The Fall Butterflies of Piedmont Park

    We left Chateau Krottje at the break of dawn and made our way through the valley to Salinas around 11 AM.  On the way down to SLO, we had stopped at Foods Co. in Salinas.  Foods Co. is the Kroger affiliate, which makes it the sister ship to Fred Meyers.  Freddie's has long been the grocery shoppers go to place in the Pacific Northwest.  Fred's has good prices, good quality and, like Mega in Mexico, sells almost everything.  Sporting goods, furniture, sundries and, especially, groceries.  

Bienvenidos a Foods Co.

    Do you remember a couple years back when our president discovered the word groceries?  He was like a nine-month-old baby who had suddenly discovered that he has toes.  But I digress.

    The reason we wanted to stop again at this store in Salinas, is that it is nothing like a Fred Meyers.  You can get by with your English at the Foods Co. in Salinas, but just barely.  The help and the customers deal mostly in Espanol.  And many of the products had a Hispanic twist to them, tomatillos, chorizo and queso crema.  But most dramatically, this store sells mostly food.  No furniture, lawn mowers or sporting goods.

    At the deli counter two days before, not realizing the linguistic milieu that we had serendipitously entered, I had a difficult time ordering some lunch meat and then an impossible time finding out where the cream cheese might be.  Sandra needs cream cheese!  The well intentioned, if linguistically challenged, deli lady handed us off to an English speaker and the problem was solved.  However, I love Mexico and I knew I could do better. 

Somewhere South of Salinas...Sandra and Bobbie McGee

   So, before we shopped, I buffed up my Spanish, added a couple key phrases and had a wonderful time ordering ham from the deli lady.  It was only two days later, and I'm certain she recognized me and she was beaming.  Que bueno!  After that I had a nice conversation with a Mexican lady from Michoacan about just what she was going to make with her tomatillos...Salsa!

    We purchased a chub of chorizo, a half-pound of queso for quesadillas, a few of those tomatillos and we were out the door.  Hasta manana. 

    Back out in the parking lot, having enjoyed our trip to Mexico Nuevo, Sandra and I discussed what is arguably her favorite song...Willie Nelson singing that Chris Christofferson favorite, Bobbie McGee.  We were definitely in Salinas and who knew if we would ever be back.  As you may recall, assuming you are a child of the sixties, Bobbie McGee drifts away somewhere south of Salinas.  And so, we reasoned, as there had been statues of the Eagles on the corner in Winslow, Arizona, shouldn't there be a statue of Bobbie McGee in Salinas?  Well, as it turns out, there is not!  It was up to me and my buddy Gemini to correct this injustice.   

Making friends in Piedmont Park

    I don't know about you, but it gives me goose bumps.

   Driving to Piedmont was about as much fun as driving out of it, changing freeways like you would change city streets, but we made it.  Shawn and Andrew were happy to see us and received the Mexican groceries in the spirit in which they were purchased.  

    Andrew had to work (he represents a machine that does something with immunoglobulins (for which he was acknowledged during the Covid scare) but Shawn was able to take the day off and we decided to go to a local park suggested as a butterfly possibility.  

    As it turned out, Piedmont Park is not too far from where Shawn teaches math in the Piedmont middle school.  School had let out shortly before we arrived and the park was crowded with kids.  This being Piedmont, a place where Kamala Harris held a fund raiser hosted by one of Shawn's parents, the kids were all well-groomed and polite.  Mostly.  

The lowly skipper is a chick magnet.  Who knew?

    We walked around the park.  I was carrying a butterfly net, so we fit right in.  Or not.  Before we got to any butterflies, an elderly lady, who was probably about my age, asked us if we were looking for butterflies and told us how she raises milkweed in her yard for monarchs.  So, you see, Lloyd Christmas was right:  Senior citizens, though slow and dangerous behind the wheel, can still serve a useful purpose.

   Soon we started seeing the flowering plants promised by my good buddies at Gemini.   As we walked by a bank of ivy with some white and purple flowers growing here and there, I spotted some skippers.  Skippers are the poor sisters of the lepidopteran universe, but when God gives you skippers you make lemonade.  Is that how it goes?

"You should have used a drone!"

    I crawled up into the ivy bank and made a few unsuccessful swipes at the skippers.  At this point, Shawn pointed out that I was perilously close to a yellow jackets nest.  Indeed, it was easy to spot the little devils going in and out of a hole they had created in the ivy.  To paraphrase my hero, Bilbo Baggins, "If you are catching butterflies near a nest of yellow jackets, it does not do to leave them out of your calculations."

    Since I was having so much success, we gave Shawn a turn.  Let him deal with the yellow jackets.  Eventually I was the one who caught the skipper.  It was a drab little fellow, but it was he who stood between the Dynamic Duo and a skunkaroo.  So, it was with great joy when I successfully transferred our worthy prize to vegetable bag.  Schmoopie would have been so proud.  Right? 

    Now as we walked across the well-groomed lawns of Piedmont Park we had something to show off.  Immediately we encountered a comely Asian lady on a blanket, and she was overjoyed to look at the catch of the day.  Shawn played me up, telling her I was a famous wildlife artist and what not.  She was used to the attention and gave us a winning smile.  Be still my heart.

Umber Skipper, Piedmont Park, August 2026

   Next we encountered three girls in matching blue t-shirts and jeans all standing on a ledge.  They, too, wanted to see our butterfly.  At this point, Shawn reverted to his character, introducing himself as Mr. Barile-Hill.  The girls recognized him as one of the prize teachers (he is a handsome Italian fellow and quick with a joke) The young lady in the middle introduced herself as Dee Dee's sister who had Shawn for math two years previously.   He said something like, "Oh yes, she was very cute and smart." to which the young angel replied, "So am I!  I get it from her."  

   The trio admired our skipper in the bag, and we were soon on our way to the car.  As we approached our chariot, we encountered a chubby young mother.  She had a babe in her arms and a toddler at her feet, astride a scooter.  He was a quick study and wanted a look at our butterfly.  As he held the bug in a bag, he asked how we caught him.  We replied with the net, at which he fixed us with a steely gaze and said, "You should have used a drone!"

    And that ends our butterflying in Piedmont Park.  Daniel Rubinoff, who earned his butterfly wings as a youth in nearby Berkeley, identified the little feller as an Umber Skipper.  Life butterfly.  Tick it off!

jeff