Sparrow on the Mailbox

It was a nice sight to behold this Sunday morning. About 20 house-sparrows were in a feeding frenzy for the seeds from dry cut lawn next to the mail box. They were playing a game to fly and occupy the vantage point on the mailbox.

Blackberry

I thought this was another vine of raspberry. It turned out to be a blackberry. I have no idea how it was planted here in this part of the garden among the raspberry vines. I suspect one of the frequent birds that comes here to eat the raspberries. The good thing about having blackberry in the garden is, it is just starting to produce blackberry fruits when the raspberry season is at its tail end.

Blackberry was used by the Greeks and the native American tribes for its medicinal properties. Not only the fruit is edible, the leaves, the roots and shoots can be used for medical uses. I hope to learn more about this interesting and useful plant.

Following is an excerpt from this website.

Blackberries were in olden days supposed to give protection against all 'evil runes,' if gathered at the right time of the moon. Since ancient Greek physicians prescribed the herb for gout, the leaves, roots, and even berries have been employed as a medicinal herb. The most common uses were for treating diarrhea, sore throats, and wounds. Native Americans made fiber, obtained from the stem, it was used to make a strong twine. Another use was as a huge barricade around the village made of piles of the thorny canes, for protection from 4 and 2 legged predators. A purple to dull blue dye is obtained from the fruit.

credit for the history of blackberry: www.altnature.com/gallery/Blackberry.htm

Gladiolus

Just returned from the east coast and what a pleasant sight to see the Gladiolus flowers blooming. Here is a picture. All the flowers in the strand are not yet bloomed..

Beautiful..way to be welcomed back home.

Flower Medley

The Marigold, Zinnia and Godetia flowers in bloom.

I was in the yard this afternoon looking at the flowers. The Godetias are in full bloom now. These flowers are also called "Good Bye to the Spring". We are close to the summer equinox now. Indeed the days are long. The tomato and cucumber plants are soaking in all the sun they can and growing rapidly.

While I was watching the flowers a humming bird came barely 2 feet and was trying to find nectar in one of the flowers while I watched it hover over the flower. It is the closest I have been to a humming bird. Cool !

Air Drying Clothes / Clothesline

Tumble drying clothes is one of the most energy intensive activities we do at home.

Typical dryer consumes 3000-5000Watt of power.

• Energy used for 40 min load @ 4000Watt : 2.5 kWatt hour
• Cost of Electricity at $0.11/kWhr: $0.32
• CO2 emission at 2 lb/kWhr : 5 lb of CO2.

To put this in perspective, 5 lb of CO2 is what 1/4 gallon of gasoline would leave in the air.Not much, if we think how much gas we are used to using up in the United States. Actually
for most Americans, driving is the biggest contributor to our Carbon foot-print.

This weekend, against the back-drop of ongoing global warming concern, I decided to opt for air-drying my laundry. On this warm summer day, it took just 30 minutes to dry most of the clothes. I am pleased with the results. Following image is of my socks drying on a contraption that I picked up in Japan. I was surprised to find people in that technically advanced culture using a clothesline. And, it is not even as warm as it is here in California.

Letting the sun and the wind do the drying..

Talking of carbon foot-print, I would like to write in detail, at a later time, about the solar attic vent-fan. It is amazing! We have noticed that it keeps the house about 8-10F cooler (than without the vent-fan) in the summer months.

Fire near Felton in Santa Cruz, Mountains

The forest fire near Felton in the Santa Cruz mountains has been sending smoke in the sky. So far the winds were blowing towards the pacific ocean. But, today the inland winds carried the smoke over the mountains to the Silicon Valley. I took these pictures from our street in the evening.




In the picture above, the smoke layer and the clearer sky are separated out in the lower part of the picture. The sun was looking red in color even at 4 pm. Birds in the backyard appeared a little confused. May be they thought the night is coming earlier. Some started foraging for food before night and others returned to their regular trees for sleeping.



The dust particles and soot in the smoke are efficient at absorbing at all but the longer red wavelengths. An interesting pre-mature "sunset" on Friday the 13th.

A picture of the fire reported by San Francisco Chronicle at
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?o=3&f=/c/a/2008/06/13/MN9F1187JC.DTL

Dragonfly

I "caught" this dragon-fly in the garden hovering near the tomato plants.

Pretty interesting structure of the wing.

Dragon-flies start their life in water. Their eyes are designed to capture motion in the close proximity. They have compound eyes. So, they offer excellent subjects for taking picture from a few feet away as long as you can stand still and have a good zoom lens on your camera.

Vegetables :first signs of fruit

Today, artichokes, cucumber, tomatoes and bell peppers are all having fruit. I am growing vegetables in a raised bed this year. It is a lot easier as I am no longer spending my time to keep the weeds and slugs out of the vegetable garden.

Here are a few pictures..



Early Girl Tomatoes



Bell Peppers




Cucumber

[June 15 Update on Cucumber ... It is almost 4-5 inches long, hiding behind the leaves]







Hot Pepper

Artichoke