Tag: photography

Seasonal Leftovers

I am winding down the spring and summer container garden, weeding out dead plants, dumping pots of dirt, and deciding what to carry over for the spring season. There are still plants to enjoy, some permanent, others transitory. Trees stay around all the time, and as the season changes, so do they. Other plants, like succulents, flower but continue to stay fat and succulent into the coming colder months. Others straggle along, like the milkweed, and just seem to grow no matter what you do to them! Let’s take a look.

One of my favorite bits of the yard – the Brown Turkey fig tree. It needs to be pruned, but I had to wait for the gardener to work his magic and fill my clippings bin. I also need to sort out first year / second year growth to get a good crop next year, and begin at the top – it is way too tall for me to reach up!

Another favorite tree is the Crepe Myrtle. It is a deciduous tree – something of a rarity around here. At present, its leaves are deep red and dropping. Against the late afternoon sun their brilliance is beautiful, especially against a blue sky. Once bare the delicate branches are lovely and graceful. Spring sees swelling leaf buds and soon clusters of deep red-pink flowers. And then the cycle continues after the flowers drop, and then the leaves.

Succulents annoy and fascinate me. They don’t need much work and they are really hard to kill – perfect for people with purple thumbs. This one is in a pot with a number of others just like it, and as I wandered around to find something to photograph, the light on the – leaves? – branches? – was quite lovely.

Milkweed for the Monarchs! This year my flowers were few and I did not set out to raise a bunch of milkweed, but despite that, the plant is stubborn and continues to show up in some of the strangest places. I have a number to be found in my container garden – mixed in with lilies, peppers, tomatoes, lavender, oregano, mint, succulents, and who knows what else!! I like the yellow ones the best, but have also had them in reds and oranges. Even if I forget to water things – or just don’t because of hot winds and cold weather – these plants just chug along.

The last few sunflowers of the summer are hanging on – but these are not big and tall, but short and runty. Nonetheless, their brilliant colors cannot but add to your day!

It’s windy this afternoon, but this little spider’s web caught my eye. It is strung up between a couple of small branches of the orange tree, dancing in the breeze. As a photo, it was hard to capture, but the twinkle of the light on the strands, however imperfect a photo, reminds us of the fragility and strength all around us in the natural world.

And now, indoors it is! Cold wind, 60F, and the cleaners are here and it is time to watch some Hamish McBeth and kick back a bit.

On Gravelly Paths

Old age is not for sissies, so they say. I agree. Giving in to fear does not make for an enjoyable life. Falling and shattering my arm last year and smashing my heel bone in July have made me rather timid. It is very annoying. I have always had “sloppy joints” per the rogue orthopedist, and couple this with high arches and a tendency to supinate (turn my feet upwards on the inside), makes for high chances of a good tumble. And I have taken quite a few in my life time, but get back up and out. Now I do it with more conscientious feet movements after several rounds of occupational therapy and balancing instruction.

So, off to the local botanical garden to prowl along gravelly paths where stones easily skitter underfoot. (That reminds me I once had a cat I named Underfoot Ticklewhisker.) No dog, just me and a camera and a cell phone in my shoulder bag.

Come walk with me . . .

I keep thinking this may be a California Redwood, but I may be wrong. For some reason I really want to call it an ironwood, but, hell, I forgot to look at the tag! Nonetheless, it is a tree I always look at because of the deep red and shedding bark contrasted by bright green leaves. Today it was particularly delightful.

Not many flowers remain, and these California fuschias (again, “I think”!) were some of the few remaining flowers in bloom. Against the deep greens of rosemary, the pale green leaves and bright orange flowers are very attractive.

Oak trees fill the garden! Another perennial favorite of mine year round. There are a lot of them that I cannot help admire, and if I were a kid, I would be up in them, climbing as high as I dared.

At the far end of the garden is a path that leads around the hillside and down into the creek and woodlands. This is the beginning, but in my cautious state, I won’t do it alone. It is not a well traveled path and a fall could be very nasty. This also shows you how dry it gets here in SoCal in the fall before the rainy season begins.

One lovely part of the garden is the rare fruit orchard. Depending on where you live, these fruit trees could be common or rare. Here is a green sapote, in leaf and bearing fruit. It is a native to Mexico and is rather odd to my taste, but it is good. Also, there are signs to not pick the fruit, in part because of insecticide, but also to let others have a chance to enjoy the gardens. Locally there is a warning sign about invasive flies of some kind.

About here, I sat down. This is at the top of the hill and I was pretty pleased with my progress. A few stones underfoot, but I made it without a problem. Going downhill would be more precipitous, but I planned to return the same way I came up – the inclines are not steep and there are benches along the way.

Before descending, I had to get a view to the northeast, overlooking the city and into the mountains beyond. The sky was gorgeous with that deep autumnal blue as well as clouds – not a common site over our dry region!

And I made it to the bottom of the hill with rather irritated knees but not a fall at all. (Or perhaps, not an autumn at all?)

Memories of Spring

Memories of Spring

Sometimes we ignore one hobby for another. Photography is one of those. My focus of late is on other adventures, but looking through old photos – digital or analog – is something always worthwhile. All looks different from the distance of time. Here, some daffodils taken last spring with my Nikon Z6ii and 50mm lens, and modified to match this morning’s mood, which is rather grey and gloomy and monochrome with a bit of color.