Category Archives: journal
friday’s clippings 4/20/12
Friday’s Clippings is a handy blog closet into which accumulated stuff can be shoved at the end of the week, things I want to refer to again that might be of wider interest. And speaking of odds and ends shoved … Continue reading
Posted in clippings, creatures, design, garden travel, garden visit, journal, science
Tagged Colony Collapse Disorder, Dustin Gimbel, Mar Vista Green Garden Showcase, neonicotinoid insecticides, South Coast Plaza, Southern California Spring Garden Show 2012, Why Trees Matter by Jim Robbins
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friday’s clippings 4/6/12
I trust we’ve all safely arrived at the doorstep of this spring weekend relatively intact. My car is in the shop from a minor crash a few weeks back, my first since I can’t remember when, and the rental has … Continue reading
Posted in Bulbs, Cinema Botanica, clippings, creatures, journal, Plant Portraits, shop talk
Tagged Abbey Hotel, Allium schubertii, alliums, Bonhams, Chateau Marmont, Chelsea Hotel, Colony Collapse Disorder, Irish wolfhound, Jean Shrimpton, Rob Walls photographer, Rose 'Bouquet d'Or', Terence Stamp
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long weekend in San Francisco
I took precious few photos over the long weekend I spent in the Bay area. And not because there wasn’t the usual excess of riches to see and do. There were acacias in bloom, these cutleaf acacias seen at Flora … Continue reading
Posted in design, garden travel, journal
Tagged Aloe castanea, UC Berkeley Botanical Garden
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houseboat
Life aboard an old, creaky 1919 bungalow often feels like living on a boat to me. Many years ago we were actually this close to buying an old wooden boat to live on and sail, called the “Anteak.” I’m still … Continue reading
phoenix plants
First bloom on little Pelargonium echinatum, which I wrote about last January here. That its gnarled, dessicated branches somehow put on this performance every January is like getting a sneak preview of spring in a 6-inch pot. And oh, happy … Continue reading
walkies
We’ve been pushing ourselves to take long walks, sometimes early morning, sometimes early evening, as much as 4 miles, mostly through Long Beach’s old downtown, which has seen many of its older buildings become frozen mid loft conversion. (Probably too … Continue reading
“Gardens: An Essay” by Robert Pogue Harrison
Strange how, even in the most unlikely places, thoughts can still turn to gardens. Jury duty last week had me confined for a good part of Friday in a large, drab room full of strangers, all of us potential jurors … Continue reading
Posted in artists, essay, journal
Tagged gardens, Gardens: An Essay, Harold Bloom, Mark of Cura, paradise, Robert Pogue Harrison
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Journal July 6, 2011
The garden saw some frenetic activity over the long holiday weekend. Over the long, extremely hot holiday weekend. Not since Nixon has a face dripped such copious amounts of sweat. Under these sticky, squalid conditions, one reverts to a feral … Continue reading
Horticulture’s Continuing PR Problems
In a March 12, 2011 issue of The New York Times, in a column by Maureen Dowd entitled “In Search of Monsters,” Ms. Dowd comments on the suitability of Donald Rumsfeld giving current foreign policy advice: “You would think that … Continue reading
Journal February 1, 2011
February is about the time of year when the little reminder notes really start to pile up, when sending a barrage of e-mails to myself seems an inefficient system compared to the search capabilities on my blog, a feature I … Continue reading