Our first scheduled stop on our trip was Hearst Castle. I signed up for a Garden Tour, but I think they don't know what a "garden" is. We spent most of our time inside, looking at concrete support beams, basement wine storage, fancy antiques in stuffy rooms, chlorinated indoor pools, and moldy. When I edged near the door during a long lecture in a windowless enclosure, the docent insisted that it was imperative that I stay with the group. Sigh. He did say a few words about the Cecile Brunner roses on the palm tree trunks, but that was about it as far as plants go. I did appreciate the story about how much the squirrels enjoyed the citrus and got a picture of the remains of one of their meals. But mostly Hearst Castle was a bust.
As an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, I studied Conservation of Natural Resources. I took a couple of entomology classes and became very interested in insects. After I graduated, I held several jobs working with bugs: in the fields of central California, the forests of Connecticut and Idaho, and the labs of Berkeley. Then I went to grad school and studied entomology at UC Riverside and UC Berkeley (back in the olden days when UCB had an entomology department). When my kids were little, I wanted to share my love of insects with them, so I started a butterfly garden before butterfly gardens were popular. Then of course, their teachers asked me to bring caterpillars into the classroom and I started doing classroom presentations. I do presentations in elementary schools, provide teacher trainings, teach adult school classes, and bring live insect specimens to garden fairs. My book is perfect for helping elementary school kids learn about butterflies.
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