Monarchs

Last week I took Mom and Aunt Carol to Balboa Park one morning to visit my favorite spots. When I visit Balboa Park I usually only go as far as the pond in front of the botanical building and find a bench to relax on. I haven't been in a single museum this summer, though there are some cool exhibits right now that I should check out. Maybe I'll take advantage of museum air conditioning with my Thursday and Friday off!

Last summer I discovered that the crown plants near the entrance doors of the botanical building were absolutely loaded with monarch caterpillars. This summer there seem to be fewer of them, but still enough to elicit wonder at the jeweled chrysalises the caterpillars use for their transformations. 



How many caterpillars can you find in the photo? This crown plant was absolutely loaded!

In other news, San Diego has been terribly hot and humid lately. When I got done at the dentist at 10:30 yesterday morning it was already so hot and muggy that I felt like doing nothing but coming home and enjoying the air conditioning. This means that I've been getting a lot of reading done! The first day of each month book publishers make Kindle editions of select titles free to a limited number of readers, so bright and early Monday morning I downloaded a bunch of free books to add to my reading list!  I'm continuing in my zero-cooking trend; the stove makes the kitchen too hot! A 5am cooking session may be required to actually get something done!