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

 

    

 

Ecstatic

Many years ago I saw my very first Desert Willow tree growing out of a large crack in an old swimming pool. I immediately fell in love with the gracefulness of the branches and the stunning flowers. Luckily living in Santa Fe, New Mexico, I could purchase one which I did from Plants of the Southwest.

Desert willow (Chilopsis linearis)

And now I have one planted on the West side of my house near the steps coming into the back addition. I purchased it from California Flora Nursery in a gallon plastic pot in early November, 2021. It has grown to well over 6' tall with an abundance of buds and slowly opening to gorgeous flowers. I am so ecstatic to have this beautiful tree where I can watch the buds open into flowers.

Scarlet Runners beans

Along the left side of the swing a wire has
been fastened for the vines to climb.

I primarily grow this plant for the flowers. When I grew them in my garden at MuRefuge they would died back to the ground in the winter. Once the weather warmed they would send up green foliage then beautiful flowers and eventually the pods with seeds would appear. As I read more on line about this vine I see that it is labeled as an annual vine. So replanting seeds each early spring will happen here at PageRefuge.

Infrequently dragonflies visit PageRefuge.
This one was perched atop the 
stake for a Silvery Fir Tree tomato plant.

 Chocolate flower (Berlandiera lyrata)

While living in Santa Fe, New Mexico I was introduced to the Chocolate flower. The flower actually does have a slight chocolate smell. It also lasts for quite a long while before fading away. Unfortunately my success rate of growing an abundance of this plant is very, very, very low. I am ecstatic it is a perennial even here where the winter temperatures were way below freezing. The two I have been successful at starting from seed thrive near the north end of the patio.

This was Shasta's very first 
trip to Santa Barbara with us. We are on the
beach walking south towards Butterfly Beach.

Santa Barbara was a frequent destination for Dwight and I + whatever dog or dogs were living with us. We loved this city and considering buying a house there when we moved from MuRefuge. Prices were pretty steep, and remain so. Santa Fe, NM, was where we purchased our home, a Stamm home built in the early 1950’s, for an incredibly reasonable price.

 

Thank you for participating in this mini garden tour. Today the air is filled with smoke from wildfires burning in the northern part of California. Rather than BEing in my garden I am sharing pictures I have previously taken and ecstatic to share with you.

Hopefully we all can share a belly

 

Whirlwind

LEAVING

1832 San Felipe Circle, Santa Fe, New Mexico

The day after "our" POD was delivered and picking up our 12 foot Penske truck, we packed up. Of course, we had the stellar help of Affordable Movers who filled both the POD and truck to the brim! When the house was empty on Wednesday, March 03, we drove to Albuquerque. Dwight in the truck and Cathie with Shasta in the Prius. Whew! Were we ever glad to sleep! The next day on to Las Vegas, Nevada where the smog was worse than any time we have been in Los Angeles.

Over the mountains and into Bishop, California, for another night of sleep. The entire next day was leisurely: our favorite hike along the Western edge of Mono Lake

Our view East looking across Mono Lake

Off leash Shasta's having great fun leaping in the snow
after being cooped up in the car  for three days.

and a picnic in the Lee Vining city park overlooking Mono Lake. Then we drove North on Highway 395 to Minden, Nevada, for our last night of sleeping "on the road". Sunday we checked into our short term, very small rental on the Northern edge of Sebastopol, California.

While on the road our Stamm home in Santa Fe sold and our realtor/friend did a stellar job of "making this happen" sooner than later. As I write this post the new owners have moved in are getting settled. 

ARRIVING

  

35 Page Street, Cotati, California
picture taken by Michael Stoyka.

Our search for a Sonoma County home began in earnest the day after our arrival. We are ever so fortunate to have another outstanding realtor. We spent four days driving around Petaluma as this is where we imagined ourselves buying a house. In the area we desired to live no houses were for sale. And then this house pictured above appeared in Cotati. 

Our realtor, Dwight and I jumped on looking at it immediately. We have long time English friends who live in Cotati not far from this house so they are excited to have us nearby. Tanis came to see the house the day before offers were due. She said, "It is so you," and we discovered she had never been to Cotati before. We had a lovely lunch at the Redwood Cafe to celebrate finding our "perfect" house.

So now we are waiting to move in. As we orchestrate the move in we are enjoying a frequent