More . . . More . . .

I have come to terms with the future. From this day onward I will walk easy on the earth. Plant trees. Kill no living things. Live in harmony with all creatures. I will restore the earth where I am. Use no more of its resources than I need. And listen, listen to what it is telling me.

                                                                                      M.J.Hooey

With adjusting to a new iMac my focus has not been on writing a blog post. And yesterday when I completed this post with the same title, it "disappeared" . . . eek! So another attempt at "More . . . More . . ."

Last season, as the Santa Rosa plum tree would have set fruit, there was a late, very hard frost. This season however an abundance of fruit appeared.

Since the birds peck on the fruit, the fruit sort of rots. Thus picking the "More . . . More . .." plums then laying them out on a counter to fully ripen. Once the plums reach their maximum tastiness, they were canned in quart jars for consumption during the winter months.

Some of the fruit as an alternate choice was into jam. This jam I find delish with almond butter to make a sandwich. Anyone care to join me?

Now changing focuses . . . to creatures who visit PageRefuge.

Blue wildrye grass (Elymus glaucous)

Not long ago I was outside in the front watering plants. While do so I looked about and noticed this green insect in one of the large grass. if my recollection serves me there was an identical insect crawling up the side of our Santa Fe house. This is the first one I have seen here in Cotati. Perhaps it is a type of "bush cricket" (katydid)?

Since all of the irrigation from the entire property has been removed, I now hand water with a hose and controllable nozzle. While doing so I have notice this butterfly in the above picture. Using Common Butterflies of California by Bob Stewart to identify this butterfly: Anise swallowtail. The book also lists "Host Plants" so I purchased 4 Yampah (Perideridia Kellogg) from California Flora Nursery. During the payment process I was cautioned that this plant goes dormant. Soon after they were planted in the ground I noticed this to be true. In this area there is also an abundance of Fennel growing wild which is also a host plant.

Nectaring on an Echinacea purpurea 
(Purple coneflower)

Epiphyte (Orchid cactus) flower
Rather late but certainly fabulous to see!

In Seattle Steven and Leigh
Don't they look happy?

Since this is the third or so version of the blog post, I surely hope that I am able to post it! As it is "Published" I will keep my fingers crossed and

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