For the past few months, I have been collecting, sorting and storing seeds. Some are from my garden and some are from my walks in the neighborhood.

When I visited my friend Lissa’s garden couple of weeks ago, she gave me some Mexican Sunflower seeds from her garden. She knows that I have been hunting and gathering for seeds. Then she asked me “How do you keep track of your seeds? Do you photograph them?”

Actually, I have just been collecting seeds and putting them in different small bottles so far. I have been able to identify them without too much trouble. Photographing them seem to be a great and useful way to make sure that I don’t someday get them mixed up. (It is fun to take my Remington Typewriter out to do some typing too.) And hopefully, my little digital library of seeds would be useful to someone else as well.

Thank you Lissa for giving me this great idea to keep track of my seeds. I am looking forward to sowing them next year in my garden.

Click here to view the complete seed collection

Yippee it is Friday!

Got a day off today. It is nice to have the luxury of making my thrift store shopping on Friday.

Started early and went to Happy Dragon in Los Gatos downtown. The storekeepers are so nice there. When I got there five people were in line already. I chatted with a lady who has been going to that thrift store for 30 years. She told me she hated the malls and would try her best to avoid them. Same here.

After that, I went hiking in Montalvo Arts Center and met Ethan for lunch. It’s still pretty hot today, but it was nice to hike in the redwoods. You can see a picture of our hike here.

After lunch hike, I headed toward Echo Shop of St Andrews Church in Saratoga downtown. They were two ladies there who were very helpful and friendly. I found my wooden shelf there.

On my way home, I decided to make a final stop at Thrift Box in Willow Glen. Embarrass to say that I left the store with a bag full of treasures! The lady at the cashier was very happy with my purchase though. She said “Oh this is great. We like it when people buy a lot!” It is always nice to visit this store. It is mostly run by volunteers and they keep the store very clean and organized. The volunteers are always friendly and helpful.

Happy Friday & long Labor Day weekend!