Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!

OK so, right off the bat I need to inform you folks that, despite the very best of intentions, consistent, regularly-timed deliveries of content are not to be expected of me. Everything I put out will be on much more of an informal, "oh check it out, Some Random Chick posted something!" basis.

I'm a caregiver. And I'm disabled (arthritis, some kind of allergy syndrome we're trying to get checked out, nerve damage, spine crap... structural stuff. And nowadays an intermittent "harmless" but very uncomfortable and rather exhausting heart thing). And so is my husband (major sleep disorder, icepick headaches, tendinitis, serious tinnitus, spine crap...) and so is my daughter (long covid with post-viral paralysis from chest down, headaches, dysautonomia, constant pain, POTS, heart problems, gut problems...) and so is her fiancée (congenital issues including foot deformities that make walking painful and awkward). And out of us all, I am the one who can Do Stuff. You know, like the gardening and dishes and caregiving and repairs and housework and management of appointments and all that... stuff.

But enough about all that, just saying, I get ambitious about getting these pictures out there because the natural world is under attack and so many people don't even know there are more than two kinds of bees and think there are maybe ten kinds of birds and that any flowers in any ecosystem is nature working just fine and well and the ocean's too big to pollute... The thing is, I grew up spending all my free time with, when I could,  my grandfather, a naturalist/oceanographer/folk singer/folklorist/illustrator. I spent all my OTHER free time at the San Diego Zoo or just out in nature. I learned early to appreciate how incredibly important the entire web of life is, and our position in that as a parasite when we could be stewards. I lost my grandfather quite a few years ago now and the wound still burns. I lost my father, with whom, despite sadly not living near him for most of my life, I experienced every bit as much nature and also science fiction, the only person in my life I never had a serious disagreement with, a few months ago now and I don't know how to do this, I don't like this. Dad brought me to photography, and all of my pictures are for him. Anyway what I'm trying to say here is, the more a person is exposed to the local wonders of this our world, the very web around them wherever they are, the ebb and flow of biodiversity at any scale, the more they appreciate it and want to learn more and start taking amazement from it and even helping it return to its rightful glory and health. And eventually, change can happen.

But I do go on! The POINT of this post is, I fell so far behind on sharing pictures with you good people that I am forthwith abandoning the cute little stuff I was gonna do with these (I'll do it later with other stuff!) and will dump upon you now the pictures that have accumulated since my last post. I have ever so much to do today and ever so little mojo to throw at it, so I want to at least get this off my conscience-load and out into the world. So here I go, and then I'll pop an audio book on my head and do the dishes. 

First up: bees! Honey bees, Grey-gastered Mining Bees, Early Bumblebees (so tiny!), Garden Bumblebees (nesting in tunnels under the shed floor, complicating my preparations for Dad's stuff...), what I have learned is a Fork-tailed Flower Bee! Bees!

Next we have: Birds! Mostly jackdaws, among whom my good friend Freddy.

Most of the spiders are gravid (pregnant with eggs), carrying eggs with them, or, occasionally male. And a few pictures of "baby spider balls", which is a defensive posture assumed by hatchling Crossback Orb Weavers until they disperse on the winds. They're everywhere in the garden right now; quite a few will survive to breed. Some of the species here are the aforementioned orb weavers, Fencepost Jumping Spiders, a little orb weaver called Zilla diodia, crab spiders, a Trangulate Cobweb Spider, a male wolf spider frantically dancing for a female not in the picture, a red red red isopod hunter, and these little funnel guys called Toothed Weavers.

A couple of standout moments. On the left, I had put my finger near the bay tree trunk to show scale with the Fencepost Jumping Spider, who was on the tree. At that very moment, a tiny Crossback Orb Weaver hatchling lowered itself onto my finger unexpectedly. Instantly, the jumping spider seized it, using me as a platform.

On the right we have the very moment at which the wolf spider, carrying her eggs, made a move toward the fly, which startled the ant, which sprayed her in the face with formic acid, causing her to leap away and run off through the grass. The fly was unbothered.

A beetle! Baby Firebugs! Painted Ladies! Moths (including a magnificent Cinnabar which sunned itself on a fern and then flew straight into the web of a Noble False Widow), a damselfly! Flowers! A sawfly! Other insects! And so on!

I'll finish this off (really need to get on those dishes!) with this picture of my Dad's memorial planter. It will have statice once that gets tall enough to show, and hopefully the ice plant will come up - Dad was a man of the sea, and these are plants I associate with my times with him along the California coast. Likewise it's beautifully appropriate that the first flower to open (except on the tree) was a California poppy. The tree itself is a McIntosh apple. We had one in my grandparents' garden, where he grew up first and then I did later. It makes me think of him, and family.

Species Focus: Heliophanus, the Sun Spider

I absolutely adore these busy little critters. They're incredibly curious, always checking out details
of their surroundings and following other animals around (not just the ones they're trying to eat). The females are the bigger ones with the bright yellow forelegs, and the males are the spindlier all black fellows. There seem to be far more females than males in general. They're thriving in the garden this year; these pictures comprise four or five individuals. They seem to be all black except the females' lines and dots and stripes, but when they're bopping around in the sun they raise and lower tiny iridescent hairs on their bodies, and put on a stunning subtle colorful metallic light show. 

Species Focus: Holly Blue

For YEARS I've tried to get a good shot of one of these guys. They're busy little things! I see them sometimes where the city has planted wildflowers and I chase them with my camera... but to no avail. But suddenly, this spring, MY garden seems to be THE place to be! A couple of extremely nice days (not in a row!) later, and here we have it: the Holly Blue.

11-03-2026
A collection of photos taken in the past few days.

Everything is crazy with spring.

This Eurasian Blue Tit is loudly staking out his territory.
The wolf spiders squabble over sunny spots, all of them female and gravid; they mated before winter and then hibernated, and now they'll lay their eggs soon, and carry them with them in silken pouches tied to their bodies, and then, when they hatch, carry the babies themselves until they're old enough to hunt.
A tiny female sun spider busily investigates her new territory - a plastic owl with here and there a cavernous, to her, hole into a gigantic protected interior. Now and then she spots a male, and waves at him. He waves back. So far, they have not tried to meet while I've been watching.
Crab spiders parachute in from wherever they found themselves, and above, the two crows (One-One and Gwendolyn) who live in the tree over on the square are kept busy by the appearance of a young buzzard. Ladybugs are appearing in larger numbers now.
The magpies are zipping all over and making a show of things while blackbirds forage in the thorn bush, and the crocuses are meeting the beginning of the end of the brief flashier part of the above-ground phase of their lives.

It is the beginning of the Time of Biomass and I must arm myself against the wisteria and the hops, the honeysuckle and the ivy, keeping them tame through this burgeoning season.