About eleven years ago, I bought two small lavender plants from Trader Joe’s and planted them on our hill. With minimal attention (except from bees), they’ve grown into thick, sturdy bushes about 1.5 meters tall and wide, that flower for months. Sixteen bucks, well spent.
Sometimes it’s excellent to be wrong. I thought these babies were dead, but they are very much alive. We (and the camera) still haven’t seen the mama feeding them, but she must be doing so. Yay!
I was late planting tomatoes this year. There’s been a lot of rain, which I thought they’d appreciate, but they seem to be afflicted with some kind of fungus, most likely “early blight”. The remedy for all the fungal afflictions seems to be the same, a copper-based spray applied every 7 to 10 days. Continuing research over here …
I’ve been listening (again) to Tim Minchin’s Play it Safe, written for the Sydney Opera House’s 50th Anniversary, and feeling nostalgic and proud. This multi-venue performing arts centre is widely regarded as one of the world’s most famous and distinctive buildings, and a masterpiece of 20th-century architecture. And of course Tim Minchin is also a national treasure in his own right.
In 1957, the original estimates for the S.O.H. projected a cost of £3,500,000 ($7 million) and a construction time of 4 years. In reality, the project was formally completed in 1973 (10 years late), having cost $102 million. It was partially funded by a lottery; when I was little, my grandfather won a chunk of cash in the Opera House Lottery, and we got a new car out of it. It was a sturdy reliable beast that was eventually passed down to my sister, then my brother.
I still have never attended a performance at the Opera House; but hope to one day.
Another beautiful day in the Santa Monica Mountains.
Julie and I became internet friends decades ago, in a visual journaling yahoo group (remember Yahoo Groups?) We subsequently became IRL friends. Though we live on separate continents, we keep in regular contact via video chat. Happy birthday, Julie!
For the third year in a row, a hummingbird has nested in our yard then failed to raise a brood. We’ve had the wildlife camera on this nest for several days, but the mama has not been back. Two little unfed puffballs rest in peace.
Looking forward to getting my hands dirty with this one.
Yerba santa (“holy herb”) is a hairy perennial shrub that‘s found in chaparral and coastal sage scrub, most often at higher elevations. The very aromatic leaves are lance-ovate to oval, 5 to 15 cm (2 to 6 inches) long, with a scalloped margin. Soft woolly hairs grow on both sides. In traditional medicine, it has been used to treat respiratory infections. I don’t often hike in the highest parts of the Santa Monica Mountains, so it was a treat to get up there and encounter this plant growing in profusion along the trail yesterday.
hashiworks 