Why I Oughta...

Get this topiary frame from TopiaryTree.net .  This is their product photo , not my photo. On the way up to Twin Lakes Wisconsin, we used to drive by this garden center on Route 12 named Atrium Garden Center.  They had a beautiful nursery that seemed stocked with tons of trees, plants, shrubs and more.  We stopped a few times, but every time we drove by, I always admired one thing:  the topiaries that they displayed close to the road.  They had critters and shapes of all sizes.  Dolphins.  Guys with fishing poles.  Even a Mickey Mouse head.  You can see a bunch of their topiaries in some of these user-submitted photos on Google Maps .  Here are a few screenshots from people that have submitted them there.  (Note...these are not my photos and can be found in their original form here .) On one of our trips there, I looked more closely at the topiaries to try to figure out what they were made up of in terms of plantings.  They had large, square-ish wooden 'pots'.  They we

In January, I posted the results of how I successfully used an alcohol mix to limit the height of our amaryllis bulb .  This was the first year that I tried to keep it from getting too tall in an attempt to be not so top-heavy.  Welp, guess what?  This bulb has thrown up a second stalk and it looks like we're going to get a second bloom.  The photo above is of this second stalk that has emerged from the bulb. And in the bottom photo below, you can kind of see the withered part of the initial stalk that I cut down at the top of the bulb.  From a look around the web, getting a second bloom (in winter) isn't that rare, it is just something that our bulbs haven't delivered in the past.  Just look at the images on this sales page - where they show multiple stalks shooting up in some of their bulbs. I haven't tried to keep an Amaryllis year-over-year, but now that I see this one paying off twice, maybe this is something we should try??

Could there be anything more adorable (and Instagram-ready) than this use of day-old bananas at breakfast?  These banana dolphins are at breakfast at Disney's Aulani in Hawaii.  Along with those Mickey Waffles, this is a cute kids plate, right?  And, these would be so easy to replicate for a kids party, wouldn't they? Sure, Disney does a great job being authentic to Hawaii at Aulani.  And they give you great customer service.  And they do a great job with the kids.  But they also do the little things like this banana dolphin that make the experience a little bit better.

If you're anything like us and have been to Disney Parks from time to time, your kids have probably been covered in various character stickers from cast members.  Most often these days, those stickers are coming from cast members (salespeople) who are manning Disney Vacation Club kiosks in the parks and in/around the resort hotels/property. The stickers that are most common are of just Mickey the Mouse himself.  Either of his head by itself of his whole body .  There are other, what I'll call 'more rare' stickers that you can get inside the parks and I've chronicled some of those.  Most recently, we were given this 'Honorary Aviator' sticker from the guys at Soarin' in DCA .  Job-specific roles on the cast have stickers, too.  Here's one from a custodian .  And one from a Monorail pilot .  And we were given this Minnie Mouse sticker somewhere in the parks - which is less common than Mickey. However, during our stay at Aulani in Hawaii, we cam

Today is February 16, 2019.  And today marks my 15th year of blogging.  15 years of doing anything is a lot, but 15 years of writing on the web feels like a good milestone and worthy of noting (at least here, on said blog.) The first post in the archives here on JakeParrillo.com comes from February 16th 2004 .  Back then, it was either at JoinCrossBlog.com or Rhodesschool.com.  But today, those are ported here.  And I've been writing here every.single.day for a number of years. I've failed to note this anniversary since 2016 when I hit 12 years .  Today....I'm at 15.  That's more than 1/3rd of my entire life.  In that time, I've had a few jobs that involved media, digital and communications. But, never strayed too far away from the Web.  I fell in love with the ability to publish online and never looked back.  I was lucky that I wasn't lured in by the siren call of The Facebook or anywhere else that publishing happens these days.  I've stayed here

If you're a Disney person, you've probably heard about the Disneyland cats.  This Vice story does a good job unpacking the whole feline operation in Anaheim .  There's more than 100 feral cats that live in and around Disneyland Park that are fed and tended to (even tagged and neutered!) by Disney cast members/staff.  All in the name of reducing the rodent population - which they do a pretty great job. Just to be clear here:  We're not cat people in the Parrillo household.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to rain on your cat parade.  Just not going to be besties with Beth O and bring in cats to our house.   Seeing cats out in the wild?  Just fine, though.  And, for the record, this is the first entry into the archives with the [ Cats ] tag. As a Disney fan, you likely know the Disneyland cats story.  But, here's something you may not know:  there are cats at Disney's Aulani in Hawaii, too.  Here's a couple of photos of them.  The one up top

In this piece on Garden Design that lays out eight landscape design principles, there are some things that I found interesting and wanted to share here.  Both for you, my dear reader, but also so I remember them.  To start, I thought I'd go with the final one on *their* list.  It was this final one  that caught my attention.  This little nugget is from a guy named  Ralph Snodsmith who hosted a radio show about gardening in New York .  I'm sure he imparted quite a bit of knowledge to his listeners/callers, but it seems that he had one statement that stood above the rest.  This certainly feels like something I need to remind myself when I'm out in the garden: "It’s better to plant a 50-cent plant in a $5 hole, than a $5 plant in a 50-cent hole." The Garden Design piece goes on to say that there's no greater planting wisdom than this.  Hole preparation, especially for folks like me who, due to new construction, have a clay layer that is in many of the bed