365 Photography Project_Take 2_Thirty-Second Post

[gaeln9796]

Tuesday May 15, 2012_I helped Katie and her garden club for a 2nd month, deadheading the roses.


Wednesday May 16, 2012_I met with Barbara for lunch, again in Willow Glen, but this time at Bills. Next time I'll get a photo of her!! She's seated, although I didn't know it when I took the photo, to the right of the server.


As some of you may know, here in the US, Saturday May 19th was National River Cleanup Day. I participated for the first time and, man, what a learning experience. This is a photo of just some of what was collected during the 3 hours we worked. A good haul.

This is the lovely Guadalupe River where we worked, which runs from the summit, I believe, in the Santa Cruz Mountains through downtown San Jose where it has been made into a 3-mile park.

Where I worked was between the mountains and downtown where River Cleanup workers, actually and sadly, found a body. Having watched as much NCIS as I have, don't think the possibility didn't cross my mind every time I parted the brush.


The photo to the left is of a fish ladder helping.

the flickr of our lives

Comments

[rebeccama.livejournal.com]

Those are really nice photos of the river.

[gaeln.livejournal.com]

Thank you, it really is a pretty, if small, river. I was surprised by how many Willow trees there were :)

[shadownyc.livejournal.com]

Wow--you were very productive!
The river clean up looks like it really was necessary.

[gaeln.livejournal.com]

as I was posting I was thinking the same, I did have a productive week and OUTDOORS!!! The river cleanup was unfortunately very necessary, stuff was left behind we didn't get to. Next time :)

[pam81.livejournal.com]

Yay for you!
Lots of hard work, but I'm sure it was worth it.

Lovely pics, thanks for sharing!

[gaeln.livejournal.com]

it was hard work but I'd do it again...in September!!!

Thanks for stopping by :)

[secretsolitaire.livejournal.com]

Love that last river pic! Awesome that you helped with the cleaning. Not so awesome about the dead body. :-(

So I have a question about dead-heading roses. Where exactly do you cut? On the stem right below the flower?

[gaeln.livejournal.com]

I know, but better found than not, I suppose. I hate to think of it :(

It depends. You cut down to just above the first leaf-set of three or five according to how the plant needs to be pruned. I have a rose tree and I often go back even further to control the vines. But the main thing is to cut just above a set of at least three leaves as that's where the new shoots come from. Or so I'm told. Help any??

[secretsolitaire.livejournal.com]

That does help, thank you! Didn't realize you had to take so much off.

[flashfly.livejournal.com]

What is a fish ladder helping? You get an A+ for all your volunteer activities!

[gaeln.livejournal.com]

a fish ladder helps up-stream swimming fish, in our case maybe carp or steelheads or salmon, navigate difficult parts of the river, in our case where a bridge was built that messed up the flow of the river. It was built back in 1998.

This Australian vid shows, in just the first couple of minutes, how they work. Our little river looks something like this one, our fish ladder is smaller though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq-wzocd0B0

Thank you!!! It was worth the effort.

[flashfly.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I wondered what was there before that didn't allow the fish to pass through, now I understand.

[spike7451.livejournal.com]

Looks like you did work hard, must have given a great sense of achievement to see what you had taken away from the river.

Glad it wasn't you that found the body, that would have been awful. Have to feel for the ones that did.

[gaeln.livejournal.com]

It was hard work and dirty, but weirdly enjoyable, satisfying, to make a junked up place clean again and the views along the river were so pretty. I do feel for those who made the discovery, what a shock.