It’s hard to imagine these beautiful flowers bloom among all of these hostile-looking spikes and hooks on the Devil’s Tongue cactus. Click on the image to enlarge.
First 2009 Plumeria
This plumeria flower started opening several days ago and today it was all the way open. I took this picture (click to enlarge) on the patio today.
According to WikiPedia, plumeria is related to the oleander and both possess poisonous, milky sap. Plumeria flowers are most fragrant at night in order to lure sphinx moths to pollinate them. The flowers have no nectar, and simply dupe their pollinators. The moths inadvertently pollinate them by transferring pollen from flower to flower in their fruitless search for nectar.
Plumeria species are easily propagated by taking a cutting of leafless stem tips in Spring and allowing them to dry at the base before inserting them into soil. They are also propagated via tissue culture both from cuttings of freshly elongated stems and aseptically germinated seed.
we acquired a pink plumeria recently. I can’t wait for it to start producing flowers.
Harley-Davidson and Sidecar in 3D
I spotted this nice ride up on the central coast of California during the recent road trip. It was parked near Morro Rock, overlooking the bay just in the background.
The sidecar is an aftermarket accessory manufactured by Liberty Sidecars of Seattle. It sure makes for an attractive addition to an already nice motorcycle.
You can click on the image for a larger 3D view. If you don’t have your 3D glasses yet, you can see the 2D version here.
Minature Sunset
This close-up of a gazania that I took on the patio today reminds me of a miniature sunset. The ‘sun’ at the bottom of this cropped image seems to be radiating its beams above. Click to enlarge.
Bench in the RV Park
The last night out on our recent tour of the Central Coast of California, we stayed in an RV Park near Paso Robles, along US Route 101. Western decor and buildings reminiscent of the old west prevailed throughout the park.
This was one of the nicest RV campgrounds we visited. It had pull through campsites with full hookups and a picnic table. The weather was agreeable too, with warm days and cooler temperatures in the evening. At one end of the RV Park (opposite end from where we camped) there was a swimming pool with a playground next to it. The showers and a laundry were adjacent to that.
Close to the site where we camped, we had the dog yard (see the chain link fence in the background) and a little shady sitting area with a rustic bench. Verna took this photo of the bench and I converted it to a black and white image. Click on the image to enlarge.
A Sunflower at Mom’s
We were visiting Mom today. When we went into the back yard, this beautiful sunflower greeted us right outside Mom’s back door. Click image for big.
