Elm tree leaves turn for Fall, originally uploaded by dewelch. It seems like the Elm and Locust trees just discovered it was Fall. Within just a few days they have changed color and are dropping leaves at a high rate. We don’t get a lot of Fall color here in Los Angeles, but these provide [...]
Wine bottle edging in the garden, originally uploaded by dewelch. An overview of the wine bottle edging shown in my latest video.
Fig harvest from our large volunteer tree, originally uploaded by dewelch. We are getting 10-15 figs a day from this volunteer (well, bird-seeded) fig tree in the back garden. It s behind our little garden shed. This is good because it doesn’t take up a lot of space, but bad because it wants to reach [...]
Plums (Italian: pruna/susina), originally uploaded by dewelch. Here are some lovely, tiny, plums that were growing in our cousins garden in Sicily. Such a nice little mouthful, although it did have some fairly large seeds inside. Juicy as all get out, too. That “dirt” you see on the leaves is actually sabbia, or ash, from [...]
Olives, originally uploaded by dewelch. Morgantina is an ancient Greek city her on the island of Sicily. It was taken over by the Romans in 211 BC. Substantial ruins remain and we toured them the other day. In the parking lot, the major patch of shade on this extremely hot day was provided by this [...]
Our cousin, Vito in Regalbuto, does some wonderful plantings, including bonsai olive trees. Here, he has made great use of the traditional cups used for coffee in the ubiquitous Sicilian bars that are on nearly every corner. I love the effect gained by massing a bunch of these together on a shelf. I think it [...]
Grape Vines and grapes in monastary vineyard, originally uploaded by dewelch. I saw this amazing scene when we visited a restored monastery last night in Nicolosi. For me, this sums up the beauty of the outdoors and of Sicily itself. The sun, the vines, the grapes all together. I have had a small dream of [...]
Zinnia, originally uploaded by dewelch. Another lovely flower from our cousin’s garden here in Sicily. Francesca loves flowers and lovingly raises large pots of annuals from seed each year. These zinnias fairly glow in the sharp Sicilian summer sun. We were making plans for a few road trips around the island yesterday and several gardens [...]
Cucumber flower, originally uploaded by dewelch. Cucumbers are on the way in our friend’s garden. They already have corn and some tomatoes on the vine, too. I don’t really have enough sun exposure here to grow veggies, so I have to live vicariously through others. (LAUGH)
Mimosa Flowers, originally uploaded by dewelch. Another photo from our neighborhood walk a few days ago. These are the flowers of the Mimosa tree. We have several in out neighborhood. The leaves are supposedly sensitive — if you stroke them with your hand they will begin to close up their leaves. Unfortunately, these trees due [...]
