Orchids and Onions: Final flutterby farewell & possible car theft.

-had my absolute last shift at the butterfly enclosure on Sunday. Unlike Friday's shift, Sunday morning was pretty S-L-O-W. -plenty of time to snap a few pictures and just watch the butterflies.

The Atala, seen below, was probably the most exotic butterfly in the exhibit. Found in So. Florida, this petite papillion prefers a fairly tropical environment. The exhibit was temperature-controlled for the butterflies' comfort, so no worries there. We butterfly docents needed to leave our jackets outside lest we sweat to death in the enclosure, however. I found our man here on the ground, so I moved him via colored tongue depressor to a nearby daisy. He crawled up and over the head of the flower to rest on two, slim petals. He seemed unclear on the concept. (Psst! The nectar is behind you, pal!) After a few minutes, he flew up and away to perch on the netting that made up the walls of the exhibit. No food for him.

Different Atala, different daisy.

I hope to keep volunteering at the Conservatory, but don't know what's yet on for us. It would be a shame not to have a regular reason to visit this place!

Conservatory of Flowers, Golden Gate Park

I spied an abandoned car in West Portal the other day. The car had been left at a stop sign with its emergency lights on, its windows rolled fully down, its engine off & driver side seat back moved forward as if someone had just climbed out of the back. It was misting out & I kept wondering why anyone would leave their car with the windows down, let alone leave the darn thing in the street. The whole thing seem strange, so I stood for a while & stared. Then I called the non-emergency police to report a car blocking traffic. Given that the hazard lights were on, motorists kept driving up behind the stopped car thinking, maybe, that the car would soon be on its way. On this stretch of road, the lane you see in the picture is flanked on one by the pavement and on the other by a median of sorts. One can't just go around. This is what I saw happen over and over: cars would begin to line up behind the abandoned car. The motorists would begin to honk. People associated with businesses along the road would come out to let the unhappy motorists know that that 'there's no one in that car'. Motorists would begin the process of backing up in order to go around the median and drive on. I saw this happen at least three or four cycles and kept wondering why no one would affix a sign to the car letting the drivers know what in the heck was going on.

The person I spoke to with the city took my information & also let me know that the car had already been reported to the authorities a few times. I went on my way to have a coffee down the road. The car was there for at least an hour, the length of time I spent in West Portal. By the time I left, someone had had the good sense to put out a traffic cone behind the car, so that there'd be no more noisy back-up, hopefully.