Nature

Things are undergoing some change here at Y2Knit West. More on that in another post, today we're looking at nature!

We are hopeful we have reached the end of the rainy season because we are completely and totally sick of the rain. As a result, we have had lots of vegetative growth, but I also hadn't seen my hummingbirds for over a month. We have bees and butterflies

, but no hummingbirds. I often don't see them but know that they are there because the nectar supply in the feeder goes down down steadily. But more than a month and nothing--no sightings, no fluctuation in nectar. So I was delighted to see them on Wednesday. Also the quail, sparrows and jays have been around.

I run on Tuesdays and Fridays. I missed the last two Tuesdays because of rain. Last Friday as I was on my last mile, running by a park, I saw these tw

o green parrots streak by. There are wild parrots in SF, but I'd personally never seen them. Kind of fun, and definitely a nice distraction as I ran uphill. Today's nature was a squirrel. I know

, not very exciting, but he got in front of me on a path, and he couldn't figure out how to escape--I was continuing to come along, he was running as fast as he could--looking back occasionally, as I got within about 5 feet of him he dove under the fence between the path and the planting beds. Otherwise, my nature is mostly dogs. SF is overpopulated (I say that as a non-dog owner, I know others feel differently!) with dogs, which must be walked. But everywhere right now is green and lush and blooming and pollen-y!

I have this crazy passion flower vine that covers much of our back slope. It produces varying quantities of bright peachy flowers all year round, getting particularly lush in the spring. Because of the rain, my back garden didn't get cleaned up for a couple of months and the passion vine got a little closer to the lower garden than usual. I was surprised to see that it has this cool-looking center which I had not ever seen from the distance I usually view it from. I had always been slightly jealous of Susan's which has this type of center. I was rather precariously perched trying to get this picture, so it does no justice to the awesomeness of the flower.