Pulled off the road a bit south of Paso Robles, into the town of San Miguel. Not a prosperous place, dusty streets and a sad downtown,but the mission !
Having helped a middle-schooler make a replica CA mission out of foam board makes all the features in your photos vividly alive to me. Oh, the miniature bells, the tiny arcaded cloisters! Seriously, what a haunting place!
A few years ago I expanded the footprint of my driveway garden bed . Since then I've been tweaking and revising the contents but the changes made this spring are a pivot from the plan I had in mind last fall. Those of us on small suburban lots are often at the mercy of our neighbors choices and thus far neighbor planted (or removed) trees have been my biggest challenge. It seems like I'm always bouncing around between a shade garden and a sun garden along my back fence line. At least I'm always open to any opportunity to buy more plants. After close to 25 years with the same neighbors next door, I have newbies and when one has had excellent long term neighbors there's always a bit of anxiety about the unknown. What I didn't expect was a new rather obtrusive focal point/borrowed view for my driveway garden. Needless to say, screening plants are on the agenda. The first has already gone in Leucodendron galpinii 'Silver Cone' which was lucky to find at a nu
Those who know me well are aware that I am somewhat child-phobic. My own offspring are now grown up-humans, and thrusting myself into situations where I am likely to encounter large herds of small fry is something I avoid. I make exceptions for Disneyland, because well, I love Disneyland. As a Disneyland aficionado I have a strong appreciation for well done 'pretend' environments.Last weekend after my visit to Deannes , I turned the rental car northward and headed for Boothbay Maine for a return visit to Coastal Maine Botanical Garden. My first visit was in July of 2009 , with my Idyll friends on the occasion of our annual summer get-together. At that point the garden had only been open 2 years, but had been in development since 1996. I was ready to return about ten minutes after we drove away in 2009. Since our visit there have been expansions and improvements to the gardens , among them was the Bibby and Harold Alfond Childrens Garden which opened in summer of 2010. Thou
We gardeners can rarely control the challenges that seem to appear with every new season . Horrid plagues and pesky critters show up one year and disappear the next . Gophers,snails, spider mites, blackspot-they all come and go -though one wishes they would just go. Weedy afflictions such as oxalis and spotted spurge are predictable and eradication proof-the only realistic outcome is reduction. There was a lot to like about my garden in 2023 but an unprecedented aphid invasion still leaves me a bit mystified .I fully expect aphids on the roses and sometimes on the hellebores and by June they are usually gone. This year they persisted well into fall . Cutting back the lilies in my front garden this past week I found still living aphids on the back side of foliage that was barely green. Who gets aphids on Lilies ?? It was a first for me. Every Lily in the front garden was covered in them . First came the aphids, followed by honeydew and then the sooty mold. I got my box of latex glo
Having helped a middle-schooler make a replica CA mission out of foam board makes all the features in your photos vividly alive to me. Oh, the miniature bells, the tiny arcaded cloisters! Seriously, what a haunting place!
ReplyDeleteYou have to hand it to those 18th century Spaniards, they knew how to architect achingly beautiful buildings. Beautiful photos.
ReplyDeleteI love road trip posts!
My late uncle Ronald used to provide old railroad bells to Mexican missions. A fond reminder of a special guy. Thanks KS!
ReplyDeleteGreat post. I recently did one on Carmel Mission. It is fun to find someone who likes some of the same things as I do :)
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