Just Another Gopher Moment

Go-For, actually. At my office job I end p doing all sorts of tasks and errands. This week that included stopping in at the Building & Safety Department of Rancho Palos Verdes. Now that it's stopped raining and I'm not clenching the wheel of my car in fear of on-coming traffic in 50ft fog visibility... it's quite a nice view. Couldn't help taking some personal time for a short walk on the South Spur Trail.

to the south that's Santa Catalina Island where the buffalo roam in the distance 

a view north from behind city hall buildings, there's the Santa Monica Bay and waaaay over thar is Malibu

looking southwest there's point San Vicente Lighthouse

 believe it or not that's the gorgeous view of Catalina from the lightly used parking lot to the senior center

 

see all that brownish gray out there?

that's dried out fennel or dill...probly fennel...which is considered invasive along the trails here

On the way back to work I pulled over at scenic view on Hawthorne Blvd for these:

 there's looking southwest towards San Pedro...

All in all, a nice morning break from my work week :)

Ew My Stone Face Spewed....

Ok, this actually happened several weeks ago, but I just got time to ask about this:

So my faces actually weren't all that happy when they were transplanted into a container, several got shrivelly and kicked the bucket. One spewed the above white slivers. What the shaizer?! Close-up:

Does anybody know - were those seeds? Is my stone face an annual that's about to die?

Still Not Dead

...yet :9

Just a quick entry so I don't forget I have a blog ;) It's just been to crazy to keep up with entriess, I would really like to do a fall or even full year summary later this month after my night class ends and work projects are finished before the new building code takes effect.

Anyway, my container garden is doing good, I've got alot of new seed varieties to try out this spring via trades, and the front yard is about to get prepped for spring...

My one guilty pleasure during this crazy autumn has been keeping up with everyone's gardening blogs. I'm suffering a bit of zone envy. It's kind of exciting seeing so many gardeners scrambling to winterize everything and stash plants away from the frost. In LA instead  of full on winter most of nature just goes into this weird limbo state. It seems like a cheat down here to get the naked deciduous trees and see all the death and dormancy of many plants - but no snow! No snow angels, snowmen, or snow days off work.

But you know what?

I got fresh strawberries in December so HA!!!!

Ok, maybe that was a little uncalled for. But if we're having the coldest winter in my entire life at least nature could throw us a little snow to make it worth it :/ Anyone else feel like that?