I have resisted the temptation to get into Rhacodactylus geckos due to space issues – until now. I’ve coveted the huge Rhacodactylus leachianus for a long time. At the Herp World Expo in Pasadena, I held an adult at Philippe De Vosjoli’s table and was hooked! I came home with a book so I could learn more about these geckos and give the idea of getting one some serious thought.
At the Reptile Super Show in January, I was ready and planned to bring home a leachie! I had an extremely hard time choosing, but finally settled on this little guy (we don’t really know if it is male or female yet). Unfortunately, his label was lost at some point, so Philippe could not tell me about his background, but I really liked the pattern with the pink bars on this guy.
He’s small now, but someday he’ll be a giant!
No more new species for a while now – really!
Chameleon’s have always been on my “someday” list. At the Reptile Super Show in Pomona last month, my daughter and I picked up a little female veiled chameleon, Chamaeleo calyptratus, at the auction to benefit USARK. We absolutely love her! Anna has named her Leafy.
I have been remiss in introducing her anywhere because I have had a very hard time getting pictures of her. I did get a couple of pictures a week or so after we brought her home. Whenever I try to take pictures, she is either hiding, shedding, or she runs away as soon as she sees the camera. She was up front yesterday, so I took a couple pictures even though she’s currently shedding. As I was formatting the pictures from yesterday, I went back to the ones from Jan 20. Wow! She sure has grown over the last month!
Here she is on January 20. Look at how tiny she was!
February 22 – all fired up because she hates the camera! Look how big she’s gotten!
And Yesterday, just finishing up that shed.
This is her typical response to the camera – run, run away!!
When we first moved here, I was obsessed with gardening. Every time my husband would go out of town for any length of time, I’d add a new garden. Back then, I had plenty of time to devote to the garden. But with the addition of family, teaching, and reptiles, I found myself with much less time. The gardens got much less attention than I would like. Lately, I’ve been reading some wonderful gardening blogs and have become motivated to get my gardens back in shape.
We’ve been having beautiful spring weather here – both the sunny kind that is great for gardening (these days seem to fall on the days that I have to teach) and rainy days that keep everything green. I am not a fan of California’s brown-dead season, so I do love the rainy days! This year’s heavy rains did beat up my daffodils, though. I thought I’d share a few pictures of some of the things that are blooming here now.
Daffodils! A few of them are somewhat ragged after the rains, but still pretty!
Fruit Trees! The apricot (pale pink) almost always flowers too early and frost ends up ruining our chances at fruit. The apricot did start flowering early this year, but only a few flowers opened. The rest of the flowers opened at the same time as the nectarine (bright pink). Perhaps this year we will be lucky?
Finally, one of our lemon trees!
We’re expecting lots more rain this weekend, but with any luck I’ll have a chance to work in the garden!
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