A couple of days ago it was sunny and rainy at the same time - resulting in a rainbow.
Look, the neighbors above us on the slope have cut down their overgrown jungle! We can see the sky!
And this morning there was frost on the roof.
This is pretty unheard of. We're close to the ocean here, not in the desert, and I've only seen it frosty once before. All the giant birds of paradise died back.[1] (You can see our up-slope-and-to-the-left neighbors are going to have some trimming to do!) Our normal-sized birds of paradise are ornery enough that it won't affect them, but I'm worried about the orange tree (also visible in the rainbow picture) as a frost kills young fruit. Having said that, we do live in Orange County and orange trees are considered nuisance fruit trees as the oranges just fall and hurt people/rot/roll into the road because there are so many that we can't eat that much orange. We keep ours because it's pretty, or it was pretty until it got Dreaded Lurgy, which has just reached Orange County and picked on us as early adopters. The good news for actual growers is it is just unsightly; it doesn't affect the fruit yield. The bad news for us homeowners is it is unsightly and doesn't affect the fruit yield.
The cold weather has impressed various cacti and succulents. The Fenestraria is blooming. You only really keep these for the "foliage", if that's the word for the oddball Cyriak-looking tubes they produce, but the flowers are pretty and surprisingly daisy-like. This one is blooming in two colors at once.
foliage
A flower
This thing, probably a Kalanchoe, is about to flower also.
And its little friend the Senecio articulatus is also about to do its thing. The ones I have indoor are about three feet tall and no sign of flowering. I think the hard life outside is making this one short and flowery.
[1] I said that to someone in non-Lala Land once and she thought some actual exotic birds had died. They're plants - Strelitzia plants. There's a literal jungle of them visible in the next yard up in the rainbow picture.
9 comments:
Some terrific photos in that post.
Thanks! I discovered the "macro" setting on the camera - a picture of a flower, interestingly enough. Mind you, I accidentally left it on that setting when I took the picture of the roof, so it's not just for flowers evidently.
Hi Sis
Happy New Year.
You think your weather is weird in CA, you should be in the UK. Highest annual rainfall since record began and then today, 1st of Jan, sun shining, blue skies and not a cloud to be seen!!! Next we will be having hosepipe bans and drought warnings!!!!!
We still have the cactus that you had in your bedroom in the weird shaped purple pot/trough (no your bedroom wasn't in the "weird shaped purple pot"!!). Still going strong and flowers every year. One of these years I am going to have to actually give it some feed rather than just water it every month or so.
Bruv
Cleistocactus strausii. I remember getting it. It's more than 40 years old, more like 45 years old. A council builder tried to murder it once in the seventies when he stripped the window frame with a blowtorch and deliberately burned it - mum sent the council a picture of the damage he'd done and the council paid for a replacement. I don't know what she bought with the replacement money but I bet it isn't doing half as well. :)
Ah, macro setting can be much fun. I recently used it on a bunch of fungii.
I don't know any fun guys. :(
Hi Sis
Aah Aah Aah.
Bruv
Hi Sis
Didn't realise you had a sense of humor / irony !!!!!
Bruv
The fun guys I photographed were unfortunately not so fun. They were all wet, as a matter of fact. So to speak.
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