Colors - or lack of

This is a color wheel.  All of the colors that you can imagine.

Our lives are full of these colors, you can see them almost everywhere.  Colors cheer things up, arouse our senses, stimulate moods and feelings. We see color in nature, in art, in the food we eat, in the clothing we wear, our phones, carpeting, wallpaper, and the list goes on, with one exception:  the cars we drive.  Lately, I’ve really been noticing, seeing hundreds of vehicles on my commute each day, that almost of the cars & trucks nowadays are black, white, or various shades of grey.  What is with the automobile manufacturers? Do they have no imagination anymore?  (They’ve already shown us this in the shapes of their cars – there’s very little originality there anymore).   Now they are seemingly trying to take the color out of our world. 

My wife and I own vehicles that are green and blue, respectively.  Of course, these vehicles are 12-17 years old, manufactured back in the days when paint colors actually existed in auto manufacturing.

Hopefully, the next generation will put color back on the road.

Gardening update

Here's today's status for the veggies.  Plants are all growing good, zucchinis and crookneck squashes some nice looking veggies on the plants.  I ended up putting a couple rows of corn (seen to the right of the tomato plants), with encouragement from my sons.  

                 

Also found out something interesting recently.  I'm continuing to look for remedies for my high blood pressure.  I found this suggestion posted on various boards:  eating orange peels.  So, now, I'm putting our mandarins to good use; eating a couple of whole oranges every day, including the peel.  Doesn't taste that bad, really - just never thought about eating the peel before.  Now I don't have to worry about having too many uneaten oranges.  Better get these eaten, though - flowers are appearing on the tree for the next crop.

                                      

Plant shelves

OK, I’m feeling like more creative juices want to flow through me.  Even though I’m not into painting, I’m sensing the need even more to creating.  I am being reminded that I enjoy the newness of things, and not just in the finished product, but in the actual creative process itself.   So, I’m looking at our backyard as a canvas, and what areas we can give some new life to.  The vegetable garden has been started, and some of the lawn has had new sod laid, or been re-seeded (more re-seeding still to come). 

The side of the shed, facing south, appears open and wanting attention.  This is where the tomato pots used to be.  Cathleen mentioned putting flower pots on the shelf.  Great idea.  And what about the space above the shelf – seems like it wants some attention too.  Paint is peeling, and there is empty space.  So, we’ll put on some fresh paint, and add some hanging plant baskets as well.  The area near the top of the shed wall, where the plant brackets will attach, seems unfinished.  So, let’s make it finished.  Adding a board, cut to match the angle of the shed roof, will hide the funny looking spaces, and give the plant brackets a better surface to be attached to.  

Next, we’ll add a riser to the back half of the 23” wide shelf, providing another dimension to the display of flower pots.  Cathleen had another good idea – covering the area underneath the shelf with a piece of lattice, giving it a nice finished appearance.    The lattice will be removable, so that the area can be used for storage.  Both of us like the white lattice look; we’ve used it in a number of places around the backyard: the south fence, the shed, as a patio cover, and as the sides to Elvis’ runway.  (Note to self: do a blog post on the pet enclosures, etc that have been created over the years).

Next, Cathleen will do the presentation with the pots and flowers.  Can't wait to see the finished display.

Gardening 2

OK, last weekend we picked up the vegetable sprouts, and planted them in the beds.  The first bed is all pumpkins; we planted seeds from pumpkins that we carved last Halloween.  The second bed has cucumbers and crook-neck squash.  The third bed has yellow zucchini, red and yellow peppers.  Seems like we may have the peppers too close together.  Think I'll build another small bed and move some of the peppers.  The tomato plants are in their pots, which have now been moved to the vegetable garden (although I was reminded by someone today that tomato is actually a fruit; not a vegetable).

Most of the drip-water lines are in place - will finish laying the rest of them tonight after work. Seems like there is room for some more plants along the fence - thinking about corn.  We do have crows, so maybe we would need to give Stanley (our scarecrow) a full-time job.  Or we could also set-up another shelf - similar to the one with the tomato plants - and put more pots, with say, some herbs?

So, now, the actual gardening will be taking place.  Hopefully raising the plants to be healthy and producing an abundance of crop.  This is where I  develop my skills - this year will be a good learning experience.  Which brings me to a current concern.  Our avacado tree was seemingly healthy, coming back from near death a couple of years ago.  Then, we had the heavy rain a couple of weekends ago, and the leaves are now wilting.  We don't have good drainage with our soil, and I fear we may have root rot (which is what may have almost killed the tree last time). 

Did some searching, and read a few suggestions where adding gypsum to the soil may save the tree.  So I did - let's see what happens.

Not having much luck getting the younger generation to eat the mandarin oranges, and I don't want the crop to be wasted.  So, last weekend I picked a bunch and made some homemade Orange Julius, with a recipe found online.  It was a hit, so I'll probably make some more soon.

Gardening 1

OK, I’m sensing a need to make more contact with mother earth, so I’m going to get more serious about the vegetable garden this year.  Thinking about getting a pair of overalls, and calling myself a farmer.  LOL

For a number of years now, we have grown 2-3 tomato plants, in pots, on the south side of the shed.  These plants always seem to struggle, as we are not good about consistently watering.  A number of years ago, I built three planter boxes.  We usually plant pumpkins.  One year we tried some other vegetables, but we were not very serious about it.  As time passed, we weren’t using all three planter boxes, so I disassembled one of them, and used the wood to make the potting bench. 

This year, we will have a garden.  I’ve built another planter box, so, we have three again. I took the dirt from the two boxes, spread it into three, added dirt from the side of the house, which has had the rocks sifted out, and added 6 bags of planting mulch.  I will be moving the tomato pots into the garden, where I can run the drip watering lines to them, hopefully producing more fertile plants.  I’ve killed all of the grass and weeds in this area, and laid down cardboard in the areas around and between the planter boxes.  The rain last weekend softened up the cardboard very nicely.  In the meantime, I learned that the city deposits woodchips (with pine needles) into a bin, located next to the library.  Residents are welcome to load up the woodchips and take them home.  I put some shovels into the truck, went to the library, and loaded up the bed with the woodchip mixture, and placed a layer of this mixture over the cardboard in the garden.

This year, we are going to try:  pumpkins, cucumbers, zucchini, and a variety of bell peppers; orange, yellow, red, and maybe purple.  I see from the Old Farmers Almanac that optimum planting dates for these vegetables occurs over the next week or two.  Good timing.

We have a variety of fruit trees along the east fence.  I now call this the orchard.  Lemon, mandarin orange, apricot, nectarine, avocado, and of course, the apple, which we have enjoyed the fruits of for many years now.

I will get that pair of overalls.  Going to be a farmer for Halloween this year.

Waves

People are fascinated by the ocean, and make intentional journeys to be by its side, and enter its realm.  Its motion has a strong attraction.  To one standing in the ocean, waves are many faceted.  Waves stir the water, so that no water molecule stays in one place and gets stagnant.  As the waves come in, we are being bombarded by new water molecules at any point in time.  Waves bring loose items; seaweed, rocks, flotilla, debris, etc.  But these items do not stay, they come, can be observed, and they go.  Waves come in a variety of strengths; some as light ripples, some extremely powerful, and the ones in between.  The light ones are less noticeable, and are less apt to have an apparent effect.  The strong ones can be seen from a distance, and can be anticipated and prepared for, so as not to be knocked around.  In deeper water, one can ride out the wave; moving with its smooth motion.  It’s when the wave is at the end of the journey, landing in shallow water that it can be startling, crashing hard, stirring the land underneath, and clouding the water.  Although the smaller waves individually do not stir as violently, there are many more of them, and their combined actions ultimately have as much or more of an affect as the stronger waves.

Am I aware of the waves occurring in my own life?  Am I aware of the many bombardments that come at me on a daily basis?  Do I hang on to the debris that comes to me, or do I observe as it comes and goes?  Do I get strangled in the seaweed, or do I take steps and maneuver so that it goes around me? Am I willing to go deeper into the water of life, where I can experience riding the waves, rather than being blind-sided when they come crashing down as I stand near the shore.

Even more so, what waves am I creating?  Are they loud and noisy?  Are they the ones that send gentle nudges as they move?  Am I sending out smooth waves, or ones with cutting edges?  Every action I take sends out ripples.  These ripples, whether large or small, ultimately have an effect on those around me; spouse, children, co-workers, friends, and anyone else that I come in contact with. Or am I standing still, being dormant, and not transmitting any motion at all?  Dormancy sends a different energy; the dead, filthy smell of stagnation.

At last, am I aware that all of the waves, both the ones created by others, and the ones I create, are part of the larger life sea?  Let me be aware today.

Blicks

Went to Blicks in Santa Monica last night.  Blicks is a large store, carrying art & drafting supplies.  Blicks is a chain with stores all around the country.  In California, they are concentrated in the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas.  We could use one or two of these stores in Ventura County.  I would apply for a job as a second source of income.  I have been under the impression that computers had pretty much taken over, and that drafting supplies were a thing of the past.  It was refreshing to see such a wide of selection of drafting supplies being sold, including many templates.  

Walking up & down the aisles really took me back to the family store.  I was seeing a lot of the same items that we carried.  In the drafting area, I saw t-squares, triangle rules, templates, compasses, vellum, drafting boards & tables.  I also saw lots of art tablets; drawing, pastel, watercolor, etc.  Tempura paint.  Lettering pens.  And brand names:  Alvin, Pickett, Crayola, Strathmore, Faber-Castell, Sanford, Speedball.  This really took me back to my favorite section of the store.  Remembering those times when it was time to re-arrange and move various sections of products – I enjoyed organizing the art & drafting supplies most of all.

And during our visit, I was surprised by my son, Ken, who wanted to purchase some pastels and paper.  I’ve not heard him express an interest in art before.  As Cathleen was looking at the merchandise, she commented about Faber-Castell being an older company.  This led me to do a Google search on Faber.  What caught my eye from the search results, was a series of articles called American Stationer, written in the early 1900’s about the stationery business.  These are available on GoogleBooks, or archive.org, which is a site I like to use in my genealogy research.  I've got some reading to do!