We Get Two


 Can't focus--bouncing between gardening, painting, and retail therapy.  The noise from next door has evolved.  They are now digging the new pool and it involves lots of reversing.  Every time the digging machine goes into reverse it beeps.  There's also a soil compactor that thrums, jiggling the window glass, and boulders tumbling periodically into a dump truck.  Also yelling. 
'Valencia':
 All that may have something to do with the lack of focus.  Or not.  The garden continues to recover from summer, and new sights pop daily, as if it was Springtime.  But it is Spring!  This is California:  we get two.  Fall is our second Spring, and actually the better of the two, because there is extra time until Summer returns to fry everything again.  
 Bulb foliage emerging--Drimia maritima
Recent purchase of The Iris Known As Dutch:  'Eye of the Tiger': they sprouteth, protected by screen.
 Roses unchewed by Thrips, Chili and otherwise.
'Munstead Wood'
 When it gets too loud outside, I retreat indoors to paint a window.  The color is 'Black Fox'. 
 The original 'Mini King' Protea has two buds.  It's grown a few inches, six, maybe, since purchase a couple of years ago. It's not in a hurry. 
 While the surviving recent Protea purchase 'Mini King' (the other died in the worst of our Summer heat waves) has opened its somewhat sun bleached (by the worst of our Autumn heat waves) bud:
 The flower took weeks--months--to open. The plant is not in a hurry. 
This rose ('Valencia') new in Spring-Spring, spent all Summer and most of Autumn swallowed up by Salvia 'Waverly'.  I hacked back 'Waverly', and 'Valencia' celebrated. 
...Agave break...really can't focus!
Retail therapy:  Echeveria 'Metallica'.  A bit damaged from the ride home.  
 Retail therapy:  Salvia blepharophylla for an odd but highly visible corner.  This Salvia spreads.  The idea is that the odd corner will contain it somewhat. 
 The Aeoniums finally woke up.  They go dormant in summer, like the gardener does. 
 Retail therapy:  is this really Aloe africana?  There were two whole flats of these in 4" pots at the garden center that had obviously been sitting ignored for at least a year--the soil in each pot was low and full of sprouting weeds, the flats shoved onto a hard-to-see shelf in deep shade.  The price was a bargain, so one was rescued from obscurity and brought home.  Image search brought up similar plants marked as A. africana, so...maybe.  
Unfocused. Two Springs will do that.  Or noise. 

Comments

  1. Oh those reversing trucks. Almost as bad as the tradesman’s radio which is such a common feature of any work over here. I would have been driven to retail therapy as well. Loving the black window frames. Just be careful on that ladder. Again!

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    1. Beep!Beep!Beep!Beep! What do your tradesmen listen to?

      Thanks I'm really happy with the new window frame color . Really makes the room look better. Being very ladder careful, yes. You'll know I wasn't if the blog stops getting updated. :^( You be careful on your slippery banks!

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  2. HB, I'm glad your garden is recovering from the harsh summer heat, in my climate we also get "two" autumn is a second spring here too. I love that hot pink rose, a real stunner with so many petals! I have a soft spot for very double flowers. Your aeoniums look very good mine have been mauled by snails... there are too many snails here and they love succulents! Enjoy the second spring!

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    1. I too like the very double roses. Luckily not many snails here since the drought--they could not survive the dryness. Have a beautiful Sunday!

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  3. Lol, retailtherapy that's what I need here, it's cold and wet and not the best time for planting new plants, so sorry for that. Your photos of your second spring cheer me up a bit, I can only dream of blooming roses now.

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    1. Here is warm and dry, just the opposite. Hope we can trade that, soon. As always, we need rain here. I hope at least you get some sunshine--that is always cheering. :)

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  4. Although we've got nothing quite as noisy as a pool being dug, we're also dealing with neighbor noise. Fall is tree trimming season and this morning someone nearby is endlessly grinding stumps of some kind. And just across the canyon, work on a house that's been in the process of doubling its size for at least 2 years has moved into hyperdrive. But my garden is showing signs of our second spring too - this morning I discovered that the Metrosideros 'Springfire' I planted in February is blooming!

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    1. How do you like your 'Springfire'? I hope it is working out for you. As mine have matured they bloom more, and more constantly. Very popular with bees and hummers. I think my largest is now about 8' tall with still very dense foliage right down to the ground.

      They are finally working on that house? I remember they had a wooden frame up to show the height of the planned work. It does take a while.

      Chainsaw season, I know it well. Not as bad as jackhammering at 8am Saturday, which is what we got this morning, but bad enough. Chainsaw noise doesn't bother me that much anymore because at least trees are being cared for and fire danger is being reduced. It's the Palms that don't get stripped of old fronds and the Eucs in terrible shape going ignored that bother more.

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  5. Echeveria 'Metallica'...huh, I had one of those once. I wonder what happened to it? Winter probably. Your Protea looks worth waiting for.

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    1. So many plants, so little time, but yes, the Protea flower was worth the wait. Winter? I've seen it on TV...

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  6. The agave is magnificent.

    Our nice but noisy neighbour spent an industrious morning with his industrial blower, very meticulously removing grains of windblown sand from the tarred road along his house frontage.

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    1. I get very distracted by that Agave. It's always worth looking at.

      Perhaps your neighbor will become fascinated by caring for small potted succulent plants and neglect use of his blower. Small potted plant care is a very quiet activity.

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  7. I really like that last photo of the rescue, but am wondering about the cages -- is that because of rabbits?

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    1. Yes, rabbits. I cut back Salvia 'Waverly' and rabbits started eating the tender new growth, so I put a cage around 'Waverly', the rose, and the emerging bulb foliage, which they will eat up also. Grrrr!!!

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  8. Love the new black mullions - looks great! I hear you on the sound pollution - I can't focus in that kind of setting either. Great excuse to go somewhere else!

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    1. Thanks, I'm happy with how the windows turned out. Feels like a new house!

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