by angela@diggingbliss | Jan 30, 2009 | Uncategorized
Domino magazine has folded. While I was never a subscriber, I really enjoyed reading The Germinatrix, Domino’s online garden blog written by Ivette Soler. It was fresh, funny, plant-related and had photos. What’s not to love?
It’s not surprising to me that printed media is being replaced by digital media, but I’m a little surprised that Domino didn’t try to make a go of it online. Perhaps their publishing company has other online mags they want to focus on…
The good news is that Ivette will reportedly have her new website, thegerminatrix.com, up in about a month. And she’s a landscape designer, right? So she still has her day job. Anyone who can say that these days is lucky.
by angela@diggingbliss | Jan 26, 2009 | Uncategorized
Hey, all you avid, avid gardeners…
Farmer Fred reminded me that the NORCAL Horticultural Trade Show— which he says is “free…except for parking and the time & money to drive there…”– is this Thursday in San Mateo.
Go… drool… dream… see what your nurseries are going to be carrying this Spring… and be sure to take pics.
by angela@diggingbliss | Jan 14, 2009 | Uncategorized
Did you know Strybing Arboretum has a podcast? I didn’t, until just now when I got their newsletter. I’ll give it a listen. If it’s a video podcast, then just pinch me… but it’s probably audio.
by angela@diggingbliss | Jan 14, 2009 | Uncategorized
Haven’t done a dot of gardening lately. It’s cold. It’s wet. The dominant color in my garden is brown, excepting those evil little green baby weeds in the backyard beds and walkways.
I suppose I should hula hoe them… and prune my roses, and yet…
It may take awhile for something or someone to pull me out of this gardening funk. Right now I am uninspired and yet… restless. Luckily, the garden doesn’t really need me right now. My houseplants do, though, so I continue to water my orchids and my new Stapelia cuttings and the cute little carnivorous plant a friend gave me.
Too bad that little meat eater hasn’t gobbled up all the ants that are wintering in my orchids. I’m not fanatical about poison, so the most they have to put up with at the moment is an occasional surprise monsoon from my kitchen sprayer. I keep meaning to buy some ant bait.
I do have a few photos to share from a recent trip to the newly greenified Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. Any place that checks you for butterfies on the way out of the elevator is cool in my book.
Take the Academy’s advice to visit mid-week in the afternoon to avoid crowds. Planetarium and 3-D bug movie tickets are first come, first served.
4-story rainforest, which felt like being in a human terrarium. Dress accordingly.
5 butterflies
weirderrific plants…
Just your everyday albino alligator…
At the moment, I must scrounge up something edible for two unexpected guitar-wielding, teenage dinner guests. It’s Finals Week, the kids get out early all week, and my son has friends over. Par… tay! Oops, I mean high school U.S. History finals rock!
I would have been frantically cramming all night back in the day. My son is a genius slacker. Slacker genius? Anyway, he almost never studies, which both frightens and impresses me.
To the new year… a new season… new life bursting forth from tight, dormant buds. Oh, and a new president! Can’t wait to see what kind of rose is named after him. I bet they’ll call it the ‘Hope’ rose. It better not be a bush rose. Make it a bicolor grandiflora or a hybrid tea, please.
by angela@diggingbliss | Dec 10, 2008 | Uncategorized
This is the cedar cat house kit I ordered online for my outdoor cat, Emily. She’s an outdoor cat because she sprays and doesn’t get along with our 19.5-year-old indoor cat, Bud. Emily does fine outside, though. She rolls around in the dirt, supplements her PetSmart diet with a bit of hunting, and knows her way around the culdesac. The neighborhood cats know this is Emily’s place.
Still, I’ll sleep better at night knowing she has a warm house to come home to. Carmichael gets cold in winter.
The kit I bought was pre-built, then disassembled, then shipped to me so I could whine and cuss and reassemble the thing. I was having a hard time with the square-holed screws (WTF? Not flat-head? Not Phillips-head?) UNTIL I discovered the custom drill bit included in the bag with the screws. My bad. Took me a lot longer than the projected 15 minutes, but I did it all by myself! I am woman, hear me grunt, curse and whine!
This is actually a semi-enclosed front patio area. A hopseed hedge conceals Emily’s house from the street.
Emily’s temporary housing, clearly judged to be inadequate.
Emily’s first walk-through.
Emily’s imagining living here.
I think she likes it, but she seems to be saying, “Hey, this pad’s supposed to be heated. You better get crackin’ on that, Angela.”
