Red Booties

For Will. I know its not much of a puddle but its the best I could do this morning. Puddles will be getting deeper at the week progresses. My Seattle cousin just flew down for the holidays and I'm pretty sure he brought the rain with him.

rubber booties

I LOVE my new rubber rain boots!!

Bloom Day

I don't know why this only accepts (shows) half the photos nor can I remember how to just send a link to the album. Maybe when my son is here next week, he can explain it to me.

grapes

Can a person over dose on green grapes? I've eaten about 5 pounds of them since Friday and bought 3 more pounds today. They are plump, crunchy, juicy, seedless and sweet. Not a squishy one in any of the bunches I've purchased. Damn, they are good!

ghoulfriend

A lady I know has this gal riding around with her in her VW. I am SO jealous! Isn't she just the cutest thang??

one of the many reasons I am broke

How CUTE is this flamingo???

bad advertising

Can you believe this display? It is in front of an upscale nursery and has looked like this for months. There is another stock tank on the other end, painted John Deere Green and containing a Sago Palm in the center and I forget what the palm is circled by..some blah looking shrubs. 5 or 6 of them. The owner ought to let the gals who decorate the inside, have a go at the outside. They have tons of cute things in their giftshop, lots of gardeny things and of course, lots of plants outside. I don't understand why they have such a crappy front. If they had that "come hither" look to the front they might actually have more than one customer at a time. I do not know how they stay in business! (though I did drop $27.00 for three glittery green fish ornaments and a to-die-for garden flamingo..black with bones painted on)
and its still one week until payday! And I am so totally broke! lalalalalalalalalal

Purple and orange

So, ahem, I did go back and get a third purple pot. And the plants to go in it. and nearly whooped with joy when I spotted the variegated Purple Heart (below). I've had the "plain" Purple Heart for years. So far, the deer have not eaten it... then again, it has been dangling down from a chair hanging in a tree and maybe they just haven't looked up. Now then if it would only FEEL like Septober. 99° feels like July.

I LOVE grass!!

My friend, Angela, tried to "sell" me on grasses years ago. Only this year I have finally seen the light.. or the grass. What's not to like? There are SO MANY! They are SO PRETTY! Many are DROUGHT TOLERANT! THE DEER DON'T LIKE THEM!!!

So of course the current plan is to turn my yard into a "grassland" as I can afford to. It may take awhile but I'm quite a'twitter to re-do the Not So Secret Garden along the avenue. I'll leave the things that have proven deer resistant, remove that which has failed the exam, and replace with tuffets of grasses and a DRIP SYSTEM.. $150/month for water in July & August is a bit much. (though my 2010 water bill for July & Aug was only 30 cents more than for the same period of '09... and the rates had gone up.. so I must have used less) But I digress. The 2nd photo was taken at Green Acres Nursery in Sacramento yesterday. We were only going to look. See that beautiful purple pot in the top photo? There's another one to its left. They were on SALE. And those plants are new... If payday weren't still 10 days off.... (I NEED one more purple pot. and more grass. lots more grass. .. and a leash.)

more Bloom Day

I don't know why I can't "load" more than 4 photos. Everyone else seems to be able to publish as many as they want. so anyway, here are the tiny Cyclamen that pop up all over the place making nice little surprises. and the deer DON'T eat them!

Bloom Day

Yoga chicken

Carla was doing her morning routine. Forward bend?

signage

The Most Wonderful Sign that my son and daughter-in-law gave me years ago now has a more prominent place to sum up my yard; the blue wall of the studio. This blue wall is begging for more cool mermaids.. not Little Mermaid kinds of mermaids but funky ones like this gal made of old tin ceiling tiles, parts of dinnerware and medallions.

Born Again Shed.. updated

Amazing what a little paint can do! There are a few boards on the west side that are now literally held together with paint molecules.. the dry rot being very real and very spongy. My only worries are the BIG olive tree limbs that loom over the little studio. I'd love to have the tree guys come prune them back but I am still recovering from the bill from last fall's Whole Day of Pruning.

Recently there was a little Sunday afternoon gathering here, in which old friends met new friends, books were exchanged, wine was consumed and much laughter was heard. I should do this once a month.

Transformation

Two Ladies of A Certain Age decided that the old gray/pale blue studio was just TOO BORING so.. out came the collection of "oops" paints from OSH and Emigh's and Home Depot and... TA-DA!

Nice, ever-so-cute (we think) studio just begging for people to partay around it. We aren't quite done yet... is anything ever really done?.. We wouldn't want to run out of things to do, for Heaven's sakes. (Have I ever mentioned that I have the BEST neighbors?)

upside down fence

Is it just me or is this fence upside down? All these many years I thought the "dog ears" were supposed to go on the top.

too much digging/raking

There are way too many projects on the current list and I've way too few brain cells to know when to quit. The old Azalea grove is being dug up. Between the age, (mine as well as the plot),the deer and the drought, it turned into a patch of dead branches and imbedded roots. The plan is to dig all that mess out and make a simple labyrinth. Need to get that olive stump out of there too.

The chasmanthe and sticky willie grows rampant in this 25' x 75' alley. Believe it or not, I had mowed, once, in the spring. This week I got out there one morning with a rake and built a pile of fire hazard 4' tall and 5' wide. (Amazing how much one can cram into a 90 gallon Green Waste can) This stuff isn't fit for my compost piles as it is chuck full of weed seeds.)

The same view after the mowing and raking and mowing and raking episode. Still need to haul those olive limbs off. They have been there for a couple of years now so I can almost handle them. anybody want some Dietes? (Fortnight lilies, aka African iris) Come dig it up and its yours.

Yet another project. From here, I removed an ancient fence, a small forest of Mahonia, a LOT of Vinca Major, some Billbergia nutans and some Bletilla striata. This is to become a bermed area with agaves and other "dry" stuff. I still need to dig out that Mondo grass and move it to a shady spot. (this WAS a shady spot until I had the leaning tower of cedar removed.) My problems are that I cannot clone myself, day laborers are not in the budget, and I sub-luxated a rib a couple weeks ago and I keep forgetting to wear the back/ribcage brace when I pick up shovels and rakes. Now it feels as though there is an ice pick lodged under my right boob but it only hurts when I breathe. Or move. I can't seem to formulate an actual design for this spot either, other than "berm or berms, decomposed gravel, and all those currently potted agavies and stuff".... which reminds me, the deer ate another little pot of succulents last night. It wasn't a "known" but I think it was in the euphorbia family... hope that deer has a bellyache this morning.

Rooster

Poor Rodney. first off, he was supposed to be a she. He was the biggest of the day old chicks. He did indeed turn into a beautiful rooster. However, the itty bitty Banty rooster kept him away from the 4 hens and if Rodney did get near a hen, she loudly complained about his lack of tact. He even tried to challenge Doereen, the doe, who just looked at him and kept walking. Poor Rodney. He didn't show up for lock-up the other night and it was too dark by then to find a dark rooster under the trees and bushes. I don't know what happened, perhaps the itty bitty Banty had injured him and he just didn't want to come in. But the opossums found him and had a feast. Poor Rodney. rest in peace, Rodney. You were a sweet guy in spite of what the hens had to say.

Eggs!

One of the young Wyandots (7 months) laid the first egg on July 1st. Mid-month, her egg mate started laying too.

Today, Amelia (the Barred rock) joined in the production. I'm thinking maybe its a good thing the 4th hen is a rooster. LOL

Verna, the old Buff Orpington, seems to be just fine in her retirement. She hasn't laid an egg in months. However, she is death on snails so still quite useful. It is interesting to see and feel how the successive eggs are growing in size. the first ones are small like Bantam eggs. these are still "small" but they are getting bigger. Actually, Amelia's egg (first one today) is bigger than the first eggs of the other two hens.
I thought hens didn't start laying until they were 6 months old.. these girls arrived as day old chicks in February. I didn't find any shelless eggs today.