Sun Break

 

 

No sewing pictures today as I am too busy being outside enjoying the sun. We had lunch outside on the deck which was quite lovely. Now I'm going around checking on all our deck succulents to see how they're doing with all the rain. Some are just fine, some have nearly drowned.

Two new additions to our exterior decor.

The bird feeder which has now been discovered by a squirrel for the first time. Now it will have to have security measures installed or maybe even be moved elsewhere. This morning I heard a commotion out there and it was a squirrel vs. blue jay battle which was quite entertaining. The blue jay temporarily won, and Meg got to bark at the squirrel, but I'm sure he'll be back.

Late Summer Into Early Fall

 It's been a struggle this year to keep everything watered, but the cosmos finally bloomed, but not bright pink, instead an almost white palest pink. Which is lovely.

 Actually got some peaches off our new tree.

 You know it's fall when the Poison Oak is turning lovely shades of red.

 And it's also fall when the sedum is blooming.

Mutant Madeira

 Oh, I forgot to post this when I was going on about the Pride of Madeira taking over our front yard. When I was weeding, I noticed this weird thing, can you spot it?

 It has a pretty small stem, especially given the size of the thing it's supporting. It's about the size of my two hands side by side. We looked it up and it turns out that this is pretty rare, it's called fasciation. Basically when the stem is growing, something intervenes in the usual process of growth (can be bacteria, virus, etc) and causes ribbon like growth instead of the regular tunnel form. How weird huh?

My husband said it reminded him of a Dr. Seuss tree. I think he's onto something there. It looks highly improbable. Hey, at least it managed to grow some flowers.

The Palm

 This is a picture of our palm tree, taken from my studio window.

 On the second floor (see the light reflections?). This thing used to be a smallish houseplant, one that I though was dead. We made a planter at the edge of a new deck in front of our house, and I needed a lot of dirt to fill it up, so I threw the container full that had the seemingly dead palm in there and also planted a tea tree bush and a dwarf cypress. Flash forward ten years, and this thing is almost as tall as our house! Moral of the story? Never assume presumed death is truly the end? Or something like that.

Spring Flowers

Some flower pictures from earlier this year.  Echium aka Pride of Madeira is taking over the front yard. It is a really big big plant though, that easily self sows.

 But it is hard to take it down when it produces these glorious spikes of Purple!

 Sourgrass, doesn't grow in our yard, (not wet enough) so when I find it, I always pick a stalk or two. Just to be able to chew on it, brings me right back to a childhood spent doing the same.

 Rhubarb stalks, not ready to be picked. This picture is from months ago, and now it's ready (I think, first time I've grown the stuff!)

 Sometimes I'm tempted to re-classify the dandelion as a desired plant rather than a weed, at least as far as my own yard goes.

The lilacs vs. the wisteria vs. the roses battle this spring was almost too much. I think the lilacs won.

Camp Joy

 I love the gate at Camp Joy, it's not complicated or super fancy or over-done, but it's unusual and beautiful.

 We were there for the annual plant-sale, they always have great selections of pepper and tomato plants.

 The beautiful and enormous farm-sized greenhouse.

This purple Salsify (aka Goat's Beard) is very striking.

 The wisteria sprawling around with controlled abandon.

 The sides of the wisteria/grape arbor. I like the old grapevines bent into circles.

 Grapes above, iris below.

 View from below the new rose arbor.

We were then under the gun to get the new garden beds made so we could plant out the new plant starts.

From Mushrooms Underfoot to Unexpected Turtles

A lovely Saturday afternoon was recently spent at Overfelt Gardens/Chinese Cultural Gardens in San Jose as I waited for my son to finish up at his Destination Imagination competition (yes! They won!). There were mushrooms a'plenty after all the winter rains.

At first I thought it was just the usual kind of city park, with some sculpture here and there.But then across the little pond I spotted this cool pavilion and realized it was something a bit more than just the usual park.

People were out enjoying the sunny day.

One of the founders of the garden and her daughter (The woman you can see there through the window) were there sweeping up and were kind enough to explain how the garden was founded and a lot about the symbolic meanings in the designs on the buildings and garden walls.

I wish I remembered it all so I could write it all down here. There was a lot about the elements, this was I believe air (see the clouds).I think this was the symbol for water (see the waves).

I particularly love this swirly wheel/sun design, it was something about the cycle of life and everything being one.The marble mama lion.Dragons on the roof tops.A painted ceiling in one of the small pavilions.Pretty designs on the ceiling and corners.

A beautiful gate to walk under.I noticed something in the corner of the gate as I walked under.A nest!

A great big statue of Confucius.

I like this picture of him where he is walking on the treetops.

Some interesting details in the marble base of a sundial.

The blossoms were popping out on a lot of the trees.

And finally, an unexpected turtle picture! I was taking a picture of the goose in the foreground with my zoom.

I didn't spot the turtle until I looked at the pictures on my computer.

Vision is a funny thing isn't it?