Garden Update with New Window Box Inside

Here is the new little "window box". Isn't it cute? I should have taken a pic of the overall effect on Wellington, but I didn't. Here's what you can picture. On the right side of the stairs is a DIFFERENT window box that looks nothing like this. But it all balances. This one has, from left to right, campanula, lemon mint, lamb's ear and a rose. Underneath is the bougainvillea which is coming along quite nicely. And look how gorgeous the Shoe Button Spirea is! It is not what I ordered from Mid City Nursery, but I like it and I'm keeping it. In fact, I might get another one to put on the left side, who knows?

The Lady Banks Rose is blooming! The Lady Banks Rose is blooming! And remember how we couldn't remember if we put in white or yellow? We put in yellow! It just opened today. Just a little bit. Way over on the left side. The rose on the right side fence still doesn't have buds. Oh well. Time to go get some stuff done for crying out loud.

Benicia in the Winter plus Googling Wellington plus The Daughter's New Job!

Early mornings are beautiful in Benicia, even in the winter. This is a view from the Benicia Marina back towards the condos on East E Street. Here is a view towards the water. I hardly ever even notice this marshland. It's at the end of East 2nd Street at East E Street. There's usually so much going on along the street here, plus the water is just on the other side, so the marsh takes a back seat. I'll have to explore it more later on.

I can't wait until Google puts the new maps up and I can see the new picture of Wellington. It still looks like this. I'm figuring this picture was taken in the early spring, around this same time of year, because of the clover in bloom. Jeanne next door says the kids call it "sour grass" because if you pull a flower and chew on the end of the stem it tastes sour. She's right about that part. It kind of tastes like a sour apple. But the daughter made me take it out of my mouth before I could form a definite opinion.

OMG I absolutely LOVE that darling daughter. Tomorrow she starts her CAREER! We are so proud of her we can hardly sleep at night. Some of us are a little disappointed that we don't get to go with her and watch everything she's doing and promise to stay very quiet so that you hardly know we're even in the room. But there's no help for it, I wasn't invited and I have to stay behind. But I'm hoping The Daughter won't be so tired by the end of the day that she can't tell me absolutley everything that she does and what she eats (catered lunch!) and where she sits and who was nice to her and whether they really and truly give her an iPad and a computer and maybe a little iPod for her mom. I'm not holding my breath on that last one, though. Mostly because I made that part up.

The husband is working away at the Arbor Walk. I'll put in updated pics sometime soon.

Robinwood Reclaim

My new favorite site: http://www.robinwoodreclaim.com/

Go ahead - click on something.

Back Gate Benicia

A beautiful Saturday morning in Benicia and I just had to take a walk. Few people were out. Some joggers. Some dog-walkers. I strolled some of the back alleys and found myself taking pictures of people's back gates. I like the feelings the back gate evokes. Curb appeal is one thing. But back gates are more intimate. Special little places seldom seen by outsiders.

Some are well tended, others have a sort of incidental quaintness. Old moss. Rusty hinges. Rotting wood.

Beautiful.

Benicia in March

After our last work day, the daughter and I were driving down the hill in Southampton and the view was so pretty I had to sort of angle my car in the middle of the road and shoot this picture real fast before someone hit us.

Today it's sunny, and that's nice too.

Updates and The Brother is Coming!

The daffodil is taking off, in anticipation of the brother coming to visit! He arrives tomorrow and I think he's going to be very surprised to see that the daffodil has grown so much, plus with blossoms!

And look at the Arbor Walk! Last time the brother was here this was a patch of weeds. Actually there was a whole different house on this lot last time the brother was here. How surprising is that?

Also, let's not forget about the nectarine tree, which is absolutely POPPING with blossoms. The brother will be impressed.

Here's another angle of the Arbor Walk. It's a work in progress. Maybe we can get the brother to help while he's here "resting".

Here is the front right patch. I just fed it so hopefully it will start taking off more. Probably after the brother leaves, though.

And I think I owe Hugo an apology. There's a little plant in this section (below) that I saw her eating, but today it's completely gone with snail slime all around. And if I'm not mistaken, cats don't ooze snail slime while eating plants. I'll check with the brother while he's here, just to be sure. He knows more about cats.

Speaking of the brother, won't he be surprised to see this little garden area that the husband has recently planted? It looks like a professional was hired, but he WASN'T!

Of course, Hugo had to watch me while I was taking the pics. She's very excited about the brother. She's heard so much about him.

(The chairs are covered in plastic while it's raining in honor of THE BROTHER.)

Putty Tats and Daffodils

It's spring! It's spring! No it isn't! It's winter! But this weekend it was almost 75 degrees and we gardened absolutely the whole time. It certainly felt like spring. Which reminds me of putty tats and daffodils because look! The kitty found a new, safe place to watch the mean dog who lives up the street and comes over to roll in our grass. Is she the cutest thing?

And here's the part about daffodils. After my amaryllis spent itself, I decided it would be easy enough to "force" bulbs in the house. So I read up on it and it sounded pretty complicated - stick in the freezer, put in 3 inches of potting soil, store in a dark place for 3 months, etc, etc. So I decided what the heck. I took three bulbs and shoved them in a pot with some soil and put them on my window sill. A week later after I killed the plants that were in this little wire castle, the husband put the pot in the castle and it took off! It loves it in there. These pictures were taken during consecutive days this week. The first one (above) was taken at night, the one below was the very next morning. The following two were the next two mornings. Can you believe how fast these things grow? I was trying to see if I could catch it growing by staring at it but I had stuff to do so it didn't work out. I took these pictures instead.

You can just see the little flower opening up! That was about three hours ago. Not much change since then.

Speaking of flowers and spring, the nectarine tree thinks it's spring.

This is the nectarine tree two days ago (above) and here it is this mornng (below). That groundhog was right this year. Frollic, frollic! I always frollic a little bit in the spring.