Day 74: Drought in the Tree Section

Our house is surrounded by trees. Some are protected by law, but I think most builders get around that somehow. The house across the street for example, had one original owner since the 50s, an ornamental horticulture teacher at the local high school, Fred Eckert. His house was, not surprisingly, surrounded by trees and other foliage. I wrote about and showed the empty lot in a previous post. Now the frame of a McMansion has gone up and the only green or living thing is one skinny tall tree at the very edge of the lot.

We have three pine trees along the 19th Street side of the house, all different types. The one in the middle, which helped to keep the living room cool in former years, has become a victim of the drought. When I first saw these growths upon it, I thought they were sap sacs, and that it had been attacked by pine beetles, but they are actually mushrooms. I find them creepy yet kind of beautiful.

The other pine trees and the bouganvillea are doing fine.

 


My mom won or was given this cheese plant at a luncheon thing. It has been repotted a few times and somehow survived my father's neglect. Yes, it's looking a bit sad here, but I'm doing my best to revive it, even though we are only allowed to water plants on Wednesday nights. It's already looking a bit better than this photo taken a couple of months ago.

This guy always reminded me of the plants in the primeval world train ride at Disneyland; before it was cut back, and had some really enormous leaves, I half expected to see a giant dragonfly on it. (If you've been on that ride, you'll know what I mean.)

 Here Gigi wonders why I am outside taking photographs and not taking her to check her pee mail.