Monthly Archives: December 2010
Happy New Year
The buses run free of charge tonight, there’s street music and food downtown, so we’re going to bundle up, step out, and see what the city has to offer this New Year’s Eve. Reflecting on my first year in “narcissistic … Continue reading
Red Pig Tools
Under a spreading chestnut tree, the village smithy stands. The smith, a mighty man is he, with large and sinewy hands. And the muscles of his brawny arms are as strong as iron bands. The Village Blacksmith by Henry Wadsworth … Continue reading
Under Oxalis
Sweeping up this morning’s clippings, the crimson reverse of Oxalis vulcanicola’s leaves released a startling infusion of color into the silver dustpan. This frost-tender “Volcanic sorrel” retreats almost to its crown in the heat and relative dryness of summer, just … Continue reading
Season’s Greetings From AGO
I was sent these images by MB Maher, who seems quite taken with this jaunty robot. But why the fish? Maybe it’s really Captain Nemo out on a scouting mission from the Nautilus, tangled in bioluminescent seaweed. (Jules Verne meets … Continue reading
Is It Too Late?
Too late to depose the poinsettia and install the leucadendron as the preferred bracts and leaves of Christmas? Please? Poinsettia has had a great run. Time for some fresh sap. (A sap that’s not caustic.) If the polls are still … Continue reading
Memories of Rain
I didn’t get around to re-watching Blade Runner for the zillionth time the other night, that gorgeous cinematic meditation on memory. (“All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.”) But these record-breaking rainstorms are doing a … Continue reading
Another Seattle Export?
The usual state of affairs, I’m told, is Southern Californian hordes invading the Pacific Northwest, or at least such was the case before the great real estate unraveling after 2008. This past week proves that Los Angeles can stay home … Continue reading
Snowmen and Poinsettia Trees
I bet my neighborhood is not unique in offering examples of a wide variety of garden styles. There is ample representation from the meticulous lawn-and-hedge contingent, a style that dovetails nicely into holiday decorating. Many argue that lawns, while not … Continue reading
Foliage Follow-Up December 2010
When asked only for a show of leaves, my zone 10 garden in December can give a much less angst-ridden performance than, for example, yesterday’s post, which was drawing solely on flower output. Today I realized I forgot to include … Continue reading