Wellington Update 2013

Last July I divided Wellington into Zones and took pictures of every zone.  It's a year later, and it's fun to compare the pictures and see what has changed, grown and acclimated in this last year.  Here is a link to that post, but I have also included the old pictures on this post for easier comparison.

 

Also, last year I used my good camera.  This year I was too lazy and just used my iPhone.

 

Here is the little Christmas Tree in the pot on the porch.

 It has grown and has had its pot changed.  Below is one of the crepe myrtles and Ernie, the oak tree.

The crepe myrtle has really gotten bigger.  And for some reason it's really blooming, even though the top picture was taken July 24, 2012 and the bottom July 21, 2013.  Below is one of the pittosporums, the other crepe myrtle, and in the center the Forest Pansy Redbud.

I didn't get the pittosporum in this picture, unfortunately.  They have really come along nicely.  But you can see the Forest Pansy there behind this crepe myrtle.   The Lady Banks in the picture below is gorgeous in the springtime. 

Here it is this year.  The tea tree in front has really filled in.  Below is the bouganvillia that we are trying to get to grow up the porch post.  It got hit pretty hard this winter by the frost.

But look how gorgeous it is anyway!  Below is the Japanese maple and also the hedge growing below the window.

The Japanese maple has really gotten taller, but look at the hedge!  It is really thickening up.  And the topiary pots on either side of the steps are growing a lot.  I don't have a picture of them last July, but they have really taken off.  Below is the other Lady Banks.

And here is the Lady Banks this year.  You can see a sprout of a branch sticking off towards the left.  Below is the butterfly bush in 2012.

The sun was hitting this spot, but you can see how the butterfly bush has grown quite a bit.  I heard from a friend that this bush will be hard to keep this size.  But Justin is pretty good at keeping after it.  Below is the little Granny Smith apple tree.

 This year the apple tree has two apples.  Below is the little sitting area.

And here it is this year with its avocado pot.  Below is the Arbor Walk in 2012.

And here is the lovely Arbor Walk in 2013.  It's still my favorite spot in the garden.  Below is the baby olive tree and the vines we're trying to grow to obscure the neighbor's awful garage.  Also the little cypress tree growing along the fence.

And in 2013.  It's filling in nicely.  I can't wait to see how it looks in 2014! 

Flowers and Fruit

As usual, there has been a lot of planting here at Wellington.  A new lime tree named Winthrop, various flowering grasses and this gorgeous clematis that was on sale.  It has only been in the ground a few days and it is already showing off!

Even more exciting is the single apricot.  Two and a half years ago we planted this poor little apricot tree in the Arbor Walk.  I never saw a blossom on it.  But apparently there was at least one blossom, because this year he produced this single apricot.  And this afternoon I ate it.

I actually shared it with the big guy.  But only one bite.  It was the best apricot I've ever eaten, and I'm not just saying that.  It was tangy, yet sweet.  Firm, yet juicy.  Yummy, yet eaten.

We had a huge crop of peaches.  They were pretty good, too.  Except we left the last batch on the tree too long and they got mealy.  But while they were ripe, they were very good.  We were really happy with this batch.  And we're very happy with Wellington.

Benicia Sightings

Yesterday at the harbor there was a fairly cool sight which I failed to capture.  A rather large ship was passing by with tugboats on either end.  I think there was some kind of a barge in there also, but I can't tell by looking at this picture.  It was another nice day, though.

On Friday the little boy and his friend were taking a walk to the water, so I tagged along.  It was hot and beautiful.

Meanwhile back at Wellington, the little snippet that I clipped from the plant in Grass Valley one year ago is positively THRIVING.  Loyal readers will remember that I had the cutting in water in a jar in my kitchen for a while.  It rooted.  The Hub planted it, after which all three of its leaves fell off.  But they came back!

It's mother was gorgeous, so I have high hopes.

The Fruits of Wellington and a Trip to Carmel

Some of us have been out of town.  Mostly to New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Maine and Rhode Island.  But they're all close together so it hardly counts.

Back in town, I noticed that Wellington's fruits are positively POPPING.

This is our very first apricot!  This poor little tree was a hand-me-down that was planted as we were making the Arbor Walk.  He arrived all wind-blown from his trip 35 miles in a truck.  His trunk is scarred.  It took him two and a half years to pop out a piece of fruit.  And frankly I don't remember seeing a blossom on this tree.  But there's the apricot!  Proof of fertility if I ever saw it.

Speaking of apricots, here is one of Sybil's plums.  She has quite a few.  But her apricot stick remains fruitless.  She has a couple of peaches, but I think they're duds.

The red apple tree has zero apples.  The green apple tree has two apples, a green one and this reddish one. I'm not complaining.  I'll take what I get.

The problem with living at Wellington is that he is so beautifully located that it's hard to think of somewhere ELSE to go when someone has a birthday or other special occasion to celebrate.  The Dot had her 25th birthday this weekend and decided that she would like to take a family drive to Carmel.  Carmel is a beautiful town only two hours from Wellington.  It was very hot at Wellington, so Carmel seemed like a perfect solution.  72 degrees and sunny.  My favorite.

A saw this cute little house and snapped this cute little pic.  There were a couple of houses for sale along this street, called Ocean Boulevard on account of the fact that it leads to the ocean.  One house was a cute little brick four bedroom with a guest house.  It is a mere $5,500,000.  Another house right at the beach is just over $8,000,000.  Luckily we're happy at Wellington.

 But Carmel is beautiful.

We finished up with a glass of wine at The Lodge.  Some people were playing a round of golf or so.  It was a gorgeous day.

Happy Third Birthday, Wellington!

It's hard to believe we have lived in Wellington for three years now.  But it's true.  April 24, 2010 was the day we closed escrow on my beautiful house.  

Today we celebrated by relaxing.  Which left me plenty of time to take these pics.  Just little snippets of Wellington, inside and out.  And little blips of Benicia in general, because this is where Wellington lives.

 Above are Wellington photos.  Below are photos I took while we were walking today.

I have always wondered what this is, at the entrance of the alley on East 2nd street between East H and East G.

 One of the quaint old houses, in need of repair.  But well loved.

Down at the harbor we saw this little orphan patch of ducklings, peeping around.  They saw us and turned back, shooting through that opening in the dock.  They kept peeping and peeping, no mama or papa duck in sight.  So we stopped and watched as they paddled in and out of the boat slips.  Eventually a male and female duck swooped in, quacking frantically, and rescued the poor little flock.

This poor mangy cat was snoozing on the steps of this poor mangy (but intriguing) house on East 5th Street.

 Another East 5th Street with plenty of character.

This East 5th Street house has gotten plenty of love.  Luckily.

We had a celebratory dinner of broccoli soup with microwave potato chips.  Life is good at Wellington.  Three years running.

Springtime at Wellington, the Isotoma's in Bloom

It's spring.  Again.  Here at Wellington.  It happens every year about this time.  This year it seems to be a bit warmer than usual.  I know it has been a lot nicer in San Francisco, where The Dot lives.  And here at Wellington we seem to be having more than our share of beeUtiful days.  I'm not complaining.

I recently got one of them newfangled iPhones.  It's a long story, but now I have it and I'm enjoying it.  I downloaded an app that enhances the camera.  Here are a couple of shots I took in the Arbor Walk while experimenting.

This first and second shot (which couldn't be separated, thanks to modern technology) are taken from the same perspective, only the focal point has changed.  But see how cute it looks?  All those little star flowers?  It's so peaceful back there right now.  And those teeny flowers have a very delicate fragrance, hardly noticeable.  

 One of the bird baths.

 The cystus (rock flower) in bloom.  We put these in last year in place of some anemic azaleas (not their latin name) that were here when we moved in.

An aerial view of the blooming isotoma.  I didn't really use an airplane for this one.  It's only about four and a half feet off the ground.

The white Lady Banks is just finishing up.  The yellow ones have spent themselves.  But they sure were pretty.

We have a lot of trees here at Wellington, but this one is my favorite.  When we planned the Arbor Walk, we planned on having one specimen tree at the front end.  It was one of the last things we chose.  When we saw this cute little persimmon tree, we both knew it was the right one.  It branches beautifully, and it had one little baby persimmon on it when we planted it.  That persimmon, which could hardly be called a persimmon since it had just finished being a persimmon blossom, fell off.  Last year we got zero.  This year when I first saw some little green ruffly leaves I wondered if these could be persimmon blossoms.  I now feel 99.5% certain that they are.  You can't really see them in this picture, but trust me.  They're there.  I can't wait until I have a tree full of plump, pulpy orange persimmons.  They're a beautiful fruit.  I think I'll use them for baking.

There are four and a half Japanese Maples at Wellington.  Two are the weeping red variety and are in the Arbor Walk (this one).  One is a standard red Japanese Maple.  It was here when we moved in, right in the front of the house.  It needed tending, like everything else here at Wellington, but is now gorgeous.  Pics to follow.






On one of our many, many walks to the water, I took this picture.  If you look closely you can see this man is fishing.  There are four fishing poles planted there, with their strings leading out to the water.  I wonder what he's trying to catch and if he'll eat it if he catches it.  I know there are sturgeon and salmon out there somewhere.  I once saw an otter.

There was a cargo ship tooling down the straits when I snapped this picture.  Right now it's almost 80 degrees.  I have a very hot guinea pig lolling in her cage, two contented desert tortoises basking in the sun and somewhere, a very old kitty waiting to be snuggled.  Hooray for life at Wellington!