i unwittingly crashed chee's brother's engagement party on saturday. the celebration was meant for his and her relatives only. as if that wasn't bad enough, i showed up in an obnoxious day-glo outfit.
thank goodness the couple of the day were gracious enough to let me stay.
i took a break from work and walked down to the beach yesterday. when i got back, there was a golden retriever in my cubicle! i thought i done die and gone to heaven.
turned out it was karen's idea of prank calling. boy, was i happy. so much so that i didn't even think to take a picture.
by the time i realized this, blondie was long gone. all that's left of the momentous occasion is dog hair. i wore it blissfully all afternoon. proof that dreams do come true.
it all started from a page of martha stewart's good things for kids which was given to me by mary deweese years ago. i found it again yesterday while weeding out the hundreds of magazines and catalogs that i can't seem to throw away.
next thing you know, i'm on flickr looking at people's terrariums. one of the pictures linked to etsy, where a search for terrarium returns 48 pages of results.
moss collected while hiking the cold spring trail
i went to alpha thrift bright and early this morning and bought the only apothecary jar they have for $7. then i went to ace hardware and spent $8 on some charcoal and potting soil.
there's also crushed stone and some sphagnum moss thrown in the soil mix. it took me almost an hour to assemble the layer cake. i hope it works.
shameless staging of the terrarium just to show off the newly remodeled guest bathroom. jg finished it since september. it's nice, but it could be better. may be that's why i haven't bothered to blog about it.
that's a more truthful location of the terrarium. actually, it's been sitting in the hallway under the sky light. i moved it to a window today because daylight will be poor for the next few days. a storm is passing over sb.
san francisco in a jar
the constant condensation inside the jar reminds me of the fog hell that is san francisco. for two nights in the past week, i left the lid off the jar to let the moisture (and three little gnats) escape. the moss appears to be doing fabulously. yesterday, i added a couple of tiny ferns.
i poached the ferns from romero canyon, where i went for a hike again while jg biked.
this time, i took the real romero canyon trail, the one that follows the creek, the one on which i once fell and bloodied my knee.
i saw that log on a spur off the trail. while bent over trying to get a steady close up of the turkey tail mushrooms, look what i saw everybody!
my head was about 6 inches from this monster when i realized what it was. i jerked away so quickly that i got light headed and staggered like a drunk. everything was out of focus and i thought for sure i was going to fall face first into the slime ball.
i would have never expected to see a banana slug in santa barbara. aren't they supposed to exist only in redwood forests?
i saw those back on the main trail. such an intense red. the thought of tasting it did cross my mind. i wonder what it's called.
fallen oak tree
i saw that small cluster of green about half mile up the trail. the 4 pm sun spotlit it perfectly. i made sure there was nothing slimy nearby before crouching to get closer shots.
and that's how i got the idea to poach a wild fern for my terrarium. i took a slightly bigger cluster than this one for better chance of survival.
lichen on an oak branch
about a mile into the hike, i turned around. i had forgotten how steep this trail is. going up was fine. going down, my knees took a beating.
wild cucumber tendril on fence
jg caught up with me down hill. i had my camera ready to catch him zoom by.
jg catching air
sure glad to get our biking and hiking poaching done yesterday. it is now raining cats and dogs outside.
i got some good news around noon today and took the rest of the day off work. i went to lunch with jg before going for a hike up saddle rock. i took over 200 pictures. these are a few of my favorites.
