Monday Macro

Pink Hibiscus

This One's for You, Nancy

In early March, our friend Nancy in Jacksonville and her daughter Nora, paid us a visit.  She brought Butch two Cherokee Purple Heirloom Tomato plants that she had started from seed.  They are really big now and are full of blooms and have several small tomatoes on them.

We are very optimistic about getting some pretty purple tomatoes from these plants this year.  Our last attempt at the heirloom tomatoes did not go well.  These are a little behind the Better Boys that Butch planted in a "topsy turvy" planter Chele gave him for Father's Day a year or two ago.  It has some good sized tomatoes on it now.

I love the smell of tomato vines.  These are really fragrant.  Butch has "suckered" this plant and stuck the suckers in pots, too.  They have taken off like gangbusters and have grown into large plants as well.

I can hardly wait for the tomatoes to ripen -- all of them.

And the "topsy turvy" planter?  It is just fascinating to watch the tomato vines grow down and curl up.  And I guess I will forgive him for taking down my lovely wind chimes so he could hang his 'maters...but only if I get the first ripe tomato!

I'll be back with pictures of the first ripe ones --especially the purple ones.

While I was at it, I took a picture of my Christmas poinsettia which has not made it into the ground just yet.  It is looking very healthy.  Amazingly, it has not lost many of its beautiful red leaves.  I am using it as a centerpiece on the patio table.

Plumeria

Our plumeria (Westerners call them "frangiapani) trees are really taking off and are blooming far earlier than in past years.  Maybe that is because of the warm winter we just had.

This is how they start.  Butch lops a "stick" off of an existing tree and lets it dry for a few weeks and then sticks it in a pot.  Remember that all photos can be clicked upon to "biggasize."

New Plumeria Plants

These he stuck in a pot last November and just let them sit through the winter doing nothing to them except letting the automatic sprinklers water them every Wednesday.  He will eventually plant them in the ground.  He usually does that each November.

With each year, the sticks mature into trees with ever-widening trunks like these below.

Plumeria Tree

The oldest of our trees have grown to between 8' and 10' tall and as much as 8' wide so pictures have to be taken on a diagonal:

Trees Along the Pool Screen Border

Or my shot has to be upward toward the sky:

Yellow Pumeria

They bloom quickly once the flower bract buds.  The shot below was taken in the morning around 10AM:

Large Flower Bract with Lots of Buds

And by 3 o'clock, they had unfurled into a couple of gorgeous blooms.

Plumeria Blooms

The plumeria is also known as the Hawaiian Lei Plant -- the blooms that are used for the lovely and fragrant leis with which you are greeted on arrival.  I love the fragrance and have a bottle of perfume Butch bought me on our trip to Kauai back in 2003.  I use it very sparingly.  But when I want a little fragrance in the house, I bring a few bloom in and float them in a crystal bowl.

Plumeria Blooms Floating

That's it for this year's plumeria post except for a few pictures I will post as the row of trees are covered in blooms.  Stay tuned for tomorrow's TOMATO post!

Killing Time

It is very unusual for me to be looking for something to do to "kill time," but that is what I found myself doing while I waited for Beau's groomer, Lee, to arrive some time between 2 and 4 today.  I began sorting my beads last weekend and had left them on my art desk so I decided to string a black and pink design I had come up with using a random selection of leftover beads.  I had more than enough for a stretch bracelet and pierced earrings.

Black and Pink Stretch Bracelet  & Earrings

This is the first set of many I will be making over the next 10 months.  They will all be donated to the Woman's Club for the "Goody Bags" given to every guest who comes to our annual charity fashion show.  I have sooo many beads and lots of time over the summer when the Friends of the Library responsibilities slow way down.

While Beau is in his groomer's van, I decided to do my blog entry.  I guess I should get my checkbook out to pay for the little monster's appointment.  Lee probably deserves twice as much because Beau was NOT a happy camper when he figured out he wasn't getting out of it today.

Monday Macro

Sea Grapes and Beach Flowers
Sunset Beach

More Change

I decided to try the new Google "look" today since they have indicated it is coming later this month, anyway.  Guess it doesn't matter whether we really want all these changes that the fine folks at FaceBook and Google are constantly bombarding us with.

But, I'll try to keep an open mind.  After all, it is their website and I am given free use of it.  I'm hoping that they have addressed all the known glitches while making all their changes -- and that it wasn't "change for the sake of change."  I've never believed in the "if it ain't broke -- break it" theory.

Soooo...I guess to really test this thing, I need to upload a picture or two, right?  So here are some from a sunset last week when Gail and Andrea were here for a couple of days.

April Sunset at Sunset Beach

Noisy Beach Goers

Sunset Behind the Mangroves

I didn't have any problem with uploading pictures or entering the text.  And the preview feature is still there and easy to use.  No problems so far.  I made a few other changes that I wanted to make for myself  -- like including "sunshine" in the title.  I have found that sunshine definitely has an impact on my own happiness and that of most of my friends and family.

The major changes in the new blogger?  The ability to add pages and sell stuff.  That's not the object of my blog so I will happily pass on that.

Have a lovely Sunday.

Patterns

When I downloaded some picture I took at Sunset Beach last night, several of them grabbed my attention.

Love the ripples of "suds" churned up by the waves.

And the patterns caused by the stiff wind from the west 

butting up against the tide trying to retreat from the shore.  

Love the reflections of the setting sun as well.

I did a double take and walked closer to look at this tree trunk.

That strong west wind had blown the white, powdery sand up on it,

making it look like it was a layer of snow.  

Neat.  

Really neat.

In fact, all three photos were really happy accidents.

Monday Macro

Visitors

I love having visitors and enjoy them almost every morning.

This is "Eddy the Egret."  Those of you who live outside of the extreme southeast may have birds of a different type that visit daily.  Here we have egrets, herons, storks, ibis and a few other bird species.  Eddy is a favorite of mine.  He is friendly and not afraid to come closer.

UNLESS

This little guy gets wind of him:

Yep.  The Beau-Zo is not fond of Eddy.  Not fond at all.  So as soon as he is aware of Eddy's presence, he will jump any obstacles in his path and skid to a noisy stop at the screen that separates him from our visitor.

It's a good thing the screen slider was closed because Eddy might not have been as inclined to stick around.

But he did take a few steps backward...

 And Beau got right up on the screen and made sure Eddy knew he meant business.

 Bye, bye, Eddy.

Ok, Mama, I did my job.  Can I have a treat?