luna the whippet is just trying to stay warm!

mums love the cool weather!

camellia japonica 'april dawn' has begun to bloom for the first time.

yesterday, as i drove back from boston, i had my camera ready in case i could get some leaf color shots. however, clouds from approaching hurricane noel created these dramatic sunsets. i just pointed and shot, without stopping or looking through the lens.

my daughter's art class made drawings... left-handed, not looking at drawing,
right handed, not looking at drawing, and
right handed, while looking at drawing. i think this is a pointsettia flower.

happy halloween!

my mother's portuguese water dog at 6 months! he's as sweet as he looks.

colchicum 'waterlily' is struggling in the drought

here is mr. squirrel, foraging on my deck. i took this picture from my office chair.

Sorry to say, blogger is having problems with image uploads. Mr. Squirrel will have to wait.

what a beautiful shelter!

i planted many morning glories, but only one survived

a rose in despair over the end of summer

the mums are taking their time unfurling due to the drought

asters are in their glory now in the ne usa

one last look at the way brugmansia 'pink beauty' was last week. today all but 3 of the flowers have fallen to the ground.

graceful and sculptural, luna perches at the window to observe the local prey

green stinkbug on lantana flowers

i moved my tropicals into my office/sunroom today, despite the uncommonly warm weather. the blue passion flower is still blooming.

passiflora 'lady margaret' is still putting on a show

ok, the brugmansia is making me weak, i just have to post more pictures of it. 'pink beauty' prefers the night time, when its fragrance is intoxicatingly tropical. one may forget for a moment that one lives in the (winter coming soon) ne usa.

overloaded with blooms, brugmansia 'pink beauty' droops in the unusual, record-breaking, late september heat.

joe joe with lantana flowers sprinkled on his poof

brugmansia 'pink beauty' has over 20 flowers right now

view of the dogwood changing color through an attic window

evergreen magnolia leaf wreath i made yesterday

lespedeza still putting on a show

monarch butterfly sampling 'ellen's blue' buddeleia

teeny skipper butterfly smaller than my thumbnail in the late summer sun

northern crescent butterfly visits verbena bonariensis town.

decorative pea plant

the lespedeza my brother gave me last year is falling over itself with flowers

sweet autumn clematis blooming atop the harry lauder walking stick, in front of dogwood with changing leaf color

bees visiting sedum 'autumn joy' in the afternoon

here is the back side of the night blooming cereus flower. i think this view is prettier than the front.

last night, on 9/11, the night blooming cereus opened for business! this photo was taken about 10pm. i got up at 3am to see it still blooming, but by 7am it was drooping. the scent was so strong and tropical! i wonder if any of our local bats tried to pollinate it? the flower was 8 inches in diameter.

passiflora 'pura vida' blooming among basket grass in front of a cobalt planter

the night blooming cereus has a bud! it has only bloomed once before, and i missed it, so this time we will be watching closely and staying up one night to see it completely open.

rose 'heritage' is still going strong despite the recent drought

japanese anemones, with their pink pearl buds, are still blooming...

my neighbor tony gave me a 3 foot long sqaush that he grew!

caryopteris 'silver knight' is just blooming

Last weekend we went to MOMA to see the Richard Serra sculptures. I like his work because it can be experienced. One of his sculptures offered the museum goers several paths and then funnelled them all together at the center, so people had to take turns leaving the sculpture. I thought it was funny, other people seemed annoyed.

At the MOMA website they have a nifty film showing the installation of Serra sculptures in the Rockerfeller garden which is truly worth every 53 seconds:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1sBpsyRNfM

i love this odd little shrub, westringia romariniformis, from austrailia by way of logee's.

i short trip to the woods revealed these lichens.

i bought this chinese yixing clay teapot at teance in berkeley. the lichen design represents long life.