Pin It Hello, I'm Jack. I have a ball. Sometimes, if I'm very, very good, my people will throw the ball for me. Then I get to chase it and bring it back to them so they can throw it again. This is my favorite game in the whole wide world. I can do it all day long and never get tired. It's more fun than chewing on a bone. It's more fun than rolling in some great smelling, sticky stuff that gets my people so excited they put me in the bathtub. It's more fun than my day job, which is watching the horse to make sure she doesn't get into the compost bin when she's out grazing. I'm real good at my job, but I'd much rather chase a ball. Wanna play?
My camera and I have been out in the garden these days stalking an illusive (and yes, elusive) paprika-red dragonfly which you know I will post, with glee, when I get a photo. Until then, there seem to be many others ready for their "walk-on" and willing to stay still enough for me to shoot. The above photos are of damselflies which are different from dragonflies in that, among other things, they can fold their wings along the length of their long tails while dragonfly wings remain perpendicular. Click here for more information. And, as always, click on photos to see the exquisite details.
Pin It Day Lilies. Some people love them and others hate them. They harbor snails and slugs, earwigs and sowbugs. They can be quite ugly after blooming time has past. Me, I can't help loving them, snails and all. Their blooms are so pretty and their buds are edible. And I just really like them. Remember to click on photos to enlarge.
Pin It Here is a photo of the "amazing growing grasses" that I call a lawn. Well, I call it a lawn when it's mowed. Right now it's overgrown weeds. A prairie really. No seeds were planted to create this lawn. It's simply the grasses, daisies and berries that grow in this part of the world. Of course I did plant the orange crocosmia you see in the foreground and the tea tree, maple, rose and clematis you might be able to see in the background. But the rest of it is wild stuff. Sigh... Lots of gardening to do.
This is a photo of the "lawn mower". Never was a horse so happy in her work.
Pin It We arrived back home from the east coast on Monday, after delays in Denver and trying to sleep in the SFO airport in the wee hours of Monday morning. In our absence, the sun shown and the garden grew. And grew...
Finally we were able to fly home in to the Arcata/Eureka airport in drizzly rain which continued for the next three days. Quite a change from the muggy heat of Minnesota, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York. Then this morning, it dawned clear, clean and sunny with dew everywhere and I was able to take some photos, which I'm working on and will post soon. In the meantime, here are a few lovely dianthus from Thomas Jefferson's garden at Monticello. Have a great day!
Pin ItThere are two things I inherited from my mother that bring me great joy: A passion for cooking and an obsession for digging in the dirt to make things grow. I was raised in California's Sacramento Valley where the long, hot summers and deep, rich soil allowed for gardening in abundance and where cooking from and sharing the harvest of my garden was one of my greatest joys.
Now I live on the often foggy north coast of California where growing tomatoes is a challenge and learning cool, short-season gardening has many, albeit sometimes hard won, rewards. My passion for cooking, gardening and feeding family and friends has never abated. When encouraged by my sons to write a family cookbook, during the process of fits and starts, I discovered the world of blogging and Christine Cooks was launched. With the acquisition of my digital camera, the outside world beckoned and all too soon I was hooked. Who knew I would be so smitten by a tiny, sleek, silver, digital wonder that I would travel way down this fork in the road before I realized where I'd gone? Now I'm out in the garden everyday, seeking out the beautiful, the bizarre, the unique, the sometimes cruel, often plain and always honest lives of the flora and fauna that grace my garden and this beautiful region where I live.
That I tend to get really up close and personal with my subjects may be attributable to my childhood fantasies of wanting to be very, very small so I could see what life was like under a leaf, in the shelter of a fern, or in a toad's hollow.
I use a Canon PowerShot SD 450 Digital ELPH, 5.0 Megapixels. I know I have a lot to learn, but this little gem makes it all seem so simple.
(Update: the photos above were taken on 5/25/06, the day after my original post and photo below. The bee was gone - dropped? eaten? I couldn't tell, but the spider seems ready for the next un-witting critter to get too close.)
I'm getting ready to leave on this two-week trip and thought after the Calla Lily post that I wouldn't put up another one until I returned to the west coast.
BUT... Zipping by the Honeybush Buddlia this afternoon, I spied another "chameleon" spider, neon yellow this time, with a honey bee firmly in its grasp. Not one to pass up something this wild, wicked and wonderful, I sprinted into my office, snatched up my camera and took the photo below. "My, my, my, said the spider to the fly..."
Despite the unseasonal heat of a few days ago, and now the rain, plus slugs, earwigs and other critters that like to munch on plants, my sturdy bunch of Cala Lilies continues to flourish.
I love the form of this plant;
The swirling patterns,
the soft, curving edges,
and the erotic, hermaphroditic display within each flower.
Pin It Years ago my girlfriends Gloria and Erika and I were at a nursery in Woodland on a quest of Gloria's, if memory serves me, for a special plant the species of which I can't remember. Not being monitarily flush at the time, I hadn't planned to make any purchases, but was there to be with my friends and enjoy being surrounded by some else's plants. Walking into the "sick bay" (did you know that most nurseries have these?), I spied a very sickly-looking rose in a one-gallon pot, obviously struggling to survive. One small flower had bloomed amid the almost leafless canes. There was no price tag attached, nor a name. I took it to the sales counter, was told I could take it home for $5 and that it was probably a Joseph's Coat, but they couldn't be sure.
That was 15 years ago. I first planted it in my Winters garden, then brought it with me when we moved up here. It grows 7 to 8 feet tall, is always rather leggy, gets blackspot every summer, and puts out glowing, firey orange and yellow blossoms. And it always reminds me of Gloria.
Often times, while on my morning walk around the yard, I'll come around a corner or peek beneath a shrub and the sight of a newly-bloomed flower will render me speechless. Hah! says my family, who know only too well that I'm rarely without something to say. Still, Mother Nature, in all her stunning creativity, can indeed snatch words right out of my mouth. So when this 8-inch diameter clematis finally fully opened this morning, there I was, agog, speechless, grinning widely, marvelling at its perfection and trying to capture its very essence with my camera. I hope I've done it justice.
