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Drifting Plans

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 Our plan was to visit some gardens in the Berkeley area, brought to you (or me) by The Garden Conservancy.  Of course, we started at David's Kensington Cloud Forest. A gorgeous day, my daughters looking at the pond on the lower level of the garden.   As it turns out, I didn't read the fine print.  You were expected to purchase a ticket for EACH garden, oops.  David certainly wasn't checking if people had tickets - his was the garden I actually did buy tickets to (thinking it was for all).  Since I had purchased a membership, no biggie - I just needed to select and download the individual tickets.  A closer look at David's pond.  He mentioned he added white sand to the bottom, it made such a difference you could really see those fish.  The pond is large enough the fish have nooks and crannies in the rocks to hide in if a raccoon visits. Also there is a motion activated sprinkler to deter the racoons, which Ivan has set off a few times, h...
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Saturday Night!

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 Years ago, a friend's Grandfather had a stroke.  He regained some powers and lived on for years.  However, he could only speak 2 phrases post the stroke. "Saturday Night!" if he agreed, or "Son of a bitch" if he didn't.  I find I say one phrase or the other to myself every now and again. The Opuntia is being cute this year.  Sprung some new pads and flowers!  I usually remove a few pads, my plan is for it to spread along parallel to the fence.  Obviously it won't be perfectly equidistant, but a girl can dream.  It is getting H-O-T around here, I dragged the hose around and gave some things a drink yesterday.  These Hechtia argentea are finally beginning to do their silvery star thing.  In fact I should think about removing one before they get larger.  As the summer hits, I'm hoping the burgundy fades and more of that gorgeous silver is present.  This Agave 'Cherry swizzle' was disappearing down a clay pipe it was planted in......
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Not One Sin

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We are back from Las Vegas, happy to be home.  The lobby of the Wynn.  Our attempts to stay somewhere not founded by a sexual predator did not work out.  At least Steve doesn't own or run the place anymore. It is a quick flight from SFO, about 65 minutes from take off to touch. We got settled and took a walk on the Strip.  You could tell right away this new building will be the Hard Rock Hotel.  We wanted to see the Bellagio Conservatory Botanical Garden Spring Display.  I'm not sure I'd consider it a botanical garden, actually I'm positive I would not. Those are not real daffodils.  It felt very Disneyland, however I like that it was so overdone - it's Vegas after all. Twirl, girl! This hummingbird was my favorite "piece" of the display. Some flowers are alive. It was pretty crowded on a Thursday, the rest of the town was fairly quiet.  Much more traffic over  Fri/Sat.  And the famous hand blown glass flower display in the lobby, Fiori ...
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