Happy Thanksgiving

the view from my kitchen window

Bamboo Forest

For part of John's birthday present, I brought him to the Bamboo Giant Nursery in Aptos. It's hidden away off a windy road just south of Santa Cruz. They have a large bamboo grove you can wander around, with many of the bamboo plants reaching somewhere around 50 feet. I've never seen anything like it- it was amazing to see all the different types of bamboo.

Happy Birthday John!!!

I was trying to find a picture of a cake I liked...but then I couldn't pass up the birthday cake hat.

goings on

The last week or so the princess trumpet tree (or so we're told it's called) in our front yard has gone crazy with blooms. They're huge, kind of like giant honeysuckles, and in the evening they open up and fill the street with a wonderfully sweet scent. We've also been visited by a large number of bees ;-) John's been doing a great job with the front yard. The roses he's been pruning have a bunch of new growth too, including a couple plants that were dormant when we moved in.

In the backyard, John has been deconstructing, and I've begun to clear out the tomato vines from the vegetable garden to make way for some cool season plants. I'm hanging on to mine though, since they're in containers and are still producing fruit. In fact, yesterday I picked my first ripe tomatoes! A little late in the season, but very exciting for me, as they're the first edible thing I've grown.

I found a picture I had taken when I got them as seedlings. This little pot if full of seedlings- I ended up being able to plant only two of the them.