monarchs of the glen

Every day since January 5th, I keep saying 'I will write'. 'I will write', 'I will write', 'I will write'... Finally, here I am, thesis-free and writing. It only took about 20 days after handing in the longest thing I've ever written before I could bring myself to sit and write again :) That's the big news - the thesis is finished! It has been turned in ! And in theory, in a month or two my degree will arrive in the mail, at last. And that's about it, really.

On a much more satisfying level (and I mean that in the reflective, communing-with-nature sense, not the 'it's finally done and out of my life!' sense), today Joey and I went to see monarchs in the glen. Monarch butteflies, that is. Before I get into that, I should preface it by saying that Joey has been pushing me to blog about my thesis being done, and now that it's over, I find that I don't have very much else to say. So I'll attempt to cop out on that assignment by pointing out that while I was in thesis limbo, I never could take the time to do something as simple and enjoyable - but time-consuming - as going to spend hours hiking over a nature preserve and staring at butterflies. The butterfly preserve, if I may be allowed the hyperbole, is emblematic of a great many things in Santa Barbara that I/we know about and want to do, but haven't managed to experience because we also have to spend time doing other things. But enough about that.


The Coronado butterfly preserve is actually a fairly small area, where a population of monarch butterflies spends the winter months (their summer habitat is much further to the northeast). They cluster on and around the eucalyptus trees in a little glen, so thick on the braches that they almost look like termites' nests. To visit, you park your car at the edge of the adjacent neighbourhood, and walk about five minutes following little butterfly graphic signs until the trail forks to circle their nesting area. All of a sudden, as you go up the incline, you notice one or two butterflies fluttering about. Then you notice the flurry of activity around the heavily laden branches, and finally that most of the branches are laden with butterflies, not lots of light brown leaves. It's extraordinary. You stare at them for a little while, move a bit, stare at them from another angle, and so on. Then, you get to the edge of the grove, step out into the sunshine, and the butterflies are completely behind you. We continued along the way, hiking on the Ellwood bluffs (Ellwood is the name of the area on that part of the Santa Barbara coast), then on the beach for a while since the tide was out and there were lots of tide pools. It was a glorious day for being outside, and we enjoyed it thoroughly. Now, on to the pictures.


Tree branches laden with butterflies:

Butterfly clusters, looking a lot like termite nests on the sides of the trees:

Some typical Santa Barbara beach scenery, on a windy January day:



Joey amid the tide pools:

Danielle on the bluff:

And finally, your moment of zen: