ABC Wednesday: V is for Voting

The time has come to vote for the best of Hyde DP 2012.

View the twelve contenders at Best of Hyde 2012 and vote for your favourite three photographs.

Voting closes 12 noon GMT, 28th December 2012.

For ABC Wednesday.

The Weekend in Black and White: From the bottom of Church Brow

From the bottom of Church Brow looking up at the tower of St George's church. A footpath leads into private allotments on the steep banks of the Gower Hey Brook.

A contribution to The Weekend in Black and White

Gas pipeline at Church Brow

By the allotments at the bottom of Church Brow, a sign warns of the presence of a gas pipeline underneath.

A closer view is on Hyde DP Xtra.

Looking over Woodend Allotments

Many of the allotments on the side of Woodend Lane have been abandoned (mainly due to the work of vandals) and some of the trees have been felled. Now a view is afforded across the valley of the Gower Hey Brook. Some allotments half-way down the valley are still maintained. Werneth Low can be seen on the horizon.

Compare with the view in April 2011 and the one from the opposite direction about a century ago.

There is another view of the allotments on Hyde DP Xtra.

A contribution to Friday Fences.

Garden of Tranquility

The Garden of Tranquility in Hyde Park is a memorial for those patients who suffered at the hands of Harold Shipman.

The garden includes a granite trickle fountain, designed by Mel Chantry and is surrounded by herbs reclaimed from the old Newton Lodge which once sat on the site.

I am away in St Annes until next Monday. A series of posts have been scheduled over the period but as I expect to be offline they won't be tweeted by me nor posted on Facebook.

Middleton Place in full glory

Middleton Place, Charleston, S.C.

Time has been slipping by and I knew this might be the last weekend to get the blossoms in full glory. My annual pass to Magnolia Plantations had expired so I decided to go to Middleton Place this time. It is a little further out and has a more formal garden to wander in as well as a restaurant and Inn. The weatherman threatened storms today and I stayed just a few steps ahead of the dramatic skies.

My camera packing friends have been haunting the gardens making me jealous lately with their beautiful pictures on Facebook. I almost expected someone I knew to pop out from behind an azalea bush. A couple  did call out to me and I was able to meet a couple of online friends - artist Kathy Bates and her husband Bill (below). She is a very talented water color artist and I was tickled that they recognized me.

Middleton Place is beautiful at any time of the year but especially now. Go!

Private Steps

It seems that a householder on Grosvenor Road has built a set of steps from behind their back garden down the former railway embankment onto the Trans Pennine Trail.

There are just a few days left to vote for Best of Hyde 2011. View the twelve contenders at Best of Hyde 2011 and vote for your favourite three photographs. Voting closes 12 noon GMT, Friday 30th December 2011.

Green Hearts

Secret Gardens

Secret Garden, Charleston, S.C.

Mary: It's a secret garden.
Dickon: Secrets are safe with me.

Volunteer

I transplanted a bush several weeks ago. It died. But up from the compost in the hole sprung a volunteer--a squash maybe, or a pumpkin--that's so pretty and healthy I'm letting it take over the property.

I might as well. I haven't been lucky growing things, and I'm so pleased to have something grow that I don't care what it does or where it goes, as long as it stays alive. I water it every day. It seems to like that. It can have the whole yard if it wants it.

The bees love love love it, which I consider a bonus. We need more things for bees to love.

Bougainvillea Killer

This wildflower grows alongside one of my favorite mountain trails. I'd like to grow things like this in my yard, along quiet (if short) pathways.

The holiday and Karin Bugge's recent Patch article (Why You Should Plant a Native Garden) inspired me to work in the garden yesterday. I want to create a native plant garden but I've decided not to buy any new plants until I figure out how not to kill the ones I've already got. It gets frustrating--these two thumbs I have, which are the color of pale flesh. The closest they ever get to green is garden envy.

But learning involves making mistakes. Or you could call it failing or, in my case, killing. This all takes a lot of time. It's okay, I'm not going anywhere.

About ten days ago I moved a small, weedy bush to the rear of the yard and transplanted a bougainvillea in its place. The weedy bush was a volunteer--it was kind of ugly and spiny--and despite the nice hole I dug for it and the compost I planted with it, it died. Ungrateful little bush.

I didn't care. What I cared about was the bougainvillea. I moved it from a place where it was getting too much water to the spot vacated by the bush, where it would get good sun and the dry soil it likes. I had read on the web about how to transplant a bougainvillea. I knew it might drop all its leaves.

It did. It died.

Today I dug up the weedy bush and put it in the yard waste bin. I smoothed over the hole with a shovel. A volunteer pumpkin or squash or something is growing there. I watered it. I decided it was best not to transplant it.

Then I went to dig up the bougainvillea. I didn't want to. I felt bad about killing that plant. I don't know why; I can get another bougainvillea. But it seemed like another failure, maybe because it didn't volunteer--because I yanked it from its perfectly nice pot and planted it first in too much shade, then moved it to another place with too much water, then moved it to a third place, stressing the poor thing to death.

I make fun of my garden failures, but honestly I want to be done with them. It's a story I tell about myself: "I'm not good with plants." I don't want it to be true anymore. I'm tired of the emptiness, the lack of life, in our back yard.

I leaned down to pull the dead bougainvillea from the ground. Close up, I saw tiny green buds on its branches.

My bougainvillea is not a failure. I am not a bougainvillea killer. I am one step closer to telling a different story about my garden.

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Susan Campisi found a pair of gorgeous dogs on Saturday. They're at the Pasadena Humane Society, for now. Are they yours? Would you like them to be? Click the link, please, their time may be limited.

Bluebell Centre Garden

Today's photo is of the garden at the Bluebell Centre which is next door to the Joshua Bradley.

Look to the right and you can see one of the geese popping its head out from the pond.

The coloured version of this photograph can be found on Geograph.

Behind Brook Street & Steeles Avenue

The gates at the bottom of Brook Street were open when I was walking down there a week or so ago, affording a view of the land at the back of Steeles Avenue.

It was probably a hive of industry like much of Hyde a century ago but now it seems to be a bit of a backwater.

The grassy bank on the left with a mobile phone relay mast above is hiding the M67 motorway.

Different Route

You might happen to turn your car up Sierra Bonita Avenue looking for a cut-off from Washington Blvd. You might want a different way, a new route. As you're driving along this residential street you might happen to glance to the side and see a front yard--well, a garden--well, a folly, you might call it--a jumble of things growing and things man-made, all twisted together and making a weird sort of sense. You might stop the car and get out to gawk at the tiles made of broken dishes, the bits of hardware embedded in the sidewalk, the wind chime bones hanging from the branches.

This route is definitely different, you think.

You might take a picture, though you might not know what to focus on or where to crop the picture once you see it on your computer screen. You might like the photo anyway, for that very reason.

Woodend Allotments

Although some of the smaller allotments on Woodend Lane at the top of the valley of the Gower hey Brook such as the ones I showed you in September 2007 have had to be abandoned, others lower down the valley are flourishing.

This one is home to several animals; see the goose in action on Hyde DP Xtra.

See the view from the opposite direction in this post from May 2008 and contrast it with the view a century ago.

Unruly Posse

Sunday my friends and I traipsed about Pasadena and Altadena for the annual Theodore Payne Foundation Native Plant Garden Tour. I loved poking around the exquisite, private, drought-tolerant gardens.

It was educational. It was gorgeous. It was inspiring. And it was frustrating, because I can't show you any of it. At every garden we visited, photos were either not allowed or allowed for personal use only. I of course took photos for my personal use, but I'm much to chicken scrupulous to post them.

On the way back to our cars we stopped to peer at one last garden, which wasn't on the tour. Is that a great gate or what? It reminded me how glad I am not to live in a gated community tyrannized by muted colors or a homeowners association. The San Gabriel Valley is full of undiscovered Edens, tour or no tour. I hope the owner didn't mind us peeking in because we'd been nosy all day and we just weren't ready to stop.

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By the way, thanks to the Restless Chef for alerting me to the fact that my posts and those of other bloggers are being stolen by http://www.justpocketcamera.com. I'm trying to have a good attitude about it. justpocketcamera is one of those blogs where they steal content to try to get you to click on ads. I hold the copyright to my posts, which are published at http://pasadenadailyphoto.blogspot.com before http://www.justpocketcamera.com steals them. That's against the law, but try getting a sheriff and a posse on this here wild, wild internet.

If you'd like to be my posse, c'mon and join up. I'm not sure how to get them to stop, but maybe I'll see if I can come up with more bizarre word combinations than theirs. Your suggestions for messing with them are welcome. In the meantime, it's worth a look just to see their weird translations of the copy.

If I Can't Grow Anything On It, Maybe I Can Hang It On The Wall

I'm trying to kill the lawn in my back yard so I can replace it with drought-tolerant stuff and a vegetable garden.

I looked online for information on how to kill the grass and weeds: chemicals.

I asked at a couple of nurseries: chemicals.

Some people suggested I smother the lawn to death with a tarp, which seems preferable. I don't have a big enough tarp so I bought cheap garbage bags and slit them down the sides. I am now in the process of placing them end to end across the yard. This is an extremely inefficient method.

Baby steps.

The rain is not helping. Grass and weeds like rain.

However, (silver lining), each little bead of water is a self-portrait. I made something!


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Update on Hahamongna: Due to this week's rain, the Walkabout originally scheduled for this coming Saturday is being rescheduled to March 5th. I'll be leading the 9am tour. Sign up and come with me!
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Perennial Favorite

I met Karen today as she was leaving the Wollaston Garden Club's annual holiday greens sale. She graciously stopped and let me take her picture. She told me that she has been a follower of QDP and that her house was one of this blog's featured old houses on Thursdays . . . what fun!

The second photo below is a good overview of this very successful annual event. The Wollaston Garden Club not only gets me into the spirit but also takes the proceeds from this event and gives back to the community by landscaping and planting beautiful areas all around Quincy for everyone to enjoy. Lady Bird Johnson must be smiling. Thank you, and Happy Holidays WGG!

Anonymous Chairs

I was thinking of other photographers when I took this picture.

One photographer is Virginia from Birmingham and Paris. I made a comment on one of Virginia's Paris posts that a certain chair seems to be ubiquitous in Paris, "like those awful plastic ones are here."

The other photographer is -K- of LA. The photo I was thinking of is called Card Table in Beverly Hills.

This photo doesn't resemble -K-'s or Virginia's. We could call it an homage to them.

I took the shot in the garden of a place that was beautiful once. It's not beautiful anymore. It's been degraded by time, bad choices and neglect. Problems don't improve when you ignore them.

Garden View

The garden is forever changing at the Adams Mansion. I enjoy visiting it often to see what's new.