Yearly Archives: 2006

Naic Town Fiesta / San Leandro Marina

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Last weekend we attended an annual event called “Naic Town Fiesta” in San Leandro Marina where people from my Mom’s home town Naic, Cavite, Philippines get together and have a big potluck and celebrate their Patron Saint.

I took this opportunity to explore the San Leandro Marina and see what plants it had growing wild.

Naic Alliance in California Banner   Unknown Succulent

Unknown Flower   San Leandro Marina

There are a lot of flowers that the people from Naic bring to celebrate their Patron Saint. Here are a few of them:

Flower Buds   Pink Edged Yellow Roses

Anyone know what the purple flower buds above are?
I totally can’t remember what those are called.

Peach Roses   Yellow Mums

The two Roses above are the cuttings I took from the last entry.

New Stuff for Friday…

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Friday, I woke up late so I drove to work. I stayed late to make up some time and after I got off, I walked around to see if I could get some Knotweeds that I’ve been wanting. Call me weird, but I really like these weed a lot and and to grow them.

Knotweeds

I found this large leaf Coleus which looks like a combination of a ‘Green Kong’ and ‘Schizophrenia’. I had to take a maintenance clipping of it.

Unknown Coleus 5/19/06

Once I got to Vallejo, I picked my Mom up and we went to the hospital to visit my niece who just gave birth to my new great niece Mahliyah Belle.

Once we got back home. I took my new cuttings and potted them up.

Knotweed Cuttings

I also potted up the Pineapple that is starting to sprout roots and took cutting of some of my other Coleus that either grew too leggy or were still rooting in water.

Potted Pineapple   Coleus Cuttings

Last week, we brought home some flowers from the Naic Town Fiesta. There were two Roses which I really liked and wondered if they would grow. I took cutting of them and just planted those in water. To my surprise, they are starting to sprout, so I went ahead and potted those cuttings and covered this up with a plastic bag.

Peach Rose Cuttings   Pink Edged Yellow Rose Cuttings

I didn’t even think these would sprout, so I’m pleasantly surprised. Hopefully, these will take root and give us the Roses on the next entry.

You Know You’re a Gardener… (#7 Gifts)

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You know you’re a gardener when you get gardening stuff as gifts.

MVP Award

Back in 2004, I was awarded MVP (something like an employee of the quarter award) at work and got gardening stuff as a prize.

You Know You’re a Gardener… (#6 Advice)

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You know you’re a gardener when you are the person that your coworkers go to when they need gardening advice.

Two Camera Techniques

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I’ve been researching some photography techniques online and learned two techniques that I want to try.

One is called focus stack. For this, you take a series of macro shots of the same subject, each at a different focus depth. You then use a program like Photoshop to combine the various focused element into a single photo. This results in a photo with an exaggerated DOF (depth of field).

Here are some focus stack examples on Flickr.
Here is a focus stack tutorial written by Flickr user Lord V.

The second is reverse lens. For this, you take a lens and attach it to your camera backwards. This essentially act sort of like a super magnifying glass.

Here are some reverse lens examples on Flickr.
Here is a reverse lens tutorial written by Flickr user Domk.

I purchased a Conversion Lens Adapter for my Canon PowerShot A610. This way I can attach lenses and filters to my camera. I also purchased two lenses; a wide angle lens and a telephoto lens so I can experiment more with my camera and expand my photography skills.

You Know You’re a Gardener… (#5 Day Off)

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You know you’re a gardener when you take a day off of work to work on your garden.

I Just Gotta Do What I Can!

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Sometimes I feel like I have so much plant and gardening projects going on, that I don’t have time for it all.

For example I’ve been wanting to build up two of the three garden beds in the back yard, but haven’t had the chance to. I still have bolting Swiss Chard and radishes and I have not amended the soil.

I just checked the planting chart I have pinned to my wall, and I think I am still okay to plant vegetables for the summer. Maybe I’m just getting anxious with the little time I have after work… or maybe I’m getting discouraged when I see fully grown tomatoes and peppers in the stores, when the one that I planted from seeds are still little… but I just checked mine and they have continued to grow since I took them outside. So maybe I’m just stressing over nothing.

My Mom just reminded me that she found the scions that I got in January. Oh my! I thought they were dead… but some are still buds, some are a little bit open and some that sprouted are dried up and dead… but all of them don’t seem dried out. I’m still going to try to graft these even thought it’s late. Who knows…

Anyways, I was going to complain more, but I see that I just have to do what I can and learn from it. I think I have to ask for a few days off to tend to the garden :)

BTW, remember the tomato seedlings that I cut and rooted because they looked like they were dying?.. Well, I just check them and they have really bounced back and look much more full of GREEN leaves than the seedlings that I didn’t cut.

Also, remember the Pineapple we got about a week and a half ago… I placed the Pineapple top in water and it has started to show signs of roots!!! YEAY!

OK… I’m tired… I must get ready for bed…

Afternoon Walk…

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This morning (Tuesday) on my way to work, I took an alternate route to check on the Coleus that I had my eye out for. The one in the bank window planter and guess what??!!! They totally replaced all the plants with new ones!!!! That pretty Coleus is GONE!!! :( :( :(

I was upset for two reasons. (1) I should have taken a snip of that Coleus when I had the chance. (2) They pulled that pretty Coleus before it reached it’s peak!!!

Needless to say, I decided to take a walk around our district for lunch since it was a warm day… (and subconsciously, I was hoping I would see another Coleus)

Here are some photos from my walk:

Unknown Plant   Strawberry-like Groundcover Flower Buds

Unknown Maroon Foliage   Unusual Succulent

I have more on my May 16, 2006 Flickr page. I also have a lot of unknown plants, so if you are up for an ID’ing challenge, please come by :)

And lastly, as I was walking to carpool, I saw Larry, Darryl and Darryl:

Larry, Darryl and Darryl