My Life... My Story: Aug 9, 2008

Had some time... so I grabbed the camera

We added two new plants to our collection. We picked up two of these beautiful plants. We have seen them on the side of the freeway in Fontana and next to the DMV in Redlands. Even our neighbor a few houses down has them in her yard. I love the color.

Red Bird of Paradise

Caesalpinia pulcherrima

Origin: Central America, northwestern South America, West Indies

This bush is generally known in Phoenix as Mexican Bird of Paradise, name that really belongs to C. Mexican. The Red Bird of Paradise is a relatively frost sensitive Caesalpinia, and it is generally better to trim it close to ground in winter. This keeps it more compact without seeming to delay it in spring. Seeds are toxic.'Phoenix' is a yellow form.

Our first blooms are dried out, time to collect the seeds.

Echinacea, commonly called Purple Coneflower, is a genus of nine species of herbaceous plants in the family Asteraceae. All are strictly native to eastern and central North America. The plants have large, showy heads of composite flowers, blooming from early to late summer. Some species are used in herbal medicines.

Our neighbors put up a small brick wall around their front yard. Our Bougainvilleas love the wall. I don't know if it is the heat of the wall or the support, but they are thriving this summer and tripling in size.

A little butterfly in our French Lavender

Butter Daisy (Weed) and Fountain Grass

Shopping...Thursday and Saturday

Victoria Gardens

What a beautiful day for shopping. The mountains were visible, there were white fluffy clouds peeking out from behind the mountains and the white roses were in full bloom. I had to take a picture.

Went shopping with the Ultimate Chick on Thursday. We have been putting off lunch for a while due to conflicting schedules. We finally got together for a bite to eat and some light shopping. The stores were quite empty. We talked about the economy, our significant others and work. I am especially excited about her "Girls Night/house warming"... girl movies, cupcakes and martinis.

My husband went to Riverside Galleria Mall for some shopping and on the way home we stopped off at another shopping center to grab a bite to eat. We settled on Daphne's ... fast food Greek style.