my ceanothus

the bloom is just about off my ceanothus (a.k.a. "wild lilac"). thought i'd get a picture this year before it gets the little seed pods on it, which, though the towhees love them, aren't too photogenic.

i continue to build a hill in my backyard. you know how those sand hugging zealots in native plant literature are always telling you to mimic hillside conditions. they tell you use a pot, put sand in your soil, get a tin bucket and fill it with gravel, all this stuff you're supposed to do to mimic hillside conditions.

i finally decided what the hell, let's cut out the middle man and build a hill. see i have a lot of extra dirt because there's this big long dilapidated wooden retaining wall out there that bisects the backyard, dividing it up into upper and lower sections for no apparent reason.

well no apparent reason until this afternoon. upon excavating the area behind the retaining wall, i discovered the remains of a humonguous redwood stump! yaaaa! you want to talk about your back breaking labor!

oh well, at least it's native.

Kurt "big daddy" True
27 april 2003