Thursday, December 25, 2008
Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!!

This is a beautiful little shopping center in Carmel, called The Barnyard. After dinner at our favorite restaurant in Carmel we spent the evening wandering around and checking out Christmas lights. On the right is a great place called Succulent Gardens. If you can't tell from the Epi photos on the site, a place like that is a real magnet for me. In fact a few of our Epis even came from there. On the left is a great little candy shop. (Try the grasshopper bark and the caramel cashew turtles if you stop there!)

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

Sunday, August 31, 2008
Hummer in the Mallow

This guy is sitting on a branch in our Sea Tree Mallow. He is waiting for me to fill up the hummingbird feeder. Don't you just hate it when your favorite restaurant makes you wait. It's so hard to get good service. It's a good thing our most popular hummingbird appetizers are blooming right now.

Friday, August 29, 2008
Carmel Doorway

When I was taking this photo last week I was thinking of the last time I took pictures of this doorway. I was really surprised to find out it was more than three years ago. I need to get out more often!

Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Solar Pathway Lantern

One of the things we learned from the recent fire is how truly dark it can be outside when the power goes off. My dad who was far ahead of his time taught me the virtues of solar energy when he was able to power our whole house with solar panels twenty years ago. Unfortunately there are less options for renters although we keep trying. When we tried these small solar path lights a few years ago they did not last very long. But these days they have small LEDs in them so they last all night this time of year. So we replaced all of our landscape lighting with these and some nice spotlights on the plants. Next time the power goes out we'll at least be able to get around without falling over all our plants.

I'm sure it's wonderful for the environment too, but personally I'm not convinced that buying a bunch of stuff just to save energy is a terribly responsible thing to do unless the things you are replacing have outlived their usefulness and need to be replaced anyway. I'd rater telecommute and keep my old jeep that I drive about 10 miles a month, than buy an overpriced hybrid that had to be manufactured somewhere. Personally I think a large part of the current save-the-world movement is an excuse to make you feel good about buying things... eco-consumerism! Save the world with your credit card!

Saturday, August 23, 2008
Carmel Temptation

Seems fitting that the apples were so beautiful in the garden of the Church of the Wayfarer.

Friday, August 22, 2008
Carmel Lamp

As if you couldn't tell already, I'm still going through the photos from our recent trip to Carmel. This was actually across the street from yesterday's photo of the day. They like vines there. And I can't blame them, it's a beautiful place.

Thursday, August 21, 2008
Carmel Architecture

The clouds in the photo are actually not much further away than the roof of the building. In fact if you look closely you can see that the peak of the roof is actually in the haze. The afternoon fog in Carmel was beautiful and swirling, almost like a time lapse video of clouds. We spent the last few days there and they were all cool and misty, which is a nice change from the heat at home lately.

Carmel is one of the best places I know for an afternoon walk. Of course, you should probably wear your hiking shoes since the main street gets a bit steep at places.

Saturday, December 22, 2007
Carmel Valley Hummer

Today we took a nice trip to a nursery in Carmel Valley. It's one of my favorite places to chase humming birds. There are always a bunch of them but there is one in particular that seems to like to play. He keeps buzzing me and then sitting and waiting for me to get almost close enough for the shot I want before taking off again. I'm sure he's having as much fun with me as I am with him. Fortunately, he usually takes pity on the big lumbering beast with the 300 millimeter nose and lets me get a few nice shots.

Friday, November 23, 2007
Backlit Grape Leaf

One nice thing about living in Southern California is the fact that you can take pictures like this even this time of year. On the other hand, we were walking The Hound yesterday when we passed a tree with beautiful fall colored leaves. Makes me think about taking a trip somewhere to see some real fall colors!

Sunday, October 21, 2007
Courthouse Glow

Sometimes its nice to take a closer look at something beautiful. This is a gateway into the Santa Barbara Courthouse. The building as a whole is amazing, but as I am so fond of pointing out I really like the details. There is some incredible craftsmanship there that I don't think you would find very easily today. Perhaps the only thing that will make me stop sounding like my grandfather now (WHYYYY, IN MY DAY... !) is to point out that it was probably pretty rare to EVER find this kind of creativity!

(Unless of course, it was actually one of my perfectionist German grandfathers doing it! :-D At least I come by it honestly!)

Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Hummer in the Bush

It's taken a while but we have built up some nice traffic to our hummingbird feeders in the back yard. Originally I thought our umbrella was blocking their view of potential threats and scaring them away. When we put it down for a while they came closer and started eating at our feeder that is hung the highest. Now that they are more comfortable, the umbrella is back up and they seem to like the seclusion of it. We have two lower feeders that are almost under the umbrella and they are emptied the fastest. I even got scolded today when the lower feeders were empty!

Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Diffuse Hibiscus

This Hibiscus was in the garden of a mission by San Diego. It was an overcast day which made for some nice soft light. I particularly liked this flower since most of the others were tightly closed or all the way open.

Friday, May 18, 2007
Liquidamber Bonsai Tree

This is a close up of one of our latest plants. It is a small cascading bonsai tree. Unfortunately the wires were a little tight, so I had to loosen them but not before I got a few cool shots!

Thursday, November 30, 2006
Shadows of Paradise

O.K. if you got here from the "Banana Photos" page I am not going nuts or getting sloppy in my photo categorization. (well, at least not the second one anyway.) The Bird of Paradise is actually a member of the Banana [Musaceae] family. Strange but true!

But wait, it gets even stranger! Like bananas, Bird of Paradise are botanically considered herbs since they do not produce any woody stems. (That's right, even the biggest 25 foot banana tree is not really a tree at all.)

Well that is the botany lesson for the day. The photo is pretty nice too, if I do say so myself.

Friday, November 17, 2006
Candle Leaf Banana

We were wandering through a nice garden store last weekend when I saw this banana plant. The leaf growing out of the center really caught my attention. It looks just like a candle to me. The opening on the top is shaped just like the flame. The large open leaf made a great background.

Saturday, October 7, 2006
Banana in the Rain

A few weeks ago we found two beautiful banana plants at the hardware store that were looking for a good home. They live right out front now. The other day it started to rain just as I was leaving the house and when I saw how the drops of water collected on the leaf I had to run back in and get my camera.

Saturday, July 29, 2006
Mandevilla Buds

We've been setting up new misters in the yard for the plants and that made for some excellent photo opportunities.

Thursday, July 6, 2006
Red Lady

This morning I was playing in our little garden, and I found this little guy on one of our interesting plants. I don't recall ever seeing a Ladybug with no spots. The leaves it was exploring are on a small Plumeria tree (think of the sweet smelling flowers that most Hawaiian leis are made of) The tree has been with us for years but many times it has been fighting for life with no leaves at all. As you can see it is very happy now.

Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Blooming Passon

Having more fun in the back yard. This is a great vine, it has come back from the brink with a vengeance. We should have lots of butterfly habitat this fall. :-D

Sunday, June 4, 2006
Peach... err Tomato Fuzz

The sun was beautiful this evening. My wife and I were playing with our plants in the back yard when she pointed out a few new buds on this tomato plant. (the little round things in the upper right)

I'm so excited! I just love tomatoes Most of the ones you get in the store are tasteless. But this plant passes the first test, it smells just like my grandfathers garden. (that is the way I pick a good tomato) It was my job to help him find the ripe tomatoes on his plants when I was visiting.

Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Rain Bud

Not usually awake very early in the morning. But once in a while I catch the good morning light!

Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Ginkgo Leaves

The hound took us for a walk this evening. After much debate we talked her into taking a little different path through our neighborhood. We found a quiet little street that had a nice row of Ginkgo trees. Just as we were passing the last one the sun was peeking through some trees in the distance to create a nice scene.

I did seem to freak one person out who was driving by in a car however, I think she thought I was taking her picture.

Tuesday, May 9, 2006
Bougainvillea Sunlight

This is a nice Bougainvillea that was growing on the outside of our fence. We have been coaxing it up into an archway over our gate. It is starting to bloom like crazy and it is quite a site especially in the evenings when the light shines through it.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Chinese Toon Trees

This is a beautiful pink tree at Alice Keck Park Memorial Gardens, in Santa Barbara. There was no name on it like most of the plants in the gardens, and every time we go lately we see people trying to figure out what it is. Thanks to the Internet we were able to track it down.

Apparently the bright pink foliage is a springtime thing. If you look closely at the plants you can see them starting to fade to green at places.

This plant is actually used as a vegetable and in traditional Chinese medicine. 'Course that would not be the woody parts. They use them as young shoots, or even smaller, like bean sprouts.