A Look at the Surviving Goldfish

I never uploaded these shots of the three survivors of the raccoon ravages this fall. Maybe not since all the rain and cold, but definitely before that, we were still getting nightly visits from the raccoons. They totally cleaned out the shallow pond (formerly known as the "Goldfish Pond") - clearing out all remaining baby fish, snails, slugs, and some of the plants. I've decided on a stalemate - they can drink the water and eat whatever they find in that pond as long as they can't get into the deeper koi and round pond. With the rain temporarily shorting out the fountain outlet, I got these shots of the last three goldfish. Two are still black and the third one began turning colors before the attacks.On another topic, these violets are beginning to really take off now that we are getting plenty of rain.

Rain and Snow All Week

Alan arrived Tuesday night . . . in the rain . . . and it basically hasn't stopped since. Great for the drought, and the plants love it, but it's too bad he can't get any warm sun this week!I had Thursday morning off and we had just enough time before I had to go to work to drive to Ojai a little past Wheeler Gorge to see the snow. The clouds parted just enough for us to see a little in the higher elevations above us - not much higher, maybe 1000 feet - while we stood below in the rain. (Click on the posting title to see more photos.)

Real Rain

For some reason, maybe all the wind, I didn't believe it would really rain more than a few scattered showers. I was definitely wrong since we now have a cutoff low hanging over us and we've had .74" rain so far today, with more predicted for the next five days.

Winter Weather + Spring Flowers on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

It is cold again, at least for around here. It only got up to 55.4 °F / 13.0 °C for our high, and got down to 41.9 °F / 5.5 °C before sunrise. Rain is predicted all week, but only with 20%-30% chances today through Wednesday, and up to 40%-60% chance of rain Thursday - Sunday. Wish we could give Alan warmer weather when he gets here tomorrow, but I guess it's going to rain at least a little this week!Today was beautiful and sunny even though it was cool. I got some pruning and watering done and the air felt good. Beautiful clouds in the distance. Tom went fishing on the San Gabriel and ran into a little rain and saw snow fall in the higher elevations!Looking around the yard, we have a pretty good variety of narcissus bulbs in bloom. Sometimes called paperwhites, daffodils, or jonquils, here they are (click on them to enlarge).




Another bulb that is beginning to bloom is the grape hyacinth. These are actually much later to bloom than in past years; here are the first ones to open.

A Getty Weekend: Part 2

We chose to come to the Getty Center on Saturday because of the longer hours but still didn't see all the exhibits. This was mostly due to the beautiful gardens and architecture that took most of our attention. We took even more photos than usual so it will be a while before I can add a link to them. In the meantime, here are a few shots to give a glimpse of what we saw . . .
We were fortunate to get standby seats to a "sold out" free concert in the auditorium that night. This was the first of the Sounds of LA concert series and we enjoyed a reggae-flavored evening with Corey Harris and Paula Fuga.