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I'm getting kind of burned out on all the hardscape projects. Now that it is November and my ground is diggable again (it turns into one big rock all summer), I plan to start putting in some plant life. First up is the little bed that you can see in the top left of this photo. It runs along my neighbor's fence for about 10-15 feet. I'm going to plant podocarpus as a tree/hedge there. That should add a lot of green, and soften up all these straight edges I've been making.

More pictures of this latest concrete and rock project are on my flickr page. See Susan and Lupe helping me! (Clicking on the photo will take you to Flickr).

Sorta. A new medical booklet about living with lung disease has those colored-pencil illustrations in it, and Lupe has been illustrated! The book was authored by her boss, Lana, and an artist came to take photographs of the staff and patients, and then he drew pictures from them. Very cool!

More video at flickr. This cute little bastard sucked down a couple of green bean plants right in front of us, and then later took the cucumbers and a beautiful jalepeno plant I had going.

I had this 'unfinished' little triangle of dirt in one corner of my patio. It seemed like a perfect place for a fountain, and some grasses. Then I found this strange ceramic 'bud vase' maybe, that reminded me of a huge blue river rock, and I thought it would make a great bottom to a fountain. The corner also had a dirt wall on it, where the neighbors yard was higher than mine, so I needed a retaining wall. I've always liked really simple fountains, and wanted mine to look like a pipe coming out of the ground as if it were from a natural spring. Turned out perfect! Even better than the pictures show. More pictures at Flickr.

I've made some good progress on my 26 Biographies project (see link in the left-hand navigation). Just finished reading "Mirror to America, the Autobiography of John Hope Franklin." Mr. Franklin passed away while I was reading his book. I was able to recognize what I was learning about him from tributary repeats of interviews with Mr. Franklin that were airing on TV and Public Radio.

Spotted one today on a bike ride on Mt. Diablo. Here he is. He was a big one. So very cool to see these guys. Was riding with Lupe and Dave. Dave had already gone by it when I spotted it. Luckily Lupe had her cell phone along so we could grab a picture.

Went to my second (and equally awesome) Stone Foxes show last night with Lupe and Darin. We enjoyed meeting Avi from the band, and his mother, who was visiting from Los Angeles. It was a very fun show at The Red Devil Lounge in San Francisco. The band recorded the whole show with multiple cameras for a DVD they are planning to make. Look up "The Stone Foxes" and also "Avi Vinocur" on youtube for some very good music, with lots of humor. We all had a great time!