Multiple Prism

 

In the morning the sun shines into the East windows of the large room in the back of my house. This edition was added, we have been lead to believe in the 1970's. I just love to see all the "rainbows" everywhere when I stand in the doorway to this room. 

I have many prisms that are now suspended by red "rope". 

They hang in most every doorway in my house. I hung them almost immediately when we moved in. Of course, the painters removed them to beautify the interior by applying the same colors of paint that I had painters use in our Santa Fe house.

And on that note about Santa Fe house . . . I do believe that house was my favorite of any Dwight and I owned/lived in.

When Dwight's daughter visited from San Francisco, she took this picture. Rainbows were a frequent happening with rain. Often the rain did not last very long but all the residents of the fabulous little city were so happy to receive whatever rain might fall.

I have almost completed the front yard with the "refreshing" of the wood chips. The neighbor, when he "removes" his lawn using the same technique as I will use whatever wood chips remain.

So as I am completing this project, I will 

 

SAD

Dwight brought me
this heart shaped rock from
the Santa Fe River bed for one
of my birthdays we celebrated in New Mexico.
Ripe Silvery Fir Tree tomato on right
and Stupice along the top.

Dwight Sims

"There is a great comfort in growing your own food. You are close to the soil. You use the basic elements -- water, sunlight, earth, air, and plants -- for your work, your sustenance, and your pleasure. You nurture your garden from feedings to nature plants, tending, pruning, weeding. Year after year, you see cycles come and go, from sprouting to harvest to withering, to seeding again. You eat your plats to live. You don't mind and they don't mind. Some day, you will fall back to this earth, back into the sun-baked dirt, and you will become food for the plants. It's the way of all life, and all very agreeable."

                                Deng Ming-Dao, 365 Tao

Sad but what is happening is climate change in action.
Here in Cotati there has hardly been a summer with coolish temperatures abounding as in 2023. All of the tomato plants fruits are slow, very slow, to ripen no matter the variety nor location. The Silvery Fir Tree, touted to be early in ripening . . . not this year. In my humble opinion this is the tastiest ripe tomato. Next year I plan to plant more than the 4 planted this year. I was introduced to this variety in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life a book written by Barbara Kingsolver, Camille Kingsolver and Steven L. Hopp. This book takes place in Virginia where the family dramatically change their lives by growing and/or eating only local food. 

I am wondering if the fruit on the tomato plants growing in the West most raised bed will ripen. I decided to plant them in this bed since it typically gets the most sunshine. So far I have not had very many ripe tomatoes to pick and eat. So as I plan my garden this winter I may decide to grow different varieties of tomatoes. Perhaps I will return to what I planted in 2022.

The tomatoes now growing, at PageRefuge are

    Cherry tomatoes:

 1. Amethyst Jewel

  2. Black Cherry      

 3. Blue “Boar” Berries

        4. Tim’s Taste of Paradise, a yellow cherry tomato 

     Earliest ripening tomato

         5. Stupice

      Early ripening

   6. Silvery Fir Tree

Don't you just love the leaves?

            Remaining 

        7. Blue Gold  

While these are "pretty" and tasty
this is the last season they will be
planted in one of the raised beds.

While this post was in process, my stepdaughter and her husband were immersed in Seattle's Bumbershoot 2023.

This year's Bumbershoot
was spear headed by Steven
who many did not recognize
with his long hair.

Leigh Sims
who owns her own business in Seattle
 and Steven Severin, 
"a mover and shaker" in Seattle

Meanwhile here in Cotati daily chores were tended to. However I frequently during the Labor Day weekend had many a frequent 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