Something had a nip at this butterfly but it lived to fly another day and obviously hanging in there. I’m flying (driving, actually) to California today for another rugby 7’s tournament and family time but the weather might not be too cooperative. The storm which is terrorizing California and much of the West and upper Midwest is threatening to dump rain on southern California, a 90% chance on Saturday although supposedly clear on Sunday. We’ll see. I have rain gear, although not heavy-duty, heavy-duty large garbage bags to serve as coats and over-the-knee-coverage as needed, as well as umbrellas. In 2014 at a stage of the Tour de France, garbage bags saved the day and that of the French couple next to us, so don’t discount them. Anyway…
Not sure how much I’ll be online but I leave you with this lovely butterfly and best wishes for a good weekend. I imagine I might be posting from the road if circumstances are right. 🙂
I love living walls and South Bay Botanic Garden has one of the best living walls I’ve ever seen. Besides the interest of the plants, I liked the design, different from the usual squares.
Living walls are panels of plants, grown vertically – using hydroponics or substrate-based growing media – on structures that are either freestanding or attached to walls. Greenroofguide.com
Greenroofguide.com talks about green roofs and DIY green roofs as well as livings walls and vertical gardens. The first photos are simple but scroll down on any of the pages to see more elaborate and beautiful examples.
When we lived in Cleveland, we had a flat roof on our garage where I grew tomatoes and some other vegetables to keep them safe from the depredations of animals such as evil chipmunks and deer. It didn’t really qualify as a green roof but any animal attempting to reach the veggies would have had to pole vault or be shot out of a cannon, in which case I would have gladly surrendered my veggies in exchange for a video or two to make my fortune. But seriously, explore the site and perhaps you’ll catch a bit of my excitement if these photos don’t do that.
Descanso Garden has a vertical wall, which is much higher and on the side of a building. This is part of it.
But living walls or vertical gardens don’t have to outdoors or elaborate. You can also do living walls indoors as The Spruce shows beautifully here and in a variety of types and sizes. Plants have been shown to improve mental health, purify the air, muffle background noise, lower stress and the various “walls” shown aren’t difficult to put together, so what’s not to like?
Or any of you familiar with any or all of these features? Do any of you have a vertical wall or something similar? Inquiring minds like mine want to know. 🙂
As usual, I don’t know the name of this flower and despite the excellent signage at South Bay Botanic Garden, I didn’t see one for this flower. I’m sure one of you can tell me what it is, right? 🙂 Feel free to jump in with a name. But the light is as much the star of the show, making the two together more than the sum of their parts.
South Coast Botanic Garden is unusual in being one of the first botanical gardens developed over a sanitary landfill. Here’s a bit about the unique history from the website:
During the early 1900’s the Dicalite Company began mining diatomaceous earth, but at this time it was mostly surface mining. By 1929, open-pit mining was being pursued. In 1944 the mine was sold to the Great Lakes Carbon Company and mining began in earnest. By 1956, production of the mine declined and the site was sold to the County of Los Angeles. From the very beginning, the county planned to utilize the best possible technology and to reclaim the land for future use. In the meantime, the site was used as a sanitary landfill to help meet the County’s growing landfill needs.
In 1961, private citizens, headed by Frances Young, prevailed upon the County Board of Supervisors to convert this site into a botanic garden. It was an exciting experiment in sanitary landfill reclamation. In April 1961, the first major planting took place with over 40,000 donated trees, shrubs and other plants. Since then, our plant collection has significantly increased to more than 200,000 plants. From open pit mine to sanitary landfill to stupendous garden is the extraordinary history of South Coast Botanic Garden. This continuing experiment in land reclamation has drawn horticulturists from all over the world, including Prince Charles of England, to study the feasibility of similar project. The success of the reclamation effort is apparent in the peaceful, shady groves and areas of spectacular color.
I love that! Beauty from ashes.
However, there’s more to see than just plants. The Japanese garden first grabbed our attention. On one of the plants by the pool of koi was a bright red dragonfly! Although I took a few photos and got rather close, it didn’t move. The really bizarre thing was that when we came back two days later, it was there again in the same place! My husband was sure it was dead and leaned in close, only to have it fly away. We really laughed at that.
To compound our wonder, in a nearby area, we saw two more just like it. Evidently each tend to stay in the same section, although I’m not sure how you’d tell the difference. But who cares? They were brightly beautiful and unexpected.
Under a small bridge lurked this turtle. It’s always fun to spot turtles and they usually can’t get away before you get a photo unless they’re underwater already (water deeper than this) in which case they can be gone in no time at all. This one was content where it was. Maybe it thought we couldn’t see it.
Our last critter sighting was this squirrel perched on a trash can looking rather as if it were hoping we wouldn’t spot it. Maybe it didn’t want to be seen on a trash can. But it didn’t move even a little bit.
As God contains all good things, He must also contain a sense of playfulness — a gift he has shared with Creatures other than ourselves, as witness the tricks Crows play, and the sportiveness of Squirrels, and the frolicking of Kittens. ~Margaret Atwood
Although this has nothing to do with the photo, this quote is so true that I had to include it:
Let me tell you, if you have never seen an agitated squirrel you have seen very little, nor have you heard much, because the sound of an angry squirrel is not to be forgotten. ~Joe R. Lansdale
This, that and the other thing 