TJH: Inspire – God Save the Queen!
She’s a lovely, happy, and active queen. Makes faire fun and exciting!

Friends are like bras; a good one never lets you down
She’s a lovely, happy, and active queen. Makes faire fun and exciting!
…and managed to get into the chair to edit a few photos from the end of April.
I have a few more photos in the works, but I’ve been a bit distracted as King Arthur and I prepare the house for the arrival of Little Dude. He’ll be here for the entire three day weekend. YAY!
Okay, the item in the photo is indicated by the white arrow.
And now you know.
I’ll try to come up with more “guess what this is” posts if you’re up to playing them. Once a week sound good?
Because this is what I get when I go out in the backyard.
I know I’ve posted photos of the oranges I picked before and this looks like I’m just bragging, but C’MON! These are like sunshine you can touch and taste.
Sorry. Spent an evening with one of the sexiest men alive and my mind went a-wandering.
Bonus!
Ryan Bingham
Holy moly.
Fantastic concert.
He sang “Hallelujah” during his encore. Think he did four or five songs for the encore. Solo. It was amazing.
Don’t know who Ryan is? Try this song (which he did NOT play at the show, but everything else was so good it didn’t matter):
Opening the show was honeyhoney. Lead singer Suzanne gave me a copy of their CD and I fell in love with the band even more.
I like “Angel of Death” but I think my favorite is “Don’t Know How”
Don’t get me wrong, I like their livelier stuff, too! But these two songs just kill me in a way I can’t explain.
Bonus videos
Super special thanks to Fat Guy for being the one to first introduce me to the music of Ryan Bingham years ago.
LD was over yesterday and he helped with a few projects around the house. He helped me get a couple of trashcans separated (the one was so heavy, it took both of us to pick it up), helped water all the plants in the backyard, and he helped me pick some of the tangerines I couldn’t reach.
He was sent home with a bag of them. And he took a tomato cage, too. He’s turning it into a Christmas Tree for his room.
We also worked on some beading (thanks to Pam) and listened to Christmas music (thanks to Patti). Mr. Creative came up with a very smart way to get one of the bracelets we were working on to fasten properly. Clever kid.
Dad felt good, I wasn’t dead on my feet, and LD was funnier than ever. At one point, I couldn’t stop laughing. In other words, it was a good day.
And now for those tangerines. This particular version has seeds. In fact, I was surprised that one of the small ones had three seeds in just one slice! Go figure. The last batch from the other tree — well, you’d be hard pressed to find even one seed in the entire thing. No matter. Both types are delicious!
Bird of Paradise. Kind of a photographic cliche, but definitely one to revisit regardless. Bold colors, slightly masculine parts, definitely feminine parts, otherworldly. How else would you describe it?
I couldn’t resist a B&W version of this feminine view. A little darker. A little more sensual. Just the ticket.
Three types. Don’t remember which is which, though. However, in my search to identify the varieties, I couldn’t find anything that resembled these images. Either I misread the signs in each plant’s pot, or they were mislabeled. I’m going with the latter.
Eh, no matter. I think they’re lovely.
And and I had fun cruising around Balboa Park that day.
Love love love this plant! I’ve been fascinated by it for years. It took until recently for me to learn more about it.
Calotropis gigantea has beautiful, waxy flowers that just don’t look of this world. The aroma from this plant is somewhat on the pungent side (although some sources claim it’s not scented, they certainly weren’t sniffing the plant I was). I wouldn’t dab it behind my ears. Actually, that’s a bad idea anyway, since the sap can be extremely irritating to the skin. It’s part of the milkweed family, which, if you know anything about milkweed, can be very toxic to humans if not handled or prepared correctly. So, it’s not a plant I’d play around with much without knowing the exact side effects it can have on the body.
And with that, I will leave you to these images.
Purple Heart Wandering Jew, to be exact. Actually, to be precise, it’s Tradescantia pallida. And it’s lovely.
I think I’d rather have that in a yard than standard ivy.
I think it is.
But I’m a contrarian.