Time for a road trip.....

YIPPEE!!!!! I am heading out on a plant buying trip to California. I am off to buy olive trees, succulents, cacti and agave.....and lots of them!..oh yeah... I can't forget Annie's Annuals and a trek to the beloved Ruth Bancroft Gardens.......

Here is my gratuitous aeonium photo I took last year at the garden....

Tune in later for on the road updates!

It's time for a closeup Mr. DeMille.......

Here are some photos of a few of my agave this morning......This one is Agave triangularis..... super tall and narrow...very graceful!

Agave Parryi truncata, my absolute fave....I have 3...this is the medium sized one.... I have one that is about 3 times this size.

Agave seemanniana- I got this one from the Ruth Bancroft Garden this spring.....a HUGE plant for $25 - LOVE IT

Agave Parryi Parryi...from Intermountain Cactus in Salt Lake....I needed a road trip to go get this one. Actually, I bought two of these and they look lovely in big silver pots on either side of the fireplace in the courtyard. I have left these out over the last two winters and they have made it through just fine..........

Break over..back to the garden. We are setting up the new BBQ today...Bday present to ourselves......

Have a great Sunday evening!

procrastination......

Sometimes I find it difficult to blog on a regular basis. I know I should. I am indeed well intended, but sometimes I can't get it all together. Or perhaps I just need a cocktail instead, or maybe I need to just go to bed or perhaps there is just too much good stuff out there to focus on just one thing, blah, blah , blah..... I have so many images lined up and ready to go, sometimes it seems that I just run out of stuff to say, or are too tired or something. OK, that's it. Thanks for listening and helping to alleviate a bit of my blogging (or lack thereof) guilt.

Anyhoo.......I took a lovely little trip to San Fran with Frenchy and our darling friends Sue & Eric in March. My intent was plant shopping, the San Fran Garden Show, The King Tut exhibit at the De Young, The Science Center and the Aquarium - or whatever it is called ,Flora Grubb, Succulent Gardens, Dim Sum at Gold Mountain, Cactus Jungle, Olive Tree Farm, Chez Panisse and the Ruth Bancroft Garden. We managed everything except Chez Panisse - I guess I forgot to make a reservation a month in advance. Seriously. As my trusty Cherokee has now turned over 186,000 miles, I thought it wiser to rent a mini-van (YIKES!) and drive down. I left the day before everyone else and picked them all up in Oakland the next day. I had already filled up a large portion of the van by then, and had to arrange things a bit in order to get everyone in the van.

Over the next week or so, I will post photos of the trip, bit by bit. Today are the photos from the Aquarium and some of The French one........

Frenchy totally cracks me up. These are my favorite kind of photos - you gotta love a good self portrait!

Beautiful!

What great textures!

The orange jellyfish with the blue background were breathtaking!

These frogs were more than a little freaky........kind of looked like cartoon characters...kind of.....but not.

I had never seen a nautilus before....one great big stink eye...creepy, but cool!

Better late than never......

I am finally out of here - with only a few time snags on my way out of town. I rented a van to take me down to the San Francisco Garden Show - an empty van - although it will not return empty - if you know what I mean - I've got a bit of shopping to do. Besides the show, I am picking up olive trees in Sonoma, getting a few more Agave for my collection at the Ruth Bancroft Garden (a TOTAL must see) in Walnut Creek and heading down to Castroville to Succulent Gardens.........DEAR GOD! So much to do...not to mention the King Tut Exhibit and Dim Sum at Gold Mountain! Look out.......here I come......

here is an image from the Ruth Bancroft Garden of my FAVORITE Agave - Parryi Truncata...isn't it lovely????

Almost out of here......

We are going to have a crazy busy week starting tomorrow!

We are meeting the best tile guy in the world (Jeff) at a client home to get started on a fireplace tiling project. We have chosen a Crema Marfil 1 x 3 herringbone tile and boy oh boy is it going to change the fireplace. The herringbone pattern is going to bring out the same pattern in a Kelly Wearstler fabric / Hickory White chair sitting close by....I will take before pictures tomorrow.....

Then it is off to the flower market and a few other places to pick up some last minute details for a clients' birthday dinner party we are setting. Beautiful asian theme, black, red and green.......

Then we are seeing the finished product at a clients' home that Jeff, the amazing tile guy, completed Friday for one of our clients - we redid the kitchen counter top in a white Ecoterr with a simple white subway tile backsplash. With the dark gray cabinets, it is sure to look fab. Then we redid the bath/shower in a much more modern way with killer Yuta - Silk tile from Pratt & Larson and a great marmoleum floor - the vanity gets installed next week and will tie the whole project together! Photos later......

On Tuesday we are meeting with our electrician (Randy) and our floor guy (John) - both the absolute BEST at what they do, BTW, to evaluate the space at a new client's basement that we have been hired to re-d0. We need to redo the entire lighting and wiring as the ceiling is till open and still old post & knob wiring (yikes) and we need to do some leveling of the floor to be able to apply the cork we have chosen. I love the very beginning of a project when everything just starts to come together.....I will take some before pictures tomorrow.....

Then we are setting the tables and accessorizing the client's bday party as mentioned earlier and then it is off to the "fireplace" clients home for an interview with The Darling Miss Bridget of the Oregonian and the client for a story on color that she is working on!

WHEW!

Wednesday morning I am off to pick up my rental van for the drive to San Francisco by way of Napa Valley to buy plants, attend the SF Garden Show, eat at Chez Panisse, go to the Ruth Bancroft Garden, to to Flora Grubb and see the King Tut exhibit. My husband and our friends Sue and Eric are flying down on Thursday so we can all hang together.....take them back to the airport on Monday morning and then drive home....CRAZY!

But for now....it is out to the garden I go. Frenchy is installing our new front fence and I have a few things to plant!

Since I don't have any pictures yet to go with this specific post, here are a few gratuitous of the shop.......

Have a great Sunday!

NAUGHTY NAUGHTY!!!!

OK......I could NOT pass this one up....I was wandering through the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek, Ca...it is all about cactus an succulents - and there it was.....unbelieveable. I have nothing else to say....