Category Archives: Gardening

Mystery Solved!

My mystery tree is a Chinese Flame Tree. Thank you Nikkipolani for helping me identify my tree.

Here’s her comment that she left on my previous post…

nikkipolani

Oh yeah, I’ve got one of those. It’s a Chinese Flame Tree. Beautiful little yellow flowers, turns into papery bougainvillea type pods, drops them everywhere, seedlings a few months later in all the places the pods have dropped.

I decided to go back out and take some close-ups of the pods and leaves. Bloggy friends are such a great source of information!! The photo below shows the tree before all the blossoms rained down on my lawn and patio slab.

Have a great Sunday everyone…

My Mystery Tree…

I’m on a quest to figure out what kind of tree this is in my yard in Washington.

Here’s a view of the top of the tree from my bedroom window. The yellow blossoms are a real treat to bees. I can see them enjoying the nectar all over the tree top.

Right now these yellow blossoms are raining down steadily onto the lawn and back patio slab.

It’s hard to see them but all those little black dots on the yellow are bees…

I’m going to have to find me a tree specialist…an arborist?

She’s Moving Slow…

So after some weeding and walking up and down flights of stairs there’s one thing I know…the muscles I use at the Condo are very different from the muscles I use at the House. I am moving around very slow and downing Ibuprofen to counter the aches! The weather has been wonderful but some clouds are moving in Tuesday. I am pleased to see my lavender is growing out nicely and looks very healthy. It was wonderful to smell the lavender while I was weeding…

Have a great Tuesday everyone now I’m off to take some more Ibuprofen because it has a better cumulutive effect on your aches and pains says the Pharmacist I live with…

 

A Walk About the Yard…

We arrived in Seattle at 10:00 pm last night. Early this morning I took a stroll through the yard to see what was blooming. My Rhodies are looking lovely and the Azaleas have finally bloomed. The ferns are getting lush. I also see a whole lot of weeding that needs to be done! It was great to wake up to birds chirping away. The sun is shining brightly now and I’m trying to decide what adventure to have today. Have a wonderful Saturday everyone!

They Survived!

Two solid weeks without watering and these plants survived. Amazing. They are a little brown around the edges but I was expecting them to be completely withered up under the Southern California Sun!

I did bring a silk unwiltable plant for my front porch just in case all my other plants had died. I bought this at Goodwill in Washington for $5.95.

So how’s your Monday and week shaping up? I forgot that this week is going to be another busy one for me because my daughter is arriving today. I leave at 9:00 this morning to go pick her and her boyfriend up at Long Beach Airport. Tomorrow they are going to Disneyland and some of my family will be meeting up with them there, too. I’ve decided to finally meet up with the Disneyland crew, too. It will be a reapplying sunblock day for me. Have a great week everyone.

My Table and My Yard

I do other things beside canoeing, and sight seeing, and eating out when I’m in Washington or California for that matter. And whatever I do I’m inspired to take pictures. Digital Photography has made me free to snap, snap, snap away! First off it was time to change out the Red, White, and Blue table from our 4th of July celebrations. A fresh tablecloth, runner and a vase of fragrant lavender from my bushes make a nice crisp change. Then out to do yard work. I mowed, I pulled weeds and last but not least I attacked the following…

I don’t know what this fast growing, bamboo stalk type plant is but it has completely covered other plants and part of the trunk of this big pine tree we have in our side yard. I decided it was time to tell it who’s boss!

Now you can see the trunk of the tree and the other plants that are trying to grow here. In this shot you can see the stalks of the plant/weed that was taking over.

And after work like this in the yard my body tells me it got used to living in a condo the rest of the year. I put my comfy clothes on and take 3 Ibuprofen every 4 hours just like Dear told me to. The next day I go out and am pleased I can now see all the not so well taken care of plants that were under the domination of the Bamboo stalker. What do you think, Dear? For those of you who don’t know Dear is in California right now while I’m in Washington and I miss him…

Now I just have to put all those branches in the Yard Waste bins…

Ha! But before I do I’m off for a day of fun because my niece Michelle, from Wait For It, is here in town and we’re going to have some adventures together with the family. Have a wonderful day everyone.

Oh and just one other thing. The sun has been shining most every day that I’ve been in Washington. Just gorgeous weather we’re having in the Great Northwest…

Fun Monday ~ Feb. 18

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage. They have blacked out all those photos on my blog posts. OH BOTHER! I’m slowly cleaning up my posts.

 Sayre has this assignment for us…

Every day as I go to work, I see things around me that make me laugh. Usually these are in the forms of signs. So take your camera with you as you go about your business and take a picture of the things that make you laugh along the way (but it doesn’t necessarily HAVE to be a sign).

I don’t go to work everyday but when I’m out and about and when I am walking I see lots of things that make me smile. Here are a few things I saw last Wednesday.

 

I stopped at Costco and came upon this Rat who was loudly picketing the store. I think he was protesting the sale of Rat Poison.

 

Then on my walk with Willow we came upon this Bunny Topiary (that’s Willow in the blue, she tried to get away before my camera snapped). And then there’s me all shocked and scared because of this sign.

 

This kind of sign doesn’t make me feel real comfortable. But I got a tip about walking and hiking where there are rattlesnakes. Don’t walk along the edge of a path. Walk in the middle. If you are walking with two other people, let them flank you, one on either side. 🙂 Reminds me of the hiking tip for the mountains in Washington and the possibility of coming upon a bear. Make sure there is at least one person in your party who runs slower than you. You can’t out run a bear but at least you can out run the slowest person in your party.

Now I thought this post was done but I went to a different Costco on Thursday and this is what I saw on the way and while I was there…

 

I passed this Semi headed for my exit and I so wished I wasn’t driving so I could snap a photo but then he got off at my same exit so I was able to snap this not so clear photo. “Jesus Christ is Lord, not a swear word” was on each side and the back of the semi. I got a big kick out of this and it made me smile. And it’s so true.

 

Then I was in Costco making a cd of all my bloggy photos so I could empty my memory card so I could take more bloggy photos and look at these 2 sweet nuns I saw. I took this photo with my back to them so they wouldn’t know what I was doing and come over and smack me with a ruler (no I didn’t go to Catholic school, I just heard stories from my friends). I couldn’t tell you the last time I’ve seen nuns in a Habit out and about…

For more Fun Monday click here. 

Winter Flowers in California

The theme for this week! 

January 23 – 29. Wildflowers in Winter, a winter image of a flower in your area.

Bird of Paradise (Camarillo, California)

I live in the city and wildflowers are out of easy reach for me. These Birds of Paradise seem to grow with absolutely no effort around here. They pretty much bloom all year long from Winter to Fall. The Hummingbirds love to come and visit these. I’m still trying to catch a photo with that little bird visiting. This one is just outside my bedroom window. Today it’s pouring down rain here and this splash of color caught in a bit of sunlight is cheering me up.

  The Bird of Paradise is one of four plants in the genus Strelitzia.  The plant most often referred to as the Bird of Paradise and the one pictured above is the orange flowering Bird of Paradise, Strelitzia reginae.

For more winter flowers around the world visit Wildflower Morning.