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

Sepia Saturday #173:Odd Inspiration

Grim, but with just a hint of a smile in the set of his mouth,  I think this young fellow could be bracing himself to participate in an ENGASTRATION. Ugh and Odd! An engastration is, as the word suggests, a recipe method where one animal is stuffed into the gastric cavity of another. A culinary horror, the Turducken is the most widely known of these monstrosities in the U.S. Summing it up - "it's a turkey stuffed with a duck stuffed with a chicken". These plucked birds are large enough for serious stuffing with something. 

www.toonpool

While working in the egg industry, I was frequently asked about adding a couple of eggs to the inside of the final chicken in one of these concoctions. Talk about gilding the lily!  The piece de resistance, the yolks would be like gold at the heart of the matter.  It was always male cooks posing the question; I've never heard of a woman attempting one of these. In my experience, over-the-top cooking of this ilk , is a male thing. 

thefoodinmybeard.com

In the U.K. something like the Turducken is called a ballotine or a "three bird roast". Fancy French chefs from days of yore produced engastrations which included even smaller birds: turkey, duck, chicken, guinea fowl, partridge, quail, lark - the smallest bird being just large enough to hold an olive. Cute!

The people at Pepto Bismol apparently cruise culinary trends figuring out which ones are going to positively affect their business. What a job! I have a suggestion for the position title: Indigestion Opportunist? Gut Guru? The word Engastration alone probably got their attention and signaled a national stomach ache on it's way. With WalMart they ran this ad in 2011 anticipating the final result of Turducken excess. 

That was to be the end of my Odd and Ugh submission for the prompt but  I opened the paper this morning and saw this "Still Life" by the Australian sculptor Ron Mueck. The hyper-realistic piece is so like the birds in the prompt! You never know...perhaps the young boy in the photo wasn't thinking about stuffing at all, but inspiration of a more lasting kind. 

news.yahoo.com

Both fair and fowl - there are more odd stories over at Sepia Saturday

Sepia Saturday

Indian Hangover Pants

I am still suffering from a very persistent hangover two days after a wine tasting. At my age I don't even have the fun of getting drunk - anything more than a glass or two of wine, even with food, and my body is ravaged. I go straight from sober to suffering.

This morning, day two of the hangover, I took a couple of Tylenol and pulled on my India pants for maximum comfort while trying to nudge my brain back up to speed solving the Los Angeles Times Sunday Crossword Puzzle.  Zuzu and I bought these loose cotton pants with elastic waists (aaaah..for sitting in a hot van all day) and elastic cuffs (roll 'em up for wading in the Arabian sea) while shopping at street stalls in India. Here I am in Goa, wearing the $5.00 per pair version.

Out of curiosity I did a quick search on-line for similar pants and found these at Bloomingdales. 

Stella McCartney $750.00 at Bloomingdales

My hangover was acquired at the wineries in Temecula Valley. We've avoided them for years but one of our relatives is building a new house in the valley and on the way to visit his masterpiece, our little party stopped for a tasting. One visit was to Monte de Oro which boasts a glass floor.

Monte de Oro - glass floor

A sign is posted warning women to watch out. Keep off the glass if you're wearing a skirt!  The half-crocked cycler guys sitting at the tables below the glass ceiling automatically raised their shaved heads for a look up as we walked overhead, stopping to peer back down at them. Seems to me that ceiling might be more trouble than it's worth! After all, not everybody participating in the wine tastings (especially if they're getting plastered riding from winery to winery in a van) behaves predictably. A few weeks ago at the Bel Vino winery, four women started fighting in the ladies (?) room and a brawl (reputedly involving 100 people). Details here. Brawl at Temecula Winery

Bloomers: The Bloomer Costume. www.paperdroids.com

Although I wasn't wearing them, I thought about those Indian pants and the subject of brawls and modesty. In one fashion cycle, the pants were known as Harem pants and earlier as bloomers. Bloomers were named for Amelia Bloomer, a contemporary of Susan B. Anthony. She liberated herself from the corset and began wearing this costume (above) for bicycle riding. At first, the pants were seen as dress for trouble makers: temperance advocates and feminists. In time, as clothing changed, they became a symbol of modesty, keeping the figure waist-down completely under cover.

So here's my plan: the winery could keep a few pairs of harem pants/bloomers on hand in case of emergency - plain black ones, after all, one size fits all: the $5.00 kind from India - not the Stella McCartney version. When drunk women wearing skirts tumble out of the van looking for a fight, the winery could offer them a pair of these bloomers for the tasting session thereby reducing the risk of trouble with that glass floor.  I don't care how wild, angry, drunk and crazy you might be - once those bloomers are in place, behavior should improve. Why would you want to throw a punch when you're freed from lycra and wearing comfortable bloomers? No worries about your jiggling butt or gut - you could relax and stand around on the glass floor to your heart's content. Anyway, once word of the bloomers got around, I'm pretty sure the cycler/oglers would evacuate the basement wine cave and roar off to greener pastures.

I'm pretty sure Amelia might like this idea.

Sepia Saturday #172 Walk-A-Thons

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My computer was balky, then a noise developed and the video display started to break up into digital bits with square black spots popping up here and there. I'd neglected to back up (gulp) for the past six months - laziness and sloppiness. Finally the machine bit the dust...well almost bit the dust. Fortunately, I was able to save all my information and successfully migrate from the old machine to the new one. Being informed by the Apple store geniuses/genii that my 5 year old Mac was not only critically ill but VINTAGE came as a surprise. Here are the old and new machines..the old has been converted to a passive hard drive while I migrate. Now that the old machine is vintage, I think the photo qualifies for Sepia treatment. 

This week's prompt gets a big thumbs up from me for the smiling faces. Everyone looks like they're having a wonderful time. I hadn't realized my own family was so sedentary until a search through my photos looking for walking/hiking shots yielded nothing!

Thinking about other happy walkers though reminded me of the many fund raising walks people enjoy so much, probably the most popular being those for breast cancer research.

Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. SF citizen.com

Which made me wonder when and how the "walk for dollars" originated. Trusty Wikipedia coughed up this about Ramon Rivero:

     In 1953, Rivero organized the world's first known Walk-A-Thon. He walked 80 miles from the capital city of San Juan,    crossing Puerto Rico up and down the treacherous mountain roads of Cayey, known as "La Piquiña", to Ponce, on the other side of the island, to raise money for the Liga Puertorriqueña Contra el Cáncer (the Puerto Rican League Against Cancer). In that walkathon, Rivero raised the equivalent of $85,000 in 4 days. The Walk-A-Thon turned into a historical event that became part of the collective consciousness of Puerto Ricans all over the world, and has been copied several times since.^[12] Rivero also defended the victims of injustice during student revolts at the University of Puerto Rico, and led the first actors' strike on the island.^[4]

Ramon Rivero

I've followed in my family's footsteps (or lack of footsteps) and kept off the hiking trails. The last time I attempted an organized walk was an impromptu exploration of the lovely Cotswold Way last autumn. We did only a short part of the path but loved tramping through the fields, navigating the lover's gates and enjoying the occasional encounter with other hikers. Our foray was unplanned; we had none of the accoutrement authentic hikers employ: walking sticks, back packs, fancy hats with various specialty flaps, cell phones, GPS systems, bandanas, toilet paper, Swiss army knife, trash bags, insect repellent, sunglasses and sunscreen, first aid kit, fire starter, matches, rain gear, energy bars, water, flashlight - to name a few. We'll have to do a bit of shopping if we return to do the final 95 miles.