Orange is the New Friday...

...or, Orange Ya Glad I Didn't Say Banana

I was browsing at the nursery where I'd gone to get a few more vegetable plants when the flitting Monarch butterfly caught my eye. I thought it would be nice if he would oblige me and land on the bright orange plant, which I'm pretty sure is a kind of milkweed. In my single-mindedness I didn't see the little bug til much later. Appropriately, it is a Large Milkweed Bug, or Oncopeltas fasciatus.  I've thrown a close-up in the Extras for those of you who are interested in these things. It is very close to a Boxwood Beetle, which would not have been a good thing to have in the nursery. The key is the stripe across its back. Those are your factoids for today.

The heat wave here has finally broken. It's warmer than usual, but not killer. I don't think that's true away from the coast. There are still threats of rolling power blackouts, and fire danger because everything is so dry.