Babies and Beauty

In preparation for afternoon tea I made two different kinds of cookies. I was busy with my project and I heard a ruckus through the South facing kitchen windows. At first I just ignored the noise but as the wild turkey was persistent I went out the front door to see three baby turkeys (not even 3 inches tall) walking across Page Street. YIKES! no wonder mama was adamant they join her and their siblings.

 

In the above photograph you can see Mama standing on one side of Page Street.

All walking by were naturally curious. One gentleman with camera in hand was taking pictures and Mama Turkey charged him. He reported he counted six babies. We all assume Mama brought the babies through Delano Park but why, why, why was she meandering into the manufactured home park across the street?

Today I can report no sightings of turkeys of any size. WHEW! I'm sure they have returned to the safety of the fields a block and a half away.

Moving onto the beauty happening in the Japanese maple tree located on the West side of our front yard: when I was living in Palo Alto (the first time) many years ago, a friend raised red flowering epiphytes. She was kind enough to share one (like this pictured below now hanging in my Cotati front yard).

While living at MuRefuge I began collecting different colors. When we relocated to Santa Fe, New Mexico, I gave my collection to my friend Diane who lives down Hessel Avenue towards the North. Now I am back where I can grow these unusual plants that thrive in trees located in tropical rainforests where they settle into forks of trees where big branches come together. They do not need soil.

The three peach colored flowers pictured below I did not have in my collection. Diane's sister gave her these peach colored epiphytes. She in turn passed along one to me.

And I have one plant I gave to Diane that has not bloomed for her. My plan is to divide the plant and repot it. Then hopefully it, once resettled and root bound, will bloom. What color?

A Pipevine caterpillar update: 

This caterpillar seems to like
to munch on not only the leaves
but the stems of the 
California Pipevine(Aristolochia californica)
as well.

Yesterday I had a dear friend over for tea which was the reason for cookie baking. We sat outside and sipped tea at our glass top table. She had not seen our Cotati house nor garden so we had a walk about. She marveled "you have done three gardens and my husband  and I are still working on one." And I was sharing that the remaining caterpillar was gone; that I was certain something had eaten it since I found some tea colored thick stuff on one of the big California Pipevine leaves that had been munched on by the caterpillar.

My friend was looking about on the West side of house and pointed out what is pictured below on the side of the addition to the original 1950s bungalow.

Rob gave me five caterpillars some six weeks ago. I had unhappily texted him earlier in the day about the demise of the remaining caterpillar. Once my friend who had located the caterpillar left I texted  Rob again sending him the above picture. His response was "he's getting ready to form his cocoon." 

The above picture was taken on Friday. Both Dwight and I are worried that the caterpillar once enclosed in a cocoon will be too hot from the West sun. Rob says "just leave the caterpillar alone." So we both just go out and look many times a day but we have not disturbed the process of transformation from caterpillar to butterfly which, when you really consider the process, it is quite a phenomenal event!

To dissipate all the angst and worry I

Delicious

Fawn and white Indian Runner ducks
living at MuRefuge, March, 2011.

Delicious and nutritious are duck eggs which I have preferred for years since I am "allergic" to chicken eggs. Soon after acquiring the 3/4 acres which we named MuRefuge I got baby ducks. Dwight built an enclosure for them to BE in at night protected from all the predators lurking about at night. I chose Indian Runners because they are the best egg layers of all duck breeds, usually providing an egg daily.

Almost every week after we have shopped at the Sunday Farmers Market we stop by our friend Ruby's house and pick up a dozen or two of her delicious, nutritious duck eggs from her Indian Runner ducks who are "friendly, docile and active ducks". They are low maintenance foragers who at MuRefuge completely cleared out the slug and snail population.

The most recent "treasures"
from Ruby are pictured above.

Now that I have begun this post ostensibly about "duck eggs" I find myself reminiscing about ducks . . . specifically ducks I raised at MuRefuge. So please indulge me as I reminisce and walk down "memory lane" sharing duck pictures from those wonderful 24+ years.

April, 2011,
 baby Blue Indian Runners
at MuRefuge in their large
cardboard box located in the garage
with a heat lamp for warmth.

Now three weeks old 
and brought out to a safe enclosure in
the veggie garden
where there was an abundance of clover
and bugs.

Growing

July 21, 2012

Out and about with their big sisters 
at MuRefuge.

April 06, 2015
MuRefuge
Fawn and White Indian Runner youngsters.

Indian Runner do enjoy the water! At MuRefuge we
sunk a bathtub in the ground for their enjoyment.
Cleaning the bathtub monthly was necessary
to keep it and the ducks clean.

Ruby has a "kiddy pool" which she can just dump over and wash out. A bit easier and MUCH less time consuming the cleaning the bathtub!

March 19, 2017, MuRefuge:
Fawn and White Indian Runner ducklings
whose favorite spot when I picked
them up was snuggled against my neck.
Precious. 

The flock we took to Ruby's
for love and care
when we moved from MuRefuge to Santa Fe, New Mexico.
This picture was featured in 
the flyer when our house and property
were put on the market.

Ruby now has only fawn and white Indian Runners. She is so gracious to give us duck eggs weekly. I am filled with gratitude! And I often visit her to get my "duck fix". 

The Indian Runner originally came from Asia where they kept the rice fields free of pests. They arrived in Europe in the 1850s. Prince Charles has Indian Runners ducks he has ordered from a hatchery in Mason City, Iowa, which is near where my maternal grandparents lived.

We had chairs out in the area patrolled by our ducks. One could sit for hours watching them. When my mother came to visit, she enjoyed this pastime.  Our "Penguin" shaped ducks provided us with many happy hours observing these slender upright ducks meander around our orchard and garden. They offered soothing for any possible upsets.

I so miss having these awesome critters! The only remedy is to

Purple Chinese Houses and Pipevine swallowtail caterpillar

Collinsia heterophylla or simply called Purple Chinese Houses are larvae food for the Checkerspot butterfly. They are best planted in the Fall and then they emerge in the early Spring to flower. Below are a few pictures from the patch below our living room window. I scattered seeds from Larner Seeds this past Fall. Now, as you can see from the pictures below there are gloriously stunning flowers.

Pipevine swallowtail caterpillar update. Oh boo! of the five teeny tiny caterpillars Rob gave me only one remains. Below are pictures are chronicling the health and well BEing of the caterpillar flourishing on my largest of three California Pipevines with the scientific name Aristolochia californica.

05/09/2022

05/11/2022

05/15/2022

05/16/2022

05/18/2022

In watching the caterpillar every day and
observing what is it is eating, I notice it 
not only eats the leaves but the stems as well.

And as I am riveted on this caterpillars evolvement I

Johnny Jump Up

As is their annual tradition the International Herb Association (IHA) has named Viola the Herb of the Year for 2022.

To most of us Violets, Pansies and Johnny Jump Ups are a sign that Spring has arrived. I have always loved Johnny Jump Ups.  Often in the past I started them from seed to plant about. Unfortunately since I had no seeds here at PageRefuge, I purchased two plants in 4" pots from one of my very favorite local nurseries: Emerisa Gardens. 

One of the Johnny Jump Up (Viola tricolor) plants
transplanted and thriving just to the North
of our bubbling birdbath.

Since all of members of the genus Viola have so many amazing  attributes (including antibacterial and anticancer as researchers are finding), it is not surprising that violets are one of the all time treasured flowers the world over. Johnny Jump Up flowers heralding Spring bring joy and happiness to all who are fortunate enough to have them growing in their gardens. 

This "common European wild flower" is grown as an annual or short lived perennial in the United States. It has other names as well:

        Heartease

        Heart's Ease

        Heart's Delight

        Ladies' Delight

        Jump-up-and-kiss-me

        Wild pansy

         

The average height is any where from 4" to 12". It prefers full or partial sunshine, tolerating moist to moderately dry soil, cool to warm Summer temperatures, loamy or gravelly or sandy soil . . . an astonishingly adaptive member of the Viola family. It is a stunning little addition to anyone's garden OR even lawn as the seeds will "jump" from a bed edging one's grassy lawn onto the grass. It does have incredibly successful reseeding ability but it is not particularly aggressive. 

Their flowers are not only gorgeous but edible as well.  For our evening fresh lettuce salad I often harvest a handful of flowers to sprinkle atop:  beautiful and tasty too!  The more one picks the flowers, the more flowers appear. Definitely a win-win herb!

Johnny Jump Up with flowers,
flower buds and "spent" flowers
flourising in my herb garden.

Growing these plants brings me much satisfaction, overwhelming joy and happiness, all the while enjoying a hardy belly

 

For the Birds

It is neither spring nor summer. It is always,

With towhees, finches, chickadees, California

quail wood does,

With wrens, sparrows, juncos, cedar waxwings,

flickers,

With Baltimore orioles, Michigan bobolinks,

And those birds forever dead.

The passenger pigeon, the great auk the

Carolina paraquet,

All birds  remembered, O never forgotten!

All in my yard, of a perpetual Sunday,

All morning, All morning.

THEODORE ROETHKE

On our front window some while ago, we put up this label we got with the Zen curtains Dwight installed on the two library windows facing our slate patio to prevent birds from flying into them. If you remember from an earlier post, a young hawk had crashed into one of these windows. Two volunteers from the Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue came and captured him. Once his shoulder bruise healed he was released back to our area.

We thought now "this home is for the birds" until . . . one recent Saturday morning I heard a mini (compared to the hawk) crash. YIKES! A golden crowned sparrow lay on the patio. He had flown into one of the glass double doors leading from our dining room to our patio. I picked him up and put him in the bird feeding tray thinking he might fly off . . . nada. So off to Native Songbird Care & Conservation we drove with the bird safely in a box with soft towels. The box was left in their depository where they receive "rescued" birds. Later I spoke with Veronica Bowers who owns and runs this important enterprise. She informed me that they would keep him (she verified that the bird who crashed into our glass window was a "he"). He did not have injuries that would require euthanasia. WHEW! Several weeks later when I called to check on him, Veronica told me she had released him since these birds were migrating North.

This morning I went out to the patio to take a picture of the double doors. As you can see from the picture above the glass reflects vegetation into which the golden crowned sparrow thought he was flying. The Zen curtains are also visible so no more bird crashes: "This Home is for the Birds".

Through this whole process of making this home for the birds, what could one do but