s Day Dance. We had sixty-two there this evening with MPG playing music of the 40’s-60’s! Great time!
The traffic was nil….GPS said with traffic it would be an hour…forty minutes later we arrived! Wonderful…the bar was empty and my Gin and Tonic was beckoning me from clear across the room!
Did You Know? The name gin is a shortened form of “genever” which derived from juniperus, the Latin name for the juniper berry.
We have been members of Starlighters for almost 31 years now…we are the “seniors” of the club! Great friends and we enjoy and evening of charing and dancing! We aren’t “great” dancers but we have so much fun! We are pooped at the end of the evening…means a good nights sleep for sure!
After returning home, we watched Eureka and then crashed. FLASH! No tookies tonight as we had dessert after dinner and it was rich enough to last! Tomorrow is a big day so by 11:45 PM we were done in!
