Beautiful

Chocolate Flower . . . I fell in
love with this plant living in Santa Fe.
Yes! the flowers actually have
a slight smell of chocolate.

Last week Chris, Shasta and I drove to Tanis' lovely home and property to pick Pink Pearl apples. There were not nearly as many as last year but I brought home plenty for making applesauce. It has just been so been so dry there seems to be less fruit on all trees not just Tanis' fruit trees.

The Pink Pearl apples
piled into the sink
ready to be washed.

The beautifully colored 
apples now prepared for
cooking then "strained"
and put into pint jars.

Isn't this most gorgeous color?
Dwight and I use to enjoy
putting applesauce I 
had made the previous year
on hash browns . . .
this makes for a delicious,
light evening meal.

Recently Leigh and Steven enjoyed a few days away from their home in Seattle. The below is one of the pictures she sent me. I love the wheelbarrow sculpture and just could not resist sharing it with all of you.

Picture Leigh sent from their time spent at Suncadia

As I get up each morning to what feels like an empty house and deal with pervasive grief, I continue with my familiar routine which Shasta helps me to maintain. Reading the glorious array of emails is a useful activity. Yesterday I receive Susan's email with her regular newsy "post".

Perhaps you would enjoy reading as well? I remember when Dwight and I would go to have a delightful meal at The Shed, stopping off at Susan's Christmas Shop and browsing. There is so much miss about Santa Fe AND I am ever so grateful we had the time there that we did.

BEing out in my garden taking care of tasks is a wonderful way I am staying in touch with what feeds me. All the while I partake in a frequent

Sunflowers and more

Below is a photograph I took when I was growing this magnificent sunflower in our front yard in Santa Fe. Bees and other pollinators loved visiting the flower and once the seeds came in the Fall a variety of birds flocked to scarf up the seeds.

                   Helianthus annuus macrocarpus
                  (Hopi Black Dye Sunflower 

   Hopi name: Tceqa' Qu' Si)

And now I have planted seeds, again in our front yard, here in Cotati. I purposefully planted the seeds near the Ukrainian flag we have "flying" on the East fence. This flower has a long history in the country symbolizing peace. Russians and Ukrainians are presently at war, however the meaning of the sunflowers as a symbol of peace has not changed. Ukrainians are encouraging the planting of sunflowers worldwide to encourage leaders once again to embrace peace. Thus I am doing my small part in supporting the Ukrainians stance for peace.

To celebrate May Day as I did as a child when we created May baskets filled with whatever early flowers were available and delivered them to

neighbors' doors, I am creating here a May basket filled with pictures of some of my favorite native flowers.

 

Berlandiera lyrata (Chocolate Flower)
Yes, the flowers really smell like chocolate!

Echinacea purpurea (Purple Coneflower) 

with  Indian Ricegrass (Achnatherum hymenoides)

 in the background.

All three of the above plants are in Todd planters and presently very quite small. They are too small, in fact,  to be set out in the ground as of yet. Shasta can hardly wait for a plethora of Echinacea as she loves grazing on the leaves finding them extremely tasty just like Zinnia leaves.

                                            Mimulus aurantiacus (Sticky monkeyflower)

                                            planted and flowering in our Cotati front yard.

Phacelia bolanderi (Bolander’s Phaceli)
flowering our Cotati front yard.

Penstemon heterophyllus
(Blue Bedder penstemon ‘Margarita BOP’)

flowering in our Cotati front yard.

Calylophus drum mondianus (Sundrops)
with a plethora of flowers in our Cotati front yard

Blue eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium bellum)
in full display at Ren Brown's
garden in Bodega Bay, California.

And now to the exciting news: Saturday past I was gifted five teeny, tiny Pipevine Swallowtail caterpillars. I drove to Sebastopol to pick them up. My dear friend Rob had brought in a small jelly jar the five caterpillars pictured below. It was no easy task getting them out of the jar onto one of the Pipevine's leaves. We have had an extraordinary windy day! When I recently checked I could only locate three but I am hopeful the other two are sequestered among the leaves.

As I carefully moved these precious little ones onto the healthy, vibrant Dutchman's pipevine leaves, instead of holding my breath, I have a good belly 

Purest

In the creating the two native habitats in previous homes I was a stickler for using only natives: a purest attitude, so to speak, of only natives. Since living in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and falling in love with some of the natives in that part of our country, my stance of having an unadulterated garden of natives has now been relaxed. I so miss living in Santa Fe, so to abate some of the grief I am bringing some of Santa Fe to my gardens here in Cotati.

In the 1980's when visiting Apple Valley, California, I saw a Desert Willow in bloom. I fell in love with the gorgeous flowers. This tree is native to the desert Southwest so many thrived in the Santa Fe area where we lived. Plants of the Southwest had these in 5 gallon containers. I bought and planted two; one was planted just outside of our 1950's Stamm home's sliding backdoor. 

September 06, 2020
The Desert Willow "bush"
planted outside
our sliding backdoor. 

Close up the flowers.
This is a cultivar.

December 30, 2020 Desert Willow pruned to be a tree.

The second one was planted outside of the double black wrought iron gate near the adobe wall. These trees grow pretty quickly so after the first year, there were flowers. I have planted two on the West side of our house here in Cotati. These two were much smaller than those purchased at the Plants of the Southwest so I am not holding my breath for the glorious blooms!

Picture taken on May 29, 2018, at the
Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
These native tree blossoms are paler.
The flowers on the tree planted outside 
of the wrought iron gate are this color. 
Notice the seed pods, so like that of the Catalpa tree

The other nonnative plant now flourishing in the back yard near the finch feeder is Rocky Mountain Penstemons. I planted about a dozen of them in our front yard in Santa Fe. In the Fall the tall seed stocks were covered with goldfinches hoping up and down the seed stocks scarfing up all the tiny black seeds. Since we have a plethora of goldfinches coming to their feeder filled with nyger seeds, I thought they might delight in  penstemon seeds too? 

Rocky Mountain (Penstemon strictus)

and

Chocolate Flower (Berlandiera lyrata)

pictured above flowering in June of 2020 at

the San Felipe Circle native habitat. 

I have seeds on order from Plants of the Southwest. I plan to germinate a few of the seeds so I can grow these Chocolate Flowers. Yes indeed the flowers smell like chocolate.

Since Dwight enjoys Japanese maples and one is growing in our front, I decided to leave it. During the Winter months it is especially wonderful to look out and see the stunning red branches. These made a stunning backdrop for holiday lights and straw ornaments tied on with red yard.

The tall, and I mean tall, hedge (pictured above) along the Eastern side of our back patio blocks people living in the apartments next door from seeing into our back yard and library. My intention when we moved in was to remove this hedge. Friends who visit and sat at our patio table for meals vociferously voiced, "leave it." So leave it I have. I am now grateful that I listened to such sage advice.

All the while I garden I frequently