101013 - Sweet Peas

The definite upside to such a dismal summer was the perpetual spring-like conditions the spring flowers thrive in. These sweet peas were planted in December, 2009 or so and are still in bloom in the fride (FRont sIDE) garden.

101013 - Cosmos

I know it's been three months since my last post.

The gardens were more than a little depressing from the middle of July or so until mid-September, while we experienced an especially cold, foggy and windy summer. It was like living a block off the Pacific Ocean, an area known in San Francisco for its brisk, foggy summers.

Then, starting in the second half of September, we suddenly had heat wave after heat wave, which brought very sunny days to our hill.

As I'd hoped would happen, the cosmos I planted in May or so to replace the cabbage poppies in the front garden suddenly grew three feet and went into bloom.

I think they will grow even taller and put on a great show all the way through New Year's Day.

100711 - Yellow Dahlia

I think it's because the buddleia has done so well beside the red dahlia this summer that that dahlia is not already six feet tall and covered in flowers.

The yellow dahlia is the first to bloom, its flowers as large as dinner plates.

100711 - Bachelor Button

In sunny spots throughout the gardens, I seeded bachelor buttons several times during late winter and spring.

Only one came up.

It is the first non-blue one Phil and I have seen in the gardens, so we're not completely disappointed.

A few weeks ago, I seeded one six pack with blue and another with non-blue. The seedlings are about an inch tall now. I hope to have better luck with these as we head into late summer and fall, typically the sunniest, hottest time in San Francisco.

100711 - Buddleia

The buddleia - or butterfly bush - is now about four years old. We're not sure if it's due to its maturity in the garden or to the heavy rains we had last winter, but the buddleia is the largest it has every been - about eight feet by eight feet - and is covered in flowers this summer.

In January or early February, I cut it down to four feet by four feet, as the experts recommend, since flowers only appear on new growth. Within a few weeks, I was surprised to see it already growing very quickly.

100711 - Terraces

Yesterday, I took a few hundred photographs of the terraces before cleaning up the beds and seeding cosmos for late summer through winter.

10 Spring - Mullien

We bought this mullien late last fall or winter. Its twin flower stocks have reached over five feet tall. The other mulliens we have grown over the years have been pink or red. This yellow one is spectacular, its color nearly unique in the gardens. We hope to harvest its seeds later this summer and replant it along the top of the terraces for another show next spring.

10 Spring - California Primrose

Our friend Richard Knight had accumulated a great selection of books, and his widow, Judith, recently gave us several from their library.

I looked through one on flowers and was happy it confirmed the flower I had been calling a California primrose is indeed an evening primrose that thrives in Northern California.

Over the last few weeks, I took several photographs of it in bloom with canterbury bells, delphiniums and love-in-the-mist.

2010 Spring - Canterbury Bells

15 months or so after I started them from seed, the canterbury bells are blooming. The ones in the garden between the garage doors have received the most sun, so they are the largest - about three feet tall by three feet wide - and are more fully in bloom. I especially like the flowers viewed in close up.

Tic died May 11, 2010

Tic died May 11, 2010.

The night before, he wouldn't eat dinner when I brought it out to him and his sisters. He didn't look like he was feeling well, so I brought him inside and slept downstairs with him.

In the middle of the night, he started having labored breathing.

Before we could take him to the vet, he came into the garage, panted into my face, lay down between me and Toe sleeping on a cushion, and died.

Phil and I looked online, and it appears he had some sort of lung or heart problem.

I'd noticed a week before he died that he was losing weight, but he didn't mind when I poked and pawed at his body, so I didn't think he'd eaten poison - I once saw a rat running around our backyard, screaming, before it dropped dead. According to the literature online, Tic didn't seem to have a hairball problem, either, as he wasn't dry heaving.

We're going to miss him. He was only about fourteen months old.

These photographs are of him at happier times. One is of him when he was still a feral kitten, doing his best impersonation of Bigfoot caught on camera striding through the woods. Another is of him and Toe during one of the first times they came to me to eat. Another is of him trying to take a nap when Tac lay practically on top of him and decided it was time to take a bath. Another is of him rolling around one winter day when his winter coat was very full. And the last is of him a few weeks before he died. I thought he was posing for the camera. A moment later, he leapt at a hummingbird flitting around the lemon tree.

I took the below video only a few days after I'd discovered him and his sisters living with their mom, Bert, in a neighbor's yard. He is the kitten who collapses while playing with his feet, runs away, then struts back into frame like he's the king of the world.