Amaryllis!

   Some recent blooms in our yard:

Amaryllis belladona

In early August, the Amaryllis begin to appear. These are bulbs, and they produce foliage in December (without flowers), which dries up in May or June. In late summer, stalks emerge quickly, within 2-3 days, from bare, dry beds and set clusters of these wonderfully fragrant pink flowers. Like most popular plants used so frequently in southern California that they seem to belong here, Amaryllis are from somewhere else. They are native to South Africa, and do well in the climate here, which is very similar.
   They are often called "naked ladies", due to that fact that they flower without foliage. Another common name is "pink ladies". The bulbs commonly called "Amaryllis", that are sold around the holidays as forced blooms in little pots and jars are really Hippeastrum; the misnomer confuses some people a bit when encountering true Amaryllis.
   Amaryllis were once pretty popular in Orange County; they are most commonly found in older neighborhoods, and they are one of my favorite heirloom flowers around here. I do not notice them often in newer neighborhoods, probably because fewer people spend much time gardening now, and tend to prefer more structural landscape plantings of repeat-blooming perennials, or shop for "instant color" at Home Depot every few weeks. Amaryllis, like daffodils, narcissus, gladiolas, etc. are a more patient pursuit, which pays off only during a brief  three or four weeks each year.
   When we moved in, they were already scattered around the various unkempt and overgrown flower beds throughout the yard. We have gathered them into a few areas and encourage them to continue growing and multiplying.

This is the first cluster of this year.

The Lake

   I just returned from a week's vacation, spent on the shore of Lake Ontario, about mid-way between Henderson Harbor and Sackets Harbor, New York (My family and I have been vacationing near this spot for more than 40 years, on-and-off).
   This year, while Syracuse was posting record-high temperatures, we enjoyed cool breezes, warm water and sand beaches.

Panorama of Henderson Bay (click for larger view).

   I live just 15 miles from the Pacific Ocean, but I rarely go to the beach. Having grown up frequenting lakes instead of the ocean, I prefer freshwater. The United States has about 5241 miles of freshwater shoreline along the Great Lakes, referred to by some as the "Fresh Coast". You can't see to the other side, so the view is as good as the ocean, and you don't need a shower after you swim, to deal with the smell and the salt.
   More great Great Lakes photography here, at The Fresh Coast Project.
   Some years ago, my family regularly rented a cabin from a friend who was a neighbor of my aunt and uncle, but they stopped renting the place around 1981, and after that, we would camp in nearby Westcott Beach State Park, along the same stretch of beach. In a chance encounter last year, while camping in the park, I met a woman whose family owns a cabin just up the beach, and she offered to let us stay a week this year.  My brother, with his wife and daughter, and my sister, with her husband stayed with me; my parents, as well as other relatives and friends, came up to visit occasionally throughout the week. We are already looking forward to nest year.
  Our little stretch of shoreline is fortunate to be slightly sheltered in a large bay with shallow warm water and sand beaches, and is about 20 miles from the start of the Saint Lawrence River. This view is old and familiar to us, but we never tire of it. We learned camping, swimming, boating, sailing, fishing and water skiing here on the lake: countless hours on the water watching how it moves and changes as the wind and light shift throughout the day, and as the weather and storms come directly in from the west, off the open lake.

The driveway to the cabin.

View of lake with blueberry pie.

View of the cabin in the early morning from the water.

View up the beach.


The following shots were taken on six consecutive evenings from July 19-24:

Fun With Google Image Search

Or, How I Became a Minor Visual Cliché.

( My apologies in advance for the length of this post)
   It is an odd and slightly jarring experience to unexpectedly encounter a photo of one's self on the internet. Some time ago, I stumbled upon a picture of myself on this page on the site for Velux Skylights:

Not easily recognizable, but I know the photo well.

  In 1993, Caris and I were doing lots of volunteer work for Habitat for Humanity of Orange County. Caris wanted a photo to use for brochures, etc., and had a photographer willing to donate his services. She wanted something to show partnership or cooperation in a construction setting, but we did not have any projects under construction at the time. I knew of a condo project not too far from my office which was still in framing, so one evening after work, my friend Rick and I climbed up onto the roof framing as the sun was setting. This was one of the resulting shots:

That's me, on the left; Rick is on the right. We're cooperating, or something.

   The photographer donated Habitat the use of the photo in exchange for rights to publish it as stock photography. Habitat got some good mileage out of it and used it for lots of things locally, but after some time, I began to come across it sporadically on the internet: AOL used it a couple of times on their splash screen; other Habitat affiliates would occasionally use it; and then there was the Velux site, so I knew the picture was being picked up.

   This is another photo from the same shoot, which appears less frequently:

I actually appear to be doing something useful in this shot.

   Which brings us to Google.

    I am not directly google-able, and if one were to search for my name with Google Image Search, this is the first thing one would find:

From: David Austin Roses

    And some guy who apparently drives this:

From NHRA.net:  Pat Austin is the most successful drag racer born after the 1940s and the best driver of his generation. (Pat needs to lay off the barbecue and Budweiser, a bit.)

   But recently, Google added an interesting feature to Image Search: you can drag a photo from a web site or anywhere in your computer, and drop it onto the search input field, and Google will find the image on the internet, as well as showing images that are similar (try it yourself, it's a great way to waste time). I wanted to see if the image had traveled very far. Dropping the image onto Google Image Search yielded 445 results. Not surprisingly, there were the other Habitat Affiliates, including Los Angeles and Costa Rica. There are also lots of small construction and roofing companies:

Austin, TX

Sedalia, MO

Boston, MA

Charlotte, NC

North Dakota

Oregon.

   Apparently, this is an image suitable for construction situations, but also is sufficiently vague and slightly iconic enough to use in situations to imply a kind-of feel-good partnership or cooperation or team-building or something, and appears those contexts is a wide range of places:

I'm not too sure just what this guy is selling.

    And so the photo of me has begun traveling the world, much like the garden gnome in Amelie, appearing in strange settings, with these websites serving as postcards. Here are some of the places in which I have been spotted:

United Kingdom

England

Germany

France

Spain

Norway

Poland (my relatives would be proud)

Apparently Lithuania

Russia

Turkey

Thailand

Japan

    Etc.,etc., etc...  Obviously the go-to photo if you want to imply aspirational qualities like cooperation, building together, bright futures, wide vistas, vague rosy possibilities, hammers, reaching, climbing, or fake-looking construction.

    Unfortunately I do not receive any residuals (not that they would amount to much), as I signed away all rights at the time, but it is amusing and slightly satisfying to spot the photo occasionally in unexpected places.

Custom House in Chino Hills

Continued development of the elevations previously posted under "Recent Work"; this is a custom house, approximately 5200 square feet in size.

Colored front elevation by Steve Royse.

The Lot is located in an area of rolling wooded hills dotted with live oaks, with views down a small valley. The site is a bit difficult because it slopes pretty steeply southward, and extensive grading will be necessary to create a large enough flat pad for a single-story house. (There will be lots of grading photos in the future).

                                              South                                                             SW                                                            West                                    This is a panoramic view from the center of the site. The main rooms will face nearly due South, which provides the best views The master suite will have South and West views.

All four elevations. The front of the house faces North, the rear faces South.

Clivia.

Some recent blooms from our garden.

Recent Work

Elevation sketches for a custom house:

First study for the entry elevation to determine masses and composition of the portico.

Revised entry elevation with added cupola and window bays

Currently doing preliminary designs, and preparing presentation drawings for design review. I will post more as the project continues.

Interesting Photo Of The Day

What is odd about this photo?

A favorite photo of mine; probably Mindanao during the late twenties or early thirties. This guy means business.

Answer: Not the guy with a bone in his nose, a floral arrangement sprouting from his head and holding a machete. He's at home, so it's the plane that's the oddity. The DeHavilland DH84 Dragon is probably a plane of the Imperial Air Service, which operated in the Southeast Asia at the time. Lack of wheel fairings suggests that it is an early model.