Beachy Days

Interesting moments at the beach:

We were surprised by helicopters.
Dolphin sighting.

What’s on your agenda this week?

Orchids, Dolphins and a Golden Retriever

I found this information about the germination of orchids to be fascinating:

Fusing Horticulture & Technology

Gallup & Stribling Orchids has one of the largest plant tissue culture laboratories in the United States dedicated to orchid propagation. We provide full laboratory services to the hobbyist and commercial grower—domestically and internationally. Our investment in the laboratory has enabled us to maintain a scientifically pure and well-curated collection of beautiful orchids to share worldwide.

Fusing horticulture and technology in the laboratory has paved the way for hobbyist and commercial orchid production—Gallup & Stribling is proud to be at the forefront.

Laboratory services include orchid seed germination, cloning by mertistem-tissue culture of Cymbdium, Cattleya, and Oncidium orchids, replating of all orchid genera, and treatment for ploidy change.

https://www.gallup-stribling.com/laboratory/

Behavior and Diet

https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/short-beaked-common-dolphin

The larger dolphins I believe are the Common Bottlenose Dolphins:

Common Bottlenose Dolphin

Common bottlenose dolphins are found throughout the world in both offshore and coastal waters, including harbors, bays, gulfs, and estuaries of temperate and tropical waters. They are one of the most well-studied marine mammals in the wild. In addition, they are easy to view in the wild because they live close to shore and are distributed throughout coastal and estuarine waters. 

Slo-Mo video of dolphins

What are your thoughts about orchids? Do you have any? Are you able to get them to bloom?

Did you know orchids can be produced in labs?

What are your thoughts about dolphins?

More Beach Views

Sandpipers lined the beach this morning. I don’t have any quail at the beach, like at home, but there are plenty of sandpipers, pelicans and gulls.

What’s your is your favorite Mexican food or comfort food?

My favorite beach houses

I hope you enjoyed my beach home tour!

If you owned a beach house, what style would it be? Beach cottage, White House replica, contemporary or modern?

Views from the beach

I loved watching this Vizsla dog and puppy chase a frisbee. I missed the shots where the dog leaped into the air to catch the frisbee with the puppy trailing.
I looked up the prices of homes on this beach. The ones I found start at $20 million up to $100 million.

Where is your favorite beach?

Amazing sights!

This is what a sea lion does when it’s stressed. It raises its neck and head off the sand.

Sea lions, dolphins and terns — amazing sights I’m enjoying.

I wrote about the Domoic Acid poisoning that is affecting the sea lions last week. If you missed it, you can read it HERE.

My husband and I encountered a second sea lion in distress a few days later. I called the marine life rescue hotline to report it. Within minutes, volunteers were out staking signs and yellow crime tape to cordon off an area around the sea lion. One woman was the same volunteer I had met the week before. She reminded us to leave the sea lion alone, because they often die from stress if they are suffering from the toxins.

I was infuriated to watch people who let their dogs off leash, walk in front of the signs and tape with their dogs barking at the sea lion.

This is the sea lion in a relaxed, non-threatened position.
I called the rescue hotline for this sea lion.

Now for the truly amazing sights of a flock of terns at the beach:

My husband walking down the beach with the terns.

I spotted the terns way down the beach. They looked like a solid white stripe across the beach where the sea lion sat the day before.

I was afraid they were munching on the sea lion’s carcass, but fortunately that didn’t seem to be the case. I’ve read about terns and they like lagoons and canals.

The terns were in front of this canal. Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis’s home. Here’s an article with more pics.
Another view of the terns.

What amazing sights have you seen this week?

It’s all about the sea

Cloudy day at the beach with sun peeking through
Evening at the beach during a cloudy day, looking north. University of California Santa Barbara is at the furthest point of land in the distance.

Our vacation is centered around the ocean. Every morning we start the day with a long beach walk. Then after the strong rays of sunshine and crowds leave the beach, we head back to sit, read and walk some more.

Yesterday was cloudy and I wasn’t sure about going to the beach in the evening. I thought it would be too cold. But it was quiet and peaceful, except for the roar of the ocean. I sat watching perfect wave after wave curl into a barrel. Only two other families were at the mile long beach. I felt so thankful to be here on vacation.

beautiful blue sea and sky that matches
Walking south during the cloudy day. I loved how the blues of the water and sky matched.

One thing that surprises me is that our friends who live here don’t take advantage of the beach. One friend said she’d like to join me for a beach walk this weekend. That she hasn’t walked on the beach since last time we were here! I think that was last August. To give her credit, they do own a sailboat and sail one day per week.

I know if I lived here I’d make it to the beach every single day. At least for my morning walk. I wouldn’t take it for granted having lived for 35 years in the desert.

Where you live do you take your environment for granted? Or do you try to enjoy it to the fullest?