I had a lovely day hiking with my brother- and sister-in-law today. They took me to Las Flores Ranch Park, integrated waste and recreation!
The City of Santa Maria bought the 1700-acre parcel from Chevron recently. Part of the land is being used for a new landfill, and part of it is for recreation and education. We walked the latter part, thankfully! The area has nice trails!
Here are a few shots.
Some of the Dark-as-Night-Life:
That standing fellow came over to say hello. He was quite curious about my camera.
I love burros!
Chris likes burros, too! And kids!
I can't remember the last time I saw a horned toad! Mitch spotted this guy. He was so nice to pose and show off his crown.
We also spotted a jack-rabbit, but he high-tailed it outta there before I could get a shot.
It was a perfect day to enjoy the Santa Maria Valley! Thanks, kids!
I've been a blog-lolygagger (blogylagger?) lately. What with travels and our helping Mother-in-Law solve some issues, it has been a run-hither-and-yon couple of weeks, with little time here in front of the screen.
I've had this post in the making for a while now!
I decided to finally get my large front area planted. After many years of its ash-tree-and-ivy landscape, a short stent as a vegetable garden, and a (too-long) time being Weedville, it was time for a transformation. So, I did what I knew and loved. I planted California native drought-tolerant plants.
Every April and October, the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden holds a plant sale. I usually shop in October, but the time was right this April to spring into action! I feel a little guilty for planting in the Spring, with the use of the extra water it will take to establish them, but I just didn't want to wait until Fall.
The first step was having my Muscle Guy roto-till the area. I regret I did not get a picture of that, nor do I have any "before" shots. They'd be too embarrassing anyway. I do have this, though, from before:
At least someone appreciates Weedville!
Here is a progression of my project.
After tilling:
After it was tilled, I covered it with black garden fabric.
Then, I went shopping!
I've no extensive knowledge in plants, so I did what I did last time: I went with an open mind and not a lot of research. I browsed and got what I thought I'd like, what was native (luckily this was done for me; all the plants in the sale this time were native), and what was drought-tolerant. I tried to get a variety of sizes and flower colors. It was a fun shopping excursion!
Here they are, fresh from the garden:
And here they are, staged for planting.
Since I lost several plants on the other side to pocket gophers, I decided to plant most of them with gopher baskets. The exception were the sages. My reasoning was that they would taste too strong for the gophers. We shall see if my amateur hypothesis bears out. Planting them in baskets was a little extra work, but it'll be worth it to not lose the plants.
After I planted them, I covered the area with wood chips for beauty and weed-abatement.
Here is the final product.
They look so puny!
This is what I have:
Iris Patrick's Halloween
Iris Pacifica hybrid ruffled gold
Monkeyflower. Mimulus x puniceus
Monkeyflower. Mimulus aurantiacus
Bush Snapdragon. Galvia speciosa (I got 2)
Ceanothus centennial (I got 6)
Island Mallow. Lavatera assurgentiflora
Purple Sage. Salvia leukophyllia
Manzanita. Astrostaphylos Louis Edmonds
Island Bush Poppy. Dendromecon harfordii
California Fuschia. Zaushneria Californica John Bixby
Western Redbud. Cercis occidenatlis
Coast Sunflower. Encelia californica
Hummingbird Sage. Salvia spathacea (I got 2)
Bladderpod. Isomeris arborea
Giant Coreopsis. Coreopsis gigantea
Canyon Sunflower. Venegasia carpesioides
After a few weeks, the plants are pretty happy. In fact, several are blooming well.
Bush Poppy
Monkeyflower
Canyon Sunflower
Bush Snapdragon
Hummingbird Sage
Ceanothus centennial
Both Iris bloomed nicely, but I regret I did not get snaps of them. They look like they are done for the season.
Generally, all the plants are all doing well. There are one or two that I'm a little worried about, but they are hanging in. I figure if I lose any, it will give me the opportunity to shop again in October!
As a final step, I would like to get some rocks from the local hills. I haven't had the time or the Muscle to help me. Soon, I hope. And I may create a walking path or a sitting bench or some such. We'll see.
It was a good day for baseball! Annette and I had a fabulous time in the OC, sitting in the sun, drinking beer (just one of us), eating peanuts, and watching the National Pastime.
It was actually a fun whole weekend. On Saturday we drove down, after doing some shopping. Annette took this pic out the window of the car.
After checking into the hotel, we used Yelp to find a good nearby restaurant and hit on a hamburger joint that had:
Coca-Cola Freestyle is a cool touchscreen Coke dispenser. You get to choose your base soda first, from of this collection:
That was kinda fun trying a bunch of combinations. We didn't try all 106, though. Maybe next time.
When we walked out of the restaurant, we noticed the bad-ass full moon rising. We tried to get some pictures, but it was difficult with the little camera. Annette took this one from the parking lot at the Crystal Cathedral:
Here is a shot I took. The picture is nothing to write home about, but the moon was spectacular. I hope you got to see it!
And the next day, the Main Event! We walked to the Stadium from our nearby hotel.
We had great seats, just a few rows up, on the first-base line.
One of the newest reasons to choose to watch the Los Angeles Angels at Anaheim over the Dodgers: this season's addition of Albert Pujols at First Base.
We got to see him hit his first home-run of the season!
And we both like this baby-face player, Mike Trout (age 20!).
The season is young; we look forward to enjoying more games!
We also spotted a jack-rabbit, but he high-tailed it outta there before I could get a shot.
