Saying goodbye to 2020, may you FOF

This photo was taken in March of 2013. I ran into it again yesterday while purging 1,000s of images from my computer. In retrospect it struck me as a perfect visual metaphor for how I am seeing 2020.

Adios a La Pasada (Goodbye to the Past)

Today's no walk report: 111620

 Focusing on little things for big reasons.

Lemon tree. This is a Meyer lemon tree. No, I'm not kidding. I have several of these going right now but this is the only one that is above soil enough to take a picture of. Here's something I just learned, the Meyer lemon, is a hybrid citrus fruit native to China. It is a cross between a citron and a mandarin/pomelo hybrid. A short while ago, when I decided to buy some lemons and try to grow a lemon tree, I discovered that it takes around four years for a Meyer lemon tree, grown from seed, to bear fruit. Which is fine really. I'm not at all anxious to deal with fallen fruit. I'd much rather grow a tree. When I was a kid I spent a rather inordinate amount of time raking up bee ridden fallen rotting fruit when I should have been out playing. At the time I was modestly terrified of bees. I'm quite fond of bees nowadays. You can read more about my relationship with bees and see a bunch of bee photos here. 

In a recent post I mentioned separating some plumbago bushes from some bougainvillea bushes running along my backyard fence. That project still isn't finished. I stopped because I thought I had destroyed two bougainvillea plants and I wasn't at all happy about it. Well, it turns out that both of these bushes are coming back in just fine. Plus I took some cuttings from other bougainvillea bushes and so far they're not dead. The cuttings have been tented in containers covered in plastic bags for just over a month now. This one is a soft cutting and I'm not too sure if those are going to make it but there are also several woody cuts. I've discovered something when it comes to plant "experts" online. For every person you can find who says one thing about whatever, you'll find another person who says exactly the opposite.

 New growth on one of the the chopped up bougainvilleas.

Anyway, back to yesterday and today and more little things...

Waning Chrysanthemums

These are agapanthus seedlings. I was bringing in my garbage cans post collection several weeks ago, looked over at the very expired flower stalks on a few agapanthus plants and the dried flowers were transparent in the sun. I could see the seeds. I didn't know one could propagate agapanthus from seeds, that's not how the plants got there but I figured, someone will tell me I can and someone else will tell me I can't so, WTF, I collected a bunch of seeds. There was a danger of frost for a few days so they ended up coming inside and were put under a CFL. They already look like agapanthus plants to me. Oh, and speaking of weather, it was 91º today. It's the middle of frickin November.

Back outside and back to plumbago plants. There are very few flowers left.

Butterfly bush

I also spent two sessions today with bougainvillea flowers on the largest plant that hasn't been cut back yet. These are the true flowers which are surrounded by colorful sepal-like bracts.

That's all for now. Any time is always a good time to look for little things that make life happy.

Life is made up not of great sacrifices or duties, but of little things, in which smiles and kindness and small obligations given habitually, are what preserve the heart and secure comfort. ~William Davy~

Today's no walk report: 110420

 Peace of Mind.

I've been thinking about this for awhile and now that I really need it, well, here we go.

Yesterday was election day in the United States and from the weekend leading up to election day until the day after election day, aka, today, I have been trying to move myself away from my reaction to it which I can put into simple terms... It makes me nauseous. I blame the educational system in this country. For the most part, public education is abysmal. We are also the nation of hate and fear. It’s not all of us, it’s not even most of us but those who live like that are loud and in our faces. We embrace reality TV as if it were culture. As Frank Zappa once noted, "People, we is not wrapped tight".

Anyway, this post is really about my cats because my cats, along with some music in the background, are an important detour for me in finding peace of mind. If there is any animal on this beautiful planet of ours that exemplifies the state known as Zen, it's the cat. Zen as translated by D.T. Suzuki as "being free from mind-attachment".

My sister gave me a book one Christmas, Be More Cat: Life Lessons From our Feline Friends by, Alison Davies. I just opened it randomly. How perfect...

 I take you to images of my two feline companions. They free my mind everyday, several times a day. This is Lucy, my most excellent friend for more than 14 years and Stan, an outdoor feral tom who first won the heart of dear Docken and has since become a very special part of the start of everyday here at home. No more commentary from me, just the pictures and perhaps a caption or two. These are in no particular order other than Lucy being first and Stan second. I didn't attempt any new edits including resizing. I'm searching over several hard drives and, again, over 14 years of photos.

This was probably her first week with me. 2006.

Lucy attacks Batman.

I was fixing the stereo, Lucy was inspecting.

A Genesis concert with dad.

Lucy contemplates Lucy.

I recorded a few of these.

Really? They're not real?

Watching a video of the hummingbird feeder.

She loved the helicopters. They're both in the shop now.

Her newly assembled cat tree. 2007?

She's a little more sedate in it, 2020.

Through the backyard window.

Note the Lucy pillow. A gift from my sister.

She gave a long, serious look at the stone Siamese when they first met.

Stan...

Stan, being feral, is often a bit of a challenge to get pictures of. However, Stan has touched my index finger with his nose several times. We're getting closer. Stan frequently comes when I call him. That took almost a year to happen.

 

Where does he go?

This is Stan saying, I love you, Eric.

Stan has a house, compliments of Docken Actually, it's a double wide condo with an electric bed.

Here's an earlier post with some pictures about Lucy and Stan's relationship. Lucy has a crush on Stan.

Let's not forget the music. Peace of Mind by Shakti. This song comes up with some frequency on the stereo depicted above.

Peace out.