Low light and a point-and-shoot camera are not my friend. I was trying to take a picture of this little green grasshopper on a white rose mottled with pink--I took about 20 pics and this is the best:


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Just another reason why I love to hate the LA Times' Home & Garden section--'Outdoor Kitchen Gets Its First Dishwasher.' Now, I was thinking 'haha, maybe that's what we call the creek we sloosh the dishes in when camping' but, no, it's far from that. This dishwasher costs $4990, and I guess it's so that you don't have to carry dirty dishes from ( Read more... )

Yes, it's definitely jacaranda time again, and with it the traditional celebration of jacaranday: purple nail polish:


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I spent half yesterday and half today working in the garden. Yesterday we had a few hours of blue skies, but it looks like today will stay overcast. I'm a little disappointed by where the garden is right now, compared with my memories of other good years. (Compared with last year, which was dreadful, it's doing great.) Today I weeded a lot and tore ( Read more... )

...do we have raccoons? I wouldn't have thought so, but last week there was a mysterious pink chunk of something in the water, perhaps an inch square. When the husband fished it out, it turned out to be friable, and in the sun the little bits darkened and shrank. Were they a bit of colored and scented candle, perhaps? And today there were chicken ( Read more... )

Some cleaning up and pruning took place (although not the pruning that was at the top of my list--thanks mr drug dealer dude).

Here is an action shot of the solar water feature. As you can see, it is a little windy today, and I will be losing some water--however, the crows like it:


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So, the husband is washing dishes (we have that kind of modern, non-gender-role-determined household) and suddenly says 'I'm going to go find out what that guy in the Impala is up to.' (When he's washing dishes, he can see out the window into the alley--I can't see as much, mostly sky--it's sad to be short.) I ask a few questions, and conclude ( Read more... )

...a solar pump should pump the sun, right? But my solar pump pumps water--go figure. This is the first phase of the solar water feature project. Now that I have the pump and have an idea of what its parts look like, the next phase will be to find a suitable container with a hole in the bottom to run the wires through. Essentialsaltes' help was ( Read more... )

I've been meaning to post about Pat Welsh for some time. She's the author of my favorite gardening book: Southern California Gardening: A Month-by-Month Guide. It is an excellent book with a ton of helpful information in it. Unlike some garden books, it is also very readable. Finally, although it is not primarily a picture book, it does have some ( Read more... )

On Monday, tree trimmers came out to trim the ficus tree out back plus the three remaining original Italian cypresses. I was not all that happy either with the price or with the responsiveness of the company, but it seemed okay overall. So, I left the gate unlocked and went to work. When I came back, the chiapas sage plants under the ficus and the ( Read more... )