My succulent love/hate relationship

I have a love/hate relationship with succulents. When they're cared for properly and arranged thoughtfully, they can be beautiful - but if they're left to wander, overgrow their containers or struggle they're not very attractive at all. As Barbara points out, when they're in a gravel patch or you can see dirt around them, they don't look good. I agree. I have a few arrangements I've put together which by accident turned out well.  Here they are....

And I have a growing heap of plants in the scraggly category. Yesterday I painted some pots and started looking at the succulents in relation to the pot colors, something I've never done. I just plopped them in any old pot and let them grow.

This is the kind of hodge podge I don't usually like but for some reason this combination looks zany right now...blooms sticking out like hair licks everywhere. It makes me chuckle when I pass by. 



Now I'm attempting to match pots and plants more harmoniously. As I'm no artist by any means, I'm learning as I go. 

Kind of mahogany colored pot

Spray painted a few plastic pots bright yellow - yellow plants?

 Do these plants look better in the terra cotta pots? Or the blue green pots?

 What's better in the floral pot...one color? or a bunch of colors that match the pot?

 I think the yellow pot is better for this little ground cover. Hoping it will droop over the edges.

 

 

 

When I get sick of the succulents I check out the Mexican primrose - this is the first year I've grown this in De Luz. It's spreading rapidly.

 The sweet peas are finally ebbing after 11 weeks of non-stop bloom.

 And a finally a few more succulents. I don't like the pot with the tree-like succulent...it's too high for the companion plants and it keeps leaning as if it wants to get out of there. I think it "vants to be alone".

Euphonium

It's hot outside and I've been driven indoors to read the Facebook news where I found out that my friend's son will be going to the University of Redlands in September to study music. He plays the euphonium, king of band instruments. It has a wonderful dark, deep tone and moans and groans along in slow moving serious pieces such as laments and requiems. Beautiful sound.

As you can guess there are few jobs available for even the virtuoso  "eupho"  players - which can be called euphoniumists, euphophonists, or euphonists. I looked up jobs available out of curiosity and found few posted online -  teachings and/or bands.

If you want to hear the instrument played very well, here's a very showy piece:
Gypsy Airs - a virtuoso performance

And this is a young man performing at a TED concert. He's created some new sounds, sort of jazzy and hip hoppy, for the instrument. Interesting, but much more of it would be too much at least for me.

Ted concert

While listening to Matthew,  the crazy band of Spike Jones came to mind. My cousin played with Spike for a number of years. He actually made a living as a musician between band work, studio work, teaching and finally owning a music store in Burbank.

I love this Spike Jones performance:
Cocktails for Two

Tough career choice, music.... I'd think you'd want to develop some unique and marketable skills as soon as possible to pay the bills. Something like the Mnozil Brass Band.  This may not be dignified, but it is entertaining. 
Mnozil Brass Band

Time to run out and dribble more water on my poor little seedlings. The pots dry out so quickly in this heat - I'm afraid my birdhouse gourds won't make it. If they do, they'll look like this. Ha.

Luxurious Vancouver Interlude: Birthday Celebration

We hadn't see George and Daphne for several years. For Richard's birthday celebration we decided at the last minute to go to Vancouver and visit them. We lucked out and happened upon the most glorious three days of weather - bright sunshine, 75 - 80 afternoon temperatures and at the precise moment when the rhododendrons and tulips were at their peak.

Birthday boy

The Wedgewood Hotel and spa was perfect. Excellent service, a comfortable suite, delicious continental breakfast served every morning.

Wedgewood

Wedgewood: Breakfast room

 George and Daphne have a beautiful condominium home looking out on False Creek and within walking distance of everything: Stanley Park, galleries, shopping and theaters. Lucky dogs, they shop at the wonderful Granville market.

Park outside George and Daphne's home

G and D building

We took the ferry over there and George selected some lovely fresh oysters from the "Lobster Man". He shucked them himself on his patio. I watched in awe and trepidation remembering my bagel incident when I lost a bit of finger.....

Waiting for the Granville Island ferry: George with bag o'oysters

Eating freshly shucked oysters

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The flowers were glorious all over the city.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tulips everywhere

 

 

 

 

 


We took a long walk through the VanDusen gardens which were glorious in the sunshine and in full bloom. The below unimaginative picture of George and Richard was taken to show the size and splendor of the rhododendron. There's a "rhododendron walk" in the garden, a path through 2 story high bushes, that was worth the trip to Vancouver. Richard and I went into the maze below and fortunately George, standing on the mound, was able to see Richards hat as we stumbled and groped our way around in it. He guided us out. I guess we're too old for mazes now.

Maze VanDusen park

George and Richard enjoyed remembering times past together while riding the cable car up to the Observatory restaurant:

We ate well....note the fiddle head ferns on the plate.

Halibut at the Observatory - top of Grouse Mountain

Observatory: Quince and pistachio semi-freddo

Observatory: Sour Cherry Brulee with rhubarb chutney, kirsch ice cream, nougat

And more eating.....

C restaurant on False Creek

C restaurant: Fresh pea soup, smoked salmon, creme fraiche

C restaurant: rhubarb soda, candied rhubarb, rhubarb tart

George lives within a medium walk of the Orpheum theatre where we went to the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra Masterworks performance on Richard's birthday and heard the Strauss work, The Merry Pranks of Till Eulenspiegel. A tone poem, it's a light hearted fun piece, performed with a full orchestra and includes the triangle: one ding, and the seldom heard ratchet, not one but two  percussionists on the ratchet. Even the percussionists were almost giggling when they stood up and whirled those things. I looked it up as I knew little of it - I guess because the example given in Wikipedia is for the very piece we heard! No wonder the percussionists were having fun. That was probably the one and only time during their musical careers that they'll get the chance to whirl one.

From Wikipedia: It is used in, for example, Richard Strauss's piece Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks and Arnold Schoenberg's Gurre-Lieder. In the 18th and 19th centuries, British policemen used a similar device called a policeman's rattle to summon assistance. They also used the device during the Second World War, to warn of the presence of poison gas.

Daphne was away at a seminar for a couple of weeks but we did get a chance to see some of her lovely art quilts. One of her works in progress:

Daphne art quilt

And another beautiful quilt

Sepia Saturday 174: Boots on the moon

I wondered if these newspaper readers, no doubt tapping their feet or swinging their legs at they read,  gave much thought to their footwear as they sat engrossed in the news about the Apollo mission, Neal Armstrong and "one small step for mankind". 

Why do I wonder if these readers gave a thought to shoes? I was surprised to read that after completing that first walk on the moon, the Apollo astronauts left their boots, nine pairs in total, on the moon surface. The jettison wasn't planned ahead of time;  they picked up so much moon rock they had to compensate for the additional weight. The boots are presumably still there and may be in fairly decent condition given the atmosphere on the moon - no oxidation, therefore no rust of buckles and snaps, but experts say the silicone soles and synthetic fabrics have probably deteriorated or even turned to dust. Can an 1967 X-ray qualify for Sepia Saturday?

We have a record of the footprint made by Armstrong, seen here, but how unfortunate the boot that made the imprint wasn't saved for posterity here on earth.  I guess the astronauts had more to think about than their shoes and more to worry about...like getting back home.

Sepia Saturday 175 : NQS - Insert Coin Here

The prompt this week immediately reminded me of the famous Automatic Human Jukebox who used to dispense his talent from a packing box near Ghirardelli Square, San Francisco. This photo is circa the 70's so it's not quite sepia (nqs) but the best I can do.

www.tackyracoons.com

A sign on the side of the box said "Insert Coin". After you deposited your money, a flap would open and the excellent musician inside would pop up and play the trumpet or kazoo; for a dime, you got a single blast; for paper money, an entire song played very well. The whole act was hilarious: there was always a large audience on hand watching his unique act and laughing appreciatively. Whenever I was in the vicinity, I made a point of dropping by to see him at work.

I googled him and found out that his name was Grimes Poznikov. Sadly, city regulations reined in his act and mental illness got the best of him. He stopped playing around 1978 and was found dead of alcohol poisoning years later on the street in San Francisco.

I wasn't surpised to read that he inspired an opera written by Professor Tara Flandreau of the College of Marin. It was called "Broken Jukebox". She had this to say about him as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, 2/11/2011.

"Grimes was charming," said Flandreau, who watched him perform in the 1970's and interviewed him in the early 2000's while he wore a dress and banged on an abandoned piano in his homeless camp. "Totally charming - and nuts."

As to the cigarettes in the prompt, vending machines may dispense convenience and even musical talent, but never gallantry. My mother smoked Black Cat cigarettes and the trademark blue boxes (Canadian version) rested in our shiny metal cigarette/ashtray stand near the chair where she sat drinking her 6:00 p.m. cocktail. Unfortunately and fortunately I don't have any pictures of her smoking. She never worried about lighting a cigarette - my father would jump up and light hers - that was what a gentleman did in those days. 

My very favorite vending machine of recent days was the human Kit Kat dispensers that were used in an 2009 advertising scheme by Nestle in London. The Ultimate Irony vending machine - inside  sat a human being who handed you the chocolate bar after you deposited your money. What a concept! No cursing, no handle rattling, no kicking. The vending machine with the personal touch....

www.adweek.com

 To light up the rest of your day, check out the smokin' stories at Sepia Saturday