Volunteers

I have in my garden what I like to call 'volunteers'. I use strictly food scraps in my compost; mostly veggies, fruit, coffee grounds and eggshells. I have heard that some fruits and veggies shouldn't be used in compost piles though. The reason being the seeds withstand the heat and 'curing' of the compost, only to sprout up in random places. Well these people are correct! HA! I kind of like that though. This is just one of three tomatoes I have sprouting in a bird of paradise out back.
I just wait till the first true leaves show, then I transplant the little guy to it's own pot. It's kind of fun to see what kind of fruit or veggie it will be. I always get tons of tomatoes, I like to share the seedlings with my family and friends. This year I have some random kind of squash, I've been trying to figure out what kind it is. The only squash I have planted in my garden is a summer squash that goes by a lot of different names; Tatuma Squash, Mexican Squash, as well as Gray Zucchini. The plant itself is bush like, not like a vine. The leaves are a deep emerald green with this really pretty silver marble type effect. The squash itself can get quite large, but it's a high yielding plant so most are picked and sold at about 3-4 inches long. The color of the squash varies with how much sun it has had, the side that faces the sun is usually dark green with light flecks, and the under side is usually pale green with the same light flecks.
This particular squash that has popped up several places at my boyfriend, Mike's, is different though. It's not like any kind of squash I've bought from the store or farmer's market either. I've even tried searching the internet(which I do for almost everything), no such luck, I cannot find it anywhere. It's a vine and it's leaves are plain grass green with no markings. The squash itself is a very pale green with the same light flecks as the Mexican Squash, however it's a completely different shape, it's actually shaped more like a butternut squash. The size is completely different as well, the squash gets no bigger then my thumb before the blossom blooms and starts to rot.
The Pismo Clam shells you see I use as borders for the garden at Mike's. He's an avid fisherman, he loves to go dig these guys up at one of our local beaches. I figure it's a good way to reuse them, plus the garden at Mike's is really, I guess you could say 'free form'. On another side note, there is this bird that lives somewhere around Mike's house. It's a crazy looking bird, it wakes us up at about 6 am everyday screeching on the balcony railing. This morning I grabbed my camera and tried to get a shot of it, in my half sleep I didn't realize my flash was on, so of course the picture came out horrible. I tried to fix it as much as possible on photoshop, it's still not great but you can get the idea.

It's bigger then a dove, smaller then a crow. I knew right away it must be some kind of Jay, it is bright blue with a black and white markings. It looks like a giant Blue Jay with a really LONG tail! I swear that tail is longer then a foot. Oh and did I mention it's screech? Jeez, it's very high pitched and shrill! So I found out on the internet( I told you I look up everything), it's called a Black Throated Magpie Jay. It's original habitat is the Northwest corner of Mexico, but I guess some have made their way up here. In my research I found this link, http://whozoo.org/Intro2002/ChrisYork/CEY_MagpieJay.htm I guess they also have some living in Balboa Park here in San Diego. Pretty cool bird I just thought I would share!

Rochelle