shewasavisitor

On Friday evening, walking home from dinner, E almost walked into a black widow spider’s web! It was nighttime and the web was constructed in a lean-to manner; the middle of the sidewalk was connected to halfway up the fence of the building we were walking around (Warner). E stopped in his tracks, backed up, and called me over. Sure enough, in the middle of the web, was sitting Ms. Death herself. Upside down so we could see her red hourglass authenticity marking!

This was E’s first encounter with the BWS and my third. I’d seen my first in Hollywood just hangin’ out on a concrete fence in the shade. I told E about her and that weekend we took a stroll through the same ‘hood to perhaps catch another look – no avail!

My second encounter with the BWS was much closer to home. It was during the first week I’d returned and as I was gussying up the balcony garden, I caught a glimpse of our Lady Of The Night running away through some flowerpots. I remembered the first BWS I’d seen and figured this spider was likely one of the same.

E has a much bigger fascination with spiders than I do. My first and second sightings caused no more than a second look whereas E went crazy with fascination and wonder on Friday. Much Googling and reading-out-loud and Youtube-ing was done upon our return home that night.

I really dig these next few characters. Look what I spotted in The Hills this morning!

We couldn’t stop talking about it. Something has eaten away the tail and head (or it had been hit by a car) which made its immediate identity difficult. Upon much Googling and reading-out-loud and Youtube-ing we are at this point settled on Bark Scorpion. I knew it was a scorpion the second I almost stepped on it!

This guy was about two inches long, super fat, and very well dressed in his Sunday morning best as he was hurrying along. He’s a Darkling Beetle:

Southern California summer evenings provide the chance to hear a chorus of beetle whirring and chirping. It’s so exotic and tropical. Here’s a photo I took in September of a Ten-Lined June Beetle:

And here is a photo I obviously did not take of a Fig Beetle. These things make the neatest noises and on my evening runs a couple of them almost flew right into me:

“Fig Beetle” pretty much answers the time-old question “if you could be any animal, what animal would you be?” as I cannot stop eating figs and there’s a real classiness to all that metallic armour. I could totally pull that off.

If all of this has bugged you out, here’s something a little more soft-core:

This fuzzy little guy’s going to grow up to be a Tiger Moth! Google one of those for a good time.

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First post of 2010!

Old photos first:

November

December

First time seeing one another in over a year! C just arrived from Osaka, I’m in line for Edmonton. December 26th

North Saskatchewan River, -30oC

Old Strathcona Farmer’s Market, Edmonton

Sometimes I get so excited about blogging but then hunger or Jeopardy or something always trumps and the interest wanes. Pas aujourd’hui. I suppose it also doesn’t help that I left my camera-computer cord here in LA. Having a photo makes all the difference.

I’ve been back in LA for about 2.5 weeks. So far, my 2010 has consisted of: January, February, JUNE. Today’s forecast is a high of 83 F. That’s 28.5 oC. The rain we never got in August was a weekly, monsoon-esque affair when I first arrived (always occurring on our precious limited Saturdays) but now it’s sunnified itself as we head into “spring” which means the rain has stopped and the few trees that lost their leaves are all abud and the cherries and pink magnolias are all abloom and we can leave our windows open during the night and I have resumed sitting on the patio by the spa between 1-2pm. The rain has made the mountains green and the grass happy and the morning air smells like lilies and jasmine. Pansies and ranunculus have been planted in the windowbox. Are thriving. Citrus season is intense. You don’t even wanna know what’s happening to those trees. They are begging like fat-uddered cows for a harvest relief. More fruit than leaves. Fat oranges and lemons rolling into the streets. Am eating so much. E and I are pretty sure we found a potentially prize-winning football-sized Meyer lemon still clinging to a branch in a yard off Victory Blvd. No camera on that day. Sad face.

Last evening’s daylight savings-sponsored 10-miler prompted my foray back into blogging. I love where we live in prox to so many rad things to run past: Warner lot, Forest Lawn & Mt. Sinai grounds, LA Zoo, Griffith Park, LA Equestrian Center, Disney. A dream is a wish your heart makes.

My most favourite new thing ever in life is that I have started volunteering at the Discovery Shop in Toluca Lake. 3x/week. I feel alive with responsibility & ADORE my co-volunteers. Think supercute vintage sold by supercute 65 yr. old+ women (Suzanne is 90!) who gussy themselves to the nines for their shifts. THEY THOUGHT I WAS VOLUNTEERING BECAUSE I CAN’T WORK BECAUSE I’M UNDER 18. I love them. They all ask me to join them for their shifts on my days off so we can “hang out” even more. The shop’s famous, too. Jennifer Aniston dropped off all of Brad Pitt’s clothes there, back in 2005 after their split. Factoid.

Am eating almost exclusively local, farmer’s market food. On my arrival we shared the pomegranate grown from our tree on the balcony! Faves revisited: the beach, mandatory drive thru Compton via Rosecrans, Little Tokyo/Chinatown/Galleries, Beverly Center celebrity sighting (Vienna from Bachelor ugh), Bev Hills & Hollywood hikes, Riverside & Melrose strolls, falling asleep on the 96 Grand/Venice. Sake sake sake.

I don’t want to return but it looks like I might have to, fairly soon actually, for work. I feel like Ali Fedotowski. Or Ed Swiderski.

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