Happy New Year!

My New Year's Day visitor

One of my readers asked me how come I haven't posted anything new since picking wild mushrooms. I realized that December has passed, and I didn't write anything for the entire month. Between being sick, rain, and pulling out dead plants, the month just flew by. Today is the first of January, 2012! It's going to take a few weeks to get used to writing 2012.

When I stepped out this morning, I saw a hummingbird resting on the clothesline. I use the clothesline  for drying bedding or towels when the sun's out. I don't see the point of turning on the dryer if  there's time to hang it out to dry naturally. Additionally, I often see hummingbirds taking an advantage of the clothesline to rest. I like to be around wildlife and living things. I was able to take a few shots today before the bird flew away.

My pet rabbit, Dusty, is still going strong. I call him bunny all the time, but he's about 7 years old now. Rabbit's lifespan is about 5-10 years. Dusty used to be gray, and now he's more brown although he happens to look more grayish in the picture above.

To celebrate New Year's Day, I decided to go down to Point Isabel for a walk. Point Isabel is a dog heaven. It is one of the largest public off-leash dog parks in the nation with over 500,000 dog visits per year according to its website. I love going there because it's less than 2 miles away from Sand Village, and I enjoy the company of all the dogs. It always makes me happy to see the dogs running, swimming, and playing together. I am also fascinated when I see some rare breeds in the park, such as Leonberger and Caucasian Shepherd.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Dogs playing in Pt. Isabel

A Day of Wildlife Sightings

Do you see the deer in the picture?

Today marked the first day of full rain for the mushroom season. We stayed inside for most of the class time since it will take 7-10 days for "good edibles" to grow and pop out of the ground. Around 2 P.M. we got the news that a couple young deer have wandered into the herb garden through an unclosed gate. Master Ken immediately asked the class whether anyone wanted venison as a joke. Gotta love his Texan humor. We got the task of chasing out the deer. Don't worry, there are plenty of other vegetation they can eat around the campus. We just can't have them eat up what the students have grown for their classes. After the class, a group of us put on our rain gear and went to searching for the deer. I spotted them along with a couple other guys. I even managed to snap a photo in the misty weather. They ran out of the horticulture garden soon after. This wasn't the first time we have seen deer inside of the herb garden. They always run away as fast as they can from people. I don't understand why that Oakland Police thought that young deer was a threat and had to shoot it numerous times.

Wild turkey walking around a block from El Cerrito Plaza BART Station

As I got back to my neighborhood driving down Central Avenue, I was surprised of what I saw on the street. Well, I was pretty sure that I saw turkeys. I pulled over, parked the car, and went looking for the turkeys with my camera. They were huge! Several cars slowed down when they saw the huge turkeys taking a walk just a block from El Cerrito Plaza. I wonder where they were going and what were going to happen to them.

3 wild turkeys travel down the street near El Cerrito Plaza.

A newt?

After the turkey encounter, I went home and started rearranging the mushroom blocks I got from Far West Fungi. Some of the shiitake blocks got moldy because I didn't have the time during the week to properly store them. The oyster mushroom blocks look pretty good so far with good potential. I spotted this newt(?) as I lifted up a piece of cardboard that was covering the spot where the juniper used to be.

Black swallowtail caterpillar (Papilio polyxenes asterius Stoll)

These caterpillars are regulars on fennel.

The squirrel came back for more figs. I was able to get a few pictures of him.

The squirrel enjoys his fig