Before and After #8: Front Landscaping

The front of the house continues to improve! First we added the front gate, then we improved the porch, then we added some new trees, and now we're working on the landscaping.

BEFORE

THEN

NOW

It doesn't look like much yet, but give it a year or two...

I don't really like roses, period, for lots of reasons, and I especially didn't like the roses we had - huge and overgrown, but also spindly, climbing up the walls of the house while also leaving big gaps of stucco between them, and tangled at their feet with a lot of mismatched flowers and weeds.  What I want most for my landscaping is that it feel cohesive, not random and thoughtless.  As we will see, my redesign may well have plenty of flaws, but it was definitely not thoughtless.

I spent weeks trying to decide what to plant.  How should I create a pleasing variety of textures, forms, sizes, and colors? How to achieve motion and balance, how to complement the house's architecture, how to blend well with the neighbors' houses?  How many plants should I buy, how big would each eventually grow, what was each plant's specific light, water, and soil needs?  I drove myself crazy with plans and notes and sketches until I just couldn't think about it anymore. 

Thank goodness Suzan came to help! She and Naresh visited us in October (more on their trip soon) and in addition to all the help they gave us on the guest bathroom and many other things, Suzan spent hours and hours with me trekking to nurseries all over the area, asking questions, and listening patiently while I worried over what to do. 

Finally, with her invaluable assistance, I picked three plants I love - Heavenly Bamboo (Nandina domestica), Red Barberry (Berberis thunbergii), and Mexican Feather Grass (Nassella tenuissima). I love the textures and shapes and especially the colors - lots of warm reds and golds contrasting with a range of strong, fresh greens. 

 

Heavenly Bamboo - it will grow to be about 8-10 feet tall

 

Red Barberry - it will grow to be about 4 feet wide

 Mexican feather grass, filling in the low front of the bed

I know this all sounds like major overkill and in a way it is, but the front of the house is important to me.  Our house faces east, meaning that the front yard is shady and cool in the early afternoon when the back is still burning up.  Almost every day I sit on the front porch reading or using my laptop, and in the summer the kids play in the front until the back yard cools off around 5pm.  Plus I have no cell phone reception in the house, so whenever I have to make a call I go sit outside on the front porch, enjoying the shade and the absence of roses.



Beatrice and Arthur's Garden

Even though we have only a modestly sized back yard, somehow there still seem to exist dozens of hidden and derelict corners we discover every time we work on the landscaping.  Recently I spent a Saturday afternoon raking leaves out of one of these forgotten back corners - three full-sized green waste containers worth of leaves that had likely been piling up for years - in some areas the dead leaves were eight inches deep. 

While I was working on the mass of leaves, weeds, broken pot shards, and spiders behind the avocado tree I noticed for the first time this forgotten little bed to one side of the playhouse.  It's in a heavily shaded corner under several trees and blocked from view by a large bird of paradise.  I thought it would be a great place to set up a little children's garden for Beatrice and Arthur to keep beside the playhouse.

BEFORE

I wish I had taken a "Before" photograph before I started raking, but these piles you see to the side give you some idea of what was there before.

 

AFTER

I cleaned everything out (including the bird of paradise because it blocked any access to the garden behind it), enlarged the brick-delineated area, boosted the soil with compost, and then Beatrice and Arthur (and Lenore) helped till it up. 

We planted some flowers that quickly died in the last 100+degree heat wave back in October, but until new flowers appear in the spring, the kids are really into digging the area up and "planting" random things, like sticks and leaves.

The chicken likes to get involved, too.

Hey, Handsome

 

Two photos I took outside of B's preschool yesterday.



The Hollywood Christmas Parade

Last night I took B to her first Hollywood Christmas Parade.

The parade - which is 81 years old - is the same one I used to go to when I was little.

People lining up to wait for the parade to start

 

An older boy helped B pass the time by teaching her how to play Angry Birds

 

There was the same mix of the truly impressive (giant balloons, equestrian acts, marching bands from all over the country) with the charmingly goofy (local politicians, minor celebrities, representatives from not one but two cult religions). 

 

Yes, the Scientologists had a balloon.

 

Not to mention every "famous car" you could possibly name, from Back to the Future, Jurassic Park, Batman, Herbie the Love Bug... well, all of them. 

 

 

I had never seen a giant parade balloon before (they only added them to the lineup in recent years) and I was pretty impressed.

  

  
There were a lot of dancers, flag twirlers, and other performers, plus "dancing" horses and a float sponsored by the San Diego Zoo featuring a live leopard.

Beatrice loved every minute of it, from the subway ride to Santa's traditional appearance on the last float of the night.  I think she waved non-stop for the entire parade.  And she was remarkably patient and well-behaved, too, considering we waited on the street for two hours in the cold before the parade even started.  (True, it was only 55F, but when you're sitting motionless outside for four hours, even 55 starts to feel chilly, especially with the fog.)

 

We found a great spot right in front, on Hollywood Boulevard between Ivar and Vine, at the halfway point of the parade route.

Most of the other parade-goers had come prepared with camp chairs, snacks, blankets, and hot drinks.  We didn't bring anything with us this year but everyone sitting around us was so nice, they gave B a bottle of water, a slice of pizza, and some snacks, let her sit in one of the camp chairs, and one woman even gave her a light-up Santa hat to wear. 
 
Beatrice's favorite part was the marching bands - she marched in place as each one passed.

 

 

The Hollywood Christmas Parade is one of my fondest childhood memories and I'm so glad it's still going strong.  Next year Dev and Arthur will come, too, and we'll pack a few extra blankets and snacks.

 

 

Passed out on the subway on the way home

Sketch Comedy

A few months ago I took an introductory sketch writing class at Upright Citizens Brigade here in Los Angeles and discovered that I really love sketch comedy writing.

Reading fairy tales at Book Klub

After the class was over I was shortlisted for a permanent writing job at the theater.  Unfortunately I didn't get the job, but being on the list gave me the encouragement to start doing lots of other sketch-related workshops and writing groups around town.  The artistic director of the theater also suggested I get more involved in Not Too Shabby (a weekly "open-mic" night for sketch comedy) and other shows around town before applying again for a position at UCB later this year.

 

So by this time I had written around a dozen sketches I was pretty happy with but had no one to act in them.  I approached a few actors to do a comedic monologue I'd written but they kept falling through, so finally I decided to do it myself.

I haven't acted since high school, but I had a lot of fun. And the sketch (about someone who suffers writer's block while composing their own suicide note) went over well, too, and got a lot of laughs. I wound up performing it three times in one week, at three different sketch comedy shows around town. 

I also invited to read at Book Klub, an incredibly fun comedy show hosted by Sofiya Alexandra and Doug Mellard at Stories Books and Cafe in Echo Park. Comedians read and riff on "serious literature," from elementary school diaries to Juggalo poetry.  That show was definitely the highlight of my month.

I don't think performing is in my future long-term but it's nice to get out there occasionally and try new things. 

Also,

we got a turkey.

 

 

Beatrice named her Turkey. She and Lenore are best friends.

Elf Door

This weekend we mounted this "elf door" on the side of the avocado tree trunk (it's hard to see in this photo but there are little green curtains behind the window). 

This morning I told Beatrice that I had discovered a tiny door in the side of the tree and excitedly showed it to her.  Predictably, she has pleased but not at all surprised.  She pretty much always assumed there were elves living in our avocado tree.  To Beatrice, magical tree dwellers are no more or less surprising than squirrels or birds. In fact, whenever something "magical" happens, like meeting Santa, or even just something weird, like a turkey suddenly appearing in the backyard, Beatrice takes it completely in stride.  In her world, pretty much all outcomes are equally likely.

"Oops, almost forgot my keys."

Today I brought this toy car out for Arthur to play in.  He started to climb in, then stopped, ran across the yard, got his set of keys out of the playhouse, ran back, climbed in, and put the keys in the ignition.  Apparently he believes the Little Tikes Cozy Coupe doesn't work without keys.

Class Pictures

B's fall school photos came back yesterday.  Unfortunately, this year's solo pictures weren't very good - Beatrice looks sad, for some reason, or maybe anxious - but I always love the group class photo.

(Click to enlarge)
Top row, left to right: Miss Aiysha. Miss Amy, Siddhartha, ?, Bianka, Ella, Mr. Richard
Next row, left to right: Finn, Christos, Noah, Liam, Oliver, Emily, ?, Effi
Next row, left to right: Miller, Connor, Sophia E., Nicolas, Ycia, ?, Beatrice
Bottom row, left to right: Theo, Fisher, Noah, Buddy, ?, ?

(This photo combines the Tues/Thurs and Mon/Wed/Fri classes, so Beatrice couldn't identify all of the students.)

This was last year's fall picture, with her crazy hair:

And the spring picture from earlier this year:

Maybe next spring we'll get a good one...