Sharing

Aristolochia californica
(California Pipevine)

Close up of the unusual flowers

We hear you, hello-creatures. We know we are wrecking the world and we are afraid. What we have unleashed has such momentum now, we don't know how to turn it around. Don't leave us alone, we need your help. You need us too for your own survival. Are there powers there you can share with us?

     "I,lichen, work slowly, very slowly. Time is my friend. This is what I give you: patience for the long haul and perseverance.”

     "It is a dark time. As deep-diving trout I offer you my fearlessness of the dark." I, lion, give you my roar, the voice to speak out and be heard."

     "It is a dark time. As deep-diving trout I offer you my fearlessness of the dark." I, lion, give you my roar, the voice to speak out and be heard." 

     "I am caterpillar. The leaves I eat taste bitter now. But dimly I sense a great change coming. What I offer you, humans, is my willingness to dissolve and transform. I do that without knowing what the end-result will be; so I share with you my courage too."

                              JOHANNA MACY 

The Pipevine swallowtail caterpillar is beautiful. It has a voracious appetite, consuming an abundance of leaves during it existence. The Pipevine swallowtails have not found the vine flourishing along my West fence. So a friend gave me the tiny caterpillars featured in these two pictures. Alas, only one grew to the size about to form a chrysalis. It was seeking where to do so when during the night some creature consumed it. 

Of course, these picture above is from an earlier April. In February the Pipevine has only flowers sans leaves.

Below the thriving Pipevine some of the stems have fallen in amongst the wood chips with small roots developing seemingly to seeking soil. Last weekend I gently  pulled one up and resettled it into dirt contained in a 4" plastic pot. A friend had reached out to figure out why she had been unable to root a "cutting" so I dropped off the 4" pot.  I suggested leaving the start a month or longer the this container before planting it in the ground where she plans to plant it. 

Recently I have been mulling over digging up one of these rooted stems and transplanting it in front. YES! As I was taking the below picture, I decided to do so Friday or Saturday. These are ideal days for "roots" according to the 2024 Biodynamic Almanac I use as a guide for most of my gardening here at PageRefuge.

This is the trellis where the latest Pipevine will reside. 

Each time I write a post and am about to publish it, I so miss Dwight with his English professor hat reading it. He often had recommendations that I would not think of. So if anyone reading this post finds grammatical blunders, please excuse.

It is cool but a gloriously sunny day. It is winter and more rain is predicted. Hopefully not so much that my electricity is out . . . eek! it got really cold in my house. 

As I bring this post to a close, I 

Windy

This Sunday past was the windiest  I ever experience living in Sonoma County. I had put all the bins out for the contents to be emptied by Recology SonomaMarin on Monday. When I looked out the window, the 60 mph winds had blown the bins across the street. Soon thereafter the electricity went out. ***AVOID THE AREA***  was sent to my iPhone informing me that a street nearby was closed to through traffic due to a "tree down". Another notice this morning arrived to messages on my iPhone that there is a damaged power pole: "Avoid area as the pole and wired could fall." The ground is pretty saturated with all the recent rain and all the creeks are running fast and higher than usual.

This is the walkway along the east side of the house. As you can see it is littered with what has blown off of the trees growing at the apartments next door.

The garden is rich with diversity

With plants of a hundred families

  In the space between the trees

With all the colors and fragrances

Basil, mint and lavender,

God keep my remembrance pure,

Raspberry, Apple, Rose,

God fill my heart with love,

Dill,anise,tansy ,

Holy winds blowing me

Rhododenron, zinnia,

May my prayer be beautiful

May my remembrance O God

be as inches to thee

In the sacred grove of eternity

As I smell and remember

The Ancient forests of earth.

CHINOOK PSALTER

Here is a link for PLANT LIST for PageRefuge, 2023 so that you can view the "diversity with plants" in the garden.

After lunch the patio was swept.  The bin just emptied this morning is now a 1/3 full. I got plenty of upper body work not only wielding the broom but moving everything that is located on the lovely tiled patio.

This picture I took while looking at the puffy white cloud. In Santa Fe and in the Mono Lake basin these types of clouds are abundant. However, here in Cotati seeing these big fluffy cotton ball type clouds happens less often.

After walking with "her dads", Shasta standing in the front yard. Of course you all can figure out that it was before the grass was eliminated with a foot or more with wood chips. Occasionally a single sprout of grass comes through the mulch, but it is easily removed by gently pulling it out.

Some of you are aware I drove to Santa Barbara, California, monthly when I was recovering from a protracted illness. I met with Annette Goodheart (yes! that is really her last name), Ph.D. I learned to 

 "about everything in your life that isn't really funny". If anyone is interested in procuring this book, it is available online.

Wintertime

               Cornus sericia occidentalish 

   (‘Tomales Bay’ Western twig dogwood)

This Red Twig Dogwood, planted just to the left of the front door, is one of my favorite for the Wintertime with its cheerful red bark. It was especially notable when living in Santa Fe where in the Wintertime the ground was often covered with snow. Across from the Gregory Lopez Park where Shasta played with Hobbes one house had two very large specimens. Probably they were different from the variety growing at PageRefuge.

 

                                           

                  Infinite Spirit, when I pray each day

              for shelter for the homeless,

              let me not ignore the pet without a home,

As I ask protections for those in areas

of turmoil and unrest,

let me not forget endangered species of life,

When I pray that the hungry be fed

let me be mindful

that all God’s creatures have need of sustenance,

As I ask Devine assistance for those afflicted

by fire, flood, earthquake, storm or drought,

let me remember that this includes every living thing,

In seeking miracle cures for human disease,

my I also speak for the well-being of the planet itself.

Let the words of my mouth,

the meditations of my heart

and the actions of my life be as one,

that I may live each day in harmony

with Mother Earth. Amen.

                                 JENNIE FROST BUTLER

Shasta loves napping in the sunshine. Usually she does so lying in the backyard soaking up the rays, so to speak. Since it is often raining lately she has taken to napping on the couch where there is ample sunshine streaming through the south facing windows.

As I finish up this post, after sweeping the patio (see the next post for details), I had a terrific 

Groundhog Day (02/04/2024)

A light exists in Spring

Not present in the Year

At any other period - -

When March is scarcely here

A Color stands abroad

on Solitary Fields

That Science cannot overtake

But Human Nature feels

It waits upon the Lawn,

It shows upon the furthest Tree

Upon the furthest Slop you know

It almost speaks to you

Then as Horizons step

Or Noons report away

Without the Formula of sound

It passes and we stay - -

A quality of loss

Affecting our Content 

As Trade had suddenly encroached

Upon the Sacrament.

EMILY DICKINSON

Sunday, February 04, marks the beginning of Spring. It is also know as Imbolc. This time of the year is half way between the winter solstice and the spring equinox.

I love this time of the year when the bulbs that I tried to erraticate when I was originally mulching the entire yard here bloom. Now I am happy the bulbs were tenacious. The bright yellow flowers bring "happiness" to myself and all passersby. 

Daffodils blooming
along the front
driveway.

Daffodils blooming
along the west fence
among the strawberry plants

Daffodils blooming 
by the NE corner of the house

The vase that Dwight created
is filled with daffodils.
It is such a bright and joyful addition 
for any meal at this table.

This terrific vine is so spectacular with its pipe bowl flowers. It is just beginning to flower. Almost daily I walk to behold the progress of the California Pipevine's flowering  The only sadness I experience is that no butterfly finds the leaves of this to lay her eggs. The caterpillars are stunning! Watching the process of a butterfly emerging from its cocoon is remarkably incredible.

Aristolochia californica (California Pipevine)

This past Sunday evening I poured water into the small jar in which I had saved some of last years' pea seeds. On Monday I planted 3 or 4 seeds/hole on the inside of both raised beds.I love Cascadia peas. They are one of the few peas that I have found you can harvest the pods to sauté for a delicious veggie. Then if the pods are allowed to remain on the plants peas will form. These peas are just the most tasty I have ever eaten whether raw, steamed or frozen in broth to use for winter soups. Typically when the peas are first available for harvest, they don't make it into the house since I routinely eat them. Delish!

Unfortunately the backyard is visited with a plethora of squirrels. Shasta does her best to keep them away from the seed tray for the birds.Alas, they are persistent”bushy tailed” critters.  AND they forage by digging up anything resembling food.Thus I immediately covered the holes in the raised beds with a layer of remay. Then rolls of wire were laid on these beds to secure the reemay.

This "shrub" pictured above is one of my very favorite. 

Lepechinia fragrans ‘El Tigre’ (Pitcher sage)

The leaves are fragrant as well as soft and slightly "furry" to the touch. The flowers are in my all time favorite color, lavender. When I read an article written by a hiker who had come upon this plant, immediately I searched for where I could be purchase two: planting one the front along the ditch between the road pavement and the beginning of the yard and the other beneath the plum tree in the back yard. The latter thrived while the one in the front did not.

I am hopeful that the one pictured below (relocated from the front to the back) will now flourish. 

Perhaps, now that I reconsider the water I provided the one in the back, what the one in front was lacking was daily watering. After the rainy season has passed judicious watering will be resumed most in the back since the annuals require more water to be productive.

The Johnny jump ups growing in large clay pots on the back patio chase away the gloom wintery days. The diminutive flowers exude cheerfulness on otherwise gloomy wintery days here in Northern California when the sun is hidden by the thick layer of clouds. Many seeds are created by each flower so I suggest cautious where you sow since you will have a plethora of plants. These pansy like plants do love the cooler weather and die after the warmer weather arrives.

Viola tricolor (Johnny jump up)

My friend Tanis, and Shasta's Auntie T., says the rabbits love the little plants. So she has some major challenges to have them bloom and spread. She has an expansive space with a plethora of plants that the rabbits devour. The rabbits do not seem to have a preference as to the type of plant; they just have a frenzy feeding on "green".

Why I Wake Early

Hello, sun in my face.

Hello, you who make the morning

and spread it over the fields

and into the face of tulips

and the nodding morning glories,

and into the the windows of, even the

miserable and the crotchety --

best preacher that ever was,

dear star, that just happens

to where you are in the universe

to keep us from ever darkness,

to ease us with warm touching,

to hold us in the great hands of light --

good morning, good morning, good morning.

Watch, now, how I start the day

in happiness, in kindness.

                    MARY OLIVER

Isn't Shasta endearing?

She wakes early, as do I,

and 

fills my day with delightful

companionship.

Hopefully you take delight in reading this post. And may I, and each and everyone of you, benefit from a hardy belly