I gifted myself with a new look for my design firm’s home this weekend, over at Sekimori Design.  If it looks all gear-y and pipe-y, well, that’s a’purpose as I was going for a Steampunk look.

Steampunk is a subgenre of fantasy and speculative fiction that came into prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century, and often set in Victorian era England—but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inventions like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or real technological developments like the computer occurring at an earlier date. Other examples of steampunk contain alternate history-style presentations of “the path not taken” of such technology as dirigibles or analog computers; these frequently are presented in an idealized light, or a presumption of functionality. (Via Wikipedia)

The brass, the grungy metal and paper, the gears, the dials, the pipes…I adore the steampunk aesthetic and have been roaming the web for months, searching for inspiration.  I finally got juiced enough to start the design in earnest on Friday, and walla! 

Is it wrong to keep looking at your own site because it’s so pritty?  :)

Me (after scrubbing down the master bathroom):  Check out this supah-clean sink.

Him: That *is* a supah-clean sink.

Me:  I couldn’t find a junk toothbrush though, so there’s still this tiny grotty bit between the faucets.

Him:  So we’ll buy a cheap one next time we’re out.

*fifteen minutes later*

Him (brandishing a pink Hello Kitty toothbrush I haven’t seen the Girlchild use in years):  Hey babe?  Zoe just brought this, left it in the hallway for you.

Me:  *blink*

Zoe:  *purr*

Me:  Zoe, I’d like 11 million dollars, please.

I’ve been in love with pitcher plants since we came across a log-potted growth of them at Bok Tower Gardens a few years ago.  I bought two earlier this summer to place on the back patio, partly to see if they’d make a dent in the insect population, but mainly because they’re just gorgeous.  

The Sarracenia leucophylla ‘Tarnok’ is doing very well.  It has produced mid-sized pitchers since being potted up, and is now about 12″ tall and turning out laaaarge pitchers.
 

And if you gently peer down into the pitcher itself, you can see all kinds of horror:
 

I’m glad to be rid of the pesky love bugs (which the pitchers consume in droves) and the even peskier destructive-caterpillar-spawning moths, but I’m still a softie at heart, and can’t help but feel the teensiest bit sorry for them.

Which is, I suppose, why I dreamed last night of murderous, body-snatching pitcher plants.  

Sooo, no more peering down into pitchers for me.  Eat up, fellas!

*At least those in my backyard.

Technically, Florida’s climate is classified as “sub-tropical,” but you’d be forgiven for thinking “tropical” when you’re standing in our backyard.  This is the view of the four feet above our six-foot tall fence:
 

That is the profusion of weeds growing up and over from the drainage ditch behind our neighborhood.  Gorgeous, aren’t they?  They’re also home to innumerable birds in the spring and fall, which is why I get testy when the HOA makes noises about mowing it all down.  Yes, there’s plenty of alternate habitat, but this bit is MINE, dangit.

Now, I’d just adore to tell you all exactly the botanical and common names for each of these flowers, but there are only so many hours in the day.  Resources for identifying them are rather slim on the ‘net, and I don’t have the hours required to plow through them all.  There’s an excellent wildflower ID group on Flickr, and I’ll submit them there, then update these pictures as I get IDs.

This has to be some kind of wild pea:
 

It vines faster than the honeysuckle, and makes dark purple buds that open into gorgeous deep red pea-flower-shaped blossoms about the size of a quarter.

This one grows on 7+ foot tall stems, and has amazing architectural-looking leaves:
 

It’s blooms are dime-sized and pink, with an almost, er…anatomical detail:
 

This one appears to be more of a shrub, with lovely lemon-sized blooms:
 

It makes a fine trellis for the all the climbers.

This one I’ve seen both on foot-high stems in the rose garden (where the butterflies prefer it over the roses) and up high over the fence in among the other climbers:
 

You have to get down on the ground for the rest of these flowers, as they’re tiny, no bigger than english peas.  The tinier they are, the more complex they seem to get.

This is the Turkey Tangle Fogfruit (Phyla nodiflora), which looks like Battenberg lace up close:
 

This is appears to be a kind of Lobelia but it only gets about three inches tall.  
 

This little guy is almost orchid-like, grows on longish stems with multiple blossoms every few inches:

This tiny cluster of flowers sits right on top of its leaves, about an inch off the ground:
 

This little trumpet-like flower grows on a stem about five inches tall, a Lobelia relative, perhaps:
 

And finally, this amazingly peach-colored cuphea lookalike grows on spear-shaped stems only about 6 to 8 inches tall:

I had been planning this wildflower post for several weeks, as the profusion growing over our back fence became more and more impressive, but it was only this morning that I found the last five wildflowers on this list.  A lesson to slow down and watch where you step, I suppose.

Mmm, fall programming.  Tonight we have How I Met Your Mother (still the funniest thing on TV), Chuck (hurrah!) and Life (double hurrah!).  I thought for a moment earlier that we also had Heroes to watch, and kind of deflated…until I remembered I junked it from the TIVO to-do list last night.  It had such promise in the first season, interesting characters/stories…but for me the show just got mired down in the details.  It never had the scope I wanted from it…no Batcave, no Dr. Xavier, no Justice League, for pity’s sake.  If I wanted a soap opera (and make no mistake, that’s what it is) I could turn on my TV any weekday.  But my evenings are PRECIOUS, people, I do not have time for your little pretend-epic there, kthx.

UPDATE:  Chuck, how do I love thee, let me count the ways…

1. Theme song by Cake and kitschy credits.
2. Cute as a button hero…completely sans wimpiness.
3. Morgan significantly less creepy this season.
4. Casey has apparently grown a heart.
5. 85% less screentime for Sara’s underpants (compared to last season anyway).
6. An actual body count…this is no puff piece, people.

I sincerely hope this is not indicative of how the rest of my day is going to go…

I’ve been pondering the garden these past couple of weeks, deciding what to pull out, what to plant.  The blistering heat is finally starting to ease up a bit, with nights in the 60s and 70s and days in the 80s.  The rainy season is officially Over, so all the cursed whiteflies are finally dead, which means I can plant cukes again, woo!  To that end we did some much needed maintenance today, laying down newspaper between the boxes and topping it off with eucalyptus mulch:
 

In box #1, we have a flourishing Parisian Pickling cucumber, a few struggling Fresca strawberries (what, too hot still?), and a newly planted Lemon cuke:
 

In box #2, we have a bumper crop of Parisier Market carrots, a newly sprouted Pearl cuke, and five new rows (on the left there) of Parisier Market carrots:
 

That used to be the home of the Hawaiian Pineapple tomato, but after the Yellow Pear tomato was slaughtered (MURDERED, I SAY!!) by hornworms, I emergency evac-ed it to a large pot inside the pool enclosure. None of the tomatoes are particularly happy right now, though, all with small curly leaves.  I haven’t had time to devote to figuring out their particular issue, though I suspect it is nutrient-related.

In box #3, the peppers continue, though a little lackadaisically.  The Thai Hot pepper is covered in new blooms, so we’ll see if this is a last gasp for them:
 

Today I also planted two Romanesco cauliflower seeds, and will add more as the peppers retire.  And I freely admit, to you all, here and now, that I am growing the Romanesco as much to photograph it as I am to actually eat it. 

In box #4, we took out the faithful, and extraordinarily productive red rice beans (into the composter, of course!) added some fresh soil, compost and manure, and planted two offset rows of Golden Bantam corn:
 

Harvest for this variety is in 83 days, which will put it on the table right before Christmas.  This is as much experiment as anything else, to see if we can get a good harvest of corn outside the rainy season.  We also hope the sodding cornworms will be less in evidence in this drier weather, but stand ready with Worm Death^TM should that prove otherwise.  I want fresh corn, from my own garden, dammit!

Other crops in progress include Purple Haze carrots:
 

Napoli carrots:
 

Seems kind of bare, eh?  Someone…who shall remain nameless, since he’s the one who will be building my new planter boxes for me…stepped on the edge of this pot while harvesting red rice beans the other day and tipped out almost the entire crop of carrots.  The seedlings were rescued and moved to a different pot, and new seeds started in the original pot:
 

Next to the rescue pot are Ishikura bunching onions, shallots (woo!) and Carentan leeks.  I am having ABYSMAL luck with leeks this year…do they prefer cooler weather or something?

Still to come on the planting agenda are:

• Cebolla yellow onions
• More strawberries
• Ground cherries
• More carrots (Purple Haze, Parisier Market and Napoli)
• More shallots and Carentan leeks
• Raddichio
• Butterhead lettuce
• Tennis Ball lettuce
• Celery
• Spinach

Back when we all started blogging, those of us who were, erm, uncomfortable with the typical level of sharing that went on in most blogs took lots of these little tests and quizzes.  I’m better about the sharing these days, but sometimes you just have to take a stupid quiz and post the results.

Via Joanie

Her:  I’m going to be like Uncle David…

Me:  How so?

Her:  I’m going to live alone and have kittens!

Me:  But someday, when you’re not looking, you’re going to be smacked upside the head by Love…

Her (vehemently):  I’m too smart for Love!

In lieu of actual content (blame the wrestling practice, back to school dance, wrestling meet, soccer practice, soccer game, etc. etc. etc. etc.), here’s some amusing search strings I’ve received lately…

How+to+sow+marigolds+in+florida - That’s easy…throw them on the ground then jump back really quickly.

old+lady+in+garden - Heyyyy, I do NOT resemble that remark!

mother+nature’s+garden - No, it’s MY garden…containing MY sweat (gallons of it), and MY blood (bonked my finger with a lime tree thorn), dammit.

when+to+plant+vegitables+in+florida (sic) - Excellent question.  And here’s a handy guide to planting vegEtables in Florida.

dirty+versions+of+peter+piper - Ha!  If I had ‘em, I’d sure give ‘em to you.

extreme+close-up+shots+of+tractors - Please, for the love of Pete…get off the internet!  Find a girlfriend instead, it’ll be so much more rewarding.