Just To See If I Can Do It...

I just spent the last six hours trying to reconfigure my blog, and almost nothing I tried worked.  That's basically why I decided to post tonight--I was determined to have something to show for all that frustration and wasted time if it killed me!  Besides, it was getting embarrassing that I haven't put up a new blog post in over four months.

I still can't believe I'm doing this, though--actually typing a post into the draft window of my blog with no clear idea of where I'm going with it.  The process itself isn't new to me.  I've typed literally thousands of notes into the draft windows of my favorite discussion boards over the years.  Often these posts are quite long, and some are pretty good if I do say so myself.  But for some reason I've had cold feet about doing the same thing on my blog.  Everything had to be written beforehand in MS Word, and then rewritten and edited endlessly.  The entire process could take up to two days, and I could never set out to do that.  That doesn't mean that I can't do it, or that I don't do it.  I get carried away with my writing constantly.  But it has to sneak up on me from behind because I can't plan to do it.  Everyone who knows me is familiar with my famous last words: "This is just going to be a short e-mail..."

This time, though, the words don't have to carry the entire meaning of the post, so it isn't necessary to put quite so much effort into them.  The main reason I decided to post tonight without anything definite to say was to see if I could get a couple of my recent pictures posted  For months I've been looking at wonderful pictures on other people's blogs and desperately wanting to post some of my own.  But I didn't know how to go about it and was too embarrassed to ask anyone.  Now I'm really embarrassed, because as it turns out it's quite easy...a lot easier than trying to reconfigure my blog!  I just didn't know that because I've never tried it before.

These pictures were taken a couple of days ago on Marshall Avenue in north San Bernardino, a few blocks from where I live.  The top picture is one of the two ancient California pepper trees in the parkway, one on each side of a driveway.  I'm fascinated by the gnarled, Baroque, high-relief trunks of those trees and always notice them every time I walk past them.  For months I've wanted to do a study of them, photographing them from every angle, but most of the time I'm on my way to the store when I pass them, thinking about a dozen other things and don't have my camera with me.  This time I had my camera, and the top picture was everything I hoped for.  And I'm not finished yet--I have great plans for those pepper trees!

Also on Marshall Avenue there is a flowering tree growing in someone's yard not far from the pepper trees.  I don't know what kind it is, but from the shape of the flowers it seems to be a relative of the jacaranda,  The flowers are hot pink instead of purple, and it blooms about six weeks earlier than the jacaranda.  I missed the flowering season completely last year and never got a picture of that tree at all.  The one picture I took of it was disappointing and didn't capture its full glory, but I think that's because I had my mind on the pepper trees.  But I loved the picture of the fallen flowers on the sidewalk, so that's what I'm posting here.

I've missed so many of the early spring flowers, but I'll still have another chance at the unknown tree with the hot pink flowers.  And one way or another I'll learn its name.  And the orchid trees are in full bloom now and the jacarandas have yet to bloom.  I'll still have another chance at all of them.