I crave the ocean like I crave oxygen and chocolate, and there are few places I miss more in San Diego than La Jolla Shores. Beaches in Northern California just can’t compare — they’re too cold, too rocky, and there are far too few palm trees. This is my real home.
quote by e.e. cummings
My life needed a little bit of greenery so I adopted these mini succulents last weekend from an eclectic nursery in San Jose. The nursery was an endless jungle of plants and nooks with hidden treasures like kaleidoscopic pheasants in cages, a functional (and massive) koi pond, and even a ship. Very neat place.
The succulents are living on my office patio until I can find some functional and aesthetically pleasing containers. Apparently tiny pot makers don’t believe in drainage holes, because I haven’t had much luck so far. I still have to do some research on how to properly care for a succulent — they’ll have to go live in the backyard if they’re not getting enough light on the patio.
I also de-herbed and de-soiled my whiskey barrels on Sunday, which entailed some encounters with some very nasty creepy crawlies. There were no less than three centipedes, plenty of slimy worms, and a nest of woodlouse spiders. I’m planning on replanting my barrels with all tea-type herbs — I don’t do a lot of cooking so all that sage and oregano went to waste.
In other plant news, my cherry tree is sprouting leaves and will definitely be blossoming in another month or so. My raspberry bush is flourishing, I’ve already got strawberries, and even my little blackberry is still struggling along. All in all, it’s looking very springy here.
quote by Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden
Vladimir Nabokov once wrote that literature and butterflies are two of the sweetest passions in life, and I am inclined to agree. There are few things that I enjoy capturing quite as much as the bright colors and patterns of a butterfly.
Taken with the E-P5, as I was regrettably without my Nikon and macro lens. From the Butterflies and Blooms feature at the Conservatory of Flowers in San Francisco.
We visited the Japanese Tea Garden one week before I headed off to San Diego in August. I always forget how cold it gets in San Francisco, no matter how many times I go. It was freezing, but the garden was a lot of fun. There were quite a few trees there that had been around since the 1850’s, which was impressive. Some of the photos I took don’t even look like they came from a real place.
I loved all the sprites that were scattered around, including this deer.
See the full set here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pixelcat/sets/72157631041896288/with/7770609624/
