Friday, April 15, 2011

Confused Houseplant

When I bought this gardenia last summer, it was a very healthy looking plant - packed with glossy green foliage and large buds. Sadly, even though I tried giving it distiller water, more humidity, and plenty of sunshine, one-by-one the buds all withered at the base and fell off. Now, almost a year later, I find these beautiful, fragrant blooms popping out of a sickly, stick-looking plant. And all because I'd been too lazy to throw out what I'd thought was a lost-cause houseplant.








San Diego

We had a wonderful spring break vacation in San Diego. I felt pretty good all week and was able to eat all kinds of food. I think I got more sun and activity than I'd had all winter. It felt so long-overdue and so nice! We broke up the drive by staying in St. George going both ways, and our new gps helped Dave maintain his sanity in CA traffic. Mostly, we wanted to spend time on the beach and see cool gardens -so that's what we did.






We stayed at an inn in Del Mar (north of San Diego) in the Zen Room.





We hiked around these bluffs down to the ocean (Torrey pines state reserve). Gorgeous.





There was lots of flora an fauna including this blooming yucca.










We rented cheap bikes and went all around Mission Bay. We played on the beach there too.





Scripts aquarium in La Jolla. The kelp forest.





This is taken from the top level of the del mar shopping center. I really liked staying in del mar. It felt vey touristy, small, and nice. We could walk all around the main drag in an evening. Our inn was a couple blocks up from the ocean.





Balboa park horticultural garden. Loved it! So many amazing orchids and other houseplant-like things.





Balboa park rose garden. They were all in bloom. It was magical.





Balboa park desert garden.





Balboa park japanese garden.





Another garden at balboa park. Notice the delphinium peeking out over the hedges.





Del mar beach. I found lots of seashells.






Cliffs above the beach where we would walk around.






And then the dessert. We stopped at two parks on our way back. This is anza-borrego state park. So many cacti were in bloom! We went on a hike that ended in a palm oasis. Crazy.















This is Joshua tree national park.





We did a cool hike there that led to this dam.