Lookin' for a li'l bit of COLOR?

A couple of weeks ago a new friend of mine said I might want to stop by his house and take a look at some plants that were blooming.

 

Hell, I guess!

 

 

Paul's been growing tuberous begonias for quite a few years and appears to have the process pretty well in hand - wouldn't you agree?

 

 

He and his wife Laurel packed up many empty boxes, taped shut with cut-outs to carefully set the pots into and leave the plants plenty of room. Traveling to San Diego for the American Begonia Society Annual Convention and Show they had trouble with the nasty bumpy freeways in LA and made it with FORTY to enter, losing only two to the LA Freeways. They were the hit of the show, gathering ribbons galore. [psssst - don't tell Paul, but Laurel took BEST IN SHOW for her only entry.]

 

What he was showing me was the SECOND COMING - plants that he had started later to spread out his bloom time. Oh. Just in case you thought Paul might be into subtle plants at one time? His previous favorites were Dahlias!

 

Lola the Begonia Cat

Paul knows all the names, lineage and how a particular variety grows.

Me? I'm like a Crow, I just am attracted to shiny, colorful things.

A variety with amazingly few petals.

Small worktable = more space to grow great plants.

The range of colors is awesome.

Only one plant!

This one is so beautiful, I hate that it reminded me of sliced radishes.

 

Remember the Dahlias I mentioned that Paul grew before the bright and colorful tuberous begonias? They were the not-so-subtle Dahlias, like this one I found in a local nursery:



 So I s'pose you could say that Paul has bright colors in his DNA.

 

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The Blog is BAAACK with WHALES at Avila

After a two-year adventure to live and work in Singapore, my wife Jeanne and I moved back to California - about 90 minutes north from my last posting location, Santa Barbara and El Capitan State Beach.

We now live in San Luis Obispo, one of the "Happiest Places on Earth" as you can read in Dan Buettner's book Thrive. He actually lists each of the happiest places from four world regions - and chooses Singapore as the happiest place for Asia! So, we moved from one happy place to another! On occasion there's enough happiness around to make you want to slap someone, it's just so darn hap-hap-happy all the time.

This week we have all witnessed the hurricane reinvasion of Louisana and Mississippi, and a few weeks before my friends in Oklahoma City were counting days not above 100F, but those above 105F! Here in San Luis Obispo? No rain since April and notably warm days reach the low 80s. No hurricanes. No tornadoes. Here, no ice, no snow. What do we have? Wildfire season, mudslide season and the earthquakes never go out of season.

The outdoors is always enjoyable here and hiking and biking are rather popular with many locals to hike, good roads with bike lanes to ride - and also trails for mountain biking. We've settled into seeking birds and other wildlife - the most recent pulse even made national news - the Feeding Frenzy of Avila Beach or YouTube.

We went out for a look for ourselves - what a show! I took a first-ever video from my D90 Nikon:



  

Yet with my Nikon set for regular photos, the action was still crazy. We sat on the shore, only a few feet away from the curb and the car - on a bluff about 20' above the beach. Anchovies. LOTS of them. Must have been about a zillion, I figure to raise all that ruckus of whales, pelicans, dolphins, harbor seals and sea lions - not to say a ton of gulls.

Whales were lunge-feeding. I haven't heard of anyone getting hurt. Amazing.

I bet whale breath is nasty.

SO many Brown Pelicans!

With more digesting and waiting another turn.

These pelicans are simply too tired and too full from all the frenzy.

Everything is laid back in SLOCO (San Luis Obispo County).

The Sooty Shearwaters were not to be outdone, as some 10,000++ were only a bit farther offshore.





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