Ahhhhh Choooooo!!!

Our deck is covered with pollen. Covered. The kind Live Oak tree who shelters most of our home and was my birthing inspiration (my husband kept reminding me of the strong beautiful oak and it worked) the first round and is who we built our deck around, well she is in bloom. Rain or no rain or more rain, the pollen factor is off the hook so to speak.
The Live Oak blooms are really... understated. I'm amazed how much pollen they produce.

While I was admiring the fresh new leaves and insane bloom patterns, I saw this little dude cruising about. It's amazing to me that this little caterpillar can have such a anti-climactic finish to life seeing how gorgeous the little bugger is in his youth. It's really quite unfair I think. If you recognize and want to see more of his stages, this link has some great Western Tussock Moth photographs.

I think this youthful stage is really quite magnificent! For both the baby leaves and the caterpillar that is :)