Steve’s Outdoor Adventures Part Somethingorother

Posted by Steve on December 18th, 2005 — Posted in Your Guest Host Steve

In another effort to rub it in our family and friends’ faces that we are enjoying wonderful weather while the rest of you are enjoying the magical cold and winter weather that is December, I’d thought I’d share a few more delights from the yard.

IMG 0353 Before it had ever bloomed, I thought this plant was rather boring and we contemplated getting rid of it. Good thing we didn’t. It produces these lovely hanging purple flowers.
IMG 0354 Close up of the flower, looking up.
IMG 0355 While this plant has yet to produce any lovely flowers, it has another wonderful property. When the leaves of this geranium are squeezed between your fingers, they release a wonderful lemon-scent. Very accurately named: the lemon-scented geranium
IMG 0356 This is actually the third appearance for this plant. It was one of my original ‘what is it?’ posts while Lisa was away in September. Careful readers may also recognize it from one of Lisa’s day trip posts with her friends (it was on the beach). As we have approached summer, the plant turned red in many places and produced these lovely little white flowers (which weren’t opened this morning, unfortunately).
IMG 0357 Here is a close up of this desert plant. As we learned on our trip to Isla Damas, this plant is a very important source of water in the desert of Chile. Both wild animals and the herds of goats rely on this plant. The amount of water locked away in this plant is really amazing. Click here for a 18MB movie showing how much water you can get from this plant.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this latest installment of our garden. Enjoy your snow and cold weather…