California Backyards #2

Hmmm... don't think I'd go for the boa, but we always had critters in the house, the backyard, etc. I'm glad we grew up that way - it sure makes my life richer now!

Quite a few times when my son was little, we'd have a king snake winter-over in an aquarium in our house. We had the same one two winters in a row. We turned him loose in the spring and saw him several times through the summer. That fall we caught him again and brought him in for mice and attention for the winter again. We moved away the following summer so he stayed behind.

Two camps on snakes, either you like them or you don't. When we were living on Camp Pendleton as kids, we'd often hike down to the San Luis Rey river. Found BullFrogs as big as dinner plates. Snakes and all kinds of other interesting things. My Sis, found poison Ivy and looked like a Chipmunk when her face swoll up. I got a touch on my legs. It pays to hang back on hikes. You don't get to eat as many spider webs and in that case my sis bore the brunt of the poison Ivy. Anyway once my little brother brought home a snake and lost it. We found it week later under his pillow. My poor Mom.
I love 'em 'cause they eat rodents.
WIB,
SW

I like 'em for a lot of reasons but, you're right, the best one is that they eat rodents. A lot of them are also pretty and just downright interesting to watch.

Speaking of critters, termites are swarming right now. I even saw them in the lumber dept. at HD today. They love that nice wet fresh lumber !

I saw a couple with that last heat wave we had. Too bad they got some more of it. It was downright warm here today!

90 plus here today. High 80's yesterday. This after 3 days of intermittent rain. And of course, I just put the flannel sheets on my bed.

That's funny - I had our flannels on, too and had to remove them! Really, JD, you could have shared some of the dang rain with your friends!

Right on about not getting our share of the rain. Hardly enough to wet the ground. KC and JD you must be native Californians (the ones that think if it rains it must be cold) what with flannel sheets. The last several nights were downright tropical. Not only had bath, and 2 bedroom window open fully, but had ceiling fan going too. Felt like summer eve in midwest. Another day of high 90's today. Saw on weather last night it was 100 in Camarillo and Oxnard of all places.

I used to have a cat many moons ago who would dine on just the lizard tails. I lived in an apt building and the lady in the yard next door spoke to me over the fence, angry about my cat killing her lizards just to get the tails. I assured her I would sit down and explain to my cat that she could have the tails and not kill them. Yeah, right.

No, the rain didn't prompt the flannel sheets, it was when the nighttime temps went below 50! LOL The day/night differential this time of year is always weird. The a/c went on yesterday...

Here's a few photos of our backyard that I don't think I've posted:
1) Japanese maple in full color. Yellow cestrum elegans in background, Tagetes lemonnii on LH side

At the base of an old walnut tree, looking up towards our neighbor's house: a colorful Phormium against an Artemisia 'Powis Castle' and lime-green helichrysum groundcover

This message was edited Oct 17, 2009 12:30 PM

From my kitchen I look straight down on this bed. It looks good all year long. What I like best about this bed is that it is amazingly xeric: it is never directly watered; lives entirely on runoff for 6 months of no-rain. From front to back:
- Pelargonium blooms white
- 'Occold Gold' variegated pelargonium LH, variegated euonymus RH
- dark-leaved pelargonium on LH, Coleonema RH

Here's a closeup of the coleonema and dark-leaf pelargonium. You can see one of my Meyer lemon bushes behind them:

This bed was reworked last year. It also lives on runoff. From L-R:
-Variegated aucuba 'Gold Dust'
-bearded iris, unknown dark purple variety
-Hellebore
-another var. aucuba
In the background is my prized dwarf fragrant rhododendron, which flowers April-May.

What a lovely garden!!!!

Even the hawks think it's too hot today. This guy's been sitting here for quite awhile now.

As always, lovely plant combos jkom51, thanks for sharing.

Beautiful garden photos, jkom51! I'm impressed with the variety you have in a low water garden.

I can't believe that Aucuba doesn't fry in full sun !
Great combinations and colors. Do you know the name of that Phormium ?

Sweet jcom! Really enjoyed seeing what you've done in your garden!
WIB!
SW

jasperdale, the phormium is "Sundowner". The aucuba is in a north-facing bed, so it's bright but less than 2 hrs of direct morning sun so it's no problem. Glad everyone enjoyed the photos!

I'm glad you shared them. Got lots of great ideas.
Thank You!
WIB,
SW

Thanks. jk... I like that one a lot.

OK, it's in the living room, not our backyard, but I thought you all might get a kick out of this.

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=7391125

LOL, guess he needs a birdie version of a carousel ride and found one!

No, he sings to the birdie in the disc! I think it's breeding time in Australia. LOL

Awww! He's just so cute! Reminds me of my Dad's home in TX. Only he'd be walking around the house with a blue jay on his shoulder. He did have one cockatiel that liked spinning around and around and around til I got dizzy and quit watching.
Does he warble, or squawk when he sings, KC? Oh and two more questions. What CD is playing? Is it the one of the birdsongs?
WIB!
SW

Cute picture !

When we were kids, someone from our church passed away and my folks inherited two canaries. (Just what we needed...)
Invariably, every year when the Xmas tree was up, the cage would get knocked over by the dog and the canaries would get out and spend the next three weeks in the Xmas tree.
They would chirp away and had a grand old time of it.
People would come over and say, "Oh I love those ornaments that make the sounds of birds singing..."
My mom would always say, "Yes...lovely isn't it ?"

Then, catching the birds when it came time to take down the tree was 9 kinds of fun.

Well, the visual of the catching of the parakeets is pretty entertaining, JP. Sometimes it can be at least 12 kinds of fun. LOL~
I absolutely love your Mom's response. Great memory, JD. Thanks for sharing it! : - )
WIB,
SW

That is funny, Mike! I think I would have liked your family as neighbors.

The evil little bird (just kidding, but sometimes....) sings beautifully. When he sings "pretty little bird" you'd think he was saying the words. Then he has his own special warbling tune which is quite long and a whole bunch of little songs and tweets. Then he has his not-so-pleasant sounds when he is ticked off at something. This week he has been serenading the middle bird - he just loves her to bits. He sits on the back of DH's chair and stares up at her like she's a goddess. She would take his head off in a blink. LOL

And his singing comes through loud and clear over the phone Sis had to talk to him so he would behave while she was up here visiting. "pretty little bird" is especially clear.

And now the big one, who has heard it so often, is trying her own version. It's not whistling, but she makes a noise in the same pattern of the syllables. I'm surprised she hasn't started saying it yet. She makes other funny noises sometimes - barking is the only way to describe it.

What a treat. I never got any of them to "talk", I'd whistle the tune, "The Eyes of Texas are Upon Us", which is sung to the tune of, "I've been working on the Railroad". Dad had one of his Blue Jays, who would whistle that back to him. That bird really loved him.
I do like birds, but I really like the outside birds. I still have my "keets, but since Buddy Holly hasn't yet learned to leave them alone, I have been having to leave them covered. BH just keeps pestering them. Mr. Squirt Bottle will take care of that!
Birds are really neat pets, but not if you have cats who want to eat them. Well, at least the chickens are too big for the cats to consider prey. LOL! I can just see a cat going after a full grown chicken or rooster. I'm betting on the fowl. I have always thought they were smarter than people give them credit for.
So the big bird is learning from the record or the other bird? You might get yourself an avian choir going there.
WIB!
SW