I caught this encounter yesterday over the County Recycle Center. Adjacent to the center lies the open fields of an inactive landfill where critters dwell — both predators and prey. And there also, live scavengers like this crow who tries to discourage a red-tailed hawk from hunting in the area. The hawk, a voracious raptor, eventually drove the crows away and resumed its graceful search for prey on the landfill.
At the end of our route through the supermarket, we generally stop at the floral concession to pick out some flowers. Last Friday, we picked out these beauties for our dining room table centerpiece. They are called Dark Lulu roses. The sticker from the florist’s wrapper says:
“Red/White bi-color variety with medium size bloom, medium petal count and opens into a teacup shape.”
We have bird feeders in our back yard and try to keep them filled for the little birds, especially in the wintertime when foraging can be slim pickins. We were sitting on the swing in the backyard and I was taking shots of the birds at the feeder. This one little guy seemed to look over and acknowledge our benevolence – or maybe he was just getting ready to flit off to the birdbath.
That was the weather here in Southern California today. We were doing errands — you know — the usual trip to get bargain ammo at our sporting goods outlet and the trip to the discount home supplies center for some garden and home supplies. When we visit the latter, I usually take my camera and photograph some of the nice flowers in the garden department. When I stepped outside, the Sun was just emerging from behind a cloud. A palm in the foreground made for a pleasant and pretty picture.
We made a run to the local garden shop to get some home and garden supplies last week. While we were in the hothouse, I snapped this image of this very nice white Phalaenopsis Orchid.
Thanks to the State of California, we’re on the 10-day wait for a new Remington 870 Express shotgun. All but a handful of states have no waiting period for shotgun purchases, and many of those do not require registration for shotguns either. Not good old moonbatty California, though.
Image: The Remington 870 Security Shotgun waiting in the vault for us.
Not only do we Californians have to jump through all the aggravating hoops, but then have to go to extraordinary steps to even keep guns in our home. The Attorney General’s description of “acceptable” gun safes looks like a specification for an airlock on the International Space Station — this many tumblers, that many bolts, this minimum thickness and so on. Safes that meet the specifications are easily out of the price range of many folks who deserve home protection.
Another point — if a sudden home invasion were to occur, how quickly can you get your safe open and have the weapon loaded and ready to use? What if the safe is on another floor — upstairs and you’re downstairs or vice-versa.
Unusually cold overnight temperatures didn’t seem to phase the geraniums growing in the south flowerbed where sunlight is available most of the short winter days. The little buds seen here will emerge in this almost-indecent shade of red within the next few days.
