Gims, what a spectacular picture of that tree! It combines the awakening of a new day with the old wisdom of 1000's of days in the oak. Simply magnificent.

I've seen purple lupine (but not any other color) considerably north of here, North Cali mountains.

A friend gifted me a miniture bamboo.It rustled in the breeze and behaved...for three years.Underground shoots were striking out and this year all my rockery was covered..Nice little alpines lost and other favourites were under the shoots.
So last weekend I went to work...I replaned my nice plants..had the stones put to one side and I saw the "enemy" off.I dug pulled and raked.Eventually I went on line to a BBC gardening advice page.My instructions were to use a certain weedkiller..and wait...I have been to the hardening shop and it is waiting for a dry sunny day.Then I will do murder...happily.
I intend to clear this area and leave it fallow for a time.Then introduce small well behaved plants.This is a lesson for me...I will not repeat the mistake.And the friend...he is a professional gardener..and should have known.Had I known I would have planted it in an old pail and kept it under supervison.
Beware ladies...those who garden.
Mountain ash

Gims...whoooooooh. How absoutely breathtakingly beautiful We have a few live oaks on our place but not a view like yours...and we do not have Spanish moss, which I think adds to the lovliness.
Have you heard of water oaks? They're sort of like the live oak...they both seems to drop their leaves as weird times of the year...spring time instead of fall...makes a mess to clean up.
The limpines are absolutely awesome...gosh, I wish they grew here...probably could not stand the humidity.
I'm heading back outside...gotta mow the lawn...AND I finished my quilt, finally. My quilting group is meeting over here next week for a break from quilting...but, you can be sure we'll be gabbing about our main love...quilting. Miss you all bunches and you're never far from my heart.
The pictures are lovely.

The spanish moss has gotten away from us... we have way too much. You can't see it in this particular picture (which I took back when we tried keeping it clean). It has overtaken two giant crepe myrtles in our yard. We've stripped them twice, but it keeps coming back... it kills. I called a business in Houston, which handles natural horticulture supplies, and the guy I spoke with convinced me I didn't want to get rid of it... that was 7 or 8 years ago, and I wish I had not listened to him.

I agree with you, it is wonderful to look through the old limbs. Our house faces the eastnortheast and the tree is positioned so that, while I'm at a front window, I can see the sun rise through the limbs. I'll say it again, God did marvelous work when he gave us plants, oak trees and peonies, esp., in my book.

Hope I don't sound stupid when I ask what a limpine is... google it, but found links in Spanish, or some other language... didn't really study it.

About our house, it needs to be torn down. The owners before us did not maintain it well... and because of circumstances, we've not tried to remedy their oversights. Hope to remodel SOME DAY.

Gosh, gims, I want to FRAME your photo!! It's so beautiful and peaceful. I can feel the breeze. Well, even though I lost some plants earlier, I've planted the last of the new ones. I have small gardens all over our property. After a too-long winter of seeing nothing but white and gray, I'm basking in the beautiful colors and drinking it all in every chance I get. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

We have two gardens running along the side of our house, beside the parking lot. All of the plants there are now perennials, but we don't know what they all are, because every year, something new grows there, something that we didn't plant...it would appear that someone is coming along every fall and planting surprises in that garden.

This year, another one of these new surprise plants has appeared. At first I couldn't figure out what it was, until today when I could finally see the up-and-coming flower bud...it's a LUPIN...and there must be four or five spikes growing there! I love lupins. When we lived in Nova Scotia, we would see lupins of every colour EVERYWHERE along all of the highways. They are to Nova Scotia what dandelions are to the rest of us.

I tried planting them here several years ago, but they never "took" to the soil and died the first year...but this surprise lupin that some dear anonymous garden angel planted when we weren't looking is thriving!

BTW, we love these surprise plants so much that we've started doing the same to other people, especially some of the new immigrant families who can't afford to buy flowers or plants. Yesterday we had a lot of annuals left over, so we snuck over to the new family's house and planted a bunch of flowers in their front garden (we already know that there's nothing else planted there). Then our neighbour saw what we were doing and contributed some of her perennial "babies". When the new family came home later that day, the children (they have five little ones) were so excited to see all these pretty flowers in their own garden. It was fun.

EH, I wish we were neighbors so we could swap perennials. I love the grace you heaped upon your neighbor.

Do your neighbors have get-togethers?

Dotsie, I wish we were neighbours too! Not just for perennial-swapping, but for spiritual gardening as well!

We've tried having get-togethers, but with so many different cultures (and varying food - and dress - restrictions) it hasn't yet worked out to be comfortable for everyone. We had a neighbourhood Canada Day party at one of the houses one street over last year. Some people drank too much too fast, others didn't drink at all, some of the food shouldn't have been sitting out in the hot sun as long as it did (meaning that late-comers didn't have much choice in what to eat - and again, MANY different cultural food restrictions).

Our neighbourhood is so eclectic...every household is from a different cultural background. We're a mini United Nations just in this one block of 48 houses). It's interesting and we love it, we love meeting people and finding out their backgrounds (some have horrendous stories of survival through unimaginable torture and hardship, and have come here with nothing but the clothes on their backs). But as wonderful as diversity is, it does make it somewhat difficult to get everyone together for one cohesive function.

When I say eclectic, I really mean eclectic...for example, we have several Muslim families, but no two of them are the same Muslim sect. We also have Buddhists, Jehova Witnesses, Catholics, Protestants, atheists and Hindu families - not to mention all the languages too! The orthodox Muslim men are not allowed to look at women in shorts and tank tops, and even the non-orthodox are clearly uncomfortable with both the dress and the booze. But they try to join in the neighbourhood events, and everyone tries to find unity in diversity, and it IS good to be together. Just not as easy as you would think it could or should be.

As for the food, it's all potluck and BYOD (bring your own drinks) so that everyone can be sure of having something there they can eat. That too worked well for awhile, until there was more that the majority could NOT eat than could eat...not only due to food restrictions and people wanting to try a little bit of everything and there not being enough for the people with restricted diets, but also to spoilage from the heat.

Another reality is that some people are simply too poor to be able to afford to bring enough food to share and so won't come, out of shame of their inability to contribute. If there is another block party this year (and I'm sure there will be), people will probably bring coolers, bring more food and keep the perishables in there. Live and learn!

I come from a Mennonite background. On my Dad's side, everyone is Mennonite except one of my brothers and myself. The cousins are not as strict as my Dad's parents and grandparents were, but I still don't have many Mennonite relatives who wear tank tops or shorts once they become adults.