Spring Blooms

Just thought I would show my new Hollywood Plum Tree (edible-ornamental) I got in the ground a few weeks ago. Its looking beautiful and makes me very happy every-time I see it. Hopefully I won't have to wait too many years before getting fruit from it. It's only about my height at the moment.
The second photo is a Butterfly Blue Pincushion flower.
The third is one of a few bushes of Pieris Japonica I got in the ground last summer. They aren't growing at quite the rate I was hoping. Then again it hasn't been a single year yet. They should get pretty big at some time as long as they are healthy. I like the little bell flowers. A nice creamy yellow too.

This spring will also begin my first foray into an edible garden. I've got Mesculin, Carrots, Sugar Snap-Peas, Peppers, Raspberries, Ukranian Cranberry, and the Plum Tree. This means its my first time planting with seeds! It may seem silly, but it's such a big difference. It feels much more intimate. Like I'm actually giving life to something, rather than just raising a plant that had already been born (planting young plants from pots at a nursery).
I'm going from being an adoptive parent to a biological one -- or well as close as you can in the plant world. :)

He had it coming

more market weirdos

If anyone doubts that our emotional responses to specific yet subtle differences in exterior stimuli don't have big psychological differences I pose this to you:

At the market, I have a business card with multiple contact options including my personal cell number. I give out all kinds of information about myself and my product on an hourly basis to anyone who asks, and even to many who don't ask. All this access to semi-private/communal information is not all that distressing once done thousands of times

However when a lady who walks into my booth does not make eye contact with me and goes to my business card and begins to audibly speak my name and phone number and email and such while writing all this down into a notebook, then leaves, without having even acknowledged that I even existed.... well that is a might bit disconcerting!

Oh well. When you start to wonder about your co-workers, just feel glad you don't work with the public. And if you do work with the public - I'm sorry. We are weirdos.

Spring Renewal

Getting to be spring round here in Portland! Not that we've seen temps much above fifty, and actually I'm still waking up to a thin layer of ice on the pond... but still! Life is pushing its way forward in my garden.
Not all the plants I put in the ground last year have shown their new skins, and I'm afraid I've had a fair share of casualties (damn you winter apocalypse 2008!), but I have hopes for some of those still hidden in the ground.
My Agapanthis is most probably RIP, but there are slight signs of bright green among the dead ET like white mess.
I am most displeased about my jasmine not looking so hot and am fervently awaiting signs of renewal.
I'm also a little confused as to why my Honeysuckle is down for the count. I believe in its strength and hope for a late round come back.
But I just saw little spears coming from my Crocosmia mounds, and subtle whispers are coming from my Weeping Cherry that it might actually bloom (i wasn't sure it would).
YAY for the power of nature!

Augmented Reality?

You too can have virtual reality in the palm of your hand if you have a printer and a webcam.

http://ge.ecomagination.com/smartgrid/#/augmented_reality

here's a demo

Hadpybday

And on the 366th day, God created cake.
And it was good.
And He said unto thee - Congratulations on lasting through an entire solar orbital duration! In celebration I have decided to let there be cake. Please accept this as a token of apology for not having given you the ability to understand and foresee my massively complicated intricate plan I have for all of you. Be well, do good work, keep in touch.

On a side note: To whomever keeps messing with the thermostat - its getting a bit tiresome. I'm sending an HVAC guy from the Hindu branch on Monday to fix the climate, although it may take awhile. I know it may not seem like it, but there are reasons the world must be colder at times. To those who feel a bit chilled and need the world warmer, put on a sweater.
Yours truly, Enlightened One


Happy Birthday to me! I get cake on my 10,950th (or so) day of life! Even if I have to make it myself.
Happy Birthday to all March 8thians.

Just in case...

So just in case you ever thought you were "out of the loop" as it goes - maybe you just found out what "twittering" was, or that you still don't know what this FaceBook thingy is all about - worry not, for I met someone today more lost than you or I!
A vendor at the Sat. Market was talking to me about fairly normal everyday conversational things when she told me about a "new" restaurant called McMenamin's (which for all you non-natives around my parts is a Portland mainstay with maybe ten very popular restaurants around) where, and here's the kicker - has something called a "Happy Hour" (and she gave this mimed bunny ears in person) where before dinner time you can get cheap beer and little appitizer like plates of food!
-
-
!
Seriously!?
There was no indication that she was pulling my leg, or that this was some sort of brilliantly subltle sarcasm. In fact she told me that she has been telling all of her tourist customers to go there tonight to experience it first hand.
I asked her how well she was doing today.
Not too well was her response. The customers just aren't that willing to part with their money...

hmmmm. you don't say.

the people I work around.. sheesh.
at least they make me feel like I have a life in comparison.