lavender slime mold?

This stuff is growing on the inside of an old half wine barrel. I didn't realize that it was there until I cut back the mums. Can anyone ID this? I googled "purple slime mold" but nothing came up looking like this. Tried it with "lavender" too. Hey! Maybe its the standard "dog vomit slime mold" but purple because its growing in an old wine barrel! No? Well, I'm game. What do YOU think it is?

Stapelia

Ta-Daaaaaa!!!!!!

and no smell!
What a nice surprise greeted me 2 mornings ago! I guessed that the flower would be 10" to 12" across and

when it did finally open (during the day) it was, indeed 12" across. It does not smell bad. In fact two noses have deemed it having no smell at all. This appears to be normal for the Stapelia grandiflora, which is what I think this one is.

Thanks again Leslie, my Darling Daughter, for sharing your plant with me!

arghhhhhhhhhhh

I just spent 15 minutes trying to get the verbage aligned with the photos below. I give up. It looks fine on the preview but then the computer gnomes play with it and well...Deal with it you two readers! ;>)

silly things in the yard

The magic tree. Many times I wish I could just dissappear into the world in that hole in the tree. What? That's not really a hole in the tree? Its a mirror? Well. Damn.
















This I try to do as much as possible. Especially now that I am plagued by anxiety attacks. Laugh. Breathe. Repeat.
















It was somebody's lovely chandelier..but apparantly somebody gave it to the thrift shop...which is how it ended up in my hands....to become...perhaps a terrarium? The "guts" part may become a candle holder if I can figure out how to get rid of the light bulb holder-thingies. The glass is quite nice. Beveled even. Looks like it needs a little E.T. standing by it..





















Nope, not bronze. These are the real thing. DOEreen is in the front, the surviving twin, Pete, behind her, and possibly the twin's daddy bringing up the rear. This is not the buck who hung out here all summer. Tripod was here a few days ago but this fellow bounced across the road Monday morning and took up where Tripod left off. Why oh why don't they decide to eat all that Chasmanthe?

Things are not always what they seem

Lovely pomegranate isn't it? fresh off the tree, grown without benefit of any chemicals whatsoever......right outside my front door..sort of. 50' away. Close enough.

But when you turn it around to admire the backside it becomes obvious that some other creature also found it yummy looking.... Now I don't mind sharing fruits and veggies with birds but rats? UN-UH!













Awww..... behold the peaceful pussycat. He's all curled up on, WAIT! That's the clean laundry!! No wonder everything I wear is "fuzzy".












Then, as I am dashing out the door on my way to work, I steal a quick glance at the Guppy Boys and ...what is that?
What IS that?
OMG. The cat has decided to offer up his morning kibbles to Buddha and the guppies. Buddha does not look especially honored by the offering. Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Must still be fall

These Fuyu persimmon leaves in the sunshine practically blinded me at my nephew's today.
The Scarlet Oak in the Not-So-Secret Garden aka my front yard.
A raggedy, rangy Liquid Amber who's ONLY claim for redemption is the red of its fall leaves and the production of copious amounts natural food for the goldfinches and other little feathered friends. If not for those things I think it would make a lovely fireplace scene. Oh yeah, I don't have a fireplace.

in the few seconds of computer workage

The Stapelia still hasn't opened.
But the Ligularia has started to bloom!

My computer is bedeviled by grinches or something. It keeps losing its internet connection...sometimes its my ISP but mostly I think its the Vista Vermin. Well, that and the fact that I am totally incompetant.

A bit of November color

Kumquats and Pokeweed and Hachiya persimmons

great new-for-me reading matter!

And if you haven't discovered this blog for yourselves, now is the time! I spent about 3 hours last night reading all of this fellow's wonderful entries and looking at his great pictures.
www.http://east-side-patch.livejournal.com/1658.html
I hope this works for you. He just started it in April. In Austin. I was so inspired that I had to fight the urge to go out and rake new pathways in the dark.

November blooms

I don't know which aster this is other than its huge and only mildly interesting to the deer's gastronomic preferences. The Lion's tail is almost smothered.














This lovely Nerine was a surprise. I'd totally forgotten that Angela had shared her bulbs with me..goodness knows when!

This bud was a fabulouos surprise a couple days ago. This Stapelia was given to me as chunks and pieces from my daughter a few years ago. This is the first time it has bloomed. (at least, I hope it will actually bloom..that some dang squirrel doesn't leap up and break off the bud!) I may be moving it away from the house when the bud does open because I'm pretty sure it isn't one of the nice smelling ones~

fall color and shroomies

The color show that the Virginia Creeper puts on in the fall makes all its other naughtiness bearable. This was my greeting upon arriving home after work yesterday.
And this morning's greeting was Gnorris-the-Gnome standing waist-deep in a brand new crop of shroomies. Or toadies? I'm too lazy to look these things up right now. Maybe my daughter will happen to look at this blog and leave her educated guess. She's "into" fungi.

He needs a little OBAMA sign that won't run in the rain. ;>)

OMG! RAIN!!

We hadn't had any measurable rain since May 24th, '08, so this totally dust settling wetness that started late yesterday afternoon is most welcome. Now if we can just have a nice wet winter and a fabulous snowpack in the Sierras, we might ease our drought situation. The nearest lake to me, Folsom, is at 25% capacity. That pretty much makes it a puddle.
Nice to have a puddle from sky droppings instead of a forgotten running sprinkler...

This rain does mean that the Chasmanthe will now be springing out of the earth in great green masses, covering all manner of lawn mower obstacles and turning next spring's first mowing into an...adventure... Sure do wish the deer would develop a hunger for Chasmanthe.

October birds in my yard

Bird list for October...so far...
1. Scrub jay
2. American Goldfinch
3. Oak Titmouse
4. Mourning dove
5. Northern Flicker
6. Bewick's wren
7. House finch
8. White breasted nuthatch
9. Anna's hummingbird
10. Sharp-shinned hawk
11. American robin
12. Cedar waxwings
13. White crowned sparrow
14. Bushtits
15. Nuttalls woodpecker
16. American crow
17. Black Phoebe
18. Lesser goldfinch
19. Gold crowned sparrow
20. Dark eyed junco
21. Red tail hawk
22. Yellow billed magpie
23. Yellow rumped warbler (Audubon's warbler)
24. Northern mockingbird
25. Mallards (fo)

some fall color

Angela's Strawberry tree, Arbutus Ericaceae.
My Virginia Creeper. Parthenocissus quinquefolia.

the Vinca Battle

To make room for new and improved, I hope, landscaping, this patch of Vinca Major had to be removed. I'd been wanting to do this for years but its such a formidable task that it was easier to just Grinch about it. But then my wonderful neighbors came over a couple of weeks ago to move chips into other parts of this Not-So-Secret-Garden and that finally got me in gear.
This was last weekend. The little patch in front is mostly Japanese Anenomies that the deer had forgotten to eat. Of course, now that all the vinca has been removed the deer will probably dine on what's left of the anenomies. Did discover that vinca is not too hard to remove using one of those little claw/blade thingies. (if I was clever the photo of such a tool would be here). Naturally there are always a few hidden roots that suddenly grow leaves and start the process all over but if one pays attention and gets them in their youth so to speak, the stuff can be kept under control.
Here is how it looks at the moment. It will eventually have some ornamental grass clumps, and lots of Mexican Lobelia, Sticky Monkey Flower, California fuchsia, and other things native and/or drought resistant.

My intention was to work more on it yesterday but my back muscles finally went on strike and I decided to get a haircut instead. Oy, did I ever get a haircut! I won't need another one for months! Yikes!

Fabulous neighbors!

This is chip pile #2. It is mostly, if not all, eucalyptus judging by the nice odor. Some of us were smart enough to actually wear the provided masks, others of us will probably cough for a few days. Breathing dusty-moldy air is probably not the healthiest of activities. Luckily there was a brisk wind blowing the cloud of dustmold away from us.
I thought I wanted to move back to Oregon. What was I thinking? And leave wonderful, crazy, fun neighbors like this behind? Karen, Jan, Elisa and David moved, in 90 minutes, the amount of chips it took me four days to move by myself. Plus they all took some excess plantlife from my overcrowded space to theirs. We now must decide who's yard gets The Crew next.





This is where the pile went. There WAS a photo of what's left of The Pile but my computer just ate it. Looks like she-who-knows-not-how-to-use-her-camera (that would be moi) had macro on for this shot. oops. This is the 25' x 75' not-so-secret-garden that will eventually sport mostly native plants. It will be pretty eventually, trust me. There is still much vinca major, Bermuda, mint, and other things to remove and then some of the existing plants will be divided and moved hither and yon. Or yawn. Unfortunately this shot does not show either of the two OBAMA signs posted. It does show the American flag which I've decided is NOT just the symbol of the republicans. Its OUR flag too. I'm not a "flag waver" but I am tired of the assumption that only republican houses post our flag.

I love my neighbors!