Thursday, April 24, 2008

Larkspur and Dames Rocket

If I cross the highway or go over the hill into the Kingdom of Madison I tend to find different kinds of wild things. That little bit of variation in orientation on the mountain can change the character of the inhabitants. Yesterday I began the major chop for reclaiming a flower garden at Client #2's and found this along the wide trail headed into the woods.















It is Delphinium tricorne, Larkspur.


















The convicts come up here regular to pick up trash along the side of the road. They come in a white van pulling a flat trailer with a port-o-let. It's a sight. Every once in a while they send the convicts way down the side of the mountain. They pull all the big stuff up to the road from the local roadside landfills. Today there was a stack of a least a dozen tires. It made sense to add the one I pulled out of my place to the new pile of tires and save myself a trip to the real dump.

The most gorgeous flowers were blooming down there in the roadside landfill.













A big drift of Dames Rocket, Hesperis matronalis was in full bloom down there all by itself. Seeing all the junk the convicts hauled out of there, it is amazing they were not squashed.














Just a couple of boards short. The windows in the front door wall don't have sills yet. I have done enough irrigation work in my life to know that missing a single piece needed for a job is typical.














There are a few details that still need to be done on the wall framing, some adjustments made to one window frame and a close inspection of each frame section to make sure things are good, but now you can actually stand Inside my house.

If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you can see the Hankodils blooming in the lower left at the base of the trees.

4 comments:

chuck b. said...

I can't wait to plant a climbing hydrangea to grow up those columns and on to your house.

Christopher C. NC said...

Isn't climbing hydrangea like the temperate Ficus pumila? I think I just want to paint the columns.

chuck b. said...

Is it? I didn't realize! They're rarely seen in California. I have two.

lisa said...

Your house is going to be amazing...do you plan to have a fireplace? That would be so nice this winter, in a cabin in the woods...oh yea. And the satisfaction of doing it yourself...way cool..