You can fool the fans - but not the players.... John Cage

10 days since my last post? Aggh! Water feature re-vamp

I wrote about the water feature way back in early spring. I've been so intrigued by it since we moved in - this is such a hot, dry place that the thought of water tinkling over rocks became extremely desirable.

So I took it out for a test run.

It was OK. The water had a pleasing sound, especially with the rocks arranged just right, but it had a leak somewhere and it just lacked... I don't know.... sparkle. The bottom of the pool was painted a tufa pink and it just didn't pick up the light. Desert-y, yes. Refreshing, not so much.

So this is it now.

Too bright? I struggle with this daily. We had to repaint it with pool paint and the only pool paint at Lowes was this, of course, pool blue. It comes with complicated directions, dries to a stretchy, elastic surface, and had to be cured for a week. I carefully painted around the water line and siliconed all the cracks before painting, swept the leaves and bugs out every day and impatiently waited to fill it.

Old:

New:

There are rocks hiding the pumps again and I'm letting a little algae grow on the surface... my routine is to take my first cup of coffee outside, scrub around the bottom and get the debris rising in the water, then I use a sieve to scoop up the big stuff like leaves and bugs and bird seed. Then I just let it run when I'm home and I love to walk outside and hear it splashing. There is still an issue with evaporation and so I turn it off when I leave and at night so as not to waste too much water.. it is an indulgence, I know.

Old:

New:

I still feel like it needs something but it hasn't quite come to me yet. We've talked about river rock instead of the pumice? Or perhaps some mosaic? Old glass? Any ideas out there?

Hollyhocks

I'm so fortunate to have moved into a house with an established garden - there is so much to work with. And in this house we have some old-fashioned flowers like lilacs, wisteria and, one of my favorites, hollyhocks. I know they can be like weeds - reseeding themselves and popping up everywhere - but they are so pretty. I'm going to do my best to restrain them and create sort of a cutting garden in the big garden by the kitchen window.

It has been a roller coaster ride the last couple of months - starting the new job before the old job was even close to be over. But I'm at the end of the school year - tomorrow is graduation. And of course I am starting to feel nostalgic and nervous. Will I miss the interaction with the teachers and the students at the school or will my travel and meeting with people take up that part of my life? Will I do well? Will I be successful?

It rained this afternoon and I came home, laid on the sofa and fell asleep for two hours. The cat slept on my legs and it was so comfortable. I could have probably slept through the night. But I got up in order to fully appreciate the rain, the cool weather, and to clean house a little bit. All I really did was vacuum. And paint pages of my journal - which has been also neglected along with this blog.

I've also been reading camera reviews since I'm going to have to buy one of my own now that my school camera will no longer be available. I think I'm going to stick with Olympus since I have had such a good experience with this one - and I'm going with a digital SLR. I'm looking at the E-510 right now. I've loved carrying a camera everywhere with me and snapping off photos at the spur of the moment - it's just been so much fun.

This post will close with a couple of photos of the "lick" buckets I am converting into container gardens - last night I drilled holes in the bottom and used up almost all of my leftover spray paint covering the black plastic in hopes that they won't get too hot in the Owens Valley summer sun. JC is picking up more potting soil and maybe some veggie plants - we can finish what garden we are going to have this weekend perhaps.

Viva la veggies!

Peony (singular)

I can't believe it has been this long since the last post. I have been on such a treadmill of work and activities - making the transition over to Sierra Business Council from teaching. So this will be brief - but purty.

I have two potted peonies and one of them decided to bloom this year. One plant, one bloom. So I watched it and brushed the ants off and fussed over it and waited to see my precious little peony.

I'm surprised it didn't just fall off the stem with all the checking I did - but peonies are actually hardy plants. They like their heads in the sun and their feet in the shade! These little pots will have to migrate somewhere cooler once it really becomes summer here - this side of the house gets the most sun and heat. Eventually we will have a container veggie garden where these plants are spending the spring.

And there she is. Not one of those big overblown peonies (which I dearly love) but a peony nevertheless. And now.... she's gone. Til next year.

I'm back again.

hummingbirds

I put the hummingbird feeders out earlier this week and it wasn't but overnight until the little beauties found them. They must have an incredible sense of smell for sugar or something. Or else they are just covering ground checking out every possibility. Whatever - they found the feeders. I opted not to tint the sugar water and with the red feeders it doesn't matter but I've notice that the little green feeder I have interests them not one bit. Was it an experimental color?

These little birds are not the least bit afraid of me either. I sat at the table with my camera aimed at the feeder and they zoomed in and out undisturbed. There were three this day that seemed to be vying  with each other for access to the feeders - or the territory. It was fascinating. I could sit there for an hour or more watching them.

Now I have to read up on them and identify them - I'm thinking of getting the iphone app that has the bird calls and photos - a bird book in a phone. Another perk with my new job is the ability to take a hummingbird-watching break (my version of the cigarette break) whenever I need it.

This one must be a female, don't you think? She's a little drab. And she is voracious so maybe she's got some eggs cookin' somewhere. Where do hummingbirds build their nests? I'm sure this isn't the last photo of hummingbirds at the feeder I'll post on here - I remember somewhere... someone had a feeder and it was mobbed with hummingbirds. Maybe mine will become the hummingbird truck-stop of Wilkerson and I won't be able to get any work done for all the monitoring I'm going to have to do.

Wisteria

The wisteria is in bloom and it is a sight to behold. And this one isn't even in all its glory having suffered a couple of years of neglect... we'll try to bring it back to full splendor.

Big loud bumblebees love to visit this plant and makes it a little nerve-wracking to be out on the front porch - but I figure the flowers won't last forever and it sure smells divine when you walk out there at night. We really pruned this plant back in February or so and it still needs additional pruning - I guess one would have to work pretty hard to actually kill this plant. It's old, though, you can tell by its thick twisting trunk. And really a treat to have come with the house.

Spring is when Bishop really shows off - before it gets stifling hot here in the valley. Go, wisteria, go!