June 21, 2007

Today:
-3 ripe raspberries
-2 almost-ripe strawberries
-yard waste out for collection
-worried that tomatoes may not ripen before departure

Growing Season (June 6-11, 2007)

Oddly enough, after complaining about not having time to take pictures and not really being pleased with a lot of pictures, I did have a number of pictures that I liked. (I still deleted the bad ones) The mass of pictures are posted, but here are some favorites.

I finally planted the hibiscus that mom got:

and the raspberries are cool whether in or out of focus


My beautyberry/callicarpus has lovely flowers, and I'm really really looking forward to seeing the purple berries in the fall. This is one of the "Passalong Plants" that Bender and Rushing talk about, and it's really exciting to finally be able to watch it grow.


Another passalong from Sandy:


Chamomile -- it just looks so funny.

Trouts; next Tritomas (June 1, 2007 & May 22, 2007; next starts June pics)

Next up in the topsy-turvy compilation of photographs and other random things: Troutsies! Technically there was only 1 trout. And Josie caught it. But there were lots of tadpoles.

And I apparently already wrote a fly-fishing report for Facebook/Myspace.
"Fly-fishing report (June 1):
Off to a not-quite-so-early start due to requests to please turn off the alarm for 20 minutes. Lovely drive despite Gaitlinburg and such; Cherokee National Forest has some lovely winding hilly roads (for much of which Bill gallantly vacated the driver's seat for me ). Bought fishing licenses and was severely offended by the requirement to list one's race ("color") on the license. (Wrote "tan" because "white" not currently accurate.)
Drove around a good 30 minutes looking for the ideal fishing spot. Waded into the ice-cold, frigid, toe-numbing water and spent a good couple of hours whipping fishing lines around without catching anything. Bill caught a massive 5-inch trout just before we climbed back up the bank to the car.
Spent another couple of hours at the stocked fish pond watching a fisherman across the other side pulling out a fish every 15 minutes. Caught a crawfish, let it crawl back into the water. Josi caught a decent-sized trout, which we brought home.
The building maintenance man here was disgusted that we caught one fish among 3 people. Says we should use nightcrawlers next time (Bill, we should try this someday). Little piece of night crawler on a tiny hook, maybe a little weight, and invisible line. Let it float along the surface of the water. Recommends a spin rod but figures the same thing would work with a fly rod."
Why would I do something like that without properly including pictures? (probably because I hadn't uploaded them and they weren't particularly stunning. Other photos from the day are here.)

Recently I haven't been as positively impressed by my flower pictures in general. Some of the clematis pictures are marvelous and remind me of sand dollars. Overall, though, I think the garden has been at an in-between lull and I haven't had (or taken) as much time to photograph; and I haven't been pleased with the white balance and focus for a number of shots. A couple weeks ago I signed up to take a 3-week Monday night photography class so I would have an excuse to figure out how to control things like WB and depth of field and such on my camera, but when I showed up for the first class this week the security guard told me that the start date had been moved. So I can't take the class and (horror!) will have to figure out the electronic controls again if I want. It's not that hard, though.

New May Photos (May 22)
My favorites

cardinal climber -- still not satisfied with this photo, but the dead vine needs to be cut down.


pink spikes (name? it's not coming right now) -- i like the lines and patterns and lighting here.


wild honeysuckle -- this stuff was so cool. it was hard to get the light balance/focus right on these, so i had to dig through a bunch of just-out-of-focus pictures to find the good ones.


euphorbia


rose :)


old ironsides


Clematis


Miscellaneous or kind of... whatever
sedum


oh yeah?


spirea:


dill, cinnamon basil

Detroit and Grandparent Pictures (May 18-19, 2007)

Not technically garden pictures -- but some of my favorites from a May weekend in Detroit. Dad let me play with his 70-200mm lens. It's good for portraits (see below). The boys took advantage of a two-handled saw to demonstrate their manly prowess by sawing down a massive tree stump.


Pictures, here in no particular order:

Victoria (out of focus but cute :), Justin, Arwen (courtesy of dad)


Alex


Sawing the tree:


Mi familia (dad's picture):


Todos mi familia:


Grandpa and Grandma:

post-Buenos Aires Blues blues (June 4, 2007)

Today was a lousy day. Got home around 2 am, slept in, had unexpected equipment malfunctions, had additional unrelated experimental issues. Took a nap when I got home. Weeds in the garden. Typical post-exchange/workshop blues, but oh oh oh I love tango. The tango leads who went to Buenos Aires Blues were just lovely. Some of them gave me some really helpful pointers, and by the end of the weekend I was really feeling comfortable dancing tango. Sunday afternoon I danced one tango with Clint (from Atlanta) that was beautiful beyond words (and he thought it was awesome too!).

AND In the Garden...

My chamomile are flowering, the tritoma has way way more red-hot pokers sticking out of it than I expected, the Confederate rose is amazing, and my sea holly flowers are turning blue. Plus some of the flowers in my purple garden are blooming and looking beautiful; and the butterfly bush in the back is now massive -- it's as tall as the railing on my deck!

There were two mockingbirds using my front stoop railing as their sitting grounds when I got home today. I think they're nesting in one of the beastly Bartlet pear trees.

Less than a month to Australia, and I'm feeling that tenterhooks combination of excitement and nervousness.

That's the quick overview...