Thanksgiving

 Vitis californica x European grape cross  ('Roger's Red' California grape)

Eternal Spirit of Justice and Love,

At this time of Thanksgiving we would be aware of our

dependence on the earth and on the sustaining presence of other

human beings both living and gone before us.

As we partake of bread and wine, may we remember that

there are many for whom sufficient bread is a luxury, or for whom

wine, when attainable, is only an escape.  Let our thanksgivnig for

Life’s bounty include a commitment to changing the world, that

those who are now hungry may be filled and those without hope

may be given courage.

Amen.

                                CONGREGATION OF ABRAXAS

I remember my meeting Dwight for the first time 35 years ago on Thanksgiving. We had both been invited by our individual friends to share in the abundance of food and friendship. He had recently left his wife thus his friend did not want him to spend this holiday by himself. When we were introduced, we both were taken aback by the instantaneous connections we felt.  Some while past before we actually got together to share a drink in a downtown Sebastopol pub. Soon thereafter we spent most of our nonworking hours together and the rest is history as the old saying goes.

So this particular holiday carries much significance for me. I am saddened that Dwight is no longer with me in physical form.

Luckily I have a dear, dear, dear friend who will coming to my house for a very, very, very nontraditional Thanksgiving meal. We will have a wonderful time celebrating Thanksgiving. I will be spending the day in a totally different way from any past Thanksgivings I spent with Dwight.

Evening sleeping Shasta

My evenings are quiet often spent reading or if the Warriors are playing basketball watching their game. Shasta keeps me company as she is pictured above.

To discharge all the swirling emotions around this holiday I have a frequent belly

Putting the Garden to Bed

In the Fall before the rains were certain of providing soil and all planted in it, Shasta's Auntie T used to say she was "putting the garden to bed." Now that the rains have failed to provide the usual moisture during the previous month of October and now it looks to include November as well. But recently I have been out in the garden putting her to bed. Please enjoy the depicting pictures below.

In left lower corner Monardella villosa

 (Coyote mint ‘Russian  River’)

pruned of spent flowering stocks. 

And the green birdbath (the last clay project

  Dwight completed), from which 

  Shasta routinely has drink when 

    she returns from our morning walk.

What looks like barren wood chips
is three mounds of cut back to the ground
Epolibium canum  (California fuschsia ‘Calistoga' ).

 The Meyers Lemon tree is barren of its fruit. 
In the barren patch of potting soil
Indian Rice Grass seeds have been sown.

While out doing what I love the most, taking care of my garden, I had frequent

Last

All the empty Todd planters
stacked in my wooden shed
ready for seed planting in a few months.

Yesterday crawling around on my hands and knees I planted out the last two Todd planters. They contained native grasses that I started from seed. My idea is to create some grassy areas for Shasta to lay. Right now she only has wood chips to nap on.

I planted Blue fescue beneath the grape arbor.
Shasta often paws at the dirt especially
when she is excited by a Turkey vulture flying over.
So to allow the grasses to root I created a barrier.

Red fescue, only about half of one
of the Todd planter, was planted to
the East of what I had planted earlier.

While I was planting yesterday, I also put into the ground two yarrow plants my dear friend Ann brought by Monday late afternoon. She had told me she had pink flowering yarrow that she had brought back from Santa Barbara some while ago when her children were at the university.

This yarrow she told me is a magenta flowering yarrow.

And this Channel Island yarrow has a lighter shade of pink.

I am so excited to have yarrow with flowers other than white of which I have two.These flowers and leaves I use in a salve I make yearly. It is a great salve for any scratch, burn or surgical site needing to healed. And now I have two stunningly different colors of yarrow which I can see each morning when I look out the dining room double doors while doing my morning qi gong.

Shasta keeping me company
while I watched a recent 
Warriors basketball game.

As I continue to adjust to living without Dwight, I frequently have a good belly