Japanese Gate and Fence

Another find in Chemainus. I did a quick tour of the Japanese area of Chemainus. These few blocks contain several restuarants and some lovely gardens, and architecture. I know what I will be doing next time we have to wait for the ferry to Thetis Island. Its a lovely corner of the Town.

I got quite a lot of things done in my garden today. Clipped back the honeysuckle, dug out the thistles in the woodland area, mowed the lawn and put the clippings around the strawberries. Dug over a bit more of the veggie garden. I destroyed a couple of gladiolas, so I guess the rows are not all marked. oh well. And then the really big thing I did was cut down one of the storm damaged globe cedars, dug out its root, moved the cement vase to the spot where the cedar was, leveled it, of course. Cleaned up a bit more in that area of the front garden. Emptied the rest of the top soil into the cement vase. Planted 2 hedging cedars along the back fence in the woodland area. I have a tiny trillium growing in the woodland next to the big one. I dug out the blue bells around them and marked them with little cedar stakes.

Parrot Tulip

Found in a garden in Chemainus, B.C.

Flying B

One of the snaps from the weekend car event -- the Flying B on our 1951 Bentley.

Circles

Playing with the RAW converter on some of my old Powershot A50 photos.

We are back from a busy weekend of the spring meet for the RROC and BDC, centered in Chemainus. The weather turned sunny and excellent for the meet days.

Hellebore in the rain

We are having more April showers. Hopefully next week will be sunny so I can get out in the garden and complete my renovations.

Those big red tulips secrets

The pollen parts of the big red tulip.

I was for my lab test this morning. More blood for the Doctors testings. This afternoon we leave for Chemainus and the week end with the RROC & BDC clubs... dinner at the theatre tomorrow, after a nice touring day with lunch at a winery.

Paradoux

I shot these duck in Malta in 2003. They seemed to be quite tame and I could get fairly close to them. They sat sunning alongside the harbor. I wonder if anyone knows what kind of a duck they are. Are they a domestic breed?

Leaf Texture

A few photos of yesterday's shoot in the rain --- leaf textures

More renovations in the garden

Yesterday I spent about 6 hours in the garden. I needed to liberate a square cement block and so I revised the walk along the edge of the pond slightly giving the area a slightly more Japanese look with these blocks set in a jagged pattern. This is shot from above on the deck. The clematis is just behind the blocks on the deck posts, and the pond is on the other side with a few edging plants between the blocks and the stone edging. The stone edging is slowly being covered by the sedums, campanula and things growing along there. The little grass does well with its feet in water, or not. Its a very easy plant and lights up the area nicely.

Yesterday I finished weeding and pruning along the driveway strip with a load of clippings and weeds to the twiggy old compost bin in the far back corner of the woodland garden. I transplanted arabis, aubretia and a heather to that area. In a couple of years they all should spread out nicely and fill in under the rose of sharon along there. I fashioned a ramp to drive the wheel barrow up the steps. Just a board, but it worked quite well. Anything else would be heavy to move and put in place. I now keep my wheel barrow out behind the garage, as my alotted space is impossible to navigate with the other stuff between my space and the door. I should paint the wheel barrow one year, maybe. It is not bad now, though.

Yesterday I got some more of the vegetable garden dug over. I made a space for the new little green hebe next to the clay strawberry pot. The green and the clay color should look good together. The hebe is evergreen with tiny white flowers in the summer. It likes a rhododendron type of growing situation.

Yesterday Cannor Nursery delivered my trees and bags of dirt, stones and sand, so I spent some time moving things around to where I would be using them. That sand and the stones are really heavy! Today I used up nearly one bag of the top soil. I might need more in the Fall when I top dress the lawn. I might get it now, before my Cannor membership expires. I also have to $10.00 credits each on my first $50.00 of purchase. So, that along with the 10% off regular prices, and free delivery, kinda make the $25.00 membership worthwhile. Plus they put out good products and a quarterly magazine. Their indoor koi pond, alone, is worth the visit.

Fern leaved peony

It was raining lightly this morning, so I went out to shoot a few of my flowers to document what I have planted in some of the locations. This is one of the more artsy photos of the fern leaf peony, the Sicilian hellebore, and my West Coast planter. Its a nice arrangement with the two perennials blooming at the same time. The peony does not last very long and the hellebore holds its flowers for months. When the flowers drop on the peony I have a nice mound of these ferny leaves.

I got out later in the afternoon and got the hedging cedars planted along Parmar's side, with the 3 lupines (colors unknown) in front of the cedars. I dug up a few baby foxgloves and transplanted them in front of and beside the lupines. I put leaf mulch around the lupines -- need more mulch. I transplanted the purple wall flower into an old clay pot and it sits on the stump of the old deodora cedar on Parmar's side of the cedar hedge. The other old clay pot sits on the old pine tree stump and its lily is coming up. I added 3 petunias to each pot. Hope its not too early for the petunias. I have some space in the front of that bed yet. I should find a low, long lasting perennial that would work like a ground cover. I want the ajuga to grow and spread more but not over the whole area. I have bought a silver thyme that gets taller than the thymes in the Thyme circle. I think I might use it and get a couple more, so it fills in faster. It might look good with the silvery sedum across the stone path from it. I think I have all the violets and blue bells out of that area, but I will have to keep after them to totally eradicate them all. I need to trim up the california lilac after it blooms perhaps, or soon if I can't stand it anymore. And so my renovations are slowly coming along.

Light Flare

Another light flare that I shall add to my sunspots and flares album on my web page. I should add this to my photo net portfolio, too, maybe.

Lion Dance

This is one from the Lion Dance on Chinese New Year.

I was to Cannor this morning and purchased 8 gold fish, more plants,bone meal, grass seed, 2 bags of top soil, pea gravel, sand, and bark mulch. Free delivery and 10% off regular price with my Cannor membership, which ends at the end of June.

I walked after getting home and looked at the river from all three bridges. The river is really low! I wonder what is happening. Across the street the 2 remaining houses are vacant and have bright orange fencing around them. I guess they are slated for demolition. I hope the parks people have a good look at that river sometime soon. The houses that are going to be demolished are on the Saanich parks property and are right next to the river. After the sink hole appeared in our road next to this property and across the street from us, I cannot help but think there is something amiss with this river. There is also a large puddle forming along the other side of these houses near the blue bridge, but up from the actually riverbed. Strange.

I shot a few photos for Pat of a back rest for one of his bikes that he is selling. And tonite, the guy has let Pat know that he wants the backrest. So, there will be another item gone from his garage. I can't bear to part with my camera stuff that I am not using and probably will never get the time to learn to use.

From the top of Mount Doug in January

This is one of the photos I took from the top of Mt. Doug in January when Dan, Carol, Tara, Andy and I were up there.

I received my new low pro bag today, and the 8 filter wallet. I was a bit disappointed at first, as it seems to be twice the size I thought it would be. But, I packed in all the Canon S3 IS stuff and it fits not too badly with room in the outside pockets for any personal stuff. I got the back pack straps working nicely. It swings around and opens to get the camera out. I cannot find a tripod place though. The battery charger and its plug in thing are by far the heaviest. So, I will not carry that out on day trips. 4 AA batteries will do just fine.

I learned from Pam that I must have the continuous shooting button on in sports mode. Of course! Silly me. Now, all I need is some time to use the telephoto, wide angle, macro lens. I must try the CS filter some more and the IR filter. I have to over expose when using the IR I think. I think I will put my colors into black and white when using that filter too. I must try the red filter with black and white as well. ... fun stuff for when I get my garden stuff caught up.

The renovations are proceeding in the front garden. I have dug up some of the violets and can see where this is going to be an on going problem. There are bizzillions of the little ones coming up. They are as thick on the ground as alphalpha sprouts in the package. But my trillium at the front now has a fighting chance. The one at the back is much bigger and the bugs have not been at it. So, I need to get a picture of the one at the back.

I pruned back the artemisia powis castle to about 8 x 8 and quite a few good buds on it. It was flopping all over and getting into the rose of sharon. I pruned back the rose of sharons a bit too. They are suppose to be able to be pruned into a hedge, so maybe this pruning will an annual chore. I have more weeding to do along that strip between the driveways. I should cut back the St. John's worte and the virginia creeper. The new zealand flax needs to be cleaned up also. I will put the new little heather along behind the newly transplanted rose of sharon and maybe get some aubretia for along there also.

The grape stump is going to live. It has some nice little buds on it that I should be able to train along the garage again. I need to find its wire again. Now if only the evergreen clematis would put up shoots, I would really be a happy gardener.

The Craigs house next door sold for $14.000 above the asking price of $479,000 to some people who already live in this area. Craigs are off to Ottawa, the end of June. Man! maybe we should downsize about now. The real estate prices are mad!

Crocosmia/Montebretia

A moved some of the montebretias to near the mermaid water tub. They will look good arching over the water. They are behind the yellow water iris (which seem content to grow in the soil). I believe my montebretias are the 'lucifer' variety. They are a lovey bright red and look good over a nice green lawn area, too. I moved a few to each rectangle bed in the front also. The humming birds love these flowers. They grow like tulips by producing a new corm on top of the old one. Mine multiplied nicely without being invasive. They hang over a little stone path, but I think I will leave them there one more year, yet. I can see the humming birds at them from my dining room window.

I moved a rose of sharon bush to the driveway strip with the others. I am renovating the part of the front garden by Parmar's driveway. Ever since I took out the big deodora cedar and the big pine tree along that side, I find I need something to block the view of the cars in the their driveway and their flat uninteresting lawn. So, I now need about 8 more cedars to go along that side. I want to plant the 3 lupines in front of the cedars. I used the new heavy shovel to dig. The bush did not have a very big rootball and moved easily. That shovel is sure heavy but it works so much better than my garden spade. I need to dig out runners of my black bamboo again, so this shovel should be just the thing. Although I might have to still use the axe to chop the roots. Bamboo roots are very very hard.

One of my orchids with a long name is putting out a spray with buds. This is one I bought at the orchid show, years ago. It was just tiny. I am quite excited about getting the little thing to bloom and shall have photos of it when they are open. My dark pink phalenopsis has 5 blossoms on its spray and is still in bloom. My wildcat orchid, I think it was a dendrobium, appears to be dead. It was blooming and blooming until I repotted it. Then it just died. Should have left well enough alone, I guess.

I finished my Poetry page last nite and am taking tonite off. Just thinking about what album I might want to do next. I should finish the gardening page. Then I will make a garden page for every year, once I have the main albums finished. The travel page is finished to 2005 with a few little albums to make there. Then I will want to do up a page for the Car events we go to..one page and events for each year with a little album for each event, so... I will probably do up a few nice photos for the main club album -- Bentley, Antiques, Model Ts -- and then just do the events page on an on going basis, like the yearly garden page. For example, just a couple of weeks ago the Antique chapter met at a members house, lunch at a place in Ladysmith (all these names escape me - I hope I wrote them down) and then we were to Blackstaff's ever interesting Restoration place. Lots of good photos. So, if I have on going pages I will have the info right on the album. Lots of work to do to get it all caught up to the stage where I am just adding the last event and the last annual album in gardening. It will happen, though, eventually.

More from the Carlsbad Caverns

More from the Carlsbad Caverns

I got a 1 GB Extreme III San Disk for my S3 IS today. Now, I will probably need to get more Hard Drive to hold all these photos. It came with a program for recovering erased photos. If you write over them you cannot recover though, so its sorta useless. It was part of the package. Wish I knew about that when I erased Bob's birthday party. Oh well. I seldom erase now, anyway. I mostly just delete from the HD after looking at them. Or if I delete to save space on the card, I immediately write over it anyway. After loading to the computer I usually format the card. So, now I have more space to try sound clips and movies. If ever I find time....

I also got ink for my old Epson 1280 printer. I did my income tax copies on it. Pat's new Epson is far superior and was far less expensive too. It works like a copier whereas mine has a bazillion steps to make a copy of anything scanned. Oh well, I can scan negatives on my scanner, which was part of the reason for this set up. I need to upgrade my Adobe, too.

Soccer

This is one of the photos from the girls soccer tournament. I have sent a couple to Pam. I have a lot of photos to purge from that outing. I have 675 MB, of pretty bad action photos. I have a few from the HCP, but don't seem to have the light right on them either. It was very contrasty I thought.

I got my Holga photos back today.. nothing good. Some not very artistic light leaks. I might scan one or two of them in though.

I got a whole bunch of shopping chores done, but missed finding a few things. I still need a spring form baking pan to make the apricot cake and the apricot preserves, too. I am just dead tired after all that walking and shopping. The wind is very cold outside too.

Yesterday I finished one more page for the Poetry page. I have 2 more to do, and then, that will probably be all for now, unless another one pops into my head and insists on being written down, as did the Moon Cries and As Darkness Falls.

Inside the Tulip macro

This is a macro of the inside of the tulip before I got pollen on the lens. I shot this yesterday when we were out at The Horticultural Center of the Pacific; now Glendale Gardens. Its a botanical garden and training center for Master Gardeners. The place is really looking lovely. I have not been out there for quite some time. I must go again in the summer. The rhodos are not in full bloom yet. The Japanese Garden is interesting. I find there are too many 'things' in it though. The bridges and the water are excellent.

I finished my income tax forms today and they are ready to file. Since I get a refund I should send them off right away.

I tweaked a few photos of the soccer and all for Pam and sent them off this morning. Even earlier this morning I was looking out the front window and saw the little squirrel run across the front deck with a mouth full of fuzz. He ran up the tree, hopped onto the roof from the tree, ran across the roof to the wire to the pole in the front. Upon reaching the pole she disappeared into the Virginia creeper. I guess she felt safer up on the roof and wire than on the ground. I did not get a photo of her doing this. She is just too fast.

Spring clean up

While waiting for the little squirrel to do his high wire act, I shot this photo of the cement vase in the front garden. Love that zoom on the S3 IS.

The little brown squirrel often runs along the fat cable between the hydro poles. By the time I get my camera he is gone from one end to the other. He/she is fast. I am happy to see that it is one of our brown squirrels, rather than the bigger grey ones, that are imports and are taking over our indigenous squirrels habitat.

That cement vase planter is going to be moved to closer to the driveway, when I out and get more spring cleaning done. I need to remove the storm damaged evergreens. I need more hedging cedars, pea gravel, sand and top soil for when I start the renovations at the front and complete the spring cleaning.

Pam and Rachel had a very early start this morning... they won one game and lost the second. I did not go as it would have been far too much running about for Pam, although she said not. But it is Rachel's time with her team and her Mom that matters. So, alls good.

I have loaded my "Poetry" page to my web site. I only have one of the poems loaded, so far. Check it out! Poetry
Click on the thumbnail for "In My Garden" for the first one loaded.

I am getting more adept at using my new quick blog from Godaddy. Some day I might upgrade it and try to add it to VFXY. I really like that blogging community. No pressure to run about and return comments or crap like that. Just a nice, easy, quiet looking at some other good photo blogs.

Photo.net is making all kinds of changes to the basic coding on the site. Apparently, its been a real rats nest. The rating system sure fits that description, and was the ruination of the site. I hope Dr. G. can bring it back to its former luster. It is looking better all the time.

Tiny Bubbles

This is a shot of my pond. The water was covered with white petals that have fallen off the blooming plum tree. I cropped the large photo, and then cropped it some more to try to get closer to the reflection in the bubble. The bubbles are from the water fall. The green plant is the water hawthorn. It has white blossoms so you cannot see that it is in bloom at the moment.

I walked to the end of the block to see how our local building boom is coming along. There are 3 houses going in next to the river by the bridge. It no longer looks like a country lane. I am glad I got photos of those trees and the little split rail fence before they were gone. Now its just more houses without character. I saw a quail but could not get a shot of it as it ran behind a heap of dug out dirt before I could shoot it.

I mowed the lawn, weeded and dug over a bit of the garden today. Its slowly coming along. The front needs quite a lot of work yet.

I made a blackberry pie. Pam and Rachel will be over tomorrow. Rachel is playing soccer again. We had fun last time they were over. I am looking forward to this visit.

The pheasant

This pheasant was across the street and away over by Brian's shed. I zoomed it to the max, and it is still not very large. I did not have the telephoto attached. It does add a bit of distance. Also I had this on the 2nd largest size of photos. But, that's it... I moved it back to largest... you never know when you might see a pheasant. To top it all off -- when I thought the pheasant was gone, I went to see about attaching the telephoto as I had not used it yet. In a few minutes Pat came out and told me that the pheasant had just flown up and away from in my own yard! There was a cat in the front garden that probably scared it away. Now tonight, that damn cat was back trying to catch Elvis (my fish in the front tub. He lives!) I wish people would keep their wretched animals in their own property. Grrrr.. or train that cat to chase the herons and raccoons and otters out of my ponds.

An Old West Wagon

This is part of the landscaping at one of the campsites we stayed at on our recent trip down to New Mexico.

I have got caught up in adding my email on my home page that I have available with my domain registration. New email: Info@mmmee.com I think that's kinda cool.

Then I saw that I also have 25MB of space on Godaddy's Quick Blog, so I had to figure out how to do that and have loaded a few photos. I might, some day be interested in upgrading that blog... maybe. It is called Out on a Limb and may be found here.

I have decided to add a "poetry' page to my home page, so I will be working on that, after I get my income tax filed which may happen next week. Also hope to get some gardening done then too.

Steve's birthday party was a very nice time. Their house has been beautifully renovated. Its probably twice the size it was, open, lots of light... very very nice.

Somewhere in Paris

This photo was taken in 2002 in Paris. I am not sure of the location. Anyone familiar with this building?

Today I uploaded the album for our 2004 trip to Scotland and Ireland. The photos are larger on this album as I only limited the height to 550. I will probably be using the new album creator, from now on, though. I have a choice of setting the limits in 3 sizes or saying Original size.. So, I guess I can resize them to what I want to use, just as I have been doing. Or let the software resize them to a specific size. Also, I finally signed up for one of the emails available to me with my domain and hosting space that I purchased through Godaddy. New web mail: Info@mmmee.com Cool.

Its been raining off and on for the last 3 days. So, my transplants got watered in nicely. The strawberry plants perked right up with the rain. I have tennis elbow so its just as well I am forced to rest after all that digging.

About 4 days ago my telephoto, wide angle, and macro lens arrived from the Canon estore. I have not had time to play with them yet. Should be fun and interesting.

Happy Easter

The pysanka at Vegreville, Alberta

Playing with frames

Last night I was playing with the frames in my old Paintshop Pro photo editor. I shot this photo of the water fall in my pond through the blooming plum tree (the white and yellow colors surrounding the waterfall are actually blossums). I thought it needed a round border when first viewing it.

Yesterday I got a lot of gardening things done: transplanted the rest of the hedging cedars, moved a primula and transplanted the drumstick primula that I got at Cannor. Clipped up and bagged all the twiggy stuff, with some of the smaller bits for cover on the chip trail to my woodland garden. This area is coming along nicely, with the fawn lilies spreading like crazy. I don't see the trilliums yet. They must come up later. I still need a few hedging cedars along that fence in the back corner. Quite a few actually. But that fence is a problem as it is falling down. The previous owner of the place dug out the soil that was banked up along that fence and now my soil is slowly sliding down into the other property. The house is now up for sale, again, so I will wait to see what the new owners might want to do about that fence, since it is their fence. It would be nice if they would build a retaining wall, but maybe I should be the one to build the retaining wall... hmmmmmm.

Yesterday I did up some photos of some bike saddle bags that Pat wanted to sell to someone from one of his forums. We did up the photos and he emailed them off to the guy. This morning he phoned Pat and wants to buy the bags and bracket -- all of which are in superb condition. I think the man is getting a very good deal.

Today I made our 'Easter duck dinner' and had Tara up to help us out . As she is a vegan (?) there is quite a lot of duck left over. We had a good visit. I have daffodils in the house and I made up a small bowl for the table center. It looks pretty good. I should take its picture... tomorrow...

The world traveller

This is one of the photos for my bears album on my web page that I did a couple of days ago. I am going to use the new photo album creator that I have found to do my albums from now on, I think. It is so much faster. It has more backgrounds, font colors and photo sizes. It is a very cool free software. I will be sending Mark something for his tip box as soon as I start using it. Have a look at it: web album generator

Swiss Chard

Yesterday I cut the swiss chard and we had it for dinner. Yumm
It was not very big, but I needed the space to transplant the strawberry plants. I put the 10 Kent strawberry (June bearing) in two hilled up rows at the top of the garden. I clipped and pruned back the firethorn, planted two of the cedars along the fence of the vegetable garden. I need to devise something for the clematis to cling to.. maybe the tall cedars?

I potted and transplanted the rock plants that I got at the rock and alpine show. I have put the salix retusa (willow) into the area I call the lewisia bed. I want to make this willow climb over the rock it sits next to, and I will bonsai it, so it does not get too big for the bed. The heather (phyllodoce empetrufirmus) in what I hope simulates a cool peat, north slopes (well drained). The Lewisia columbiana and Lewisia nevadensis are in the gravel part of the bed. The columbiana particularly wants 70% pea gravel. Campanula cashmeriana likes limestone, but is next to the peat -- hopefully they will stay out of each others habitat. The Gentiana bavarica likes moist peat or bog bed and so it has joined the water iris in the deck tub.. in a peat moss based soil covered in pea gravel. The iris is an off shoot from the lovely big purple water iris, and is, of course in its own bed. I do not remember its name. The Crassula, Primula marginata, Gypsophila imbricata, are in pots and have joined the Soldenella (needs repotting as it is fighting a loosing battle with the moss it has acquired over the years, and last years willow (Salix x boydii) which has goreous blue/green leaves. I have found a rock of almost the same color to add to its pot. The Gysophilia has a piece of tufa rock, as it is suppose to be good on tufa.

Cannor Koi

One of yesterday's snaps of the koi in the Cannor Nursery inside pool. They have some gorgeous fish. Wish I could have caught the silvery white one in this position. The wavy lines are reflections from the ceiling of this greenhouse.

I brought home some choice perennials, including 3 lupines.

Knock Parish Church of Miracles

The statues depict the vision seen at the Knock Parish church. This is a Marian pilgrimage church. more information.

More photos from our 2004 trip in Ireland.

A church in Adare, Ireland

I believe this is a photo of the 1000 year old church in Adare, Ireland, but I am not sure. If anyone knows what church it is, please let me know.

I am finished page 16 of the 20 pages from our Scotland Ireland trip in 2004, with many photos of places I no longer recall, and cannot figure out from my notes. They shall go nameless, I guess.

I was to Cannor nursery today and got 8 hedging trees, strawberries, some very nice perennials and a clematis for on the deck. Tomorrow is suppose to be a very nice day.... I shall be out planting those strawberries (10 plants) first thing. Then I will work on getting the shrubs moved or taken out in the front, amending the soil. I want to get the montebretias moved asap, also.

Painted vase

Another for my "Painted Vase" album. This is the gorgeous little yellow Phalenopsis in bloom at the moment. I have several more of this flower 'painted' on different vases. This is not photoshoped, but shot with the flower in front of the vase. But you knew that, of course. :)

I also did a couple more for my Teddy Bears album, too.

Then in the afternoon I went out and toodled around in my garden. I transplanted 3 more little rock plants into the lewisia bed, dug over some of the veggie garden and weeded the thyme circle.

Ashes to Ashes, Rust to Rust

This is another of the treasures at Harry's place.

This morning I tried out a new web photo album builder. It really works good. I think I will use it. I can change stuff on the view source page. I have yet to try and see if I can add my copy paste menus for on the bottom. Apparently you can add a footer by changing a bit of the codeing on the template.. its in the forum/questions of his (Mark's) web page about his software. I found this on the HCP website. I will definitely use this one to make my 'under construction' summary pages.

I have 6 pages of my 20 pages of Scotland Ireland trip completed. Slowly getting it finished.

I think I might add a page to my website for my poetry.. I could have thumbnails and link to each poem, as a word document, I think. I must ask Steve C. how to do that. He gave me 2 of the slide presentations he has done. He is one incredibly good photographer.

The Moon Cries

The moon cries
To see the skies
Lack of visibility

The moon cries
With the demise
Of species reproductive ability

The moon cries
To hear the rise
Of the winds’ velocity

The moon cries
To taste the rise
Of the oceans’ salinity

The moon cries
As man denies
Responsibility

Draba

This is about the only decent photo I managed to get at the Rock and Alpine show and sale yesterday. There were so superb plants being shown this year. The plant sale did not have much of interest to me. Good thing Beaver Creek nursery was there again. I found 10 wee treasures that I had to bring home, for about $60.00.

Today I got my new water pump working. It was a bit too fast so I had to slow it down with a two way value thing. I moved a couple of the blocks, and set the waterfall rocks a bit differently. It looks ok. Its nice to have it running again. I finished emptying out the old cedar trough. I moved some of the dirt and drainage stones to the extra space I have by the lewisia bed. I removed that mock orange shrub, as it is not doing very well at at. I have it healed in in the vegetable garden until I figure out where to put it. Maybe in the compost bin. I moved the old compost bin to the back corner by Craigs. I think I will put the really brushy stuff in there until I get enough stuff to make a load for the guy to haul away. I put the minature rose out of the cedar trough in the bed by the other mini rose by the fig tree. I planted the lewisia columbiana into the lewisia bed, and put the little gentian that likes a peat bog into the water iris pot on the deck. I think I want to get 2 blue pots - one for the iris and one for the gentian for on the deck. I think I will need about 12 hedging cedars -- about 6 - 7 in the front along Parmar's side. I think I will take out that Rose of Sharon as it does not fit in the front ... its too messy and not evergreen. I need more straight lines along that side, as Parmar's yard is pretty bare, with no items to play off or use in my garden. I might put that shrub in the woodland. The mock orange could go in the woodland too. I need 2 cedars along the back of the veggie garden, and probably 3 at the back by the compost bin, but I will check that out after I get the firethorn and the honeysuckle trimmed out or taken out. I believe I will put a couple of the new plants by the lewisias and the rest (tiny ones) into pots and set the pots on the deck. I need a special bonsai type pot for the little willow, as I am going to bonsai it. My first bonsai! The little willow already has a good form. Its leaves are just round and green... I missed seeing its pussy toes. Plans and plans... I really need to get the front cleaned up and the cedars planted there before I do anything else, though. So, a trip to Cannor will be in order this week, after I get the house cleaned up.

As darkness falls

As darkness falls
Mother nature calls
With urgency, its an emergency,
There is no more light, forever night.
The batteries are dead, dead, dead.

As darkness fell
Mother nature is not well
And she cried to be so denied
The capability of rejuvenability
The planet shudders with dread, dread, dread.

As darkness creeps
Mother nature weeps
All of her forces, like wild horses
Erupt in a combustion of terrible destruction
All restraints have fled, fled, fled.

As darkness has fallen
Mother Nature is not callin
Her voice was destroyed, earth is a void
Broken into bits and pieces as the pressure releases
The earth dies in her firey, red, bed.


Photo is deliberately 'noisy' or 'grainy'.

Carlsbad Caverns

A premonition

As darkness falls
Mother nature calls
With urgency, its an emergency,
There is no more light, forever night.
The batteries are dead, dead, dead.

I have no idea why that popped into my head. I had a wonderful day. The Rock and Alpines show and sale. I came home with 10 new tiny treasures. Then a most scrumptious dinner at Swans, and to the Mac where we saw Iolanthe. The music, dancing, acting, costumes were superb.

Now my batteries are dead and I must go recharge them. Its a wonderful world. Let's take care of it.