PICTURES OF ROSEMARY

 Flowering Rosemary ( Rosmarinus officinalis)

Lavender Field

It isn't laveder; field of pretty wild flowers in the wetland--

Florida wild flowers. Blue-purple

SANDPAPER VINE: The Story Continues

The flowers are complex: the calice (chalice) bears a bud

that opens as a very impressive, intensly colored 

( blue, purple or blue-purple) violet/pansy-like flower

that drops within two days, leaving the star-like

calice to slowly fade from lilac-blue to hazy- gray.

The leaves of the Sandpaper Vine are very rough on both
sides, like a sandpaper, even when they are young and green.

The flowers of the Sandpaper Vine come in racemes ( like

grapes). This raceme/bunch is the first "historic" one.

 - Our vine is in bloom for the first time, since it was

 planted five years ago. It grows in a clay pot outsde

of the family room window.

THE UTILITARIAN ASPECT OF PETREA VOLUBILIS

Petrea Volubilis aka Sndpaper Vine is a very 
 beautiful plant to watch when in bloom.
The leaves of Petrea V. are very rough on
both sides, like a sandpaper! So, naturally,
 I thought they can be used like a sandpaper,
especially when dry ( no trace marks of green).
And that is the utilitarian aspect of Petrea Volubilis!

I tried to sand an old piece of  wood with a dry leaf, and it worked.

Sandpaper Vine: the leaves are very rough, like a sandpaper!

DOUBLE BLUE

Blue and blue-purple double flowers. Pretty and interesting.

Yes, this is the mysterious Sandpaper Vine.

Bachelor's Button

Centaurea cyanis

The struggles are not over

but they are less dramatic

or less painfully felt

I am keeping my thoughts close to my bones

and not spilling them over to my heart and hands

I work more

saving money to go to Moscow with Nathalie

I wish those words would mean what I want them to mean

but as they have said: We escape ourselves and hide with bad lattes

between book shelves. This would've been fine

if moods didn't need Godiva chocolates to be paid for

with credit cards.

CELEBRATING THE GIFT OF HAND DECORATED HAT

Hat Made by Cindy. Photo by MK.

Hat Made by Cindy. Photo by MK.

The Hat hung on the wall for a while, since February of last year.

Cindy - Lidia's friend, gave it to me for my birthday. I never wore it to the Garden Tea party.

Today was the Hat's glorious day.

TROPICAL WISTERIA MAGIC

Tropical Wisteria a.k.a. Queen's Wreath, Sandpaper Vine, Petrea volubilis, Bluebird Vine in Bloom: Full Magic Power. Pictured here is our Wisteria

grown from a seed and planted under the "art room window". Photo: MK

This beautiful double flower has a double life in double color. It charms with two different shades of blue: the bottom petals are hazy lilac-blue, and the top flower is vibrant blue-purple. The bottom petals dry on the vine and lose their color, but the top delicate, soft violet/pansy-like flowers drop to the ground creating a magic carpet - I doubted that they belonged to the Tropical Wisteria I saw last Tuesday on the grounds of the little botanical garden by the painting studios of the U of M Art Dept. in Coral Gables (where I painted as a postgrad student 17 years ago). Lidia was there with me.