Yesterday I posted about the variety of blue and purple wildflowers that have sprung up after the recent rains. But while the lupines and bellflowers and blue dicks provide spots of color, it was the yellow flowers that brightened the hillsides on an otherwise gloomy evening.
I love spring rain. It makes the air fresh, the weather cool and after a day of sunshine brings a profusion of yellow and blue and purple flowers.
Admittedly I consider most of those flowers weeds when they appear in my garden. But they look lovely on the local hillsides and add color to the less-well-tended bits of pavement around town.
Yesterday evening I walked the nearest hillside trail and took pictures of some of the flowers underfoot. I've done my best to identify them, but I wouldn't be surprised if some are mis-identified. Corrections are welcome!
GrrlScientist reports on her Punctuated Equilibrium blog over at the Guardian that a cat burglar has been stalking a San Mateo, California neighborhood. In this case the thief is 6-year-old Dusty, a mixed-breed housecat. Dusty prowls the neighborhood at night and grabs gloves, shoes, toys and other items from his neighbors' yards and carries them home to share with his family. His record is 11 items in a single night, and he seems to favor drying swimsuits.
Local station ABC 7 caught him in the act with their night vision camera. Watch their report:
Apparently Dusty's neighbors are understanding about his behavior, as they know where to go to find their missing items.
Dusty isn't the only feline thief roaming our cities and suburbs. Apparently this sort of "misdirected predation" behavior is not uncommon in urban cats. The UK cat site Moggies.co.uk has a whole collection of cat thief stories - and those are just the ones who both got caught and had stories written about them.
Personally, if I had a cat I'd much prefer a "gift" of the neighbor's flip flops than a half-dead mouse.
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