Yes it's winter even in California!

Oh Daphne! Daphne is wonderful! I haven't had that one for years! Miss it. I have pink jasmine, star jasmine, night blooming jasmine...lol...and this year I fell in love with boronia, that's really good too. When I can no longer do all of the hard work of gardening, then I shall have a greenhouse filled with wonderfull scented plants.....overflowing....

Yes. Stock is definitely at the top of the "Funeral Flower" list for sure...but it's OK in the garden.
I love the scent of Pittosporum when it's blooming.
Florist carnations USED to be fragrant. Not anymore.

Star gazer lilies make me gag, too.

I used to like the scent of some star jasmine when it bloomed that I used to have leading up to the front door. But I yanked it because the "gardeners" (who mow what's left of my lawn and who I fired later) kept trimming it into a perfect little box shape. It drove me crazy.

And mock orange smells lovely.

Yes, I love the jasmines. When I lived in San Pedro it was outside my bedroom window and I would love when it started to bloom and to go to sleep to the lovely scent. But,...then it would start to get too heavy after weeks and weeks of it. Now I would know not too plant it that close to a window that is always open. Ditto with mock orange or any other orange.

I'm over my scent problems with the rosemary. Yea!
I like the paperwhite, grape hyacinths, and love freesia's.
I have also been in Gilroy, and don't mind the smell of garlic. It beats living across the road from a dairy or chicken farm.
My favorite scented flower aside from the Plumeria is the tuberose.
DH is torturing me with his orange peels. Makes my allergies go nuts when he leaves the peels out, instead of giving them to the critters.
I haven't tried growing stock, guess I should.
I still love the smell of 4 O'Clocks grown in mass. Their fragrance is lovely in the evenings in summer.
I guess some might find it cloying, but I like it.
Speaking of nicotiana, I found this little oddball out back of the old brooder house the other day. I think it's a nicotiana. This is a close up.
Enjoy!
WIB,
SW

Oh, LOVE LOVE LOVE tuberose~!

It's a bit strong, but I just arranged for a trade of some tuberose. I'll put it in a big pot and move it away from the house if it's too strong.

Good to have you back, Jules!

The single flowered tuberose is more powerfully scented than the double, so if one is bothered by the strength of the scent, you might try the double.

Glad to be back I missed you all. Was going through withdrawals. Was ready to kick my kids off their lap tops!
Seriously, I'm really happy that the computer is usable, still slow, but we'll be getting it worked on. I have so many photos I want to share.
Like this one. I don't know what it is, but I saw it yesterday. Asked DH, and he says he thinks it's buckwheat. Must be different kind than the rest of the Buckwheat that grows here. Was the only one that was red.
Red for the Christmas Season. If you look at the ground you can see a green tinge.
Most of my flowers have quit blooming for the season. I do have a bunch of blooms in the gh, which I'll share later on.
Enjoy, and do let me know if you have any idea what it really is?
WIB,
SW

Interesting, SW. Looks like red rosemary! I have seen red buckwheat, but it's the flowers that are pink/red, not the foliage. Mine turns rust red. I have this epi blooming like crazy right now : http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=7374471 plus a couple of salvias that are so tiny I don't think I could get a photo of them. My camera is good - my eyes ain't!

Oooh, SW, what great color, whatever it is...I wonder if it'd color up as much where I am (2 miles from the beach)...

SW Pretty plant. I have natives that have that look, then when they get larger they have little white flowers that start edged in pink. They seed all over the place and set deep roots, so it is best to get them out early. The ones I choose to keep I water and prune them into bush shapes. Maybe buckwheat? I like that red for Christmas version.

Found this in Google images:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.kumeyaay.info/california_native_plants/Indigenous_Plants_pics/Buckwheat.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.kumeyaay.info/california_native_plants/indian_buckwheat.html&usg=__klZt26ntAFMCIA2Te2Rvv4OLs44=&h=796&w=1100&sz=293&hl=en&start=24&tbnid=9vQKdnxBkiYT5M:&tbnh=109&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbuckwheat%2Bplants%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D20%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26start%3D20
Wow is that long, or what? Anyway, that is what the plant looks like when I do not prune the dead stuff off. I know they do not get babied in the hills where they grow like crazy, but they have less of a chance of burning in my yard.

SW - you did not mention you guys had hay rides too (at least my pea brain did not remember that). I saw your article/ad in the Neighborhood publication. So, I am guessing that, like Bates Nut Farm, it is tractor pulled since you go to neighbor's for horse.

quiltygirl,
I can't take care of a horse, and I won't let one suffer from neglect. Most of the folks around here do have horses though.
We used to have horses until the Dr. told me he wouldn't be responsible for putting my face back together if I continued to ride. He'd done some work to correct a birth defect. So I gave up horseback riding.
We did have a very nice Shetland Pony, for the boys, but he lives on a retirement farm now.
Tractor pulled it is. We actually have two of hayrides. The little one that holds about 10 people and is pulled by a garden lawnmower tractor. Then we have the big one that is pulled by the big tractor. I am not sure how many people it holds. Hmmm? I should have counted.
I'll have to check and see if I can find photos of the plant from the spring. It is the only one like it out there. I'll be sure to document what it does next.
This is what the rain has brought us. : - )
KC, I have a Christmas Cactus blooming or trying to, along with a couple that are struggling to. I think yours is prettier. I will have to see if I can find a photo.
Surfcity, I don't know if it is a rosemary, but was attracted to the red color. Usually my strawberry trees have red fruit now, but so far it is still white or yellow. Will try to get a photo. We don't really have seasons like the rest of the country, so I take what I can find. LOL!
This photo is what we like in CA. A green Christmas. : - )
WIB,
SW

KC,
I found a macro of my Christmas Cactus. I should get a photo of the whole plant. It's about ready to bloom all over.
Enjoy!
WIB!
SW

I love to read these threads but this one is really special. I will be having Christmas with my family for the first time in 17years in SCal (home). This will be the first time my kids will meet some of their relatives not sure if that is good or bad. They also get to go snowboarding in Big Bear. We leave on the train on Mon. and will be in Union Station Wed. morning. Sooo excited. The 2 boys are mine.
Lisa

1lisac,
Welcome home for Christmas! I'm sure it'll be a real treat for you and your family. Nice family you have there!
Be sure to take them to the beach the same day you go to Big Bear. The snow up there is doing pretty good, according to what I hear on the news. They make some every night. The rain we had was snow for the folks up in BB, and it sure helped with the local economy.
Not everyone gets it, when we talk about our green Christmas's. With a day time temp expected to be in the 70's in LA for Christmas. What will the kids do? Tell 'em to pack shorts! LOL!
This is a photo of Mt. San Gorgonio taken from the hill out back yesterday. Another reason to live here. : - )
Safe Journey!
Walk In Beauty!
SW

1lisac: LA's Union Station is exciting enough for me---I musta shot 200 pix of the tiles. But that's just me.
Welcome home for Christmas---I'm sure all your CA family will be on their best behavior----thrilled to see you again and meet your kids---at least I know I would be!
Happy Holidays!!!

I didn't realize how excited I was until I realized I was pretty much ready to go and the train is so much fun. That picture is Snow Valley? with my bestfriend's husband and their daughter the boys are mine. Thats funny what you said about the beach and the mountains in the same day. When I was in college we use to go to the beach during the day and skiing at night. There aren't many places you can do that! A friend of mine has a cabin up there and my family use to so I'll get to show the kids our old cabin and where I spent all my teenage summers. My friend said the snow is really good I just hope the weather holds I don't want to haul a bunch of clothes half way across the country.

Merry Christmas to you and yours, 1lisac! It was 80+ degrees here today, so pack for a wiiiiidddde temperature spread! Tell the kids if they don't like the rellies, not to worry, you ARE going home again. I had the same feeling when I went back east to meet my cousins - but I loved them all. Write the names down on a card for them, that's what I do for my DH. Welcome back to our little corner of the west.

Normally, I would say UPS your ski clothes ahead of time, but this time of year that might not work. Used to have friends that did that every year.

My dad actually did some of the tile work there and it is beautiful. Being a tile setters daughter the first thing I look at is the floor, to see if the grout lines are straight. My family will be terrible and loud just the way I like them. Their dad's side of the family is really quite and boring. I ask my kids what they were planning on doing if they wanted to say something and everybody else was talking and not listening. My oldest son said "wait" my younger one said "talk louder". I said that's right everybody just talks at the same time. I love it, and it isn't boring but very loud.

How fun---I've done a lot of my own tile setting, and I appreciate the skills that fine tile craftsmanship require. I hope your can help the kids appreciate how special (and unique to CA) Union Station is---and even more so that their grandfather did some of the work. Also the opportunity to interact with family members they have never met. They might be surprised to find common interests!

Hope you'll post and tell us how it all went afterwards!

I can hardly wait. LA overwhelms my kids because they were born and raised in the country but there is no place like it. I grew up in the San Fernando Valley and it will ALWAYS be home.
Merry Christmas!
Lisa

1lisac - I lived in the South Bay (San Pedro, Lomita) for 22 years and commuted to downtown and got relatively used to it, but have been away since '95 and it has become more intimidating again, or is that age? I remember coming to "hollywood" with my friend and her dad when I was14 in the 60's, from Santa Barbara, and came home talking about how 'orange' the sky was down there. On the flip side, I had to go to Milwaukee on business once and stayed with my grandmother south of the city. The vendor was giving me directions and warned to give myself lots of time, due to all the traffic. Needless to say, I was there at least half an hour early and said "you call that traffic?". Now New York, well, that is another animal.

Your kids will love it or will likely have their heads buried in iPod or texting. Or, do you escape that in your Country living. We 'feel' country here on our small 1.5 acres, but really everything is right around the corner, figuratively. My daughter is seeing a counselor and they were asking all those "family" questions about physical, then mental health. She answered a bunch of them in the negative for mental health on her dad's side and then when they asked about my family, she said "oh they are all annoyingly normal".

My Grandparents lived in San Fernando Valley, for many years in the 60's and the 70's. It was great in the winter, but too hot in the summer! This from me in the desert. We do get our daily afternoon breezes here, though. There it never cooled off at night.
Lisa, having set tile myself, I have a lot of respect for the skill and art that goes into it.
Ima, I was taking photos of the tile work and the paint in Old Town SD. You are not alone. LOL!
Your family sounds a bit like mine, Lisa. We all talk at once, but we are all half deaf, so we have to talk loud. It's a family thing, and there is no feeling like it. I do hope you'll be able to keep up and let us know about your CA Adventures while here.
I do envy you the train ride, you'll get to see things that most of don't get to see. It's going to be a blast for you and the family.
Have yourselves a Merry Christmas, and keep in touch!
It's amazing how quickly it gets green here. This one I took today. The hill in the back ground is to the west so that might be a south facing slope.
WIB!
SW

Funny how things happen - I was born in Burbank! Our home was in Roscoe, which doesn't exist anymore.

Great photos, SW!

Since you'll be at Union Station, perhaps you can stop at Phillipe for Beef Dip sandwiches and all of the other good stuff they have....Yum! I never can make it up there anymore.

SW - Wow you have more of that green than we do. We have a LITTLE and when one of the horses was out today she was trying to eat it up. Challenging.

Not too far from Union Station is The Pantry (9th and Figueroa). Also yummy.

Ironic, I wish I were going to TX this week where MY family lives (parents, 2 sister's families). We are not one of those loud families, but another sister in Cincinnati married into one! LOL.

Phillipe's by the Coliseum, right? I used to work in the textile business in downtown (REALLY downtown) LA in the '70s, and if I had time for lunch that was one of my favorite places to go.

This is actually my dad's side of the family and they are the less loud side, my mom's side is REALLY bad.
We go to CA 3-4x a year but this will be the first time for Christmas. I would like to go to Alvera St. but I don't know cause we will have so much "cr.." with us.
GG you made me suck air when you mentioned Phillipe's, My dad worked for the county by the music center, so did I for awhile. I remember going there with him I didn't know it was still there. I have also set tile a little since my dad didn't have any sons I was the next best thing. The last room we did was my library my dad was nearing 80 and I was nearing 40 and we had to help each other get up. It was hilarious because we really had to plan it if one of us walked away the other was stuck.
The grout thing is really bad when I use a public rest room and notice the grout lines aren't straight!
The SF Valley is hot people here think its hotter here but I don't think there's much difference.
Thanks for being so nice. I'm really glad I posted now I'm really looking foreward to the trip and I will try to keep you posted.

Pigeon, that's one of the things I miss most about not being able to get into L.A....the garment district and fabrics...the traffic into L.A. is just too much of a nightmare anymore. I came home Friday and knew I was going to hit rush hour, but wanted to get on the road and figured I'd stop on the Grapevine and read for a couple of hours so as to hit L.A. later, but, DUH!, forgot my book. Hit Pasadena at 4:00, took 4 hours of crawling traffic to get home from Pasadena. I cannot imagine how those poor people do it every day...
edited to add that there's a shop in Olvera St that has some super cool Dia de los Muertos tiles that I'd love to incorporate into a house...not this one, but perhaps a future house. I always figure we'll do another house and start planning ahead...lol....at 80 years old I'll probably still be thinking that way...

This message was edited Dec 20, 2009 8:25 AM

GG where does you family live in TX? I just talked to my mom and Phillipe's was around when she was a teenager she is 83 now.
Lisa

Most of my customers were in the garment district. Our dyer was in Watts, and my favorite customer was in Boyle Heights. We had a couple of small customers at the beach, too. I had a '65 Saab. I could put the back seat down, flop the passenger seat down, and cram the whole thing full of 72" fabric rolls if a customer had a rush job or a show coming up. My roommate and I lived in Hermosa Beach---she worked in the carpet business, so we commuted together a lot. We had to start out no later than 5:00 a.m. to get to work on time even in those days---and earlier if we needed gas 'cuz we'd have to stand in line. I learned to take the surface streets and avoid the freeways as much as possible; it took about the same amount of time, but we had more to see than the taillights of the car in front of us. I loved to look at the gardens in the older neighborhoods and think about having my own someday---taking surface streets is such an easy way to get ideas, see what mature plants will do and make lists of "must have" and "avoid like the plague" plants!

OH yes, the garment district good memories there. The older areas in the LA region are fantastic, unfortunately plants don't grow as well in TX as they do in CA.

Yep, knowing the surface streets is the way to go....I also love all of the old city areas, mature trees and wonderful old houses. That's why I love Long Beach, Jasperdale (Mike)....
I've found the same joys in some old neighborhoods in Modesto while being up there...I left 50 years ago and the trees there are huge now. Found the most wonderful old cemetery on Scenic Dr. It made me realize why some would want to be buried rather than cremated. I would want to be buried there with a beautiful old monument and to know that that's where my Dad 'is' and I would go to visit him there. He has a plot in a really yucky cemetery and he's decided to be cremated so I can keep his ashes. When I'm back up there I'm going to make sure to take pics of this cemetery...well, I have a thing for old cemeteries anyway. Especially marker/stones that have photos. There's an old cemetery in Martinez that I used to love....what a nice subject, huh?

1lisac - I don't remember where Phillipe's is (WC was the one who mentioned it). In all my years downtown, only went there a few times, but don't 'think' it was near coliseum. Yep remember it looked really old, so it probably was not new when your mom went either. My family is in Plano and Richardson, outside of Dallas.

I did go to the garment district more often, but it was more of a walk than the dept. stores from our office. Would go on Saturdays too. I worked for Unocal from 71 to 92 (when I was "asked' to take the volunteer severance plan after 22 years at 41 yrs old). We had all sorts of back routes to get to places to avoid the most trafficked roads. Could get to Chinatown, eat and be back in a flash. Or eat at my desk and shop for lunch. I lived in Lomita and San Pedro and carpooled for 21 years. We met at our refinery right off the Harbor Fwy and the drive was not bad. Left from there between 6:45 to 7 and work started at 7:45. Now, coming home on a rainy day...... I can see where getting to Hermosa would take longer.

WC - guess Fridays are still the worse for traffic. Last time I came home from Santa Barbara on a weekday was a Thursday a couple years ago and I complained it took me 4.5 hours then and that included stopping at the Farmer's Market in Thousand Oaks! I remember going to Palm Springs from the office on a Friday night and it took 4 hours, and came back Sunday AM and it was only 1.5 hours. The best was one day when we took DD to school @7:30 here in Wildomar and left to take DH to a meeting in Woodland Hills, then on to LAX to drop him off, stop for strong frappacino, go to bank and pick her up at 2! I think it was 10 freeways. Whenever we complain about traffic around here, I have to stop and put it into perspective

I wasn't allowed to go to downtown LA. My Grandmother worked in a sweat shop in the garment district for many years, and would not allow us to see the seamier part of life. (Pun intended, statement is true.) : - )
I think it's great to hear about LA, especially in the old days.
I wanted to share a story which JD got me thinking about (Funeral Flowers).
My surrogate Mom & Pop Erickson (who got me into flowers), told me that when they first started dating it was during WWII. Pop was serving our country when they got married in LA.
They couldn't find any flowers for the Bridal Bouquet. All of the florists were out. Mom E. was sad. So Pop E. made a daring raid on the local cemetary, and swiped enough flowers for her Wedding Bouquet.
I don't think he told her until later where he got them from, but they giggled telling the story for the rest of their lives. So whenever I think of Cemetary Flowers, I remember how happy they made a Bride one day.
Do enjoy your trip, and we are glad to hear from you Lisa. Once a CA, always a CA. Even if half our family lives in TX, like mine does too.
WIB!
SW

The older the neighborhoods, the nicer the vintage homes and bldgs. usually are...which is why I love where I live. I grew up in one of those plain jane 50's tract houses in Culver City...in the "new area". (lol ) I thought people who lived in the old spanish bldgs. with the tile roofs and the Ca. Bungalows/Craftsman homes were "poor people" ! Our kitchen had "state of the art" turquoise Kelvinator appliances and a turquoise and red paisley upholstered banquette. We even had a garbage disposal...and CARPETING !

In 1964 we "upgraded" and got cottage cheese ceilings ! (Let's hear it for asbestos !!!)