Wordless Wednesday: Cloudy Views

Early morning, southeast view, September 18th

Sunset, northeast view, same day

All material © 2012-2025 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Sunrise

We've got family in town so I couldn't manage a long post today.  I've been working hard in my garden all week but there was little to show that was worth photographing.  I'm offering best wishes for a colorful weekend with a sunrise shot taken from my back door looking out onto the Port of Los Angeles.

Yes, that's a view of the sun rising in the east, not a sunset view.  I live on a peninsula and there's ocean surrounding it on 3 sides.

With each sunrise we can wish for peaceful conclusions to the wars currently tearing people apart around the world and putting lives at risk.

I'll be back with a regular post on Monday.

 

All material © 2012-2023 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Off the see the - Trolls?

The weather has felt very unlike fall this week.  The morning hours have been foggy and the afternoon hours have been hot.

Sometimes, at sunrise, the fog/marine layer sits just below our elevation, hiding the Port of Los Angeles from view before the fog rises and encompasses us prior to dissipating 

More often, it wraps us in an embrace well before sunrise

I'm waiting out the current heat spell before I do any serious planting.  Instead of putting my most recent mail order plants in the ground, I simply upgraded them to one-gallon pots pending the return of cooler temperatures.  Earlier this week, tired of taking spins around the neighborhood for exercise, I decided to drive six miles to South Coast Botanic Garden to see the garden's Trolls exhibit.  The Trolls were created using salvaged wood pallets by Thomas Dambo, described as a "recycled art activist" based in Denmark. (A biography on Dambo can be found here.) There are over a hundred of these Trolls scattered around the world.  SCBG has six spread across its 87-acre garden.  Their stated mission is the "save the humans" by helping them reconnect to nature.  The exhibit, billed as the first one on the west coast, will remain in place through January 14, 2024.

I met all six Trolls on my walk through the garden.  A map was provided but most were located fairly close to the main tram road so they weren't hard to find.  I started the tour at the butterfly pavilion, which was retooled to serve as the home of Ibbi Pip, the birdhouse troll.

Ibbi may be the tallest of the 6 at SCBG.  The bag tossed over his shoulder contains birdhouses.  These birdhouses serve as signals to keep visitors on the right path to find other Trolls.

They all introduce themselves through signs like this.  There are also signs asking visitors not to climb on the Trolls.

The inside of the butterfly pavilion, currently empty of butterflies, is full of colorful birdhouses

2 "nests" and a bench are provided to allow visitors to sit awhile.  The pavilion has also been replanted with flowers and other plants echoing the colors of the birdhouses.

My route took me to the other Trolls in the following order:

Basse Buller, also called the painting troll, uses rocks to create art

Softus Lotus, also called the listening troll, is 24 feet long and over 7 feet high.  I heard some children speculate that he was sleeping but others pointed out that he has one eye open.

Kamma Can is the trash troll, who uses the colorful plastics and other trash disposed of by humans to create jewelry.  She is reported to be the second largest troll in the exhibit at over 14 feet tall.

Here's Kamma's introduction and a closeup of her necklace.

Ronja Redeye, the speaking troll, appears to be the smallest one.  The sign on the flag, resembling a birdhouse, represents the troll's logo for their "save the humans" campaign.

Rosa Sunfinger, the botanical troll, is 11 feet tall, and likes to grow plants in places like "the smelly metal boxes humans run around in"

As might be expected, the exhibit attracted lots of parents with children.  The children didn't seem at all intimidated or frightened by the Trolls so that was good.  SCBG is offering a variety of Troll-themed classes as a supplement, as well as selling a book describing the campaign to save the humans.  The classes include making jewelry out of trash, crafting flower crowns, and building birdhouses.

I didn't spend a lot of time gawking at plants on this visit but I did take photos of some.

The photos in the top row feature what I believe is Ceiba chodatii, the yellow-flowered silk floss tree.  Pink-flowered Ceiba speciosa are shown in the 2 bottom photos.

Plants in the Senna species are in full bloom now.  There were cloudless sulphur butterflies all over this one but I didn't manage to catch a single photo. 

In concluding this post, I'll throw in two plants that stood out in my own garden this week as well.

On the left are the unusual flowers of Pelargonium schizopetalum.  On the right is a particularly colorful coleus (Plectranthus scutellarioides) labeled as 'Florida Sun Rose').  The latter looked sickly and unimpressive in a pot by the front door for months but now looks better than any photos in advertisements I've seen. 

Best wishes for a peaceful weekend communing with nature.  Everyone could use a touch of beauty in their lives in the midst of the world's current turmoil and misery.

All material © 2012-2023 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

The Little Things That Make Me Happy

A beautiful sunrise.

With a long day of plant shopping ahead of me, I was up early on Saturday and out the door before 8am to meet up with a friend 50 miles away for a longer trek to 3 of our favorite garden centers in Carpinteria and Santa Barbara

I took a dozen quick photos of the view looking southeast toward Angel's Gate, the entrance to the Port of Los Angeles, but the 2 shown here are my favorites

Rain.

We got 2 solid days of light rain.  I took this shot looking southeast between showers.

This was the mid-afternoon view looking northeast.  The rain was never heavy here, although there were flash flood warnings in some areas to the south and east of us.  We had several breaks in the rain yesterday and even, briefly, sun and patches of blue sky.

The garden got about 2/3rds of an inch of rain by 8pm yesterday.  Scattered showers were projected to continue into the wee hours of Wednesday morning. Our 2023 "water year" total to date, counted from October 1st, is 1.03 inches (26mm).

All 3 of my rain collection tanks are full, although my husband emptied water from the spa into my 265-gallon tank in October when he cleaned it out so not all of that was rainwater.  I also filled the plastic trugs shown here, some twice.  I used it to top off the fountain and to water pots and areas covered by roofing.  I'll empty the rest in the perpetually drier garden areas later this week.

My cat.

Pipig is blissfully happy on this loveseat in my home office.  There's a heating pad under that pink afghan blanket. 

She gets up only occasionally to eat and use her box, although she usually finds me to demand attention at least twice a day.  She's still fairly spry but, at 15 years old, I suspect she's got a touch of arthritis so the warmth is probably comforting.

She acknowledges me with a subdued, barely audible chirp when I come by rather than her usual more insistent vocalizations

Even the small garden chores I managed to squeeze in between interludes of rain this week made me happy.  The biggest one was finishing planting the bulbs I'd ordered (with the exception of seven Hippeastrum in need of pots).  Three hundred sixty-eight bulbs is an all-time record for me, and not one I envision coming close to matching ever again.  But I took care of some smaller projects too.

I've been collecting leaves from our deciduous trees and yesterday ran them through a Leaf Hog vacuum to chop them up before dumping them in my compost bin

I bought surprisingly few new plants during my Saturday trip but I got some of those planted, as I also worked at planting what I'd purchased over the summer.  I lost a few plants in this area, including 2 Euphorbia 'Ascot Rainbow' and 2 Phylica pubescens, so I resorted to adding more succulents here, including a small Agave ovatifolia 'Vanzie'.

I finally got around to potting a few things too, including this noID Stapeliad  (maybe an Orbea) given to me by one of the plumbers who worked on our pipe replacement in September

As long as I shut out the political news for a time, all is well.

All material © 2012-2022 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

The garden isn't always pretty

I admit that I tend to develop a negative outlook on my garden as summer oh so slowly winds down.  Our long dry spell, which usually starts in April and stretches into late October or November, feels interminable.  Mid-day heat becomes tiresome and I long for cooler nighttime temperatures.  The soil is dry, plants look tired (if not dead), and flowers are sparser.  We've been lucky not to have any fires close by this year but our gusty Santa Ana winds are picking up so the risk of wildfires will intensify until our rainy season arrives.

Early morning is the best time of day, partly because shadows hide the less attractive features of the garden.

Last week I featured sunset photos in a post.  These photos of yesterday's sunrise are brought to your courtesy of my cat, Pipig, who was screeching at us while we were still in bed, apparently due to an unexpected sense of urgency about getting her litter box cleaned.

This photo captured a group of clouds in the northeast.  The hedge needs trimming but I put a hold on all heavy pruning until the outdoor watering ban ended, not wanting to stress plants any further than they already were.

Our temporary outdoor watering ban, required to prevent excessive demands on the water system while the Metropolitan Water District repaired 36 miles of pipeline, was lifted at the start of this week, two days early.  As we're still subject to water restrictions that define the days on which we can run our irrigation system, today was the first day we could do that.  However, my preoccupation with water use continues as our meter shows a slow leak.  While not able to pinpoint the leak's precise location without employing a contractor with acoustic leak detection tools, we were able to isolate the problem to a particular section of pipe connected directly to the city's water line.  We've had two prior pin-hole leaks in the same section of pipe within the past year so we contacted a plumber to replace the entire line from the street to the point it connects to the house.  While the plumber was able to suggest a method to limit the impact to my garden somewhat, there's a lot of prep work to be done.

The pipe in question runs under my compost bins so I started by emptying the one I was currently using.

I stopped adding new material to my compost pile when we decided to bite the bullet and replace the pipe.  It was about half full when I started sifting through it to remove rocks, grubs and the giant bird-of-paradise roots infiltrating the bin from my neighbor's property.  The photos show the bin actively in use (left, midway through the process), the screen I used to sift it (middle), and the empty bin (right).

Even though the bin wasn't full at the start, I managed to fill one and a half trashcans with screened compost

I used it up all too fast on this and one other, smaller area in the back garden

My stubborn husband, who is recovering from surgery and still isn't supposed to be lifting much weight, started tackling removal of a large area of gravel.

This is a fraction of the areas he's already cleared of gravel.  I'd estimate he's about half done.

So far, he's filled 16 bags with gravel.  Regrettably, more than half of them are being stored in my cutting garden.

I still have to dig up a section of bromeliads and succulents I planted along our northern property line.

In addition to the succulents and bromeliads I'll need to put into temporary pots, there's a chiminea, a couple of large pots, and rocks that I'll need to move (somewhere)

 

Among the plants to be moved are those in this lovely little vignette I showed off in an August post

We've received the cost estimate for performing the plumbing work but we don't yet have a scheduled date for the three-day job.  Hopefully, it won't be long.  Whatever water we saved by honoring the 13-day outdoor watering ban is being lost every day that the work's on hold.

All material © 2012-2022 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Wednesday Vignette: Harbor views

I got up very early (for me) on Monday in an effort to get to the supermarket soon after opening time to avoid any crowds.  COVID-19 is surging again in Los Angeles County, as it is in most of California and much of the country.  The ICUs in our local hospitals are reportedly already at capacity even without the influx expected to follow the Thanksgiving holiday, making me even more cautious about public venues.  But the pantry was bare and the online grocery shopping I did during our earlier lockdown was frustrating to say the least so I didn't feel I had a good alternative.  However, my reward for being up and dressed before dawn was a brilliant sunrise.

A slightly wider shot

Did you notice all the boats sitting outside the harbor?  Traffic was low for a time earlier this year but now cargo ships are backed up off-shore waiting for berths in the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports so they can unload their cargo.  

On Saturday, I counted 25 ships anchored between the Port of Los Angeles (shown here) and the Long Beach port beyond.  Seventeen are visible in this shot.

It's not clear that the shipping backlog will be resolved any time soon.  Labor and equipment shortages, as well as complications stemming from the pandemic, are elements of the problem. The delays may be  something to factor into any holiday shopping you're doing online.

For more Wednesday Vignettes, visit Anna at Flutter & Hum.

All material © 2012-2020 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Wednesday Vignette: Pipig checks out our renovation

As work on our remodel has now extended into the part of the house we've been living in, our cat, Pipig (Swedish for "squeaky"), is no longer able to hide out in relative bliss in the back of my bedroom closet.  Yesterday, for the first time in months, she was confined to her screened catio on the south side of the house, adjacent to the living room.  Now, she loves her catio and, prior to the start of renovations, she spent lots of time out there watching what was going on in the garden.  But she expects to be able to re-enter the house whenever she choses.  That's not possible at the moment with workmen going in and out, handling materials hazardous to cats and such.

She squawked at me constantly from her catio prison and, when I entered, immediately left per perch on the cat walk to scold me and demand her release.  (I expect she doesn't register that I cleaned it from top to bottom and that it's been freshly painted.)

After the workmen left yesterday, we let her come through to check out what's happening in the area under renovation.

She wasn't impressed by the front entry, probably wondering where the rug she liked to use to sharpen her claws has gone

The living room was more interesting and she really liked the fireplace, giving it a roll of approval even in its half-finished state

She displayed disdain for the kitchen, seemingly perplexed as to why we've made all this fuss over it, and annoyed to find her food bowls were nowhere to be found.  (What she doesn't know is that we've carved out a special feeding station on one end of the island just for her.)

Pipig may not be impressed by the new kitchen but I think it's looking pretty good.  Assuming no more unexpected complications, we should be on track to be done by Thanksgiving.

The cabinets, countertops, and backsplash are in.  Now it just needs flooring, appliances, and lights.

I look forward to being able to watch the sunrise from the kitchen window.

View of the harbor from the back garden at sunrise

For more Wednesday Vignettes, visit Anna at Flutter & Hum.


All material © 2012-2019 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Wednesday Vignettes: Horizon Views

I haven't posted a Wednesday Vignette in several weeks so I thought I'd make up for lost time by posting several.  All they share in common is that they capture views of the horizon taken from my backyard over the course of the past week.

Vignette #1, from January 31st:

If you've ever wondered how the smog accumulates so quickly along our horizon, even in the midst of a series of rainstorms, here's a clue.  The State of California and the South Coast Air Quality Management District are currently considering new controls on local oil refineries.

Vignette #2, from February 1st:

This may be the weirdest sunrise I've ever seen.  Another rainstorm was moving in and there was a heavy bank of clouds filling the upper horizon, although the Port of Los Angeles was still visible as the sun came up.  It looked almost as if the storm was lowering a curtain on the sun.

Vignette #3, from February 3rd:

While sitting in my office on Sunday morning, a saw a large flock of birds swooping in to land in the mimosa tree, only to leave as a group shortly thereafter.  The process repeated itself several times until they departed altogether.  Unfortunately, they didn't file a flight plan with me so I can't tell you where they went.

Although you probably can't tell it from my photos, which were taken from inside the house, they were Cedar Waxwings.  On this visit, they didn't bother with the dips in the backyard fountain I captured on video in early January.

Vignette #4, from this morning:

This may be the best photo of the snow-covered mountains to the northeast of us I've captured.  The mountains are well and truly dusted.

This photo was taken about an hour after the previous one.  You might notice that the blue tarp on the roof across the canyon has been removed and roofers are hard at work on repairs.  Blue tarps are a common scene on rooftops here when we get heavy rain.  There are a lot of them in the neighborhood at present!

That's a wrap on my horizon views.  For more Wednesday Vignettes, visit Anna at Flutter & Hum.


All material © 2012-2019 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party