Surf and Sunset

I was treated to a gorgeous sunset yesterday at Cardiff State Beach

It seemed like all of San Diego congregated at the beach to escape the heat and this normally nearly empty parking lot was completely full

Xylophone in Forest

Found this while surfing the web. Hard to believe this is an ad. 

Pictures of the Day

Catching a Sunrise

What happens when its 5am and I cant sleep? I go catch a sunrise and take pictures...

Vista Sleeps

After taking a drive I came home and checked out what was blooming in the yard

Salvia Coccinea

Hoya Pubicalyx

Encyclia Orchid

Asclepias Curassavica- This is a Monarch butterfly host plant

Fern spores starting to grow

And then I got pooped on...again

The hummingbirds are most active around 7-8am

I got to see my first male black chinned hummingbird this morning. He wasn’t as aggressive as the larger birds so I didn’t get any supper clear images but hopefully he will stick around and I will have more opportunities to photograph him.

Painting With Light

My nieces came to visit from Oregon this week. The first thing on their to do wish list…painting with light at the beach with Aunt Nessy!  The last two years we have camped each summer at Del Mar Beach Resort & Campsites on the base at Camp Pendleton.  

 Its a great campground for a busy troop of kids.

Essentially painting with light is done by taking a picture but keeping the cameras shutter open for an extended amount of time. While the camera is open it captures any available light that passes in front of it. Light appears as streaks or paint in the sky. The darker it is the longer you can paint.

We had a full moon so our time was generally thirty seconds. And the sky was gorgeous that night.

An A for Awesome...or a niece named Allie

We had a lot of glow sticks left over from last year, the first time I did this activity, so this time we cracked open 2x the amount of glow sticks, enough to share with other kids at the campground.  At one point I had ten kids running around in front of me. 

What happens when a truck pulls through the campground?

Some friend bumped the camera between shots so we got a little blurry. 

This shot was to cute to toss. 

The longer we played the more adults we had come down to find out what all the ohhs, ahhs and noise was about.

Near the end we did a single picture with each girl standing still in their best pose and favorite color. I have a cell phone app thats a flash light and that can be changed to any color.  

We had a very difficult time choosing a favorite!

This is my niece Mia... She wanted superpowers and likes the color green

My youngest niece Eva

My niece Allie the star

The girl's new friend Tegan who likes the color hot pink

A certain grandma forgot to keep moving so she became a ghost next to Tegan

Looking forward to doing it again next year!

Del Mar Beach Resort Website

Visit to Resendiz Brothers Protea

This past week I was lucky enough to be invited to come out and visit one of the largest protea growers in California.  During the summer they are in their slow season since most of the flowers they grow bloom in the spring, but there was still plenty to see. 

To see what product they have available during the year check them out at

http://www.resendizbrothers.com/

They currently have 350 acres of which more than 200 is planted with South African and Australian plants such as Protea, Leucospermum, Leucadendron, Banksia, Anigozanthos, Grevillea, Serruria, Waratah, Berzelia, Leptospermum, Waxflowers, Boronia, and much more.

Here are a few pictures from my trip...

I was so impressed by this acasia. I have never seen it before and I am surprised I don’t see them since this could be a beautiful landscape plant. This is Acacia Mystery Mountain or Acacia podalyriaefolia. Its a definite addition to my plant wish list. 

For this tour I didn't go up into the larger growing fields but Mel gave me a tour of all the propagation areas.  Hopefully I will get to visit again in the spring so I can show everyone their fields. 

I loved all the color in these greenhouses. So many are attracted by protea flowers but I love seeing the huge variety of foliage textures and color. All the plants had just been watered in here so everything was covered in droplets of water that made all the plants sparkle. 

This is the processing area. In the mornings this place is a buzz of activity getting the flowers loaded on trucks to go out. 

Buckets of Protea Pink Ice. These usually flower August - January

Above: Eximia Foliage

Above: Australian Pine Adenanthos

Serruria Blushing Bride

Mel was kind enough to give me a small bucket of flowers he had cut off some stems he was grafting so I decided to play with all the fun little vases I had here at home. 

Leucospermum Spider

Protea Red Robyn

A great use for old candle holders that never get used

Red Robyn is a cute little flower around 2 inches tall with a rich color of red and soft to the touch. After taking the picture I gave a flower to my niece and she immediately put it up to her face like you would a soft rabbit. These also dry very lovely. So far the rest of the flowers have been out of water for more than two weeks and they still have the intense color and the petals have dried and curled very nicely. 

I thought the Serruria Blushing Bride looked great with this vintage vase. 

These would be great wedding colors.

AND... these were the new fun plants Mel gave me to take home! 

I think the front yard will be getting re-landscaped in the near future.

And finally proof that even dried protea are gorgeous...This is one of the flowers from my protea bouquet more than a month and a half ago. I love these amazing plants!