Urban nature trippin'

This morning, I took the girls along to check out a Japanese garden at one of our local parks. We first discovered this place about a year ago, but hadn't been back since last year. At the time, the Japanese tea house was closed to the public (it still is, mostly) and the gardens were only open during limited hours - ones that I never seemed to be able to fit in between Miss Pie's many naps.

I'm not entirely sure how I managed to forget about the gardens (given my love of all things Japanese) but a random chat to another mum at our usual park last week had her mentioning the koi pond in the Japanese garden at Brand Park, and how her toddler loved it... so we found ourselves there this morning. I didn't have my camera with me today, but the above photo is one I took last year.

It was a gorgeous day to go, and the three of us are suckers for small critters and wildlife, so we had fun admiring not only the koi and shimmery mallards, but the many turtles lazing on rocks, intensely coloured dragonflies, butterflies, and - exciting for me 'cause I can be a nerd - a bird of prey, perched in a tree near our car.

Once we got back home, the ornithologist in me came out - urged on by the Faery to find out what kind of bird we'd seen and heard. Don't you love the internet? It's fabulous for stoking those nerdy fires, I find. I came across a useful site for identifying birds, and narrowed what we'd seen (and heard) down to one of two. I'm pretty certain it was a Red-Tailed Hawk:

(Photo source)

Gorgeous, huh? It goes without saying that we saw squirrels and hummingbirds too, but I'll add a few samples below of some of the other critters which we admired.

- a Flame Skimmer (dragonfly):

(Photo source)

- a Western Tiger Swallowtail (butterfly)

(Photo source)

- a Western Scrub-Jay

(Photo source)

So pretty! And my kind of morning - sunshine, birds singing, trees rustling, alpine-scented air, cute critters... and the ability to hop back into the air-conditioned cocoon of our car when it's time to go home.

Where am I?

Wild iris, bird of paradise, eucalyptus, jacaranda, bottle brush and agapanthus.

Throw some bougainvillea, jasmine - and even wattle - into the mix,

as there are plenty of these around, too.

I could be walking down any street in Sydney, in November.

Instead, it's May in L.A.

I feel a little bit upside down.

Or should that be wrong side up?

Baby cakes and green souls

Miss Pie turned one yesterday. Without any family in town, and her being so young anyway, we didn't see much point in throwing a big party. Instead, we decided to go somewhere we hadn't been yet and relax. I had visions of a colourful picnic with a box of cupcakes that the Faery and I had made earlier - ripe for cute baby photo opportunities - and consulted my Not For Tourists (L.A.) book.

We decided that the botanical gardens at The Huntington would be perfect. Not too far to drive, and the Children's Garden sounded like fun. Only one problem: a strict no picnics or packed lunch policy. Bummer. We were still keen to get out, though, so we just ate an early lunch and postponed the cupcakes until later in the day. I'm sure Betty Crocker would have understood.

The Huntington is seriously beautiful and we have every intention of going back for more. There's too much to see in one day, especially when there are small kids involved. After exhausting the Children's Garden, we also walked around the Chinese Garden, where we gorged on dim sum at the tea shop. Next was the Japanese Garden, then we finished up at the Desert Garden - which has one of the world's oldest and largest collections of the craziest desert plants you'll ever see. It was otherworldly.

Of course, there were still plenty of cute baby photo ops, but what I really had fun with was prowling around these gardens, giddy with camera in hand as I absorbed the gorgeous scenery. I look forward to seeing these gardens when it isn't winter, but for now, here are some snaps from the day:

It was one of those days that was good for the soul. I always feel lighter after a seeing a good art exhibition, and this was kind of similar. And although we were disappointed at first about the anti-picnicking rules, The Huntington is also strict about dogs, which meant there was no dog shit anywhere to be stepped on. Bonus!