That's what I did with about 1.2 km to go I added 1.33 km because I decided I took the walk too easy. I think perhaps I was subliminally comparing today's walk to yesterday's hustle. Nevertheless, I had some sort of guilt thing going about not pushing myself. Shortly after the addition I bumped into a neighbor I hadn't seen walking for quite awhile and stopped to chat. I don't really talk to many people even though I think I'm rather open and friendly during most encounters, I just don't typically encounter many people. For the most part I still don't know anybody here. It always crosses my mind afterward that I overextended the conversation. I get self-conscious about stuff like that. I think I somehow learned this trait from my mother. She would talk to anyone, complete strangers and it was just like she's always known them. My sister wrote to assist for the Celebrant service at our mother's graveside service in March, "She readily talked to strangers everywhere she went, forming long-term relationships with waitresses, parking valets, etc. The valets at The Cheesecake Factory asked where my side-kick was when I showed up without her in recent days." The Cheesecake factory was the regular weekly lunch spot for many months before our mother passed.
Anyway, I'm starting from the end, let's start from the beginning...
Out the front door I noticed my Salvia nemorosa which I thought was a goner a couple of months ago had not only rebounded it appears to be spreading. I hit everything I felt was worthy with a dose of fertilizer a few weeks ago so maybe that was the trick. I'm pretty much clueless about what these plants decide to do from day to day.
On the house side of behind the sidewalk I noticed this, a 1st black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) showing up. I mentioned before that I had spread 4 oz of wildflower seeds toward the end of February after I heard forecasts of pending rain. My fall seeding was coming in nicely by that time. That rain never showed and while I watered sufficiently (I thought) for seed to germinate it appeared I wasn't going to get any seedlings. I know of the book entitled, The Secret Life of Plants and I should probably read it because plants are certainly a mystery to me.
Now to be honest, part of the reason I took pictures on the way out was because I was pretty sure I wasn't going to find anything new and exciting on the walk and for the most part this was true.
These are tiny water plants in a memorial (I think it's a memorial) pond/statue thing in the garden I frequent. I've tried to get a nice photo of this a few times before. Once again I'm not too happy and once again I didn't follow what I told myself to do to compensate which was to work with the camera's white balance. Generally I shoot AWB (auto white balance.) Next time, I promise.
The pond/statue thing looks like this...
I keep thinking too I should organize some comparison of this garden with shots from last year. This is lamb's ear. It's one of the few plants I've inherited from anyone, the lamb's ear specifically from my sister, which grows well for me. This crop at the garden is about 1/8th the size (coverage, etc.) as what they had last year. They pretty much let it all die off and it didn't come back in with the same robustness. The tallest flower here is not quite 2 feet, last year this was over 4' tall, in abundance. I've wondered a few times now about the garden being neglected some compared to last year.
See the little ground squirrel? Even as squirrels go ground squirrels are annoying little fucks. Borderline rats. This animal is going to be a future menace to the outlying neighborhoods if it's not already.
Agave victoriae reginae.
Euphorbia horrida striata. Someone who pays attention and with a good memory would recall I took photos of this cactus back mid-March when it was flowering and interesting. Now that it's dying is it ugly and bland?
Opuntia lindheimeri. This is 11 focus stacked images by the way.
A shell of his former self. We could call this art but that would be lying but then most art is a lie. Why should art be any different than anything else?
This is too much to think about all at once. However, this never happens anymore. They only have about 12 cows these days. When I was a kid there were lots of cows. They had full cycle cows, from birth to the dinner table. When we were kids we helped move cows from one pasture to another a couple of times. Truth is, they knew where they were supposed to go and if they tried to pull any shit there was a dog named Patches who squared them out. They should change these signs to an image of a crazed 19 year old driver behind the wheel of a car.
Once again with the wrong lens and too far away (not that I care to get a lot closer) but evidence of what I said here that my 1st and 2nd coyote sightings were different animals. This was a male in the lead and the female behind. For the most part he waited for her and watched me.
10.12 km today with the penalty. I'm pooped.
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