I’m not referring to myself, haha, not this time, anyway… but I’m so proud that I propagated this rose and cared for it so lovingly until it produced a first bloom!
I feel like I just gave birth to a beautiful rose baby.
A Perfect Rose
1
Tag Archives: gardening
A Big Fig
Lack of rain and fruit rats are the reason I have had a very sad harvest this year. First of all, they (or squirrels) ate all the baby apples before I could cover the tree in netting, then they ate tomatoes and peas and plums.
I have a little fig tree that produced a few figs and I did use the little mesh bags to encase the fruit to try and save them, but rats ate through the mesh!
THIS was the lone survivor…and it’s a BIG one.
I need to savor every bite because that’s IT until next season. I just don’t understand. Everyone around here suffers from the same rodent issues in their gardens, but I seem to bear the brunt of the destruction, maybe because I adamantly refuse to use poison to get rid of them, mainly because of the secondary damage to other creatures.
At least we’re forecasted to have an El Nino winter which means lots of rain, so I’ll probably plant more veggies (especially lettuce that won’t cause explosive diarrhea) and try, try again, but it’s becoming so frustrating, I’m almost ready to give up.
Flowery Colors of May
More pics sent from the Pacific Northwest, which I especially appreciate since I’m allergic to most flowers in real life. These don’t cause sneezing and watery eyes; no antihistamine needed!
Thimbleberry flowers…this big flower will eventually produce a small, sweet, heavenly berry.
The thimbleberry gets its name from the shape of its fruit. When picked carefully, the cluster of tiny drupelets is removed from its central core, leaving a hollow, bowl-like shape that fits perfectly on the tip of a finger, much like a sewing thimble.
Lilac…one of my absolute favorites.
Azalea…something that would never grow in droughty SoCal.
Wisteria…I tried to grow one here and watched it as it sadly shriveled up and died, but I’m happy to see how it thrives in the proper climate.
All photos by Angel Boy.
Act of Kindness
“Your acts of kindness are iridescent wings of divine love, which linger and continue to uplift others long after your sharing.” Rumi
Here’s my act of kindness…with literal iridescent wings…
As I was on my hands and knees cleaning out winter’s leaves from my little pond/waterfall in the garden, prepping for no more rain so I could fill it again, I heard a strange fluttering sound.
I looked up, and right above my head, I saw a Mourning Cloak butterfly held captive in a spider’s web, desperately trying to break free.
I immediately sprung to my feet (well, not SO immediately because I’m still careful not to further injure my torn meniscus that I’m stubbornly refusing to surgically repair) and freed the butterfly from certain death.
S/he fell to the ground because a very tiny bit of sticky web was holding freedom hostage and s/he couldn’t open her wings and fly away.
I sat next to her and very gently pulled off the remains of the spider web, hoping I hadn’t damaged anything, and the butterfly took off like a rocket. I couldn’t believe how fast s/he was. I never saw it again.
Poor little thing was a bit battle weary and bedraggled, but seemed to be OK after the ordeal with the spider web.
Have you ever touched the wings of a moth or butterfly and gotten some “powder” on your fingers? If you look through a microscope, that powder is actually tiny scales.These scales give butterflies and moths their scientific name Lepidoptera (from the Greek Lepido = scale, and ptera = wing). Each scale can be a different color and when placed next to each other, the mosaic makes up the color patterns we see. Curated from essig.berkeley.edu/exhibits/butterflywings/
Interesting, huh?
While it’s best not to touch a butterfly’s wings because it might inhibit their ability to fly, there was really nothing else I could do to save him/her. https://essig.berkeley.edu/exhibits/butterflywings/
Here’s the spiritual meaning of a butterfly with its wings stuck together by a spider web: It holds a powerful, dualistic spiritual message, often representing a, tension between the need for transformation and the reality of entrapment or stagnation. It suggests that a, period of metamorphosis or personal growth is being hindered by fear, limiting beliefs, or external obstacles. That’s pretty intense, don’t you agree?
No matter what it means, it’s a good feeling to help a wld creature.
The Impossible Flower
With news of ships blown up during an illegal faux war to manipulate financial markets, a deranged fraud of a prez, skyrocketing prices, future uncertainty, there’s sanity in the simplicity of a flower that persists against all odds.
When I first noticed it, I tried to gently pry up this volunteer zinnia from between the crack in my driveway to plant in a better location, but I would have destroyed it, so there was nothing else to do but leave it where it grew. The roots are strong, much more so than I thought.
I’ve watered it, watching and waiting, and it just bloomed, one single, brave flower.
My plan is to wait until the flower dies and forms seeds so I’ll continue to plant resilience, grit, tenacity, and determination.
I think there’s a lesson here, somewhere…
Orchid Rescue
A while back a neighbor was tossing out a few orchid plants that she thought were dead or dying. I rescued them, gave them love, and patiently waited.
I’ve been rewarded with not one, but two of them throwing spikes and blooming at the same time!
Best of all, they’re one of the few flowers that don’t trigger my allergies!
Slightly different shades of fuchsia bring joy.
I don’t know why anyone would discard an orchid; they’re not that difficult to maintain and there’s immense satisfaction when they rebloom.
I found an obscure poem about orchids by José Santos Chocano, written in the 1920s:
The Orchids
Freaks of bright crystal, airy beauties fair,
Whose enigmatic forms amaze the eye—
Crowns fit to deck Apollo’s brows on high,
Adornments meet for halls of splendor rare!
They spring from knots in tree-trunks, rising there
In sweet gradation; winding wondrously,
They twist their serpent stems, and far and nigh
Hang overhead like wingless birds in air.
Lonely, like pensive heads, all fetterless.
Lofty and free they bloom; by no dull chain
Their flowers to any tyrant root are bound;
Because they too, at war with pettiness,
Desire to live, like souls that know no stain,
Without one touch of contact with the ground.
Fabulous Freesias
I really wish you could close your eyes and inhale the fragrance of these freesias. Our weather’s been hot here in SoCal and all the flowers bloomed at the same time.
Isn’t that vase adorable? I found it at a thrift shop and it’s one of my favorite things.
The Process of Abscission
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Lao Tzu
Leaf Loss / Bare Bones / Blue Sky
This ash tree started out forty years ago in a five-gallon pot as a housewarming gift. As soon as the leaves begin to drop–in just a day or two– the branches will become bare and I’ll have a LOT of raking to do.
“Simplicity is the final achievement.
Simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance.” Coco Chanel
Abscission is the reason why leaves fall. Scientists believe that a reduction in sunlight leads to the reduction of chlorophyll in the leaf due to a reduction in photosynthesis and this may trigger the abscission of leaves. The actual process occurs when the weaker cells near the petiole are pushed off by the stronger cells beneath them.
That’s a lot for my brain to process and right now all I want to do is quietly savor the stark, elegantly naked branches.
It reminds me of my little vase of twigs and another example of ma https://enchantedseashells.com/2020/10/25/ma-the-space-between-things
“Nature is pleased with simplicity.” Frederic Chopin:
As pretty as it is all dressed in green, the artistry of bare bone branches are stunning in their strength of simplicity,
I see the graceful arms of a dancer against a backdrop of the bluest sky of the year.
“I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasure.” Isaac Newton
Note To Parents Who Pick Up Their Children From School
STOP ACTING LIKE ENTITLED A-HOLES!
This afternoon I took out the trash as school was being dismissed (I live near an elementary school), and at the same time, the postman drove up to deliver the mail.
Mostly blocking my driveway was a gigantic SUV which meant the postman literally had to stop in the middle of the street which is where I met him so he wouldn’t have to leave his vehicle.
The SUV’s back gate was open, as well as all the doors, apparently because the parents decided it was a good time to clean out their gas-guzzling monstrosity.
I said to them, “Why don’t you pull up? You’re blocking my driveway and you have plenty of room in front of you.”
The mom (I guess it was the mom) said, “We’re just here to pick up our kids from school”, as if that information was at all relevant or important to me. (Which it was NOT.)
I said, “How is that my concern? You still can’t block anyone’s driveway. Move your car.” (I’m assertive like that.😀)
And so they did. You could tell they thought about arguing with me and/or defying my directive, but the postman was a witness, so they grudgingly pulled up a few feet.
But it begs the bigger question about entitlement, consideration, and basic courtesy. No wonder the kids in my town feel they can recklessly — and without regard for anyone else–ride their stupid ebikes in the middle of the street defying all traffic and safety rules when they have annoying parents like this who feel so narcissistically privileged that they’re entitled to encroach on one’s property and then don the victim cape when they’re told to move. How RUDE!
There’s lots of conversations lately about entitled people. Entitled people believe they are inherently deserving of special treatment without considering others.
For example, why should I, a complete stranger, care one iota about whether they’re picking up their kids from school as if that should somehow ameliorate or excuse the action of blocking MY driveway? Not my kids, not my problem, especially when they could have simply checked before they stopped and pulled up a few more feet. They had plenty of room.
In fact, a vehicle cannot legally park directly in front of or across someone’s driveway in California, as it is a violation of California Vehicle Code 22500. One can contact local parking enforcement or the police department to have the vehicle ticketed and towed at the owner’s expense.
I have no patience for these types of selfish people who think the world revolves around them in their egocentric illusion balloon. An egocentric illusion refers to the psychological bias where individuals perceive the world, their internal states, and their actions from a self-centered perspective.
I was more than happy to burst that balloon for them. Perhaps they’ll be more considerate in the future, wherever they park, hopefully not here. Maybe I’ll get a sign like this if it happens again.
Stop acting like entitled a-holes and model decent behavior to your children! Is that too much to ask?
Plant Seeds of Serenity
With all the powerful planetary energies at play right now and everything else in this country that almost too horrible to even think about, it seems like a great time to get grounded, to literally get back to what’s simple and healing — and that’s where you’ll find me, in the garden planting seeds of serenity (and flowers).
A garden must combine the poetic and the mysterious
with a feeling of serenity and joy.
– Luis Barragan
Enchanted Seashells | Princess Rosebud 