Almnoy Farms

 that 'blue lump' is a Charlie Brown...  he shoulda been the Linus with his obsession of blankets..  but who knew?!?!  he does have Charlie Brown's awkwardness.. that's for sure! 

we had a bear at 3:20 am and Gwen was NOT happy about it.  it invaded the neighbors' trash cans, but it just visited our 'boring' front porch.  it must have still been around at 7:20 am when Charlie Brown made a stink about it.   there will be nap time for me today... not enough sleeping...   

he/she is in our yard on a very low plant. in the first picture you can see the bottoms on the wings are not even. we are guessing that it just emerged and is still opening up. I hope it doesn't make its way closer to the chickens.  I moved it to an unused Santa Maria Grill. it's up higher now. I gave it some sugar water but it declined. it's climbing the chain for a higher resting spot. I didn't want it on the ground because the dogs almost trampled it multiple time.  Reminds me of the time we had a group of Mourning Cloak butterflies emerge in Simi Valley    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152031034655512&set=pb.654375511.-2207520000&type=3 this is a Western Tiger Swallowtail

this is one of my favorite pictures of Charlie brown.  just sitting perfectly on the arm of the couch. he was such a little 'bean'. he still is a little 'bean'. a whopping 23 lbs while all his siblings are in 30s and 40s.