My Great Basin Fence lizard looks quite suave, doesn’t he?
I wonder if he’s lounging around waiting for his sweetheart to show up.
Lothario the Lounge Lizard
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Category Archives: photos
Nothing Rhymes with Orange
Is it true? Is there no word that rhymes with orange? Here’s what I found…
“Orange has almost no perfect rhymes. The only word in the 20-volume historical Oxford English Dictionary that rhymes with orange is sporange, a very rare alternative form of sporangium (a botanical term for a part of a fern or similar plant).” Lexicohttps://www.lexico.com
Anyway, here’s an orange zinnia.
I had planted a whole row but my garden bunnies LOVE zinnia flowers. I watched them eat every single one EXCEPT for this plant.
Photos taken at different times of the day; intense color versus sort of washed out by the sun.
Zinnias
Zinnias, stout and stiff,
Stand no nonsense: their colors
Stare, their leaves
Grow straight out, their petals
Jut like clipped cardboard,
Round, in neat flat rings.
Even cut and bunched,
Arranged to please us
In the house, in water, they
Will hardly wilt—I know
Someone like zinnias; I wish
I were like zinnias.
–Valerie Worth
Glorious Garden #WordlessWednesday
All things green.
Hiding in plain sight…
This easy-to-propagate perennial spicy basil is almost too pretty to eat…photobombed by bee-friendly borage.
Things have been hard to grow this year, but I’m happy to see this zucchini…
Bountiful Harvest
It was time to harvest most of the chard and spinach and figure out what to do with it.
I cut off the mature leaves and left the plants in the ground because they’ll continue to produce.
It easily filled a laundry basket…
Pretty green and rainbow chard with hardly any bug-bitten areas. Yay for organic gardening!
After I put them in two giant pots and blanched in boiling water, this is what I was left with to store in the freezer; two quart-sized bags…
But yum, anyway!
Soul Gift
A while back I found a hawk feather and gave it to a friend who is as enchanted by our local hawks as I am and feels a real kinship with these raptors that fly over our lagoon.
Yesterday I was getting ready to go to the store to try and find the perfect musical birthday card for my cheeky titian-haired almost two-year-old when my friend drove by and stopped.
“I’ve been carrying this around with me for a while. I just got back in town from hiking Glacier and I’m so glad I saw you!”
I was presented with a beautiful envelope and inside there were two lovely feathers; one was definitely from a juvenile hawk and I’m not sure what the other one is, but it’s spectacular.
“I’m returning your kindness.”
The way they were taped to the card was lyrical and effortless. I kept them exactly as they were presented and found a little frame to keep them safe. Now I can see them every day and remember there are still empathetic and thoughtful people in this world.
PS I’m not sure I like the blue frame but I’m not sure that I don’t, either. It was the only empty frame I had and I’ll sit with it for a few days and make a final decision. I kinda sorta think the blue represents SKY. What do you think? Would another color better complement the feathers?
Gardenia #WordlessWednesday
This was my mom’s favorite and sometimes I’ll get a plant so I can remember her by their fragrance, even though I’m sooo allergic.
I used to think gardenia and camellia were the same flower, but I learned that the gardenia is known for its intense perfume; less so the camellia. I never knew that!
Here’s to you, the original Charlotte, the first gardenia bloom on this hot summer’s day…
Growing a Heart | Love is Where You Find It
Just a heart shaped tomato, nothing more profound than that. Love is all around.
I kinda sorta didn’t want to eat it, but I did right after I snapped this pic, and it was DELICIOUS.
Puget Sound Photos
Driving down the hill:
The view from Sunset Hill park overlooking the marina. How amazing to be in walking distance of this beauty.
Such a beautiful, warm picture perfect day!
Famous (Almost)
So…sitting right behind me is a SEMI famous local personality who has a cooking show on community television. Somebody else recognized him and said hi or I wouldn’t have even noticed.
I really really want to tell him to include more vegan dishes, that there’s a huge demographic out there that would love him if he included cruelty-free recipes, but he’s totally self absorbed and constantly texting on his phone. Additionally, he’s not THAT famous or he wouldn’t be sitting in the cheap seats, right?
His style of cooking isn’t my cup of tea, but I support his “I’m just a regular guy” niche of encouraging everyone to cook with the ingredients already on hand in the pantry.
So far I haven’t annoyed him, but I’m not at all a shy, timid forest creature. I have zero problem approaching anyone. For any reason. No matter who they are.
On the other side of me is a young man wearing a Stanford Medical School sweatshirt. He’s starting med school in the fall. (I asked.) How awesome is that! I told him I was proud of him. I’m sure you might think…who am I to share unwanted praise, right? But I did. Bright children who follow their academic/life dreams need our support and encouragement. It takes a village, yes it does, and it only takes a minute to utter a few positive words.
I was trying to watch Curb Your Enthusiasm but for some reason I couldn’t get my phone to enlarge to full screen, so a kind stranger directly to my right (an obvious techie) took my phone and messed around with it until he figured out what the problem was.
As terrible as the stories are on the news, in spite of the violence and Covid variants and all the rest, there are still kind and helpful people in this world.
Not a bad way to spend 2 1/2 hours. Not bad at all, especially when I arrive to THIS:
And this:
Breathe
I don’t have any tattoos and I don’t believe I’ll ever get one, but if I did, I might choose this Sanskrit symbol.
Instead of a tattoo, maybe I’ll frame it and hang on a wall somewhere where I can be reminded to breathe, especially since I’m aware that I hold my breath a lot, almost as if I’m anticipating something dreadful to occur.
Breathe.
Sometimes that’s enough.
Enchanted Seashells | Princess Rosebud 