Cinco's Golden Tales began as a series of emails through which Xianning attempted to share the joy of their daily Adventures with her Pack.
This Journal contains the original emails and continues the Adventures.
Hello Loyal Cinco Fans:
We enjoyed our week of extra light with the fall-back for daylight savings time. It was particularly fun because a fog cocoon enveloped San Diego for much of the week, depositing magical dew just in time for the monarchs and painted ladies on their migration to Mexico. The garden is a perfect nectar stopover for them. Consequently, Cinco and I have been treated to butterflies appearing out of the mist like garden fairies and alighting to sip the morning dew on their hard trip south.
I learned from this ABC News story from 2013 that they arrive in the mountains right after the day of the dead. They were probably passing through in the dark last week, and I didn't see them.
Here is a fun amateur video about last years painted ladies' migration. The videographer is probably in a more arid area. Last year's trip north was fantastic because of the superbloom, but we always have them here at the coast.
Here is a CNN travel article on the superbloom last year. Wow, what a wonderful gift that winter and spring were. Thanks to Cinco, I was out and about in it. How very lucky I am.
California's Superbloom Attracts Swarms of Migrating Butterflies
The monarch populations are on a steep decline, and folks are taking steps to help. Many are planting the nectar plants they favor and milkweed for their caterpillars.
Of course, monarchs and painted ladies aren't our only butterfly tourists this time of year. I once discovered what looked like streaks of yellow paint striping my car after driving to Carlsbad, CA in the dark one early spring morning.
I was upset about having to remove the paint, until I drove back later that day and saw hundreds of yellow sulphur butterflies pass my windshield on I-5. Then I was upset that so many butterflies had died as I passed that way.
These are fairly large butterflies. No wonder my car was streaked.
Cinco's favorite is the California State Insect, the Endangered California Dogshead Butterfly. Look at it the male from the top, and it looks like a sled dog.
The gardens of Lovely Scenic Harbor Condominiums are a butterfly buffet of nectar plants. We also fill our bird bath. It is the easiest act one can do to help here along the route.
As the above video indicated, when they arrive at their destination, they cluster in groups to sleep, resembling big bundles of dead leaves. Some monarchs also overwinter here in San Diego.
The bundles are in a grove of eucalyptus off of Presidio Park and on the campus of UCSD. I have never seen them. I only discovered that we had two of the 400 overwintering spots in California last year.
I shall report when Mpaji and I make the trek to Presidio Park to check them out. It is a bit far for Cinco.
It's holiday decoration time, and Mpaji and Little Italy are busily making our world festive. I was looking at all sorts of lovely Christmas decorations Cinco could snatch from Mpaji's shelf when I was over there yesterday. And, Cinco stopped to watch the workers at Little Italy hang the holiday lights.
The fog was cold and penetrating, so we were bundled up this week, and Mpaji impulsively bought us both warm clothes and gloves to wear. We often had a crisp golden day after the the fog had burned off, however.
On Tuesday, the bells of Mission Hills started to ring on one such golden morning as we were descending the hill at Majestic Field. As before, the Diamond Family was at its Breakfast Buffet.
I taped the magic for you. We should have stopped walking though. You can barely hear the bells. This is the reverse of the route I taped, when we interrupted another Diamond Family dinner, and I talked over the bells.
Cinco found a line of ants to snarf, and I managed to send a Live Photo to some of the Loyal Cinco Fans. I can't figure out how to put it on the Chronicles though.
The very next day, she went back and discovered that they were gone. So, we set off in search of ants. I'm not kidding. She hightailed it to the I-5 Overpass, but tried to cross busy India too early, then didn't cross when it was time, thinking she could go straight.
She can't. It leads to the I-5.
She was evidently frustrated as I made her turn up and onto Columbia, but I saw the moment she she realized she could get where she wanted to go easily from that direction. She picked up into her fastest trot down Columbia, turned right onto Laurel, and headed to Kettner.
Her first stop was the pencil cactus where I once videotaped her eating "something". I guess ants were that "something" she was eating. She came up empty.
Here is that earlier video:
She then headed straight to the corner where I saw her chomp and then drop big mouthfuls of dirt. She had to have been looking for ants! No ants though.
We continued on down Kettner to Sassafras and looped home via the original source of ants on State St. No luck, but it was a fun little grim and gritty walk.
This morning's adventure deserves its own entry. Cinco made a little mischief and we did a little dumb. We are both paying for it. Her paws were packed with Foxtails (when will it ever end?), and we both limped when we got up from a late morning grooming session.
On the web site, the love story of Cinco and Wilbur has taken a sorrowful and decidedly sappy turn in both the April emails and in Cinco's own Spring Time Lovin' tale. Wilbur has left us with a gift and a Doggerel adaptation of the musical Grease (oh, when will it ever end?).
Here are the latest April and November pages.
Here are the first three songs of Cinco, the Musical.
Have a joyous week,
Xianning
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