Inspired by Now

Published: Wed, Apr 17, 2019

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Categories: Blog, Gardening, Volunteering

Today I volunteered at one of the Irvine Ranch Natural Landmarks’ Native Plant Nurseries. This place is really close to our house, but it’s on the other side of the hill with no drive through road in between us. A 20-minute drive takes me there.

At the nursery I helped fertilize and water native plants in small containers that eventually will be transferred into nature. It was just three of us there, and doing this work in nature was super fun. I don’t have a lot of pictures to show since I was working there, but I want to show the surroundings for sure.

Published: Tue, Apr 16, 2019

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Categories: Blog, Flower Photography, Lensbaby, Photography, Twist 60

I posted about the lilies my husband gave me on the 11th. Well, this bouquet of flowers just keeps giving. It opened its last bud today, and it is wonderfully fragrant too. I took a few more macro images of it with my Lensbaby Twist 60. This is one of them.

Published: Mon, Apr 15, 2019

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Categories: Blog, Gardening

Today’s post is a virtual tour of my backyard, with the focus on the edible plants. Last fall we found some earth boxes for sale at the local home improvement store. Since I had just learned about the benefits of growing boxes like these, we bought all six they had. I tried growing some cool weather crops in a few boxes during our winter season with more or less success. The herbs box did really well, and the lettuce produced a lot too. But my backyard gets very little sunlight in the winter, so it took months for the tomatoes to ripen. I learned my lesson, and I know not to plant those for the wintertime. Peas, spinach, and lettuce will be good choices for that time.

As soon as spring came, I visited my favorite local nursery in Santa Ana and picked up some herbs and veggies to plant. It was at this nursery that I learned about a better kind of soil, which I have been mixing myself. After using this mix for over a half a year both for veggie boxes and flowering plants I can say, that the soil has been very successful.

Published: Sun, Apr 14, 2019

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Categories: Blog, Photography, USA

Today I had to meet with my daughter at Spectrum Shopping Mall for a few minutes. As I was leaving I grabbed my phone and created the following images using the Slow Shutter iPhone app. I really liked how the app helped me transform the mundane into something special.

Published: Sat, Apr 13, 2019

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Categories: Blog, Flower Photography, Photography

We haven’t had rain for a while, and the beautiful wildflowers have started fading away. I met with someone today for a photography lesson by a wildflower field near our house, and took a few quick phone photos of them before they completely go away. It was a great blooming season for us in Southern California. Pretty soon these green and yellow hills will turn brown for the rest of the year.