Bono is my new hero. Click here to see him accepting the Chairman's Award at the NAACP Awards. It is a very moving speech (after some fluff at the beginning).
Spring has sprung here and the early flowers are coming out. My front yard is partially planted in native plants (I am in the process of planting the rest of it in natives). This is fushia flowering gooseberry (Ribes speciosum Rana Creek). The hummingbirds have been sipping at the flowers. Later in the year, birds will eat the berries.
This is another native called Redwood Sorrel (Oxalis oregana). It is a shade loving evergreen plant that will spread to form a mat. It is also tolerant of root compettition so I can plant bulbs in the oxalis patch. When the bulbs whither away I still have the pretty little clover leaves.
In the pond, the water lilies are sending up leaves. These start as a beautiful red and will mature to a bright green. When it warms up more I'll get white flowers with bright yellow centers.
About ten years ago we planted arugula and every year we get volunteers. So many little plants come up that I just pull and eat whatever volunteers in an inappropriate spot like the lawn. In spring when the leaves are very young and tender we eat salads with up to 50% arugula. Love that peppery taste. It is also great on sandwiches, pizza, and in pesto. The flowers are tasty and pretty in salads too.
In other news: I have made a few changes to the blog. I have added some widgets (search function, translator, linking blogs, and Clustr map). The coolest is the snap preview which allows you to see the link before you click. Sometimes it annoys me when it pops up unwanted, but mostly I like being able to see a preview of a site before I click on it.
I also completely revamped to my links and added a few new ones. They are much more sorted now. Hopefully it will be easier to find links of interest. I did put them there for you (and me) to use, so I guess I should try to make them user friendly. A general reshuffling occured as well. Things felt disorganized. Let me know what you think of the changes.
What I really want feedback on is the translator. I get a good number of hits from all around the world and thought it might be nice to provide a way to easily translate my blog. For those of you who use translators, which is most useful and how does Babel Fish rate? It was a pretty arbitrary choice; I'd be happy to use another one if it is better. They all seem to be limited to the same handful of languages. It would be nice if there were more options.
The garden is looking great!
Posted by: Brooke | March 09, 2007 at 02:57 PM
Spring, how I long for thee! Your front yard is yummy :)
Blog changes look great, you have one of the most comprehensive and organized blogs around. Very nice!
Posted by: DeeAnn | March 12, 2007 at 05:04 PM