Spring is the best time in our mountain garden. The cruel hot summers can be a challenge to gardening so we generally choose heat-tolerant plants that will bloom in heat. Catmint is generally a hardy plant for heat but when it comes to gardening and me, Murphy's Law always applies. If it's hardy, it's going […]
If you plant it, they will come. Finally! I've been waiting to see a damselfly or dragonfly in my garden. This is a dameselfly. With all the walking I do with the dogs, I get to see them often throughout the mountains but never carry my big lens with me on a dog walk. Plus, […]
In our fountain-pond, we used to have floating flowers so bees and birds could enjoy the water without drowning. Unfortunately, they didn't hold up to the harshness of the winter or changing temperatures. So now I'm a lifeguard. Every night, I fish out one or two bees who've accidentally found themselves in the pond with […]
"Hey Arthur! You are growing quickly! What would like to be when you grow up?" "An astronaut. Or maybe a D.J.," he replied. Everybody wants to be a D.J. I just want to be a drummer.
"Daddy-O, how much do you think she'll pay us to make her potted plants look better by sitting next to them?" "Princess, we did not negotiate our contract prior to the job. Maybe we should unionize."
"Nothing ruffles my feathers more than other hummers poaching my nectar." All summer, it's a regular Hummar War around my house. I always see photos of hundreds of hummerbirds happily sharing meals on one or two feeders all over the hummingbird forums that I read. Not at my house. Nothing but guarding and all out […]
Is it weird that I did a happy dance when I saw a bud on my Nasturtrium? After killing 47 of these the first time around, I'm pleased to see this group likes it here!
All summer I wanted to purchase praying mantis eggs for the garden because I can't seem to get rid of the damn cucumber yellow beetles. But Mr. Wild Dingo refused. Being a bit discriminate against the mantids due to their alien looks and carnivorous habits, he claimed they would eat us.
I may be world's worst vegetable gardener but Bonnie, the hoverfly doesn't care. She enjoys the fruit of my bolted lettuce labor just days before I pulled that inedible useless ball of green and tossed it in the compost pile. Who knew lettuce could flower? Stuff you learn when you kill a plant. At least someone ate […]
Creepy. Filled with dread and oh so terrifying. I had just got back from the dog walk when I saw the news about the fire on Loma Prieta last Monday, I walked outside to see how close it was. This was the sky at 3 PM taken with my iphone. It was literally under 10 miles […]