Hey Jo, whattaya know?

"Hey Jo, whattaya know?" has been shouted at me many, many times over the years. And the expected answer is "My flowers won't grow!".

It's been the truth. I have a bit of a thumb of death. Most herbs and more delicate plants I have attempted to nurture have died a horrible wilting death in the Southern California sun.

Recently, however I was given a pair of wonderfully comfortable patio chairs (Thanks Boss!), and guess what? I have a patio to put them on! Which got me to thinking of native plants that  can survive the heat and don't need a lot of TLC.

Enter my new obsession: succulents.

I love these guys! They are green and brightly colored. They come in all kinds of crazy graphically interesting shapes. And it's even recommended that I avoid watering some of them. (YES!)

This gives me time to have a lovely little garden and focus my remaining gardening time on my three herb plants. This brings me to the topic of aphids. These little jerk-faces are feeding on the new growth of my mint plants! After trying to wash them away with a home remedy, I have resorted to buying a hoard of carnivorous lady bugs to feast upon their flesh.

June Gloom who?

I was in Knit Culture last week and Lorna's Laces Honor yarn called out to me in a bright sunny soothing voice. But 70% Baby Alpaca/30% Silk isn't exactly cool yarn. It's has more of a cuddly nature right?

Ah Ha! June gloom is soon upon us here in the Southland, so what could be better than a bright lacy layer to combat the rainy gray weather?

What will it be? Wait and see. The swatches have been knit and computations have been made.

Tally ho!

Macro Madness

Macro photography. Not at all what I thought it was.

Those amazing photos of a fly, bee, or flower where everything is in focus? They are focus stacked. Meaning several (up to 20 or more) photos are taken, each focusing on a different part of the object. Then using software (Photoshop) they are stacked one on top of each other to create one completely in focus photograph.

To my amazement I didn't take enough photos in my example of Bougainvillea shown here. The B&W version above is focus stacked and is flawed enough that I can't make a decent print of it yet. If I had overlapped the focus better, everything would have been in focus.  As it stands, I still have a lot of Photoshopping to go. (Blargh.)

A single shot is below just to show off the pretty color.