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Tomorrow morning we’re heading to Pinnacles National Monument to see the California Condors – they are releasing a number into the wild, and we hope to get at least a few good photos! I’ve never seen a Condor up close, but they say their wingspan can be up to TEN FEET – should be a memorable event. Stay tuned!

Cafepress has compiled a huge number of designs donated by their shopowners into one large shop, Community Cares for Hurricane Katrina Relief. All profits, including cafepress’s, are going to Americares and the ASPCA. I made a special version of my Celtic Planet design for this effort (not even realizing until John pointed it out that it looked somewhat like a hurricane!), adding a quote from the Indian Upanishads, “He who sees all beings in his own self, and his own self in all beings, loses all fear.” (image at right is of a newish product – framed ceramic tiles you can hang on the wall.) You can see my design on products here, but they’ve also featured it on the front page of the shop, which is kinda cool! So anyway, this is just another of the excellent avenues people have been creating to help out the gulf states, and the designs are really well done and many are on more than just t-shirts – mousepads, mugs, etc. If you see anything you like there, consider doing some early holiday shopping!

We had another turtle escapee today, but luckily she wasn’t far away and the dogs found her almost immediately. This resulted in us going over the entire chicken wire enclosure with a fine tooth comb, and by pulling and tugging on everything until we finally found the likely breach. It didn’t seem like we would have overlooked it before, but there were a ton of tall weeds there before that might have both kept the wire ‘closed’ and also prevented us from seeing the potential spot there in the first place. John’s still outside now, threading new wire through everything so its sewn up tight.

The turtles had been doing some digging again, but while Penelope seems fine digging in the enclosure, Myrtle doesn’t seem so satisfied in there and she climbs the chicken wire, although not as much as the third turtle used to. I guess she just found her way through this breach while she was climbing – jeez! According to internet sources, turtles don’t reach ‘egg’ maturity until they are about 5 or 6 years old, and these turtles are about 10 at the very least. In any case, it’s no wonder that when people have younger turtles, you don’t hear about the egg-laying challenges, and then later many people give their turtles away when they get too big. I have a friend who runs a Turtle-Themed online shop whose proceeds go to turtle rescue – I understand a lot more why that would be needed now!

Gilligan has died! 🙁  Although the show was canceled before I was born, I still grew up on it. I’m still trying to get that coconut radio to work though.

YAY! The 2006 Celtic Calendar and 2006 California Wildflower Calendar are now available (through DeviantArt, so you have to purchase them separately from anything else in my art shop, which goes through CafePress instead.) Click on one of the images below to see thumbnails of the monthly images, a bit more information and how to purchase. (Buy Now! Avoid the Rush! Make great gifts! Yadda Yadda! *grin*)