Going gardening

A few more scenes from the Descanso gardens seem to be in order.

Sometimes I'm a fan of overexposure. I like what it did for this plant.

...And for this one. I'd like to go back and have several more goes at this one.

I just want to dive into this one and tread its pillowy water. I want rub my legs all over it the way the nieces do with their silkies (blankies). Click to embiggen it for the full effect.

Bark pattern of coastal oak. Its bark is better than its bite.

This one's got tracks, and I ain't talking heroin.

Favored Glade

I look at this as I read my assignments each morning. The hummingbirds, fat bees, bunnies, squirrels, and even a woodpecker this week populate the air physically and aurally. I take a lot of stare-breaks from my reading.

I see the light

A Hazy Shade of Summer

I'm in love with the white-barked tree on the left.

Morning light

Spider tree

Only spidery in the splay of its many arms (legs). This is the tree the glowing poofs grow on.

Egad, Brain!

Narf! I have been away too long. It was the sort of week during which I came home from school and fell asleep on the couch, getting up only to go to bed. It was a spectacularly unproductive week, and again, I am happy to have put it behind me.

Because I have spent much of week being overwhelmed by the negative, I shall undertake to list here all of the positive things, the blessings, the gifts of the week:

Went to dinner last night with a couple who have the potential to be very good friends. They are involved with a church that we no longer attend, but we still see them in the line of things church-y, occasionally. Conversation lasted until well after dinner.

It rained and thundered and lightninged! I was giddy; it felt like back east again. [This is a qualified blessing, because many SoCal residents endured hardships as a result of this freak storm -- mudslides in burn areas, evacuations, snow, hail, twin tornadoes, overturned big rigs and freight cars.]

Netflix.

The 4400 series DVDs.

Dynamic skies; patchy sun, dark nimbus clouds, billowing white cumulus clouds, wind, green.

Brownies. Twice.

LittleKitty cuddled with me under the covers this morning as I lay in bed reading. She hasn't made a habit of that in quite a while.

Madeleine L'Engle's newly published novel, written in the 1940's. It was very sweetly her. It felt like coming back to a comfortable place of good memories.

Our campus held a Memorial Day ceremony yesterday, and the kids were better than I've ever seen them -- quiet, respectful, cooperative, and in some cases, truly moved.

A former student who is in the Navy returned to campus for a visit this week. He was one of those students who earned a low C or D in my sophomore English class, but who could have had an A given his outstanding intelligence and insight. He's one of the students we all know has incredible potential but...we all knew it might take time to be realized. After three years in the Navy, working on jet engines, being patient, watching the demise of his youthful marriage, he is entering Annapolis in a few short months. He's a special kid, and it was good to be visited by him and thanked by him.

A number of current students have stopped by my classroom this week after school, God bless 'em, utterly preventing me from getting any grading or other necessary jobs done...but who obviously needed to talk and who seemed to feel better after they left my room.

My AP students actually had some decent discussions this week of Ellison's Invisible Man. They are learning and growing after all. I've had my doubts this year.

Sunday's graduation party of a friend was tons of fun.

We have dinner planned tomorrow with another friend.

We have Monday off school.

That'll do for now. I'll add to the list as I recall more of the week's blessings.

Purple carpet
Nature's litter
Click to make big and see what I mean by "purple incandescence." I only wish my camera could fully capture what my eye sees.
Ditto on this one.

The rain is beginning.
Windshield rivulets
A recently vacated parking spot
This is what happens in SoCal when it rains.
Today, with patchy clouds, sun, blue, breeze.
Dynamic skies

Getting closer

Yes, I was at school today, working on grades. Actually, I was working on referrals for plagiarism. I'll wait till after the AP exam to deal with it, but I needed to get out from under this. I was further encouraged to be done with this since our seniors have recently had a bout with plagiarism, and I'm going to act quickly and forcefully on mine so they don't have this problem again next year. Frustrating and disappointing. Next week, we'll have a plagiarism prevention lesson so they all recall what they've been taught every single year since seventh grade. (Sigh.)

The jacaranda is even more beautiful than yesterday. The contrast with the bottle-brush tree was nice in the afternoon sun.

Signs of hope

Teacher Appreciation Week, and I actually do feel appreciated after these notes. God knew I needed these this week.

The jacarandas are kindling and flaring up.

Parrot Sludge

This is the mess the parrots make.

Silhouettes

They're the best -- and only -- shots I got today.

Hope springs...

I went out to look at the jacaranda and saw this.


And the jacaranda has begun...but it has only just begun.


Parts of the southland are already aflame in purple. My own corner of the pit won't be fully alight for another week, likely. I'm ok with that. It just means my hope lasts longer. :-)

Indecision

The sun and clouds were dazzling at 7:00 this morning. In my usual shade of indecision, I cannot decide which of these four is the best representation of each of those factors. Your input would be greatly appreciated!

Sunrise over campus trees, with clouds

(and may the jacaranda bloom soon -- it is one of my annual symbols of hope)

Moonshine

No! Not the 'likker!' (Gasp!) It's a school night!

A warm evening, a bright waxing moon, and a yen to take pictures led to experimenting with the long exposure possibilities of the DSLR. Sometimes I have to say, "God bless technology." I love pushing the limits of low-light situations.

Click to make them large; they look better that way.

Moon and fence

Moon, pole, wires

The faery came in a ball of light,
descending from the heavens, to deliver me a message.

Palm and Pine

Taken in the credit union parking lot late this afternoon.

Third quarter grades were due today. So exhausted. Off to bed.

We get a lot more afternoon sun...

...now that they've butched our tree.

See evidence of the missing limb?

(You will if you click it and make it large.)

Monday...

...was supposed to see the felling of a tree. But when we arrived home today, it was still standing, at its sadly crooked angle. Ours had been trimmed (lopsidedly, if I may add), but the doomed tree stood.

We discovered yesterday that the doomed tree actually harbors a bee hive! The city workers had filled part of a hollow with a foamy substance that hardens -- I had mistaken it for some sort of tree sap profusion -- ostensibly to kill or eject the bees. Well, it nailed about fifteen of them (visibly), but plenty of others were buzzing around the open hole on the other side of the hollow limb. I wonder if that's why they didn't take the tree today.

It seems sad to kill or displace the bees needlessly when we're in such a bee crisis lately. (Don't know if you heard about the bee truck accident near Sacramento yesterday -- lots of bees lost!) Would it be so hard to capture and relocate the colony? God forbid our city spend money on something that makes sense to the food chain and the city's beauty! Sometimes I wonder if I'm in the wrong career.

I will miss both the tree and the bees. I think the ecosystem probably will, too.

The bee-killing foam that hardens

The other side of the hole where bees were entering and exiting...I just couldn't time my shot to capture any of them.

Pre-Mourning

This gorgeous tree -- we've been told it's a carob, though I've not corroborated this claim -- is due to be axed on Monday. We've known this day was coming for several years now. This breed of tree, planted lo these many decades (fifty? sixty? maybe more?), has a tendency to rot out in the middle and then topple unfortunately onto homes and cars. They've had to do "root management" for thirty or so years, trimming roots and building up sidewalks to prevent trippage and breakage.

And yet...and yet...my heart cries for this beautiful, twisted, gnarled specimen of ent-hood. It kills me that it's going to be gone in two days! The gaping hole, the bare spot of sun, the gap-toothed appearance of the street will be so unnatural, so hideous. They're supposed to replant it with some ugly little tree that procreates nasty little pods that litter sidewalks and shred bare feet. Must city governments all be so stupid???

This is our neighbor's tree (the doomed tree), with our own version of the same tree in the background. Do any other trees in the city have such character? I think not. See how lovely they are as a pair? She (our neighbor) apparently the has the male gendered tree; we have the female. Hers puts out no mess; ours produces and drops these lovely seed pods all over our lawn for a month each year. I know it sounds like I'm complaining -- the pods are terribly inconvenient -- but wretch that I am, I'd miss them if they were gone. What else would bring the parrots (we have a wild flock that haunts our county) to our lowly tree each year, to squawk, scream, shriek, munch, drop half-eaten pods and fully eaten pods all over our lawn and sidewalks and cars?


I have such a hard time letting go.

Not stellar...

...but pix nonetheless. Two, to start making up for the last two no-pix days.

I was in bed and asleep before 9:00 p.m. last night. I should remind you that I'm wickedly nocturnal, so this was revolutionary. Dosed up on vitamin C and echinacea and Advil. Used an herb-filled heating pad on the stiff, sore neck. Better this morning. But it only lasted through early this afternoon. Think I'll have another pre-9-o'clock night.

My grading is stacking on my desk and multiplying in my bag.

Morning on campus

The Teacher's Altar

Dynamic Day

And cold. Windy. Misty and rainy in the morning. And then just...cold.