May Day 2011

Succulents in the "Utah" bed remind me of may poles.

End of Summer

Labor Day traditionally marks the end of summer and back to school. Here in San Diego, summer goes on for a couple more months. The pacific ocean and the land has warmed up to bring us many more days of warm summer-like temperatures.

So what did you do to mark the "end of summer"? Cynthia and I took a ride down to Mission Gorge and the old dam. Except that she took me "the back way" and I was whining as I am know to do when faced with a little endurance test and warm temperatures. We stopped at a trail head where a lot of mountain bikers were heading across this bridge. There's a number of trails out there for rugged bikes and their peddlers.

The San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park ended their summer hours on Labor Day weekend. Since we hadn't been up there in a few years, we drove to Escondido to the wild animal park. They've since added a balloon ride and extended their train ride, charging $20 and $15 respectively. Since we've been on the old train ride (when my sister was out visiting in, wow, 2005?) we passed on this one. Later in the day when we went, the temperatures were cooler and the lions were more playful. We also visited the elephants and gorillas. Was the gorilla thinking what I was, "when will this heat break?"

Garden Inspiration

I still get over to our old North Park neighborhood because I work at All Vegan on Wednesdays and pop over to the Water Lady. This alley cottage was a few streets behind that, in the neighborhoods that we used to walk, but I just don't remember it.

I remember seeing pictures and gardening shows of small backyard and vertical gardens and being really impressed. They were city gardens in areas like San Francisco. There's just lots of little detail to appreciate in a small space. We'll be replanting our front yard with more drought tolerant plants and I'm overwhelmed by the size of the area. Maybe I should approach it like several little gardens. There are sections divided by driveway or sidewalk. One patch is in the shape of the state of Utah: maybe I'll fashion a Moab sandstone arch for the little succulents in that bed. Larry suggested that where we plant some "hens & chicks", we can put some rooster statues there too. How do you like that, dad?!

I'm checking out xeriscape and water-wise gardening books from the library. I'm compiling lists of plants. You have to keep it interesting by keeping in mind verticality, blooming times, and compatibility. We'll probably just end up going to a garden center and get what's available; just because it's in a book or on my list doesn't mean I'll be able to find it. I have great appreciations for the nice gardens we see on our walks through our neighborhoods.

Rolling along with the earthquake

By the time that you recognize that it's an earthquake, it's over. With today's technology, you can turn on the television and the local news station is already covering the event. They were able to report on size (5.6 downgraded to 5.4), the location (Chino Hills outskirts of LA, 110 miles N of San Diego) and any damage (little, water mains mostly.)

At the time (11:42am Tues), I was at work on the computer at an elevated desk on a questionable Ikea stool. By the time you've acknowledged that the screws aren't coming out, a big truck is not driving by, you have a few split seconds to enjoy the rolling sensation of this earthquake. It's not like being in a car on an overpass. Well, they could be like that, but with this it was more of a rolling, undulating feeling, not so bouncy.

I've experienced a few quakes since moving to San Diego and they've all had their slight quirks. Driving on the 163, it felt like you were a little disconnected from the road for an instant. "I feel the earth, move, under my feet . . ." Sitting on the futon in a second floor condo, it seemed like I could see a wave of vibration making it's way around the walls of the living room. It was the middle of the day and I was completely lucid and sober!

Larry said the cats were not phased in the least. They just continued on with their naps. Cappuccino is very handsome and you can't photograph an earthquake. So here you are.

Beautiful Day

Wow-wee! We had three days of 90+ degree heat. Sure, it's dry heat, so it REALLY feels like an oven. The kitties managed to find cool spots, but they were still instinctively drawn to the sun and the slider. At least Ccino had the good sense to lie in the shade under his canape.

One day later and the temperature was PERFECT. I had the car window down and realized how really beautiful it was. The temperature read 72 degrees. It was perfect! Our backyard is loving it too. The star jasmine is flowering and permeating the air with a sticky-sweet flowery scent. The nasturtiums from seed have a yellow and a red-pink flowers. The bird of paradise put up a flower. Tropical scents, colors, and shapes!

Early Squash in the Mist

When we see tomato plants in the garden centers we get excited. While we may not fully understand the growing seasons here in San Diego, if it's in the garden center it must be okay, right? That day in April we bought some tomato plant seedlings and some packets of seeds.

I planted two hills of squash but didn't label them. One hill has three plants the other has only one. Larry was wondering which was which (summer squash or zucchini) and I said we'll just have to wait and see. Here it is the beginning of May the the three-plant hill has the yellow summer squash. We got some rain last night and it is misty this morning. Still, it's been very dry here for the past month and we collect the shower water to water the plants.

Spring Volunteers

My friend Cherie composes wonderful stories about her yard with the Kodak photo album. Inspired by her, I thought I'd share what's popping up in our yard.

A neighbor gave Larry a small Bird of Paradise. He planted it in one of the many terracotta pots left by the previous owner. I saw some sprouts starting and rather than assume they were weeds and pluck them out, I let them mature to see what they were. Apparently, at one time, the soil must have had some annuals. Here's some sweet Alyssum and some other sweet plant with a red violet flower.

We're keeping the squash hills watered because they dry out quickly. The tomatoes are in little wells, so they hold the water better. The tomatoes have flowers; we'll see if it's not too soon for them to develop into something. Maybe we'll have a little tomato before June, when we'd be thinking about planting that more tropical plant in Connecticut.

Day off in Poppy Land

Last Thursday I had a day off. I ran errands in the morning then Larry came home for lunch. We hiked just half a mile up Cowles Mountain in the San Carlos section of San Diego. Larry's been up it a few times on his lunch break. I came up on a cluster of California Poppies and said, "Ooooo." No, just you wait! he said.

At about the half mile point are little fields of the yellow poppy. I took pictures facing the mountain and then turning around to overlook Lake Murray. Our house is a little bit more left of the red dot. We walk to and partly around the Lake, but it's more of a hike to the mountain before you even start your climb, so sadly we drive there. An oxymoron, as I see it.

Succulents explode

Succulents are interesting enough on their own, but this time of year they are exploding with color. With the rainfall the Southern California has received this winter, it is predicted to be a nice year for wildflowers. This is a yard in the El Cerrito community of San Diego.

Duck, duck,

We're less than a mile from Lake Murray reservoir in the San Carlos area of San Diego with approximately 170 surface acres of water, but these two water fowl chose to land on our pool on Wednesday morning. They took a few laps, hopped up on the side to check out the grass, then took off.

Lake Murray has many types of birds along its shore. Larry says he saw a swan last week.

Oh, and we had the juniper taken out. Where you see the dirt line along the back is where a serpentine of juniper bushes grew. Before, it was like walking a tightrope around the far side of the pool. Just one step at a time; not sure how we'll landscape it. More fruit trees are certainly an option.

Haven't you always wanted a monkey?

Seeing the tree trimmer work, I'm reminded of lyrics from "If I had a million dollars" by BNL. Well, he did have climbing boots and was strapped in good, but he also looked like a monkey up in these palm trees. He climbed two trees and swung or rapelled to the other three. The front palm tree was trimmed by a man in a bucket truck. Hey! That's cheating! I was more impressed with this man's climbing talents, but the owner says because the other guy can operate the machinery, he gets more money.

We had the trees trimmed just in time as that following weekend was a monsoon of a rainstorm for San Diego. Rinsed things off nicely. The neighbor said it was good timing too. The fruits on the palm would have rained down like hail.

Stonewall Peak in Cuyamaca

Last Wednesday, Joy and I enjoyed an afternoon hike up to Stonewall Peak in the Cuyamaca State Park. Surprisingly, there will still several varieties of wildflowers blooming in late June. In one spot, there were dandelions gone to seed. The fluffy heads were ginormous, as wide as three-fingers!

We brought along plenty of water and snacks for a picnic in a field on the way down. After the Cedar Fires of 2003, many of the trees are still charred, but showing signs of coming back. It still has more of a ghost town feel than forest.

Coming from the Northeast, I still have to warm to the Southern California landscape. Lovely to look at, but walking the dusty eroded trail stirred up a lot of dust that found its way into my walking shoes. It's Teva sandals for next time!

From the California Parks website:

Paso Picacho, 5 miles north, sits at an elevation of 5,000 feet. The most popular hikes start from this camp, including the 2 mile hike up Stonewall Peak (elevation 5,700 feet), and the 3.5 mile hike up Cuyamaca Peak (elevation 6,512 feet), both which offer breathtaking views of the deserts to the east, the coast to the west, and Lake Cuyamaca at the bottom.

Trip back East: Scenery

Larry’s parents live in a small apartment in a retirement community, so we stayed at a nearby hotel. Our room overlooked a small seating area and a view of the Connecticut river in New Hampshire. The trees were lush and green from all the rains they’ve had this spring and early summer. Ironically and/or fortunately, there was absolutely no rain during the week of our visit.

There was plenty of room to stay at my parent’s cottage. Birch Lodge as it is called has been in my Dad’s family for over 100 years. His grandfather bought it in the 1880’s. I haven’t done the research to learn when it was actually built. The cedar clapboard siding and roofing was done in the 1990’s. It can get very hot upstairs since it is very rustic and not finished or insulated. Again for the week we were visiting, humidity was low and the evenings cooled off nicely.

Rainbow Canyon

We headed out to the desert with the intention of visiting the Salton Sea, but halfway into the trip we decided that the inner desert was quite hot and chose to find a hike in the Anza Borrego area. We had stumbled on Box canyon last time and decided to take more time exploring Rainbow canyon. This picture shows how the canyon got its name with the swirled sediments, pegmatite and granite veins.

Many cactus are flowering in early May after the modest winter rain showers. Shown here in the foreground is a flowering nipple cactus. Additionally, many barrel cactus were shining their halo of yellow bloom. Hedgehog cactus with its lower profile was making itself obvious with its bright magenta flowers.

I’m not sure where aspargus is grown in California, but it’s not in this desert. This is the beginning of the agave’s flower stalk. Already, this flower’s stalk was twelve feet tall. On this day, we saw stalks with white flowers and for the first time, yellow flowers.

Easter Finest

Happy Easter! It’s spring and time to put on your Easter finest. This male peacock (females are called peahens) was displaying his finest in front of the lower flamingo pool. He put on a show for more than 15 minutes, arching his feathers and shaking his auburn tail feathers.

Several peacocks roam the grounds (it’s ironic that a group of them are called a “pride”) and are rather tame around people. It’s not appropriate to reach out and touch its feathers, but you can walk within 6 feet of the bird without it getting upset.

Palm Sunday

This orangutan at the San Diego Zoo is hiding behind a palm frond. Can you see her? She doesn’t think you can. She’s being very coy. It was so amusing to see her climb up and hold the palm frond in front of her like a fan. She was posing, trying different angles.

Flowering horsechestnuts

Whew! This one almost got away! I noticed last week that the horse chestnut tree in our neighborhood was flowering.

I made it a point to get out today to photograph it and some of the flowers were turning brown. The perfume of the flowers was tipping a little to the point of over-ripe perfumey, like a sweet old great aunt who’s kept the windows closed all winter. You love to visit and the smell is pleasant enough, one of those that will probably imprint on your memory.

Snow in San Diego

It was chilly last week in San Diego. We turned on the three lava lamps to heat up the back room. That, four cats, and fleece blankets got us through the worst. Of course it wasn’t as bad as it could be. I didn’t see anyone having to scrape their car windshield with a credit card. We just had the illusion of snow.

In December, the jade plant decorates itself with small white star-shaped flowers. The jade plant is originally from South Africa, from an area with a climate very similar to that of Southern California. There, it can also flower in the spring or summer. Here, it just blankets itself in December.

Rockin' out in Mission Gorge

We wanted to go for a hike, but saw that the tides were high, so we nixed a walk on the beach. Larry suggested Mission Trails Regional Park. We parked near the visitor’s center and walked visitor’s center loop trail. This is where you can see a portion of the San Diego river in this area where it’s not protected and preserved for area wildlife. We then took the path to the 1-mile-long “Rock Climber’s Loop Trail”.


This is a challenging trail which climbs some 400 feet by way of many switchbacks. At the “top” of the trail nicknamed “middle earth”, climbers may test their skills on giant columns of granite. With a fear of “splat”, I will not be challenging myself on this extreme sport. Rather, I turned around and paused, taking in the beautiful views of South Fortuna Mountain and the San Diego river basin.

Kayaking in Carlsbad

We have never been kayaking since moving to California, so we got together with Kathi and Rob when they suggested Carlsbad Lagoon for kayaking. Larry met Rob at web design and search engine optimization meetings. Kathi is a professional organizer and image consultant. It turned into a beautiful afternoon for kayaking; the marine layer burned off, the sprinkles didn’t amount to anything more, and the sun felt mild and warm.

We enjoyed a nice picnic lunch on a picnic table at the beach of the rental launch. We then piled onto our ocean kayaks. Note, wear your bathing suit because it’s “open-face” and at the very least your paddle will drip a little water onto you and into the seating area. Once we paddled past the WaveRunner jet skiers buzzing around in a big circle, we continued up Aqua Hedionda lagoon. It was higher tide, so we were able to explore the Aqua Hedionda creek in the picture above. It was a very serene trip with Kathi blowing bubbles and little crabs scurrying up the shore.