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In a Vase on Monday: Bouncy Blooms
My two arrangements this week have little in common. They're far apart on the color wheel but not actually complementary. One's small and the other's considerably larger. Other than that they both...
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Wednesday Vignette: The birds are still here
One of my biggest concerns about taking down the dying mimosa tree (Albizia julibrissin) was that its removal would impact the bird activity in my back garden. The mimosa was bare for a good portion...
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In a Vase on Monday: Strange bedfellows
Finding flowers to fill a vase (much less my usual two or three vases) has become more of a challenge with each passing week. Only a handful of flower species are currently available in a bountiful...
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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...
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Smoky Air and Succulent Mixes
2020 keeps on giving in the worst possible sense of that expression. A new round of high winds hit Southern California this week, setting off yet another series of wildfires, three at last count. The...
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In a Vase on Monday: True Love
My nephew lost the center of his world, his fiancée Sofia, to cancer on Saturday. Despite assertive efforts to save her life, she was lost to us little more than a month after she received her...
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Wednesday Vignette: Time to bring down the curtain on 2020
I'd like to be done with 2020. Each day seem to bring something new to worry about. Yesterday morning, during the exceptionally dry period that appears neverending, I smelled smoke while in the...
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My neglected north side garden
I've largely ignored the garden on the north side of the house for the last couple of years, letting it get by on benign neglect. This week, without any kind of plan in mind, I decided it was time for...
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In a Vase on Monday: Fragile Flowers
The flowers available for cutting are in shorter supply now and the blooms I do have generally don't have long vase-lives. In recognition of the season, the first arrangement is a mix of red and green...
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Bloom Day - December 2020
It's been ridiculously dry here in coastal Southern California. Other than one light rainstorm in mid-November, which delivered just a twentieth of an inch of rain in this location, we've had no rain...
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The halls are decked (for Christmas)
In this most awful of years, it was hard to work up the energy to decorate for Christmas. As the new stay-at-home order in Los Angeles loomed close, I briefly considered giving up on a tree this year,...
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In a Vase on Monday: Itsy Bitsy tangles with the queen of flowers
A friend of mine stopped by on Saturday with gifts, including peonies! The same market that offers peonies in late spring/early summer now has "winter peonies" so of course I had to use them in a vase...
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Wednesday Vignette: The value of persistence
When I moved the bird feeders in my garden after two dead trees were taken down, it took only a short while before the birds became comfortable with the new location and came back. It took only...
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In a Vase On Monday: Prelude to rain
Expecting our first real rain of the season, I cut flowers with little chance of holding up well for today's arrangements, not that I had an extensive list of prospects to begin with. The focal point...
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Wednesday Vignettes: Changes in the Weather
After weeks of unseasonably warm, dry weather, we had a sudden shift this week with our first real rainstorm of our all-too-short rainy season. I heard the forecasts for days before the event but...
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Seeing 2020 in the rear view mirror
How do you review a year like 2020? It's truly the most horrible year in my memory. As if the political scene wasn't bad enough already, it got worse as elected leaders failed to lead and divisions...
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In a Vase on Monday: Making the most of my Leucadendrons
Pickings in my garden are slim at the moment so, when I looked out my bedroom window Sunday morning and saw yellow blooms glowing in the distance, I immediately knew I was going to cut stems of...
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'Fearless Gardening': Advice from an Expert
I expect that many of you are familiar with Loree Bohl of danger garden fame. Loree's blog was one of the first I started following, even before I started blogging myself. I've gotten to know her...
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Winter Foliage Highlights
When I sat down to write this post, I started with a rant about what happened in the US Capitol on Wednesday. Disillusioned and disgusted as I've been with the current occupant of the White House for...
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In a Vase on Monday: Is it Spring yet?
For the first time in many months, I could only work up the energy for one arrangement this week. Although buds are appearing here and there, there are few "new" blooms but, when I noticed that one of...
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