As I was trying to help a fellow Flickr-mate ID a plant, I stumbled around these that I thought were neat. Both are in the Euphorbiaceae family.
– Euphorbia bicolor ( DG PlantFile )
– Acalypha wilkesiana ‘Ceylon’ (Copperleaf, Jacob’s Coat, Fire-Dragon) ( DG PlantFile )
We’ve been having weird weather. Last weekend was sooooo hot, reaching the low 90s on Sunday. Throughout the week it’s been getting cooler and cooler, then this weekend, we got rain again. It’s actually not bad’ it’s kinda nice not having to water outdoors.
Before it rained today, I was cutting down more of our bolting Swiss Chard (in vegetable bed #1), because I want to fix it up and start my vegetable garden. At the same time, Calli was running around exploring the back yard and my oldest brother came to visit and was pulling out the Peach leaves with Peach Leaf Curl.
As I was pulling up the Swiss Chard, I found a whole bunch of bugs. There was a couple of Ladybird Beetle larvae, which I relocated to our aphid stricken Italian Plum tree.
I think the left photo above is a Soldier Fly, but I’m not sure. If you click the photo and view the large version, you can see the details of its purple and blue eyes. It has an interesting pattern.
As for bug on the right… I don’t know what that bug is, but I’ve seen them in our Persimmon Tree. They are slow moving and very very shy. This one was very good at hiding from the camera. I’m surprised I got a photo of it.
I can’t wait to get the lens I ordered on Friday. I also got myself a 10x Macro Lens which I hope will give me more detail with photo like above.
We have a new addition to our family… On Friday, my niece Cathy gave birth to my new great niece Mahliyah Belle. She is so cute!… and my niece was so exhausted from the labor.
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.
There are a lot of flowers that the people from Naic bring to celebrate their Patron Saint. Here are a few of them:
Anyone know what the purple flower buds above are?
I totally can’t remember what those are called.
The two Roses above are the cuttings I took from the last entry.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 when you get gardening stuff as gifts.
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 when you are the person that your coworkers go to when they need gardening advice.
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.