Ever since the Springs Fire earlier this month, we've been seeing more coyotes.

It could be the drought driving them down from the hills to drink from lakes and ponds and sprinklers (and to dine on well-fed cats and toy poodles) but it's also 28,000 acres worth of scorched habitat that has displaced who knows how many wild animals.

Not an easy life.

This one's from the archives, the beach at Paradise Cove.

I'm not a fish person so to me, this is a little gross, but yeah, also amazing -- thousands of tiny catfish who just nibbled their way out of their sac and now have free run of the lake.

Somewhere nearby is the papa catfish, who's the one who dug the nest, lured the female, then fertilized her eggs. AND, after all that, hung around as the eggs hatched, fanning them with his fins and tail to keep the sediment away and the oxygen flowing.

Who knew?

These guys:

Are now these guys.

What a difference a few weeks make.

First, a tiny nest of tiny birds inside the split of this tree. Finches, says the friend who found them. You can see the mother dart in and out with food, a streak seen from the corner of your eye. Get too close and stepawaystepaway -- an irresistible order issued from a branch above.

Next, this crazy mushroom, as big as a dinner plate, that grew overnight.

And my favorite (well, until the nestlings show their little faces), a kayak at the lake, putting the scale of the slope behind it into perspective.

Hot for some today, breezy for others. Either way, we're lucky to live in California.

It looks as though the guy just paid the psychic reader on the Santa Monica pier for a peek into his future, right? But if you happened to wander close enough, what you'd have heard was the psychic reader complaining about traffic on the 405.

If that's the topic, then we're all psychics.

So I know it's been a bit terse around the blog lately, with shorter-than-usual (and that's really saying something) posts arriving late in the day. It's because of work, of course, and remodeling. Spring fever has a lot to do with it, as does an ailing 18-year-old cat.

This week, though, the blogular brevity is because of a landscaping project that's thisclose to being finished, and which I can't wait to show you (and yes, Melissa, there will be photos, LOTS of photos, and probably even another slide show) but for now, let's look at what happened almost the very instant the bed in front of the house was finished, a moment that made the whole long and sweaty job worth it.

Look -- a butterfly.

Spectacular here yesterday, sea blue, sun gold, wind low and slow, easing through the grasses, part song, part sigh.

It's painful to look at the garden these days, all weedy and seedy and, thanks to the work happening in the house, neglected.

Even worse when you look back at the glory days:

Le sigh.