Another bit of easy yoga that doesn't involve doing very much.

Love her outfit!

Would you ever think that this yard goes with the house below it? I wish more of my neighbors were so bold. I wish I were more bold.

This dramatic side entrance-garden-yard belongs to a most conventional house in a very nondescript neighborhood (mine, basically). I don't know what's in the back yard but I'd sure like to find out. Check out that well-thought-out pruning.

A friend told me she didn't want to try yoga. Something about the floor. Try this. No floors involved.

Loyal lavender.

So Jay Leno will try to be the NBC version of Jon Stewart. We'll see if it works. I can't judge; I just don't think Leno is funny. At least he's not Jon Stewart / Stephen Colbert funny.

Oliver (right) and Saint Gus.

Step 1 in deciding to keep this piece of furniture: Put it on the carport where it will get in your way all the time so you have to do something soon.

This was my mom's 1950s sewing table. It opens up and has a storage compartment under the chair. When it's not being used it turns into cube. I love it and won't give it up, but it really isn't very practical other than as yet another piece of furniture that gathers dust. For most of its life in my possession it sat under a TV set. Not a good look.

Lamb's ear.

Winter gardens can be very pretty.

Coral bells.

When I bought this plant the label just said heuchera. I thought, such a pretty color and name. When I got home and checked I learned that it's just coral bells. I say "just" because I already have two plants but the deer keep them trimmed to about 2 inches. When they, the deer, break through my "fences" they usually head straight for the coral bells. After the hostas of course. Then they eat the liriope. Bastards.

We get a lot of puny, but pretty, snowfalls in MD.

Beautyberry.

I should worry more about this pink stuff and less about bananas.

I gave up soft drinks and my beloved diet Cranberry-Raspberry Snapple about a month ago. (Playing a money game in my head: I need to save $200 because of a purchase I shouldn't have made...but that's a long, even more boring story.) I'm drinking iced tea and home-made lemonade instead. But I still sweeten my drinks, and I use the pink stuff (saccharin). Saccharin is the one that doesn't cause cancer, in contrast to the blue stuff (Aspartame) that doesn't cause neurological problems. Is the yellow stuff Splenda? I wonder what that doesn't cause. I wonder if I could switch to sugar and get off all The Stuff? But oh no. What about the sugar cane industry?

This hawk (huge, BTW) was perched on a hunk of suet on my back deck.

He was being mobbed by the local crows. I got this quick shot of him sulking in the trees behind the suet. Possibly a redtail, common around here.

Legal aliens?

A great local Asian grocery store carries these and many other exotic fruits and vegetables. Is that good? Took a lot of oil to get them to Silver Spring, MD, from who knows where. Michael Pollan is inside my brain saying "this ain't good folks."

Too sweet.

From the LA Times.

Deer tracks. On the wrong side of my so-called deer fence.

This is a very hardy weed. I've been pulling it up in my flower beds but maybe I should leave it alone and consider it a cover crop.

Shannon & I agreed to finish our matching quilts by Christmas. I'm making slow (but I fear not fast-enough) progress.

Yesterday at the pond next door. Those trees may be down by now.

Must make a decision about these old tee shirts.

So I'm trying, really really hard, to get rid of stuff and I've got a big pile of old, and some not-so-old, tee shirts. I never wear them (except occasionally that light blue, really old Hunter S. Thompson tee shirt) so I'm thinking of cutting them up and making a tee shirt quilt. I guess that's not really "getting rid of stuff" but at least it would be turning unused stuff into potentially used stuff.

Not sure what this is, but I do love it.

As you drive down one of the major roads near my house you come across this odd sculpture. A red elephant, on a trailer, with its back to the street. Its owner has embellished the elephant over the years. The wings are fairly new. The house whose yard it graces appears to be boarded up these days, but the red elephant stays and continues to evolve. Note huge ball and chain to the right.

I, optimistically, bought plants today: hellebore, lettuce/kale/cabbage, thyme, and something called caramel heuchera.

Eagle pose in yoga.

I was able to do this for about 2 seconds today. I love my yoga class.

Tiny new sedum. Seems odd that some plants start new growth at this time of year.

This is one sun salute, or salutation.

My yoga teacher, whose name is (I think) Laura, did 108 of these in one session. It was part of a fund-raising event. She looks like she's in great shape but she said 108 of these is a real workout.

Flotsam and Dross Boutique

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5779328

The Internet can be perfect for people who love data.

http://www.celebrityprepschools.com/

I have a friend who is just a little bit odd. She started this list (see link above) years ago and is very dutiful about keeping it up to date. I was reminded of it because of a little back and forth on Garden Rant about the Obamas' decision to send their little girls to Sidwell Friends School.
See this link (I can't seem to master hyperlinks on this blog; I've done it before but I don't like hunting for the instructions, and I won't keep notes; such stupid laziness): http://www.gardenrant.com/my_weblog/2008/11/dcs-greenest-sc.html

My worm composting.

I started my worm composting in March. These pictures were taken at various times, including last night, since then. My only complaint is that they are basically pretty slow producers of castings. Reliable, but slow. Most people don't even notice the bins in my cluttered kitchen, right next to the computer. Oliver pays them no mind.