Category Archives: Lifestyle

Showing some of life in southern California.

Bring Your Garden Inside

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red-roses-1This morning when I was outside watering my plants and enjoying the beautiful flowers, I asked myself why I don’t cut more flowers and bring them inside where we can enjoy them all day long. I’m always careful to deadhead my plants to encourage more blooms, but why not cut the flowers while they are still beautiful. This way we would have a garden both indoors and out. I took my own advice and above are some of the roses I brought inside today. These are now sitting in our living room on the glass coffee table looking beautiful. Below is a rose from a different bush. This one adorns our kitchen table. Both bouquets are a little past their peak, but the color is lovely and each gives off a wonderful fragrance. Both varieties add something special to the room where they are displayed.

rose-2This may be one of my better ideas. Tomorrow I’ll be outside in the garden looking for more flowers to bring inside. I’ve a feeling that I may be in need of more vases, even if they are empty mason, or spaghetti sauce jars, which make unique containers for displaying cut flowers.

New Board Shorts

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Rip-CurlI was in need of a new pair of board shorts, so this morning we headed for the Rip Curl outlet in San Clemente. It was a perfect destination for a ride, Martin on his Kymco Downtown 300 and I on my can-am Spyder. We traveled south along Pacific Coast Highway and through the town of San Clemente. The outlet store is at the very south end of town, so it was the perfect opportunity to have a good look around. I was sorry  that I’d left my camera at home. As we looked around the store, I realized that this was the first time we’d shopped at Rip Curl without at least one of our kids. Whenever they are home for a visit we usually make at least one trip.

Above you can see our purchases. Board shorts for me, flip flops for Martin. Later we returned home by way of San Juan Capistrano, another beautiful city to ride through. We had a great ride, and it was a wonderful way to spend a Saturday morning.

 

 

Hummingbird Garden Update

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Garden-2 Three weeks ago we started a hummingbird garden. You can read about it in Our Hummingbird Garden and in Our Hummingbird garden Part 2.

I’m not sure if readers realized that I potted the plants in containers rather than in the ground. The pots are sitting on flagstone tiles in the center of the yard. It is one of the few places where we get full sun during the day. Most of the sage and salvia plants that attract hummingbirds like a full sun exposure. Each plant has a drip system running to it, but I do have to supplement the water supply. Most of these plants are drought tolerant, but in the hot summer sun, especially in pots, they do need more water.

This morning I went on line to learn how to propagate sage and salvia plants. I discovered a helpful blog called Growing the Home Garden. In a short article I found what I was looking for. I finished reading, and headed into the garden to look for just the right cuttings. As sometimes happens I found myself doing things a little differently than planned, and it also turned out to be a faster way to expand our hummingbird garden.

Pineapple-sageAbove is the Pineapple Sage plant, another hummingbird favorite. I purchased a small plant on May 25, and it had already outgrown its original pot. While repotting the sage, I was able to separate a smaller plant that was an offshoot of the larger one. Above you see the original and secondary plants in their new pots.  I can’t wait to see their bright red flowers. I will be sure to post a picture when it happens. This plant seems to be a very fast grower, and something tells me I will soon be sharing pineapple sage plants. Pineapple Sage Tea anyone?