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Pots and Palms

April 5, 2024 / Brad / 1 Comment

Yesterday I spent the morning trying to get some work done on my computer, but none of it worked out. Hopefully I can get back to it some time. Sometimes I wish I had a personal secretary and could just ask them to do stuff for me.

In the afternoon, I went to a pottery place that I found online. I was looking for some large lightweight pots for my back yard. I have some small trees I’d like to grow back there.

The pottery place was HUGE:

They had a cat

There were big lightweight pots, but “lightweight” is a relative term. I decided that maybe I would just stick with various plastic pot offerings from Home Depot and Lowe’s.

When I got home, I napped, but then felt like doing something in the garden. Since I didn’t get any pots, I couldn’t work on back yard stuff, so I decided to trim the palms in the front yard. I only did one tree. The palm leaves aren’t supposed to go in the “green waste” bin, so I had to use my regular trash can and didn’t want to fill it too full. Also, the palm leaves have huge thorns on them.

But the tree I did cut was the one overhanging the driveway, so it does look better:

One response to “Pots and Palms”

Lauren says:

April 6, 2024 at 7:04 am

Holy giant pots, Batman! That place is enormous! It looks like a place that you would love. 😀

Reply

Entertaining Expedition

April 4, 2024 / Brad / 3 Comments

I went on a field trip yesterday. I had heard about a small town called Ojai (pronounced OH-hi) that people like to visit, and decided to check it out. As an added bonus, the rose nursery that I visited last fall was on the way. Nice!

I shopped with my nose, looking for roses that smelled nice.

Their display garden is particularly beautiful:

I have three spots left in the planter in front of my house, so I got three more roses: Fragrant Cloud, Grande Dame, and Sugar Moon. They all have powerful, but different, scents. I’m very happy with these selections.

After that, it was on to Ojai. The main drag was kind of short and small. It was quaint, and fun to walk, but smaller than I was expecting.

I did make sure to visit Bert’s Books, which is a cool bookstore without a roof. I guess it doesn’t rain very much in Ojai. I found some music books for church, so that’s cool.

There was a honey store that had all kinds of local honey from different flowers. I got some orange flower honey. It’s really interesting, and much different from the clover honey that’s so common.

On a side note, I can’t shake the feeling that there was something advertised during Saturday morning cartoons when I was a kid that included Ojai as its address. I have done a search of the internet, and couldn’t come up with anything, but it’s bothering me. The announcer said: “something… something… something… Ojai, California!” accompanied by a sort of cartoonish font of the address. If any of you out there remember what it is, I’d be very glad to know.

Texture Talk

April 3, 2024 / Brad / 1 Comment

I got some bread from the grocery store the other day, and I really liked it. It was called “Rustic Italian” bread. When I get bread for sandwiches, I like the light, empty, spongy, Wonder Bread kind. But when I eat bread with butter, I like this kind. It’s dense and has some moisture in it, but there is a crunchy crust on it. It’s kind of… cake-like? I’m not sure what makes bread like this instead of like a French bread kind of texture with chewiness and a lighter density. Lauren, do you know how to describe this better than me?

Plodding Progress

April 2, 2024 / Brad / 1 Comment

Well, after one day of vacation, I have to say it’s stressing me out, because I have a list of things I want to do on these days off, and I’m afraid I’m just going to be lazy and waste all this time. I usually only get one day off per week. This is a bunch of them in a row! I should be able to do a whole bunch of things!

Yesterday, I worked on my bedroom. I had previously painted it, but it’s been in disarray since then. I want to get it straightened out, and then actually hang things on the walls and stuff. I could have a room that’s completely finished! None of the rooms in my house are like that.

I didn’t finish. Each thing I tried to do led to a myriad of smaller jobs. For instance, I had a stack of sheets that needed a spot. I decided to put them in a hallway closet that is the obvious location for linens, but there wasn’t room for them because I have so many towels. I decided to sort the towels. They went into three stacks: bathroom, kitchen, and “get rid of”. Then I had to find a spot for the kitchen towels, because they obviously should be in the kitchen, not the hallway. Then I had to agonize over the “get rid of” pile, because why would I get rid of something that is useful, even though I have 47 hand towels and only need probably four. Sheesh!

Anyway, I did make some progress. Most notably, I got rid of a stack of sheets, I moved the bedside table to the other side of the bed, and I thinned out how many plant pots were on the cabinet by the window. I guess something is better than nothing…

Pictures of Plants

April 1, 2024 / Brad / 2 Comments

AHH! There’s a horrible bug on your shoulder! April Fools! Ha!

Yesterday was a good Easter service. After the service was over, I officially entered into vacation time. Woo hoo!

I do have to go to school one of these vacation days, but the rest of the days I’ll be resting and doing home projects. Yay!

In honor of Easter and spring, here are some pictures of flowers and plants around my house. Mostly I’m doing this post because I didn’t take pictures of anything I did yesterday.

The front garden bed is bursting with freesias.

The roses have started blooming. Here’s “April in Paris”:

And here’s “Jardins de Bagatelle”:

Inside, my Vietnamese violet is full of flowers:

And I bought some Oriental lilies. They smell so good!

Look at this plant gripping the closet door in my bedroom:

Ha! It looks like it’s holding the door open. It’s just my overgrown philodendron micans. It’s gotten to the top of its moss pole, and the vines are looking for support.