I'm back
Over three months have passed since my last post, mainly due to the 60-hour weeks I've been working since mid-February. We're all exhibiting the signs of burnout, the most classic of which is exhibiting no more than a dull sense of relief (as opposed to exhilaration (or even moderate satisfaction)) when the last few things come together.

The other reason for not writing is that I've discovered a new passion. When we bought a house last December, we inherited an overgrown mess. Worse, we had to tent the house to kill all the termites and beetles in and under it, which also appeared to have killed off a gorgeously rampant Bouganvillea and a lovely Mexican Sage on the side of the house. So we started to clean things up as best we could and hoped the neighbors wouldn't think too badly of us.

The quintessential Santa Cruz garden is an abundant mixture of plantings in a informal arrangement that are more often the result of the whims and passions of their owners than they are of a carefully arranged design by a landscaper or architect. I've admired many of these gardens - you see them all over the city, and I can honestly say that almost every house on my block has one. Slowly and tentatively, I caught the bug too, starting with a Star Jasmine that I planted along the back fence and escalating into weekly purchases at one or more of the garden shops around town. By March, I'd dug out the two raised beds at the front of the house, replanted everything, and found myself with this.

And a few other things, like this Blue Hibiscus:




More later...