Summer fires & stinky flowers

This is the largest blaze in California history. At least 400,000 acres in Northern California have been destroyed. Last summer's wildfire had been considered the largest. This year's fire has surpassed last year's fire, in terms of ferocity. Containment is key, of course. Continuous wind and low level humidity have made conditions worse.

Mendocino County is fucked. A good girlfriend of mine lives up there and has yet to be evacuated. Folk in her area have been cautioned to stay indoors whenever possible.

I caught a snippet on public radio detailing the efforts of a group of Australian firefighters who were recently sent to Idaho for training before being deployed to California and Oregon to fight blazes. Thank goodness for them.

Last weekend, I volunteered at the Conservatory. During my pre-shift perusal, I discovered these interesting-smelling orchids. The one above smelled sweetly of baby powder. A guest described it as smelling like 'grandma's perfume'.

The yellow-orange blossom (--->) smelled sort of like cheese that had gone off. -very pungent & sort of a wee nose assault. One visitor said it smelled of cat pee. As you can imagine, it wasn't very nice. To visitors who seemed up for it, I would ask if they wanted to sniff an orchid that STINKS & then usher them over. It was fun to watch their reactions.

Spice is nice.

Today was a good day volunteering at the Conservatory. We've another corpse flower just about to bloom. It's a sibling of last year's amorphophallus titanum, which bloomed around this time last year as well.

During the build-up to the bloom phase, the titan can grow between approx. 1-3 inches a day. I find that remarkable. This titan's bloom date is projected to be sometime midweek. 

As of today, I think she stood around 2' tall.

I also discovered a couple of really interestingly scented orchids during my shift today.

The orchids in the photo below give off a lovely, cinnamon scent. When visitors asked me what I found interesting in this particular gallery, I took them over to the 'spice orchid', as I referred to it. (I couldn't find a name spike for it, so there you go.)

These sort of weeping willow-looking blooms smelled vaguely of lemon-scented cleaning agent. -not really all that pleasant, to be honest!

But back to cinnamon--I had some really fun interactions with children regarding the cinnamon tree we have at the Conservatory. Well, we have two, actually, but the Ceylon (Sri Lankan) cinnamon plant yields a much larger leaf than that of its SE Asian counterpart & its scent is also more robust. The gardener was kind enough to cut down for me a rather sizable branch of the Ceylon cinnamon. I didn't tell the children in advance from which plant the branch came. I then invited them to choose the leaf they wanted before plucking one off and handing it over. They were told to scratch a bit of the stem with their fingernail before smelling the stem. 

'What does that smell like?' 

'Cinnamon!!!'

One little girl, aged 6, then demonstrated everything I had shared with her to a friend who had arrived a bit later. She'd remembered virtually everything I had told her about the cinnamon & had a great delivery. I was duly impressed. Her mother whispered to me that her daughter suffers from stage fright. I told her, that I thought her daughter was sort of on stage right now! She agreed.

Ceylon Cinnamon leaf, about 6'' in length

Conservatory Sunday: what your nose 'knows'

At my volunteer gig this past Sunday I was treated to the sight of lillies in the pond, sniffed a few more orchids with varying scents & discovered a succulent in the shape of a sea star. 

The sea star plant, or Stapelia gigantea, hails from So. Africa & smells of carrion. I imagine flies act as pollinators for this intriguing plant. 

The lillies are in bloom at the conservatory. They look so perfectly formed and their pads seem to be almost fashioned out of wax. 

 

This delicate-looking orchid with ribbon-like petals is just about the size of a thumb-nail and gives off a pungent, almost urine-like scent. Interestingly, my collegue could detect no scent at all. We each stuck our noses in all three of the orchids on the plant. I had a nose-crinkling experience and she had none. She mentioned there being a genetic component to my being able to experience the scent as odorous and then said something about boar pheromones. I didn't quite get the boar bit, but I do know that some humans are able to detect the smell of asparagus in urine after its been ingested and some humans cannot. I can and I presume this boar pheromone detection stuff works like that. Anyone else here able to smell the asparagus-tinged urine? 

Interesting side note: I invited a handful of the conservatory guests to take a whiff of the orchid that smells of sweet peach. Many could smell nothing at all. These were people who professed to have a 'good nose'. Genetic variability is a wondrous thing. 

Leaf rubbings & cacao

I worked the new docent gig at the Conservatory this past weekend. The old butterfly gallery has been converted into an open area with some seating and loads of different fern species from around the world. My new duties in the fern gallery consisted of inviting visitors, mostly children, to create leaf rubbings from a variety of leaves culled from our plant collection. I made a rubbing as well & choose the Ceylon cinnamon leaf for mine. Sadly, my rubbing did not smell of cinnamon. A certain leaf smelling of citrus, however, was a hit as the lemony aroma made the rubbing smell good & the kids thought that that was pretty cool. Fun was had by all as the kids seemed keen to participate. Some had already done this activity at school and were old hands. Afterward, I encouraged the children to write their names & the plant from which the leaf was derived on their papers. For a final flourish, the rubbings received a Conservatory stamp of approval as well. The stamp was fairly inky, so I learned very quickly not to press down too hard lest folk not be able to read the lettering.

I also had a few cacao pods to show visitors. One was freshly cut and the other one was about a year old. The fresh pod was yellow and still soft to the touch. The older one reminded me of a dried gourd. The seeds inside rattled around when the pod was shaken, so I took to shaking it a lot. :D Each cacao pod contains 30 to 60 seeds (from which chocolate is made). It takes about 600 seeds to produce 2 pounds of chocolate. That's a staggering amount.

After shift, I wandered the galleries & took a few shots--

Walking Iris (technically, not an iris)

Wee bananas

Corpse flower between blooms

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.

Abandoned car, West Portal

Bye bye Butterfly!

The butterfly exhibit officially closed on 7 January. I scheduled a docent shift for this past Friday as it had been decided to let those 'late bloomer' butterflies live out their natural lives in the enclosure. Once the last butterfly goes off the the great flower garden in the sky, the process of breaking down the exhibit will commence. I thought that because the exhibit is no longer being publicized & because the weather has been unhospitable of late, visitor numbers to the Conservatory would be down. Not so! I had various school groups to contend with and visitors from far and wide in house. It was a good day & folk still got to be regaled by Atalas, Monarchs, Zebra Longwings, Buckeyes, Julias & one, lone Swallowtale.

Open & close; the black bits are sugar ants.

-two of the five, or so, Monarchs left at the exhibit. These two are sucking up sugar water on a faux flower.

Zebra Longwing noshing on Lavender

This Zebra, when newly emerged from its chrysalis, is a striking black with white/cream colored stripes. Our girl is missing the tip of her right wing & some of the color tiles that cover both wings. Under a microscope, the wings look to be made up of tiny scales that remind me a bit of fish scales. Butterflies can live up to one month in the exhibit and the Grand Dames often look sort of like the Velveteen Rabbit, shabby & a bit drab, but nontheless beautiful.

Butterflies, blossoms and pitcher plants

Yesterday, I popped into the Conservatory briefly and saw these beauties in the enclosure--

The top picture shows the (slightly blurry) Malachite butterfly, new to the exhibit. Both the wing pattern and color remind me a bit of polished stone. In the bottom shot is the Queen in repose. She's looking a bit like the Viceroy, in terms of size and color, but is actually the same genus as the Monarch. Both the Monarch and Queen caterpillars dine on milkweed, making them toxic to nosh on to potential predators.

Malachite

Queen

Beyond visiting the butterflies, I took a few minutes to look in at the orchid & carnivorous plant exhibits. Here are a few plants that caught my eye--

Groovy pattern on bottom petal

Bananas, not yet ripe. :)

One lone lily in the pond.

Back in the 70s, I think most of us around these parts went through having a Venus Flytrap as a house plant phase. What I didn't realise then was that there were other carnivorous plants out there in the world. The pitcher plant is one such creature. We have two different sized versions at the Conservatory. The wee ones probably only catch insects, but the large one has been known to snare a mouse or two!

Small pitcher plant

Frog/mouse-sized pitcher plant.

There are downward facing interior 'hairs' located in the 'pitcher' that make it virtually impossible for an ensnared critter to make its way back out once in. *cue ghoulish music* Digestive juices break down the food very slowly. If one peeks in, one can often see remains of partially digested lunch. 

At the Conservatory

Question Mark 

Spicebush Swallowtale 

Viceroy

This is just a small sample of the beauty that was fluttering about the exhibit today. I was particularly thrilled to see the Viceroy as we haven't had any in for months. The above picture makes the Viceroy look like a piece of stained glass. Probably the coolest thing about the Viceroy is that its wing pattern has evolved to resemble the Monarch's wing pattern. In this way, the Viceroy is tricking would-be predators into thinking that it, like the Monarch, is toxic and, as a result, not good to eat. -pretty sneaky, Viceroy!

We have about four different types of Swallowtale at the exhibit currently. All are large, all are mostly black in color. One resembling our Spicebush in the middle photo above came to an unhappy end after it landed upsidedown on the surface of the koi pond. Our winged friend was lunch before you could say, 'I think that butterfly needs help'. -too bad as it was a particularly lovely specimen. 

The Question Mark, upon first glance, might be better called Rorschach Wing, but once it closes its wings a wee sort of reverse question mark 'tattoo' is visible. The mark looks more like the Turkish flag than it does a question mark. Maybe a re-naming is in order? 

Entrance to the Conservatory...the butterfly enclosure is in background, left. 

Integration through language acquisition is key.

During our short trip to CH & DE in November, my husband and I were fortunate to have spent time with dear friends, A. & N., who are currently engaged in helping Syrian refugees integrate into German society. They are a married couple, he is German by way of Syria & she is Swabian.

N. does translation work (some gratis and some paid) at court, with social services, and for the occasional doctor visit. A. helps run a city-sponsored, weekly Sprach Café (language group) at a local community center. She bakes cakes and other treats to go along with the coffee normally served. Both A. & N. assist in finding accommodation for the newly arrived, and, in some cases, employment. To hear my friends talk about it, they find the work not only rewarding but vital.

The concept of a Sprach Café intrigued me & I wondered if there were anything like that happening in areas of the US where newly-arrived refugees are living. Off the top of my head, I don't think we've any 'language cafes' running here in the Bay Area, or, if there are, I'm not privy to them. (More to the point, do we even have any Syrians asylum seekers in this part of the country?) Tying language learning with social engagement only makes sense. One has to get a sense of language used in context in order to successfully progress in language acquisition. The whole thing just seems like a great way to improve language skills while, hopefully, expanding one's social circle.

After visiting with A. & N., we spent some time in Basel, our favorite Swiss city. I found this wee flyer on the counter by the espresso machine at one of our old haunts, Frühling, in Kleinbasel.

It reads:

Do you want to improve your German, meet other people & get to know other cultures? If so, then come to our language cafe. We're looking forward to having you!

Every other Friday at Café Frühling...

It's good to know folk in Basel are also getting in on language support for those in need. The difference between what A. is involved with and what's happening at Frühling is that the Swiss effort is privately sponsored. I know this because I asked the gal making my espresso drinks ALL about the flyer. She explained that the Sprach Café is organized by two women who foot the bill for filter coffee for the 20 person+ group. -such a great idea. Honestly, I could have benefitted from one such group during my time in Zurich. There were a few language meet-ups around, but they were held at fairly busy pubs, and, often, it was just plain hard to hear what was being said. For a language practice group, a raucous bar environment just isn't ideal. I get that some of us language learners like a bit of 'liquid courage' when practicing a foreign tongue, but if you can't hear what's being said, then it all just amounts to a night out drinking.

Here's to those new arrivals finding their footing in German & Swiss German society. May their language acquisition be as enjoyable as possible! Viel Spass und viel Erfolg!

Moving, meds & cats.

I just want to write about cats. I don't want to write about the medical junk, the apartment-viewing mini-fiascos, and whatever else is getting me down.

However, in brief, I will say that in the past few weeks of house-hunting I have chatted with an uber-slick 'realtor' who demanded that I and my husband meet him at his restaurant before he'd show us the rental, and met a landlady who was so emotionally attached to her deceased grandparents' house that she broke down in tears during the showing. 'The previous tenants didn't open a window in four years! Look at this grout! My grandmother would be so disappointed!'

Also, I'm happy to report that recent blood tests show my meds aren't producing any sort of the horrific side-effects found printed on the prescription literature. Huzzah!

On to the cats:

It was so rainy and windy this morning that I didn't expect to see any of the furry ones out on the trail. Between feeding stations I could see a dark, brown blob that appeared to be slowly moving near the rocks. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me, and that it was just a rock & that it could not be moving at all.  -turns out it was F. sitting along the rocks in the dirt just across from a feeding station. He didn't run away (as he normally does) when I approached, but, instead moved up to a perch among the rocks, so I was able to take about a gazillion pictures of him.

My fave shot of F. from this morning.

Bay Trail, Pt. 6

After hearing reports from another volunteer that some knucklehead with two terriers off-leash let his beasts chase & scare the crap out of a few of the bay cats on Wednesday, I expected to see no furry ones out on the trail today.  I was right, mostly.

There were no kitties to be found by any of the feeding stations.  I left wet food in all the cat cubbies along the trail and even swung back around to see if any furry ones had come by to nosh.  Nope, not on my watch.  I even scampered under the bridge--good thing I had my bike helmet on or I'd be sitting here writing with a huge bump on my noggin--only to see the back end of B.B. disappear into the rocks near the shore.  Checking back 20 minutes later, I saw that neither B.B. nor M. had come to nibble on the tinned lunch.  That's a bit unusual, to be honest.  I hope that the cats aren't all cowering somewhere remote for fear some dogs will use them as chew-toys.

A trio of felines, 2015.

Bike chain

-went out this morning to feed the cats, as usual.  The hubs had the car, so I rode my bike the five miles down the shore.  There was nothing much to report.  The cats were all well hidden in the bramble and under the rocks.  I left wet food in the camo-rock-sleep-space, put some kitty treats in the little cat cubby, and dished out some grub to those that lurk under the bridge.

I was about to pedal home when I spied a city vehicle making its way up onto the bike/ped trail by the first feeding station.  The city truck was hauling what looked to be a small, red buggy.  Intrigued, I ditched my plan to cycle home, dropped the bike against some bushes and peeped at the workers as they exited the truck.  Setting out cones to mark off the area around their vehicle, the guys then unloaded the buggy from the truck bed.  The little vehicle was kitted out with plastic tanks containing some sort of fluid.  The workers got into the buggy and made their way into the wet areas just beyond the brush that had, in recent weeks, become full of stagnant rain water.  Up until now, ducks had been using the area as a make-shift pond.

As the dudes drove through the water spraying something odorous in their wake, I walked up to the parked truck and saw that it had been dispatched by some sort of mosquito vector control team.  I'd never seen the municipal logo before and wondered if its presence had anything to do with that new(ish) Zika virus I'd been reading about the papers, or if the city dispatches sprayers every year when the waters are high along the shore.

I checked out the workers for a few minutes longer to see if they were inadvertently going to disrupt the feeding areas (they didn't) before picking up my bike and going home.  I must have really chucked my bike into the bramble because when I picked it up I could see that the chain was not only off, but twisted around the pedal and also disengaged from the back derailleur.  I couldn't put the fix the chain and it had started to rain, so I just sucked it up and walked with my bike home.  At least the cats are probably okay.

Tommy, about a month back.

Nary a cat in sight.

Made it out to the cats this morning without too much fuss.  I was out there earlier than usual, at about 7.30, and it seemed that no one was awake yet.  No cats by the first feeding station.  No cats near the second one either.  As I made my way to the third one, I saw Forrest on the rocks snacking on something.  Who could have gone out earlier and left wet food for the felines?  Probably no one.  And Forrest was way out of his normal range.  Maybe he'd gone 'mousing' and had managed to snag breakfast.  Dunno.  As soon as F. saw me he split.

Marshie and B.B. usually come up from under the bridge when I'm nearby, but you can't set your watch by them.  They know I've got the goods and aren't too shy about making an appearance.  This morning was different.  After a few minutes of cleaning, I went to look for them.  They weren't in any of their usual spots, so I went back to cleaning the feeding station thinking I'd be taking the tinned tuna back home with me. 

I popped off to FS 2 to clean and replenish supplies before going back to FS 3 for a cat look-see.  Apparently, both M. and B.B. had clocked me, but, for some reason, hadn't wanted to make an appearance.  The cats took my having been there as a sign to come up and partake of the feeding station's fare.  I'm afraid I freaked out B.B., M. was just exiting the feeding station as I approached, and she bolted out and sought the cover of rocks.  I couldn't entice M. into having any wet food.  She was off for her mid-morning constitutional over in the CalTrans lot.  B.B. was for sure not coming up sans M.   

I looped back down to the first feeding station where I sometimes see Shy Girl, B., and T.  I've recently been leaving wet food in the camo-bed made to look like a giant boulder nearby.  The pigeons don't seem to get in there as much as they do the feeding stations.  No cats were visible. 

Moral of the story: The 'early bird' doesn't always get the cat.
Ah, well.

Cat 'Collective'

I've been feeling poorly this whole week, and don't look forward to the five mile bike ride to feed the cats tomorrow morning.  I'll be glad to be there, but can't muster up any enthusiasm for the trip out at all.

En route to the cats.

Thanks to all the rain, the area around the picnic table is now entirely submerged.

The furry ones were out yesterday sunning themselves.  I took a snap of B. while on my way home from a doctor's appointment.  The Shy One ducked under the rocks as soon as I stopped my bike nearby.  

F. lets me approach.

If I'm lucky, I may even catch a glimpse of the elusive F. while out at the 'collective' tomorrow.  More of a 'bush cat', F. very rarely strikes a pose atop the rocks, especially not in broad daylight.

T., looking smart.

Bay Trail, Pt. 5

Marshie, before being joined by a second diner.

Marshmallow seems to have taken Piggy's spot as the one who's always around waiting for me to dispense a tinned treat.  When I arrived at F.S. 3 today, Marshie was sprawled out asleep on a slab of concrete just next to the bridge.  He woke up when I drew near and stood staring as I made ready some wet food.  B.B., who almost always stays in the background when Marshie comes up from under the bridge, actually joined M. for a nosh.  As long as I didn't make any sudden moves while cleaning, B.B. seemed content to eat.  I took a few pics to document the occasion.

Here's one:

Simply raising the camera made BB wary.

Bay Trail, Pt. 4

Somewhat out-of-the-ordinary, I didn't see Piggy last week when I was out on the trail.  Tommy, Buster, Forrest, and Shy Girl were also 'no shows'.  Sometimes that cats aren't where you think they'll be, so I just figured it was rotten timing on my part and went about cleaning the feeding stations. This week, I knew I wouldn't see Piggy and that fact made going out to the trail difficult.

Between last week and now, the volunteers received an email stating that Piggy had been taken to the vet for an examination.  Some of the long-term volunteers had noticed that Piggy seemed a bit underweight and had been behaving strangely of late.  I'm sorry to say that I hadn't noticed.  Unlike the other cats, Piggy almost always met me on the trail and ate with as much gusto as she could manage.  She'd even try to horn in on the other cats as they ate.  Occasionally, Piggy'd only lick the fluid from the food tin, leaving the meaty bits behind.  I naively thought that that meant she had a discerning palate.  'Maybe she doesn't like chicken pate', I said to myself the one time she'd not eaten much.  I now know her lack of enthusiasm must have been because she was suffering from liver failure.  So as not to prolong her suffering, the vet opted to euthanize Piggy.  She spent her last days on Earth being doted on at the house of a volunteer. Her new-found indoor routine consisted of sleeping in a cushy kitty bed and receiving belly rubs & cheek scratches before finally being sent off to the Great Sandbox in the Sky.

After today's cleaning sans Piggy's company, I went in search of the other cats.  Walking along the water, I almost stumbled right over Tommy, causing him to freak out a bit.  The color of the rocks he sits on, Tommy is quite difficult to spot.  Almost like the Cheshire Cat's grin, a pair of yellow eyes was the first thing I noticed before the rest of Tommy's body came into focus.  I was able to put some wet food out on a rock about three feet from him before backing away slowly, so as not to cause him to scurry away.  At about a 15 foot distance, I watched as Tommy eventually lost interest in me, and, after sniffing the air a few times, cautiously approached his fare.  He ate and ate, pausing periodically to wash his face.

See you next time, buddy.

Bay Trail, Pt. 3

I didn't think anyone would show this morning while out on the trail.  Toward the end of things, after looping back to the first station, I saw Piggy in the bushes just sort of sitting.  Waiting, perhaps?  I called out to him and he meowed in reply.  Out came the wet-food and he ate as much as he could before abandoning the can and moving off to sit under some brush.  I took a good 'product-placement' shot of him eating the donated tinned food.  -will pass it along to the woman running the website in the hopes that those who donate know how appreciated they are.

Mm-mm-good.

There was another mostly new-to-me cat out on the rocks sitting near Tommy.  I couldn't tell if he was a long-termer or the cat that has been sighted in the past few weeks and maybe a 'new addition'.  Whoever he is, he split as soon as I approached with my chopped chicken tin.  I then tried to tempt Tommy up from the rocks near the water, but he wasn't having any of it.  The more I waved the tin in the air and said his name, the more freaked out he looked.  -with good reason.  He doesn't know me as I'm still new to the biz of kitty-care.  I tried leaving the tin on a rock nearer to him and farther from me, but that just invited the gulls to come and have a peck.  I wound up having to bin the tin.  Sad.

Tommy and compatriot.

Bay Trail, Pt. 2

I've just spent the better part of ten minutes watching Tommy groom himself.  Boy, is he vain! :)

Both Tommy and Buster had a nice wet-food breakfast this morning.  It would seem they have a penchant for duck.  Piggy was a no-show.

Post-grooming Tommy

I spotted some stool that would indicate either a cat or dog or other creature may be in ill health.  -took a few pics, but decided not to post them here.  Both deposits are in the brush by where the cats now sleep.

I've recently met a new-to-me kitty called Forrest.  He was at the feeding station the other morning when I came to clean & feed.  I left him some kitty treats & moved on to the last station in order to give him some privacy before returning to do my work.

I can haz treatz?

I came back out to the Bay Cat area at 7pm the other night as I was curious to know how quickly kibble might be eaten over the course of the day.  (A ton of uneaten kibble was left-over the other morning at the first station.) I said 'hello' to Tommy and Piggy and another kitty I did not know.  They were hanging about in the bramble by the first station.  I also noticed that the Cat Whisperer had put on quite a spread with heaps of wet food, dry food and water.   In the grand scheme of things, this is fine, right?  Or is the wet food an invitation for raccoons and pigeons to come a-calling?