Category Archives: creatures
Ethan Hawke fondles switchgrass at the High Line
There’s an attention grabber. No, that’s not a recent tabloid headline and, yes, I am being facetious, but I find it amazing that the High Line (and switchgrass!) is casually slipped into a bit of puffery about the current goings-on … Continue reading
Posted in creatures, design, garden visit
Tagged Baltic parsley Cenolophium denudatum, Ein the corgi, Ethan Hawke, Isoplexis canariensis, Nepeta 'Walker's Low', New York, panicum/switchgrass, Papaver rupifragum, pathways, public parks, Sideritis syriaca, Stipa gigantea, The High Line Park, The New Yorker
5 Comments
cleaning day
Any garden/home tour that incites me to clean out the office is money well spent. Cleaning for me has never been a daily spritz here, a light bit of dusting there, but a long-delayed, ferocious, all-out assault when conditions become … Continue reading
more poppy drama
Ferocious winds all day Monday left the poppies leaning, some struck down entirely by Tuesday morning. I was clipping off broken branches and thinning, trying to trim their sail should the winds return, when Marty walked through noting, “Hey, that … Continue reading
Posted in creatures, plant nurseries, Plant Portraits
Tagged Annie's Annuals & Perennials, annual poppies, bees, Papaver setigerum
7 Comments
squirrel week
I didn’t know that the Washington Post’s squirrel week has been an ongoing tradition, but I’m glad to see squirrels getting their due. Maybe we fawn and make too much over what wildlife manages to get a toe-hold in our … Continue reading
Posted in creatures
Tagged Fox squirrel, Sciurus niger, squirrels, The Washington Post's Squirrel Week
2 Comments
cochineal
“Under the seams runs the pain.” ― Anne Carson, Autobiography of Red I’ve been going over my notes the past couple months from Dr. Alejandro de Ávila’s remarkable lecture “Blood on a Fountain,” which he gave this past January at … Continue reading
Posted in agaves, woody lilies, artists, creatures, design, garden travel, garden visit, science, succulents
Tagged Amy Stewart, cochineal, Dactylopius coccus, Dr. Alejandro de Avila, dyes, Helen Quinn, Jardín Etnobotánico de Oaxaca, Monte Alban, Montezuma cypress, opuntia, Opuntia ficus-indica, Stenocereus marginatus, Taxodium mucronatum, The Drunken Botanist, The Ethnobotanical Garden of Oaxaca, UCBG "Natural Discourse", University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley
6 Comments
the buzz on plants
Got home from work yesterday and was still in the process of dropping all my gear off in the office, when the first person to greet me did so briefly then in quick order uttered those anxiety-making words: “I’ve got … Continue reading
Posted in creatures, Plant Portraits, succulents
Tagged bees, Eddie Izzard, Euphorbia rigida, Sedum nussbaumerianum
10 Comments
another look at James Griffith’s Natural Selection series
I wrote about artist James Griffith’s Natural Selection series here, as he was preparing for that show, and have heard now that he’s off in a new direction for a show to be held sometime in 2014. Something to do … Continue reading
Posted in artists, creatures, science
2 Comments
Occasional Daily Photo 12/5/12
After leaving NYC, MB Maher headed to Iceland. Only a California photographer would want to visit Iceland in December. But Maher says the light there now is “permanent Malick,” that is, what three or four hours of daylight there is … Continue reading
Posted in creatures, MB Maher, Occasional Daily Photo, photography
Tagged Iceland, MB Maher, Terrence Malick, travel
5 Comments
live through this (Halloween 2012)
After the storm of the century, are you really in the mood for a postapocalyptic zombie movie on Halloween? I know I’m not. Gates are locked, porch lights are dimmed, and on the Netflix queue tonight we’ll be watching (and … Continue reading
snapshot of August 2012
August is always a truth-telling time in the life of a garden and a good month to take a snapshot of it. The hoses have been deployed this week to deep water the trees and soak the now bone-dry soil. … Continue reading
Posted in agaves, woody lilies, creatures, garden visit, journal, Plant Portraits, pots and containers, succulents
Tagged ' Amicia zygomeris, Aeonium 'Zwartkop', Aeonium canariense, Agave americana var. medio-picta 'Alba', Agave attenuata 'Kara's Stripes', Agave lophantha 'Quadricolor', Agave parrasana 'Fireball', Anigozanthos 'Yellow Gem', Annie's Annuals & Perennials, Centranthus ruber 'Alba', Chionanthus retusus, Chrysanthemoides incana, Cotinus 'Grace', Crithmum maritimum, Cupressus macrocarpa 'Citriodora', Dustin Gimbel, Echeveria elegans, Euphorbia cotinifolia, Helenium puberulum, Hibiscus acetosella, Laurus nobilis 'Aureus', Lepismium cruciforme, Lotus jacobaeus, Lysimachia ephemerum, Manihot grahamii, Mirabilis jalapa 'Limelight', Pennisetum 'Princess Caroline', Persicaria amplexicaulis, Prostanthera ovalifolia 'Variegata', Ricinus communis 'New Zealand Purple', Salpiglossis 'Chocolate Royal', Scabiosa ochroleuca, Sedum nussbaumerianum, Senecio anteuphorbium, Sideritis oroteneriffae, Sonchus canariensis, Stipa arundinacea, Teucrium hircanicum, Vitis vinifera 'Purpurea', Zea mays 'Tiger Cub'
9 Comments