Monday, April 23, 2007

Trashy Yard, Great Ceanothus

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Groucho Marx Heads and Plants

Subtitle: Bad Pictures of Good Things

OK, I've been trying to get photos of these bizarre Groucho Marx heads for you guys for weeks now. But we're always going too fast over the West Seattle Bridge. Today I noticed that most of them are gone, and there's only one left, so I'll just show you what I've got so far.

Pictures from 4/17:

(WTF?)

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Picture from today:

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Now back to the plants. Here are my beloved smoke trees back on 4/17. The blue oat grass has exploded since then.

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Here's my Ceanothus on 4/17:

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And the rest of the photos are from this evening.

Some books say you can cut the seedheads from your Helictotrichon sempervirens, but I would never do that.

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Lovely Cotinus.

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My husband sometimes complains that it looks weedy, but I love this big fluffy fennel.

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This Japanese maple was a birthday present from my stepmother-in-law. The Japanese maple is like the patron plant of Mid Beacon Hill. Virtually everyone has one. They're nice. I need to try to find a protected place for this guy. It may be a planter plant, to tell you the truth.

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Another gift. Euphorbia. I like them. 2,160 species can't be wrong, right?

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More gifts. Raspberries!

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Some of the leaves aren't looking so hot, but the alliums themselves seem to be fine so far.

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I've been really busy with all that birthday stuff, so I still haven't had a chance to plant this beautiful little Hebe yet. I know I am going to love it.

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Ginkgo leaves. So sweet.

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Saturday, April 14, 2007

Three Ceanothus Plants I Saw Today

My Chesnut District friends' Ceanothus.

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Ceanothus at the Arboretum.

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My Ceanothus.

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Bonus photo. The plants I bought at the Arboretum plant sale today. A dwarf fir, a hebe, and some sedum.

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Thursday, April 12, 2007

Photos of Plants in Beacon Hill and Wedgwood

I liked the way the smoke tree's leaves caught the morning light yesterday.

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Yes, another photo of my Ceanothus. It's just fucking killing me how close to bloom it is.

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Here's a misleadingly cropped photo of the view of my living room from this morning. When you're actually in the living room, you see the top of mean neighbor dude's house right under this. But let's just look at the Olympics instead.

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OK, off to Wedgwood. I believe this is where local gardening personality Ciscoe Morris lives.

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He has one of the lushest planting strips in Seattle.

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Moss, mondo, maple.

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This is my friends' house.

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They built this fence around their tree.

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Sunday, April 8, 2007

Quick Tour of the Garden

Nowadays whenever I come home from a trip, I'm so excited to see my plants that I tour the front and back yards before going in the house.

My blue oat grass is sending up some seeds.

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Smoke tree is starting to show us its beautiful leaves.

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Looks like the ginkgo survived the cold winter in its aluminum pot. I know this seems awfully sexist, but I'm afraid to plant it in case it's female. I bought it for $10 from a guy at a farmer's market last summer.

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I think this may be the first honeybee I've seen in the yard this year.

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Alliums are coming right along.

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I love how juicy the barberry leaves look at this time of year. This summer they'll look more variegated.

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A little bit hard to see in this photo, but it does look like this Julia Phelps Ceanothus is going to have brilliantly and deeply blue flowers. This one is doing better than a couple of the others, but that's OK. I think I may remove some of the weaker ones. Despite their incomparable beauty, no one really needs nine Ceanothus plants in their backyard.

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Saturday, April 7, 2007

Dick and Jane's Spot in Ellensburg

While looking for a place to have lunch in Ellensburg, Washington, on Saturday, I passed a weird-looking house and yard. These kooky homeowners call their place Dick and Jane's Spot.

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The drive back to Seattle on I-90 takes us past farms and lakes in the Cascades.

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Trip to Yakima

Friday we went to Yakima to see our friends' bands Trentalange and Head Like a Kite play at the Sports Center. No plant photos here, but there are some museum shots.

First we stopped at the Yakima Valley Museum, which has a small collection of neon signs and a large collection of horse-drawn carriages.

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Coincidentally, I was wearing a T-shirt that depicts a horse-drawn carriage.

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Kitty!

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Old apple crate labels.

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A Depression-era dress made of flour sacks.

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People used to hunt mammoth around here.

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A prehistoric cat.

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A stuffed cougar.

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A few of local businessman Joseph Klingele's collection of 3,000 pencils.

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Then we went to a junk shop, where I spent $20 on old postcards. I did not buy this.

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Or this.

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I don't like most Chinese food, but I enjoy a seedy Chinese lounge.

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This one's called the Lotus Room. "Cast Away" was playing. I started drinking liquor, after having already had beer and wine.

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Trentalange was already playing when we get back to the Sports Center.

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The rest of the night is sort of a blur.

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Barb showed off her biceps.

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Dave showed off his horns.

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Bye-bye, Sports Center.

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Hello, Mel's Diner!

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