Pismo Grove Monarchs 2009 ~ B is for Butterfly

Welcome to a new round of ABC Wednesday hosted by Mrs. Nesbitt and Friends. Today we are on the letter B and my post is all about the Monarch Butterflies that overwinter at Pismo Beach, California.

Each year thousands of vibrant orange and black Monarch Butterflies flock to Pismo Beach, seeking shelter from the freezing northern winters. From late October to February, the butterflies cluster in the limbs of a grove of Eucalyptus trees at Pismo State Beach. The grove is easily accessible. It is located on State Highway 1 at the south boundary of the city limits of Pismo Beach.

 

The Pismo Beach colony is one of the largest in the nation, hosting an average of 25,000 butterflies over the last five years.

 

The butterflies form dense clusters with each one hanging with its wing down over the one below it to form a shingle effect. This provides shelter from the rain and warmth for the group. The weight of the cluster help keeps it from whipping in the wind and dislodging the butterflies.

 

Dear and I visited the Grove on a weekend getaway we had to Pismo Beach on January 18th and 19th. It really was wonderful to see this sight. When the sun warmed up the cluster of butterflies they started flying around and landing all around the grove. The grove of Eucalyptus trees was not very large. I had use the zoom on my camera to be able to get any close-ups of the butterflies.

Seeing one of these Monarch overwintering groves has been a desire of mine for a while now and I was so thrilled we could get away just an hour and a half up the coast of California from where we live to see these. This happened to be a record-breaking year for the Monarchs here with over 26,000 arriving. So the question that comes to my mind is how do they count them???

 

The Monarchs that visit Pismo Beach are a special variety. They have a life span of six months as opposed to that of common Monarchs who live only six weeks. This can be attributed to a unique fat storing system. However, even with an extended life span, those butterflies that leave in March will never return.

 

Scientists do not know why the Monarchs consistently return to some wintering sites. In North America, those sites range from the Central and Southern California Coast to Mexico. Some scientists speculate that the insects are equipped with genetic homing systems that lead them from their summer sites in the Sierras, Florida, Canada and the Great Lakes Region in North America back to their winter locations.

 

On the Central Coast, Monarchs winter in Pismo Beach, Pacific Grove and Morro Bay. The Natural History Museum In Morro Bay is an excellent resource for information about Monarchs.

ht: Monarch Butterfly.Org.

For more ABC’s on the letter B visit the official ABC Wednesday Blog.

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.

Tablescape Tuesday ~ Pink & Green

It’s time for Tablescape Tuesday again hosted by Susan at Between Naps on the Porch.

I have always really enjoyed pink and green together so it was fun to set this table.

 

 

The pink dishes are some Vernon Ware I found at Goodwill. There were only 4 dinner plates, 3 cups and saucers, and a creamer and vegetable bowl. I bought them all because I enjoy this older California ware. The depression glass bowl was from a little thrift store I frequent as are the Bavarian cups and saucers I added to make 4 place settings. The square green plates are originally from target that I bought in a box of 4 from Goodwill.

 

The clear pink glass salad/dessert plates I bought from Fred Meyer a few years ago when they went on clearance. I have several of them so I can use them for showers. Most of them are at my home in Washington but I brought 6 to have here in California. The pink goblets that I only have 4 of were purchased at the little thrift store, too.

 

The striped napkins I bought at the little thrift store and the outer napkins were purchased at Sur la Table. The sliverware is 1847 Rogers with a B engraved on each piece.  Believe it or not I bought the set of 56 pieces at Goodwill for $29.00. That was a few years ago and I haven’t seen as nice a set available since.

I already made my confession about this tablescape on my Pink Saturday Post but for those of you who don’t participate in Pink Saturday here it is again… My table cloth was a shower curtain and my napkin rings were shower curtain hooks originally!

To see more tablescapes head over to Susan’s!

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.

Ruby Tuesday ~ Farmer’s Market

On Saturday morning Dear and I got out bright and early and walked to our local Farmer’s Market to buy flowers for a dinner party we were hosting on Saturday night. My table was going to be Red, White and Black so I was looking for red and white flowers. There were some great bunches of radishes in reds and whites besides the flowers we found so I decided to add them to the bouquet! I love Farmer’s Market flower prices. The bunch of white and bunch of red flowers were $3 each and the radishes were 60 cents, so for $6.60 I had fresh flowers for the table.

For more Ruby Tuesday posts visit Mary at Work of the Poet.

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.

Tagged!

Bernideen from Bernideen’s Tea Time Blog  tagged me for a photo meme. I’m suppose to go to my 6th folder and post the 6th photo from it. The photo was taken at Emma Wood State Beach in Ventura, California. Dear and I walk there most Saturday mornings.

 

This walk was on January 17th. Every few minutes we’d see pelicans flying by in these great rows and very close to the water. I have lots of pelican shots from this Saturday morning…

Thanks Bernideen.

Now here are the rules that came with the tag…

1. Go to your Picture Folder on your computer or wherever you store your pictures.
2. Go the 6th Folder, then pick the 6th picture in that folder.
3. Post that picture on your blog and the story that goes along with the picture.
4. Tag 6 other people that you know or don’t know to do the same thing and leave a comment on their blog or an e-mail letting them know you chose them.

If y’all know me I’m generally a tag rebel and leave it up to you when you want to play along. If you do play let me know so I can come see your photo.

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.

Metamorphosis Monday & Blue Monday!

    AND

Time for another Metamorphosis Monday hosted by Susan at Between Naps on the Porch and since my metamorphosis happens in my blue kitchen with some of my blue goodies showing, this is also Blue Monday hosted by Smiling Sally! What amazing transformations blogdom showed us last Monday. Yikes! If you didn’t get a chance you should take a look.

 

Today I’m showing you my condo pantry cupboard which Dear improved on. The 2 shelves were held up with wimpy plastic braces and were beginning to warp and lean because of the weight on them. Like a ditz I forgot to take a photo before I pulled every last item out of the cupboard and filled every available flat surface in my kitchen with the stuff!

 

My pantry cupboard is accessed through that skinny door and this shows the shelves out of it. The location of the cupboard makes it quite an interesting process to access the items we end up putting around the corner in the cupboard that you can’t see. I hope that makes sense. The door is narrow but there is additional space to the right of the door that you cannot see…

Here’s Dear being a contortionist so he could attach the cleat on the wall to support the shelves properly.

Dear really enjoys projects and using his power tools. He always does a fabulous job, too.

Cleats are in and it’s time for the shelves with one more than I had before! Yippee for more storage space.

Voila! Now I just have to put all the stuff back in a more organized way.

Oh it is so much nicer to have everything put away instead of all over the kitchen counters!

Besides the blue walls I spotted well over 20 blue items in my kitchen while all was exposed for the world to see.

 

Usually the electric water pot is put away, too, but I needed a cup of Earl Grey to enjoy the moment…

 

For more Metamorphosis visit Susan here and for more Blue Monday visit Sally here.

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.

Happy First Birthday Miss Hope!

 

ht: Michelle’s photo! Thanks Michelle…

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.

Be A Ray of Sunshine ~ Hymn

 

Be A Ray of Sunshine

Be a ray of sunshine everywhere you go,
Shining for the Savior with a steady glow;
Bringing smiles to sad ones, wiping tears away,
Make yourself a blessing every passing day.

Refrain

Be a ray of sunshine everywhere you go,
Shining for the Savior with a steady glow;
Be a ray of sunshine filled with Heaven’s light,
Sending forth a message beautiful and bright.

Be a ray of sunshine everywhere you go;
Comfort bring to others, stoop to raise the low;
Kind words cost but little, smiles bring pleasures, too;
They may lift a burden; let them not be few.

Refrain

Be a ray of sunshine everywhere you go;
Cheerfulness is needed, this you can bestow;
Help to chase the shadows from this world away,
Bringing joy and gladness like a shining ray.

Refrain

Be a ray of sunshine everywhere you go;
Stars will shine the brighter in your crown, I know;
Sunshine brought to others will reflect on you,
Heav’n will be the sweeter—keep the end in view.

Refrain

words by Anna B. Russell, 1917

Pink Saturday ~ Tease Revealed…

 

These are some items I bought at a local thrift store and I said I’d show you what they had originally been intended for.

The pretty cloth and the jewels are a shower curtain and shower curtain hooks. I don’t have a shower curtain rod in the bathroom at the condo so I had to try to get the hooks to hold up the curtain on the frame of the glass shower doors so I could show you their intended use. Now here is what I decided to use this shower curtain and jeweled hooks for…

 

For more Pink fun visit our wonderful hostess Beverly at How Sweet the Sound and click your way into the Pink…

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.