When we brought this beautiful yellow ranunculus home from the garden shop a couple weekends ago, it was just a bud. Since that time it has been opening up and looked very lovely today when I was taking photos in the garden.
Rocks That Grow Flowers
This is a Split Rock succulent. It’s related to the lithops (living stones) succulents – both are native to South Africa. Pleiospilos nelii is the scientific name for this interesting little plant. Living stones mimic their natural surroundings to an astounding degree – they evolved to resemble smooth rocks – presumably to avoid detection by herbivorous predators.
Because of their compactness, drought tolerance and low maintenance, living stones have become very popular as houseplants and garden accents. The split rock, shown in the photo to the right, lives on the patio and is currently producing its annual flowers. Click on the thumbnail photo to see the full-sized image.
Below is a close-up photo of the beautiful flower as it opens to gather sunlight. Click the image for the 1024×717 pixel close-up.
Light in the Window
I took this interesting photo while visiting Point Vicente. I liked the way that the foreground frames the lighthouse – sort of like a window.
Off to the Range in the new Pelican Case
This is the hardware we took to the range today for our weekly target practice. Nicely packed in our new Pelican Case model 1450, (from top left, clockwise) Glock 30, Glock 26, S&W 908, S&W 442 and S&W 686.
We acquired the case a couple of weeks ago. As you see, it nicely holds these five compact firearms. The case is rugged, watertight, dust proof and has stainless steel hinge pins and padlock hardware. We didn’t have to modify the foam that shipped with the case although it accommodates removal of ‘cubes’ to fit any custom shape.
Sparkling Jasmine
After some rainfall the other day, I captured this nice image of water droplets still clinging to these jasmine buds. In a week or so, there will be thousands of little white pinwheel jasmine flowers.
Daffodil
This beautiful sugarbird daffodil just opened a couple of days ago. I love all of our daffodils, but this one seems special, since it is the only one that has white petals and an orange cup.
Bored to the Max
Listening to both the Democrats and Republicans is pretty boring stuff. It starts out with every candidate’s over use of the personal pronoun – me, me, me – I, I, I.
Especially boring is the empty rhetoric from the Obama campaign . . .
- we need change . . .
- Washington broke . . .
- this administration . . .
- Iraq war . . .
- change we can believe in . . .
- real leadership . . .
- clean environment . . .
- save our schools . . .
- healthcare reform . . .
- get guns off the streets . . .
- get that woman some water . . .
Paleeeeze, Barack – say something with some substance! You’re even boring my dog!