I took a photo of my divinely scented jasmine yesterday. Looking through my photo library, I found an almost identical shot I took a couple of months ago. The photo on the left was taken March 4. The photo on the right was taken May 17. What a difference! One sad update: the baby cardinal in the nest in this jasmine died on Mother's Day.
Looks like I took a hiatus this week. Totally unintentional. Youngest is cycling again; there have been four separate therapies this week for various combinations of family members, as well as a huge medication change. Luckily, the medication change seems to be working; I even tested his boundaries tonight by telling him something he did not like and did not want to hear, and he didn't come unglued... success, however temporary, is a beautiful thing with bipolar children.
Now, on to the Photo Hunt! This week's theme is: Candy. I took this photo in July 2007 while visiting Portland, Oregon. This was one of the most amazing doughnuts I've ever put in my mouth. I'd read about this little local place called Voodoo Doughnut, which makes weird original doughnut flavors (like Pepto Bismol, or Nyquil doughnuts, neither of which are still available because they might taste like ass for some weird reason). This is a Grape Ape, which is a glazed doughnut with vanilla icing, grape Tang-like drink powder, and purple candy sprinkles; sounds absolutely disgusting freaking amazing, huh? I have no idea what possessed me to pick this over, say, the chocolate glazed one with peanut butter Cap'n Crunch cereal, but I'm glad I did. If I close my eyes and concentrate really hard, I can almost taste this little jewel again... mmmmmmm...
... In a city far, far away... I tried for thirty-eight hours to convince Eldest to come out to play with the rest of the world. I'm so glad she did. (It's all hitting me at once. She tried on her cap & gown for me last night. Her senior prom is tonight. Panic, pride, and nostalgia on my part.)
A lot is happening in our gardens this week. A baby cardinal hatched in our jasmine. The first two or three flowers on the jasmine have popped open.
The first elephant ear has poked its head tentatively out of the ground:
The landscapers finished my weeding for me, and I planted a bed of annuals (Gerberas, zinnias, vincas, creeping phlox (which I suspect is actually a perennial)), full of riotous color:
A couple of close-ups, taken in the morning dew:
I've had this week's photo picked out for a couple of months now, anxiously awaiting the time I could share it. This week's theme is: Funny Signs. We found this sign in downtown San Francisco. We thought it not simply funny, but quite hilarious. The accompanying, um, stains add to the effectiveness, no?
Some of my favorite personal images of Mother Nature:
Great Smoky Mountains, 2007
Texas Highway 289, 2006
Arches National Park, 2006
Do something kind for the Earth today. Even if we can't all agree on the causes of climate change, surely we can all agree that treading lightly on the Earth can only result in good: plant some flowers, pick up some trash, recycle some plastic bags, try some local and/or organic food from farmers near you, make some homemade jelly.
Spring has most definitely sprung here in USDA Zone Seven. We've been working diligently outdoors sporadically for a week or so and for the last two days straight outdoors, planting beds, trimming branches, shoveling dirt and rocks, getting the pool ready to open for the year. Here are ten things we've been busy doing:
1. I finished splitting and planting my hostas in the mostly-shade bed, along with new companion plants for texture and color variation. We now have 7-10 different varieties of hostas, and I'm pleased to announce that all of them have begun to grow vigorously. For companion plants we chose 2 different ferns, one tall and traditional, the other lacy and low and clump-forming. We also added some beautiful coleus. (The jasmine in the photo below is the one that was pronounced dead a couple of years ago.)
2. We've trimmed and thinned the bushes and trees out by the pool. The crepe myrtles were out of control.
3. We've arranged an electrician to come out this morning to fix two of our outdoor outlets, the poolside lights, and figure out what damage Marshmallow did here (I'm surprised the fool did not electrocute herself):
4. Hubby's trying to grow tomatoes again this year, a Brandywine plant. The first year he tried was a miserable failure. When we didn't really know for sure which was the "up" end of the tomato cage, we should have called it quits.
5. I've finished planting my new bed full of perennials. This is the first time we've planted so many; we've planted one here and one there, mixing them with annuals, but it inevitably leads to neglected perennials, so I wanted to try a bed of all perennials. There's columbine, salvia, flax, candytuft, bee balm, and a patch of transplanted speedwell groundcover, to see how it will react to being moved (before I pull it all up willy-nilly and killy-killy it all). I've added a bird feeder and birdbath, (and look at the size of the birds we've attracted! Heh.) and I will hang a matching hummingbird feeder soon.
Along the wall (in the photo), you can barely make out the foxglove and Turk's cap. (If anyone knows what the low-growing bushes are, please let me know... we've forgotten, though we love them.) I love the foxglove, but I have to admit to an odd combination of a queasy, uneasy feeling knowing they are so poisonous to humans and a slight thrill knowing I'm totally prepared if I'm sent on any spy mission that calls for poison. I know I'll be suspicious of any herbal teas hubby presents me, unbidden, for awhile. Heh. Here's a closer view of the lovely, deadly foxglove.
6. Hubby has been diligently scrubbing and vacuuming, unclogging the pool filter, scrubbing and vacuuming, unclogging the pool filter, scrubbing and vacuuming the pool. I'm glad he's got the patience. I would have drained the pool and dropped some C4 in the hole long ago.
7. We've picked out new patio furniture and patio dining sets, all in metal, so as to deter Marshmallow from making a snack of them, as she has our wicker (and our electrical cords... see #3).
8. Middle and I prepared these: 
There are two of them along the same wall as the chewed electrical cord. Any ideas for filling them? This took an insanely long amount of time to prepare, and we were insanely proud of them when we were finished. We dug a foot down into the clay soil, Middle pushing the wheelbarrow out to a vacant lot for dumping*, and then we filled the cavity with pea gravel. Let me see you grow there NOW, weed bastards! MUAAAAAHAHAHA! (That's the honest-to-Pete correct spelling, according to the Genius that is RedMolly.)
9. I just purchased some pretty lemon-zesty petunias and some fuchsia bougainvilleas for hanging. I will put them in my coconut-fiber-lined hanging baskets, once I trim the damn things down to size (I trimmed one... ONE... last night, and I considered it a great fucking victory half an hour later. Just three more to go.)
10. We've arranged a sprinkler man to come out to fix our broken sprinkler heads (and the wires that I might have accidentally sliced last year with the Mantis).
So, tell me how spring has sprung in your corner of the world. Are you planting, weeding, readying a cursed (in this case, pronounced KER-sed, two syllables) swimming pool? How are you spending your spring days out-of-doors?
*No, this is probably not even close to legal, so can anyone tell me what else to do with 20 wheelbarrow-loads full of dirt? We spread about 10 loads in the 3-foot "alley" between our privacy fence and the next-door-neighbors'. It's better than the cigarette butts they throw back there.
I wish this week's theme, Twist(ed), had come a couple of weeks later, so that my subject would be in full glory. My star jasmine's twisting tendrils are trained on metal obelisks on either side of our front door. In late spring/early summer, it erupts in tiny white star-shaped flowers whose visual beauty are surpassed only by their olfactory marvels. For a month, we are treated to the luscious smell of jasmine every time we pass through our front door.
One of these plants was, for all intents and purposes, dead about three years ago, the effects of a particularly nasty winter. I dug it up and hauled it to the nursery, where they pronounced it dead. Undaunted, I went home and replanted it and nursed it back on its long road to recovery. Today, it is only slightly smaller than its counterpart across the path.
In the first photo, you can see the vines twisting on their support. In the second, if you look carefully, you'll see the little bird's nest which has been built by some enterprising little feathered friend.
I fear there are no adequate words to describe just how joyful I feel when I take The Photo.
The Photo is The One that I wait for a seeming eternity to capture. It is The One that makes my breath catch in my chest and my heart flutter like a bird finding freedom. It is The One I know is worthy of a thousand words, but doesn't require a single one. It is The One I almost don't want to share for fear it will lose its magic. It is The One.
This week's theme is: Glass. I took this photo in October of 2007, when Eldest's band placed 10th in State. They performed at the Alamodome. Their days were packed from early morning to late at night. This is the Alamodome on one of those late nights. That's a lot of glass!
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