Manzanita Gall

I was walking down the street and saw this plant and was sort of baffled by it. Have I seen this before? Maybe? Anyway, I took some pictures and googled around.

So, these are caused by aphids. They are eating the leaves and cause the leaves to create this redish gall around the aphids. I’m still sort of having trouble picturing exactly what is happening here but the link above has a pic of a manzanita gall cut open and filled with aphids. I never took the Pests class at Merritt and clearly I should have!

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Then and Now

I stumbled across this picture of our side yard the other day. Wow! It is highly cringeworthy. But such is the price and reality of construction.

Um. It looks you might have left some stuff in the side yard…

Um. It looks you might have left some stuff in the side yard…

About a year and a half later!!!

About a year and a half later!!!

Just came across these two photos of the space in 2014 just after the basement was done. You can see we still had the metal awning, no stairs, no porch, etc.

Chicken Math

Our second to last chicken died in February of this year and, with just one chicken left, I decided that we would get a new batch of chickens. My timeline was dependent on Concord Feed and their schedule of chickens. I was hoping to get some specific breeds. I ended up just getting the ones they had available and I am very glad I did because the week after I picked ours up there was a global pandemic declared and people went nuts buying up all the chickens. It was all about sourdough starter and buying ‘pandemic chickens’ in those first few weeks. I mean, also it was about people being scared, dying, losing their jobs and a host of other horrible things.

We ended up getting six chickens, 2 cream legbars, and four cochins (black, blue, buff, speckled). Our older hen is an Easter Egger and she mostly hates us.

Even now I feel the inexplicable pull of chicken math. I really want to add some chocolate eggers or a Lavender Orpington… there are so many adorable chickens out there.

Meme showing a still of Boromir from The Lord of the Rings with the caption, “One does not simply get a few chickens”.

Meme showing a still of Boromir from The Lord of the Rings with the caption, “One does not simply get a few chickens”.

Baby chickens are just the cutest things! Check out these nerds as babies:

So the week after got these the SIP order was put in place. My sister and I organized a pet fashion show for the kids in our lives. It was a great success. I submitted several chicks wearing muffin papers.

Photo of a sketchbook page open to a watercolor and ink drawing of a ticket (front and back) saying ‘Pet Fashion Show March 2020”

Photo of a sketchbook page open to a watercolor and ink drawing of a ticket (front and back) saying ‘Pet Fashion Show March 2020”

Picture of a gray and white chick butt wearing a muffin paper as a skirt.

Picture of a gray and white chick butt wearing a muffin paper as a skirt.

Pink Tamales and an Outing to Pt. Richmond

The goals for this outing were for me to check out the landscape in front of the Natatorium, go to Keller Beach, and to try out a restaurant in Pt. Richmond.

What the heck is a Natatorium?! A natatorium is just an indoor pool. This one is called the Richmond Plunge and it is a public warm saltwater pool. It is fairly newly restored, in 2010 I think the building was retrofitted, solar panels installed (these panels help heat the water) and a new, native plant landscape was installed as well.

Wandering through the landscape in the front of the building I noticed that along the side by the train tracks the landscape continues. There is a regulation sized Bocce Court, a farther back behind the building there are tennis courts, picnic areas with tables and grills, a Little Free Library, and more native plants.

View of a teenager reading a plaque in front of a brick building with a large sign that says, “Municipal Natatorium”.

View of a teenager reading a plaque in front of a brick building with a large sign that says, “Municipal Natatorium”.

We ended up going to Masa to get tamales to bring with us to Keller Beach. I had been the Keller Beach before but a long time ago and I couldn’t remember what access was like. My prediction last month that my achilles tendons were giving out was, unfortunately, correct and so I am wearing a boot to try to give the left one a rest. We ended up not going all the way down to the beach but we sat on a bench looking out over the swimmers and ate our tasty tamales. We split a strawberry dessert tamale, the first dessert tamale I have ever had. It was good!

Just sitting by the water listening to kids playing in the water and the sound of wind and waves feels so restorative. I was amazed at how far out the swimmers went! I forget that people swim here. I have only been in the water here (in Northern CA) a handful of times.

View of a small beach surrounded by greenery covered cliffs, a few people are in the water and you can see the Richmond Bridge in the background.

View of a small beach surrounded by greenery covered cliffs, a few people are in the water and you can see the Richmond Bridge in the background.

There is so much more to explore around here I am sure we will be back. Here is a link to a PDF of the East Bay Regional Park tri-fold about this areas trails.

Plaque displaying the Ferry Point Loop and Shipyard Trail.

Plaque displaying the Ferry Point Loop and Shipyard Trail.

We also made two side trips. First, to Serrano’s Bakery in Richmond and then to TAP Plastics to get some silicon mold making supplies.

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Albany Bulb Outing

Kiddo and I headed out to Albany Bulb this week to do some exploring. Immediately upon exiting the car I realized I have forgotten my binoculars. Huge mistake! The wetlands were LOUSY with Avocets and other Brown Birds of Medium Size (BBoMS). I’m shocked newly everyday how much my eyesight has deteriorated in the last 5 years and resolve to put my car binocs back in the car where they belong.

Multi-branched tree with a painted trunk and SF and the bay in the background.

Multi-branched tree with a painted trunk and SF and the bay in the background.

I have deep suspicion at this point that my Achilles tendons are royally unhappy but I soldier on and we head out to see what we can see. About halfway in to the Bulb we realize that we need to order Picante for pick up STAT. Thank god we can stop for a sec so I can rest my legs and place our order. In true teenage fashion Kiddo is also more excited about getting a burrito than exploring. :)

Chunk of old concrete nestled in dried grass covered in graffiti. Graffiti says ‘Anxiety’ and also has a picture of a CA poppy with text next to it that says California Poppy.

Chunk of old concrete nestled in dried grass covered in graffiti. Graffiti says ‘Anxiety’ and also has a picture of a CA poppy with text next to it that says California Poppy.

Why yes this concrete is expressing just how I feel: anxious and excited to look at plants.

At this point I am trying to convince Kiddo that an acceptable summer project would be to think of an art project to do at the Albany Bulb. He is not convinced and continues to be wholesome AF.

Have you been to Albany Bulb? You can read up on it here. The thing I like about the Bulb is all the twisted metal embedded in chunks of concrete. IDK, I just like that kind of thing. Well, I like it up until I start to think on the human race and how it creates massive amounts of construction debris and is ruining the planet.

Now I am trying to convince Kiddo that all this land is manmade and so is Emeryville. I don’t have enough facts at my disposal to be convincing enough, alas. I wander off into a fantasy in which Kiddo writes a high school report on the created and stolen lands of the Bay Area.

Bay Nature has an interesting article about the bulb.

On our way back to the car we see some lovely BLM and All Brown Live Matter graffiti. It certainly bears repeating until everyone believes it for real.

Close-up of weathered wood with BLM spray painted in red.

Close-up of weathered wood with BLM spray painted in red.

Garden Tour - Keelya Meadows

I absolutely love the book Fearless Color Gardens by Keelya Meadows. I knew she was a local designer because she has a little exhibit at American Soil and Stone and I knew her home garden was open sometimes but I was not sure of the details. I joined the Garden Conservancy this year and lo! her garden was on the Open Days list! I made T. come with me.

I love all the quirky paving, concrete forms, and amazingly fun use of color. I wish my own garden was just like this. It was a bit over the top for T. though and I suspect he will object.

I’m desperately in love with that leopard-spotted Ligularia and must acquire one for myself immediately.

Right Tree, Right Place

This is a handy tree guide made up for PGE by California Polytechnic State University for the Bay Area, Northern and Central California. If you're working on a site with power line issues this tool can be quite useful.This page has some handy guides for selecting the right tree for the right place based on some other guidelines like allergy and toxicity or fire safety.

You can order a Right Tree, Right Place poster from PGE here and download a cute poster for Palm trees appropriate for use near power lines.

The people who planted redwoods right next to the power lines at a recent client's property could have used this guide 15 years ago...

Visualizing with SketchUp

Still thinking about visualizing. I do like 3D scenes in SketchUp. It’s nice to have a but of that realistic texturing and the rendered shadows are super nice as well. In my own hand drawings I tend to not put those dramatic shadows in because I worry about ruining the drawing. :D

I think one of my annoyances with SketchUp is just have to do with finding the right plant objects to use. If a picture looks fairly realistic the plants need to be pretty darn close the actual plant being spec’ed in the plan otherwise homeowners get confused. With a hand-drawing you can just be like, “oh yeah, this is an artistic rendition”.

Again, these are not my design they are from the wonderful Susan at Garden Alchemy.

Oh, yeah, I also created that metal hoop sculpture you see in the photos in SketchUp and you can find it in the 3D Warehouse and use it if you want to!


New skatepark landscape

I noticed the other day when I stopped at CVS on San Pablo that they added a really interesting skatepark along the parking lot to this strip mall. What a great use of space! I really love the large boulders they used.

Designed by Wormhoudt Inc.

Here is a cute SketchUp walk through of the concept. They did include one female presenting entourage with a skateboard!

There is a you tube video of the grand opening here.

I stopped to walk through it and took a few pictures.

Vendors? What are vendors?

I went to my first NorCal event this year. NorCal is a trade show for the landscape business that is held at the San Mateo event center every year. Every possible thing related to the landscaping industry can be found and explored there.

Who are these vendors? Why do I want to know them?

Vendors are the sales representatives for all the landscaping products used in the industry! Who knew?! Not sure why I find this so weird and novel but I do.

Why do you and I want to know them? Because they will help you spec their products, they will spend a decent chunk of time explaining things to you and your clients. They will even sometimes go to your project site and bring samples for your clients. Amazing!

I, while not exactly shy, do not love to chit chat. I marvel at people who can chit chat. I just can’t do it, my mind goes immediately blank and I become the most uninteresting person in the universe. Although, (CW: alcohol) if I have a glass or two of wine I will totally hang out and chit chat. There is no wine at NorCal so just forget that. Anyway, you can chat up these folks and they will be absolute fonts of knowledge about their products.

Some examples:

Local stone yards will often have sales reps that rep various paver companies. For instance, PBM - Peninsula Building Materials has showrooms all over the Bay Area. If you contact them with a question about a product you will be directed to the sales rep for that product.

Specific paver companies - For instance, StepStone has a sales rep for the Bay Area. Need color samples? Call them!

There are sales reps for sod, plants (think Proven Winners or Sunset Plants), landscape lighting, and irrigation companies are just a few I can think of.

Not sure if I emphasized this enough but these people will help you for FREE. It’s great.

The SF Wave Organ

My sister and I jaunted over to SF to visit the Wave Organ in January, sketchbooks and coffees in hand. How had I never been here? All the years I was living in SF and specifically exploring everything I could and I somehow never ended up here. Anyway, I went now and it was a beautiful winter day with the sun shining. It was so nice to just sit and draw in my sketchbook listening to the waves and people and sea gulls.

Sun shining on an open sketchbook with a pen and green pencil. There is a pen drawing of the wave organ in the sketchbook

Sun shining on an open sketchbook with a pen and green pencil. There is a pen drawing of the wave organ in the sketchbook

The sculpture was delightfully like an ancient ruin. I do love a good ruin. A real ruin not to miss is the Sutro Baths. I go there all the time and I should post some pics of that landscape.

This wave organ is a sound sculpture made from reused items including stones from an old cemetery. I love that and it makes for some very interesting sculptural stone work. The actual organ pipes are PVC and concrete. I think it sounds kind of like rubber bands!

Panorama picture with a woman with purple hair pointing a camera , the Golden Gate Bridge in teh background, the smooth waters of the San Francisco Bay and then some palm trees and a sea wall on the right.

Panorama picture with a woman with purple hair pointing a camera , the Golden Gate Bridge in teh background, the smooth waters of the San Francisco Bay and then some palm trees and a sea wall on the right.

Sunset Headquarters in Menlo Park

I heard the Sunset headquarters is going to move so I wanted to dash down there to visit it before it relocated. When I first moved to CA I worked just down the street but did not know about Sunset magazine at that time. Nor did I particularly care about gardens at age 19. Anyway, my friend and I jaunted down there to take some pics.

I’m so glad we did! I just love the color and texture they are playing with. The bright orange, round trellis is also speaking to me. I would like to own this moon gate trellis for myself!