The egg and I

The CandC Photography assignment for us all was to photograph eggs.  EGGS?  It was a challenge, first to find time to go to town and buy a white egg, and then to find ways to make it vaguely interesting.  I discovered that I really enjoy color photography more than black and white, that my creative juices are somewhat pedestrian, and that backgrounds and lighting are everything.  Not too surprising, after all.




 I really had more fun when I began to think of photographing a brown egg.  I tried to find interesting background stuff, and turned up a weight-watcher scale with a translucent plate, producing the following:

Further exploration of the kitchen revealed a another small vase, a large blue vase, and a plate, so all got tried, with varying success.  I really liked using these as stars in the kitchen show, and thought it was fun to see the variation produced ...

but really my favorites were taken outdoors, 

and I snuck in a little photo of the redbud in bloom, just to remind myself that spring seems to be arriving at last!

Blue and Gold

Euphorbia characius and rosemary

The weather has turned very warm all of a sudden, and things are coming into bloom at an amazing rate.  Early this morning I noticed a blue and gold combination, silhouetted against the Douglas firs and the redwoods of the forest.
Then, later, another blue and gold combination of a different scale caught my eye.  These little bulbs planted under our Meyer lemon tree bloom briefly but gloriously.

Iris bucharica, muscari

The Garden Helper

Kali, mistress of all she surveys

Here is Kali, inspecting the front garden from the planter box steps. Her climbing proclivities are new to us - no previous dog of ours has had them to such an extent! The other night we cleared dinner from the dining room table, took the dishes to the kitchen sink, and turned around,  There was Kali, sitting in the middle of the table! She had climbed up a chair to the table top, evidently. Good thing the food was gone!   -   What an interesting training challenge. Hope we are up to it.

Bloom Day - March 2010

The pots on the deck are bringing color close to the house.  These are the first tulips to bloom this year.  All are in pots to foil the rabbits!

Helleborus corsicus

Helleborus orientalis and geranium

Touring the garden turned up more bloom than I had expected.  From now on comes the deluge - spring, glorious spring!  The hellebores are still showing bloom, and are joined by the little pale geraniums.

Of course the daffodils are showing too, with more on the way.

Daffodils after the storm.

Camellias are coming out full, and clearly enjoy their location here.  The pink one looks like a rose, and the red one talks to the ribes, which is just beginning to open.

Pink camellia ten feet tall

Ribes

Red camellia and ribe

Bergenia blossoms are opening with their deep rose red color.

Bergenia

A clematis armandii smothers the lower gate, with a white hellebore at its feet.

Clematis armandii and hellebore.

and of course all the old spring stalwarts...rosemary, euphorbia, vinca.  

Rosemary Mozart

Euphorbia characius

Plain old vinca

In many ways they are the backbone of the garden.

Little Bulbs

Back to blogging!

I've been gone for quite a while, and now... New camera, new dog, old garden.  I am signed up to have my garden on a benefit tour in May, so I hope...new garden too!

Life Happens

There is life outside the garden, as I have forcefully been reminded in the last weeks. Inspired by Scott Ogden's book Garden Bulbs for the South, which I bought at the garden seminar, I ordered a few hundred (!) and meant to get them all in... but then our dearly beloved 13-year-old dog died traumatically, I had a birthday, we spent a weekend away visiting a desperately ill friend in the hospital, and 32 came for Thanksgiving dinner! Whew. I made a little memorial booklet for our dog Morena, which helped the grieving process, but took up all my computer time. Then getting ready, and actually orchestrating, Thanksgiving for so many took up all my energy and then some. It was fun to set the 3 tables and make bouquets for them. People seemed to have a good time, and stayed (and stayed, and stayed.) It took me a couple of days to recover, but I did actually get 100 bulbs in yesterday, and hope to do more today. The weather is unduly warm, with little rain, which is worrisome. I live in hope.