Contrast Shower. Want to join?

Cold water, hot water, cold water, hot water. Do you do that when you take a shower? No? Do you want to try?
Some doctors believe that this is a method of detoxing, improving the circulatory system and the immune system.
I use a contrast shower. Sometimes. But today I am more concerned about strenthening my mind and emotionally preparing for this:

The method is the same. Cold picture, hot picture, cold picture, hot picture.Want to try? Let's start!

Hot!

Cold!

Hot!

Cold!

Blue hot sky:

Blue sky with white polka dots:

Hot!

Hot!

Hot! Again? Someone is cheating! Maine, Colorado, Nebraska, come on guys, you are used to snow!

Green trees:

White trees:

Hot flower:

White flower:

Stop! Someone is cheating again! It was a white but hot flower!
Here!

Oops! Where did it go, the white flower? Well, at least it was a pot where the white flower was supposed to be.

Hot again! We are doing good! Stay with me!

Hot!

Hot!

Very hot! Vermont, Illinois, Massachussets, Canada, I know you'd prefer hot, but we need to maintain the rhythm!

White flowers, white sky:

White sky, no white flowers:

Hot!

Hot!

Hot ...

Hot?

Stop! We lost the rhythm. There should be cold and white somewhere here...

It was white, big white, but hot again

White and hot

That was white and hot again... Here we are! Cold!

We are back on track! Hot!

Cold!

Hot!

Cold! Stay with me!

Breathe! ... Are you breathing? Phew, for a second I thought we lost you...

We are doing good!

Still cold! Stay with me! Push! Push! Oh, what am I saying? Breathe! Breathe!

Texas, Tennessee, Alabama, you guys hold on there! Breathe! Breathe!

It won't last forever! It'll be hot again! Here it is! Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!

We did it! You did it! Did you? I forgot to tell you that you needed to consult your doctor before doing this workout. I hope you are OK. Are you? Let me know.

P.S. The hot pictures are from Maui and Kauai. The cold pictures are from around my garden.

Where The Green Thumb Lives

Early Sunday morning. I was reading new posts, not fully awake. Didn't drink my coffee and didn't get a Buzz yet. Suddenly, I saw a sign "Green Thumb Sunday" on Shady Gardener's blog Does Everything Grow Better in My Neighbor's Yard?

Buzz!!! Hey, I was procrastinating with my post about a big green thumb which I recently saw on Black Friday. This is my chance to finish and post it! Green Thumb Sunday hosted by As the Garden Grows, is for showing what grows in your garden right now. It's not exactly what my post is about. My post is about where The Big Green Thumb, The Thumb of the Thumbs, The Mothership of All Green Thumbs lives.

Want to see him? Prepare yourself. He is very big and he is very green!

If you are brave enough, follow me. If you are not brave, but curious, follow me too!

I love people. I love them even during black fridays. I love them so much I want to give them extra space to shop. That is why we went to the Gardens of Nature. They are everywhere, these gardens. Our garden is on the way to Stevens Pass, along the Skykomish river in Washington state.

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In the Garden of Nature, diamonds and pearls are dangling on the branches:

Water color is turquoise:

Trees trunks' color is verde:


Eternity is the word coming to mind when I look at these giants:


Their tops are touching the sky:


Green, brown and other earthy colors, which are always in style, are predominant this time of the year.


The place is a paradise for a moss lover like me :

The size of leaves is impressive:

We are tiny creatures among the ancient trees:

This is where The Green Thumb lives.
Here it is! Do you like it?

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Copyright 2009 TatyanaS

Peace, Love, Blotanical

I was just playing with the pictures from the Festival of Trees. This is what I got. I called it first "Rainbow of Trees". But I love the name "Peace, Love, Blotanical" more. Why not? We are peaceful, loving people, aren't we?

This puts me in the right mood to cut my own tree.

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First frost - 12/5/2009

Copyright 2009 TatyanaS

Wild Flower Wednesday

I am joining Gail (Clay and Limestone ) on this Wild Flower Wednesday.

These are pictures of some flowers in Washington and Hawaii. I bet you'll have a tough time guessing which is which! Just kidding.

The pictures above were taken during our Saturday fishing trip in October. See the fish? There"re salmon.

The pictures below were taken during our August trip to Kauai. There is a stone wall at the ocean beach. I was walking along it and decided to check what was on the other side of that wall. This is what I saw:

These beauties were hiding where nobody could see them. Pure white blooms on the reddish-brown soil. I felt like I found a treasure.

Sometimes, we need to get off the beaten path to find a gem in the dirt.
They found the armless statue of the Venus de Milo in dirt, didn't they?


Copyright 2009 TatyanaS

Aralia blooming

Click on the pictures to enlarge them

Aralia (Fatsia japonica) is one of my favorite plants.

I have three of them. They are planted in different parts of my garden. Which one grows the best?The first one grows in a shady place near the house.

It gets some sheltered morning sun and is protected from the wind by tall firs and the row of arborvitae.
Here it is, on the pictures above and below.

The second plant grows in front of the house and gets a lot of morning sun. Although it's standing not far from the wall, it is open to the winds.

The third plant is located on the border close to the fir trees. It also gets some morning sun. The worst is that its roots have to compete with conifers' roots for space, nutrients and water.
Did you guess which plant is the happiest? If you think the first one, you are right. It's the biggest and the most bushy of all of them. Its leathery leaves are huge and glossy.

It blooms every year profusily in late summer and fall.

The plant in front of the house has plenty of space, moisture and nutrients. Last year, it was the same size as the aralia under the conifers.

Notice the roof above the plant #2!

Wind never caused any damage to it.
Nevertheless, it suffered the most during the last winter' snow storms. Suffered from what? The danger came from above. It got blasted by heavy snow that accumulated on the roof and slid down when the days got warmer.

This is how it looked last spring:

Ouch! Poor plant! But wait! Although being badly damaged, it proved to be a survivor.
It fully recovered and looked good last summer.

Aralia blooms are beautiful.

Small creamy white flowers create compound umbels 12 inches (30 sm) or more across. They remind me of snowflakes:

I love Aralia for its tropical look, architectural habit and late display of flowers. They say it's susceptible to fungal and bacterial leaf spots, mealybugs, scale insects, spider mites and whiteflies. Luckily, my plants have been healthy and free from these problems so far.
It's recommended to grow Aralia in fertile, well-drained soil in full sun or light, dappled shade and to shelter it from cold, drying winds.
I wouldn't say that my plants grow in very fertile soil, but the best performer, plant #1, has dappled shade and is better protected from winds than two other plants.
Originated in Eastern Asia, Aralia does well in the Pacific Northwest. I can not grow many tropicals here. That is why I value Aralia for giving me a tropical look and being hardy.

Aralia can be grown as a house plant. I used to have an attractive Variegated Aralia "Spider Web" - a rare form with variable speckled and splashed variegation on large glossy leaves.

We bought it during one of the NW flower and garden shows. I made a mistake and set it outside in a shade while we went on a trip. I thought it would be safer since a teenage girl was supposed to look after my plants. Well, she did. But, she badly overwatered it, and it died.

To end this post on a positive note, this is one more picture of Aralia's bloom:

***Copyright 2009 TatyanaS

contemporary art