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Welcome to our new members, and Introductions
Comments (14)Those interested in South African plants might want to keep posted with the soon to open mail order business(probably in February, 2004), of a local northern California retail nursery, Annie's Annuals in Richmond. Annie has been growing quite abit of South African stuff, from trees, shrubs, succulents, perennials, bulbs to annuals. I have picked up some interesting things, and was surprised to see Cunonia and Cussonia seedling trees, and Strelitzia reginae 'Mandela's Gold' on my last visit to the nursery. I also wish I had snapped up some of the Mimetes cucullatus last year when she had a crop of this. It is worth checking out her web site to see if she has anything of interest, and she is also open weekends starting January for people close enough to get to Richmond, Ca. in the East Bay. It may surprise people to know that some of the South African annuals from Namaqualand are already in explosive full bloom at the nursery, such as Ursinia anthemoides which is as cheery orange as our native California poppy. I am not one of the owners, but have bought alot of plants from Annie over the years for my own landscape design business. I thought Annie's might be a good source for USA residents wanting a mailorder source of live plants. She also grows things from other mediterranean climates in particular, so it is not just South African natives. Go to www.anniesannuals.com for hours of operation, dates open, special events, and directions to the nursery and intended start date of the mail order business. Lots of South African plants are looking good/or blooming here in the San Francisco Bay Area. Several Aloes are already blooming, such as A. arborescens, A. marlothii, A. x spinossismus, A. thraskii and buds on A. saponaria and A. striata. Several Plectranthus species have never quit blooming here, such as the pale lavender shrubby P. zuluensis and the dwarf pungent ground cover P. neochilus, with deep showy purple flowers for sun or shade and very little summer water. I also have several Proteas blooming in the garden such as the hybrid P. 'Pink Ice', Leucodendron salignum cultivars and a Leucospermum 'Tango' which is budding up nicely. Up at the UC Berkeley Botanic Garden, a was amazed to see a rather short Highveld Cabbage Tree/Cussonia paniculata only 4 feet tall coming into bloom. I also have remnant blooms on the Nerine bowdenii and Hyposestes aristata in the garden, as well as Clivia nobilis. A couple of South African bulbs blooming at present include the beautiful blue Moraea polystachya, Anomatheca laxa, the lovely evergreen with deep red flowers, Tritaniopsis caffra, and the first of the Chasmanthe floribunda 'Duckittiae', as well as flowers on the Bulbine frutescens and B. f. 'Hallmark'-the orange flowered cultivar....See Morewanted: whooo wah goodies from maria (mer2025)!
Comments (16)Super choices, Maria, and they seem so right for Jessy. The cookbook "not gift", seems like a true choice from the heart. I'm sure the olives will taste extra special from that dish, or maybe, if you're really not going to share them, they will never see the dish, but the soft color of Grabers would be pretty in the pewter too. The napkins are so summery and pretty. Lee...See MoreWhat Are You Reading? January 2025 Edition
Comments (114)“BEYOND THE BIG LIE” author Bill Adair copyright 2024 I’m circling back to the book I mentioned here 2 weeks ago. I highly recommend it & it would be good for a book club providing the members are accepting of diverse political views. I found the book thought provoking & a bit scary. This book isn’t about a specific view, doesn’t take sides but is specifically about lying in social media, politics, journalism, talk shows etc. This book caught my attention when I saw it at my library because I had recently listened to discussions & expressions of concern about META & other social media discontinuing their fact checking operations. Bill Adair, the founder of the Pulitzer Prize winning fact-checking website PolitiFact, tells about the history of lying in politics and about the creation of the various fact checking organizations & their methodologies. Bill’s style of writing in this book is easy to read & interesting as well as informative. It’s no surprise to me that the biggest threat to our democracy is disinformation and misinformation - 2 very different things. This book isn’t long - only 218 pages on the topic with pages 219 - 273 covering acknowledgements & source cites. It took me awhile to read though because I’d flip back to re-read some points or references when Bill wrote about them in later chapters. Sadly, this book might need updating given current happenings in DC in that the lying has increased....See MoreIt's January 2025. How's Your Build Going?
Comments (20)I designed the asymmetrical roof profile to maximize the southern side for PV. After an hour with the engineers at the link below, we are going DC lighting all the way. I am very excited to get a system that just takes the DC and does jobs with it @48v I can omit their power supplies from the cabinet and run DC up from the bank. They have ceiling fans, exhaust fans, and now I am looking at DC circulation for the hydronic heating. That may be a bridge too far, but we will see. I am an old FreeBSD guy from the 90's and this system gets set up with a Raspberry Pi, and integrates with Phillips Hue and other home automation via the Pi. The cost breakdown was competitive IMO, and things like programmed color gradient, fade to warm, perfect flicker free dimming, N-way programmable switching rather than the old 14-3 running all over for 3 ways are all attractive. I wanted LED strip lighting under my handrails for navigation up to the sundeck and this will be cake. Their smart switch will allow color adjustment with the dimmer slider. It is not a flip switch, it is a momentary. Hold it and the dimmer slider becomes the color adjuster for that whole circuit. Release and it is the dimmer. The same switch will provide 12VDC to a bathroom fan and operate the lights and fan on motion, when paired with one of the PIR fixtures or an industry standard sensor. I will do that for the guest powder room. https://awg18.com/...See MoreRelated Professionals
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Nancy WatsonOriginal Author