Recently

The roses are starting to make it up this trellis...











It is a season of pink & yellow in the garden; something i might not have chosen, but it is cheerful, nonetheless.



Autumn Sunset reaches for new heights. (see the six foot fence at the bottom?)














His rumpled highness...


















and my dad recently paid a visit...









(Hi Dawn!)

morning panorama

I'm trying to find the 'before' photo of this view-- this was all a cornpatch a couple years ago...that building (our studio) wasn't there... click to enlarge.

not my garden...

About 10 days ago, after visiting the newly re-opened DeYoung Museum for the first time-- I strolled over & through the Japanese Tea Garden. I don't think I'd been here in over 20 years-- maybe 30. Next time, I'm going to allow time for tea in the teahouse!

The once and future pumpkin(s)

I bought this pumpkin (squash? gourd?) back in October, for its lovely sculptural qualities... It held up beautifully, and at last I cut it open and harvested seeds to see if I could grow more. When I opened it, there were already sprouts inside, trying to grow in the dark, and the seedlings are now growing like the dickens. Stay tuned.

health update

Hey all, I'm back....
and with this health update. I had surgery Monday afternoon on what Tony had taken to calling my 'false schwannoma', but which, in fact, turned out to be a True schwannoma. (that's a funny-sounding name for a tumor of a nerve sheath.) In this case it appears to have been a nerve connected to some function (watering?) of my left eye. Surgery resulted in a bit of a sleepy eyelid on that side, but that seems to be improving, and my vision seems unimpaired. I already had my follow-up appointment and stitches out. It tested out as completely benign, and so a long chapter comes to an end, with some perhaps lasting improvements to my health and outlook. I still have a stiff neck, and a good-sized wound (easily hidden by hair), but am otherwise feeling pretty normal, and getting restless from a whole week of lying around watching movies. Of course, it's so HOT here, it won't be safe to leave the house til sundown.


The garden is looking surprisingly well for this kind of heat-- we seem to have a good number of mid-summer bloomers-- and for the fact I was in bed most of the week.
Hey, is a weed-whacker considered heavy machinery?

butterfly 'show'

On Friday I went to the Flower Conservatory in SF where they're having this butterfly show. You can watch them actually emerging from the chrysalis. Pretty cool. (sorry for the blurriness!)

latest sunflowers, dahlias, and so forth...

garden archaeology

This is all stuff we've dug up in our small yard, just in the course of digging holes for planting. And all around the yard, not just in one area, either. We get rather excited when we find a colorful bit, or something with pattern on it. And apparently, I was not the first to burn out the bottom of a coffee pot in these parts.

tractor

This is at friend Leslie's, where we used to spend some time each summer housesitting, before becoming Sonoma County residents ourselves. (this was inadvertantly posted to the wrong blog, originally... whoops!)

rosesrosesrosesroses

1) 'singing in the rain', intermingling with 'gingersnap'
2) 'just joey'
3) 'Joseph's coat', backed up by climbing 'america'

In Memoriam

Robert Gavin Speirs
1931-2006

Tony got the message yesterday that his father had died in Tillamook, Oregon. He had been quite ill for a couple of years, and Tony had been able to visit him a couple times a year, most recently about a month ago. I never got to know him well, but from all accounts he lived a very colorful, full life with many chapters and many stories to tell. And he brought us Tony!
The early years: with Tony, in Washington state
in Costa Rica (center), circa 1990

His boat, the Scoresby, which was also his nickname in Tillamook

more of July's Greatest Hits

1) action shot! It isn't called 'butterfly bush' for nothing!
(click to enlarge)







2 & 3)
'About Face' rose, another from my favorite color family.

















4)
yellow-green zinnia grown from seed, cuz I can't resist a weird-colored flower.

random garden moments

tomorrow's bounty (or a next week's)






busy bees







more hollyhocks

Birdhouse Gourds?

This is the flower of the 'birdhouse gourd' plant. We'll see what comes of it. Various other mystery gourds are volunteering around the yard, as they did last year.

...and a daylily.