To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter… to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird’s nest or a wildflower in spring – these are some of the rewards of the simple life. ~ John Burroughs
~ Art by Jennifer Taylor
From April’s angst to something a little more palatable and because I try to always look on the bright side, these are some photos I took to cleanse my brain while the rat guy was disinfecting the shed. I carefully avoided that area…
Delosperma Cooperi – succulent ground cover against a backdrop of insane ceanothus with some (I think) Cape Daisies and Creeping Aloe.
Pride of Madeira.
A baby pomegranate!
Cloudless Sulphur Butterfly caterpillar on my Palo Verde tree.
No rats here! Just peace and serenity.
Yesterday was April Fool’s Day and I had to blink twice and do a classic double take when I looked out the kitchen window and saw a fat opossum waddling through the garden. I grabbed my camera and quietly opened the screen door to get a better look.
It’s not unusual for them to be here but they’re mostly nocturnal creatures and don’t often appear during the day. If you see one at odd times like I did, don’t automatically think they’re sick. My research revealed that it’s not totally out of character if it’s a new mom who needs to bring home a lot of food for her babies.
With their poor eyesight, she didn’t seem to know or care that I was there, so I followed her a bit up the steps and over the neighbor’s fence and back again.
Opossums eat a wide variety of foods: fruits, grasses, insects, rodents (yay!) mammals, birds, fish, and even carrion. Also good to learn is that opossums are resistant to rabies and rarely carry the disease. They are extremely beneficial.
There are LOTS of mice and rats around here, so I hope she or he went home with a full belly.
I don’t know why some people think they’re ugly or scary. Isn’t this a most adorable face?
It was super quiet this morning until I heard a familiar staccato taptaptaptap, ran outside with my camera and was FINALLY able to capture a visit from my Downy Woodpecker!
Usually they’re playing hide and seek in my garden; this time he’s just over the fence on the neighbor’s palm tree. A while later, his mate came to eat in the exact same spot.
Isn’t he simply magnificent?
In many ancient cultures, the symbolism of the woodpecker is associated with wishes, luck, prosperity, and spiritual healing. The woodpecker often symbolizes new opportunities that come knocking into our lives. Other cultures consider the woodpecker to represent hard work, perseverance, strength, and determination, all positive attributes for sure! (curated from Google search)
Happy Sunday, friend!
I don’t know why Angel Girl 2.0 and I love the color pink as much as we do, but we DO.
“What’s your favorite color?”
“PINK PINK PINK!”‘
A little research reveals that the color pink represents compassion, nurturing, tenderness, and love. It relates to unconditional love and understanding, and the giving and receiving of nurturing.
A combination of red and white, pink contains the need for action of red, helping it to achieve the potential for success and insight offered by white. It is the passion and power of red softened with the purity, openness and completeness of white. The deeper the pink, the more passion and energy it exhibits.
Pink is feminine and romantic, affectionate and intimate, thoughtful and caring. It tones down the physical passion of red replacing it with a gentle loving energy. https://www.empower-yourself-with-color-psychology.com/color-pink.html
All I know for sure is that all shades of PINK make me happy, from the pink of my ballet shoes to any and all flowers in the garden. After all, I was named for a flower so in my case, it was sort of predestined.
It’s a little early for my rosebushes, but here’s a very pink freesia:
And deeply pink peach flowers, Since this is the tree’s first year, I know I’m supposed to pinch off all the flowers so the tree will grow stronger but I can’t bear to do that.
My son sent me this photo of a bald eagle from Whidbey Island. He said he looked up and there it was looking right at him!
All of our crazy weather including half the rain we usually get made for an early spring. The fruit trees are flowering, the ash tree did its thing and is leafed out already, as well as the grapes.
Not at all native to this weird deserty, sometimes Mediterranean climate, I saw a forsythia bush and couldn’t walk away without bringing her home. I paid full price too, which should tell you how much I wanted it. Teehee.
When I was growing up back east, I knew spring had arrived when my mom took me violet hunting and the lillies of the valley popped up, An even more glorious sign were the budding forsythia and lilac bushes up against the French doors in the living room.
When the weather warmed up enough to open all the doors and windows, their fragrance was literally breathtaking.
I’ve tried to grow lilacs here and failed, so I don’t have the highest of hopes for this forsythia, but I will try my best.
Fingers crossed, everyone!
P.S. There’s a chance we’ll have rain this week and that’ll make all my plants (and me) happy.
The temps dropped nearly forty degrees and we were lucky enough to get some unexpected rain.
In the morning I was greeted by this flowering orange Hedgehog Aloe against a background of a very healthy ceanothus covered in lilac blooms.
A little violet plant surprised me today in the garden. I don’t know how it came to grow here, especially since Southern California is not the most suitable habitat. Violets prefer damp, well-drained ground and the sun-dappled protection of woodlands, none of which I have.
I was reminded of a special time with my mom. Every spring we’d bring willow baskets with handles and go to the stone bridge at Palmer Park in Detroit and fill them with purple and white violets.
When we returned home, my mom and I would fill every vase and glass we could find with the fragrance of these beauties. Sometimes I’d press a few in a book to find at a later date when it was dried and papery but still evoked the faintest perfume.
Since there’s no rational explanation, I’ll just thank my mom for her visit to guide my happy memories of those lovely times we shared.
Ambedo – n. a kind of melancholic trance in which you become completely absorbed in vivid sensory details-raindrops skittering down a window, tall trees leaning in the wind, clouds of cream swirling in your coffee.
Or while you pick weeds under the loquat tree and look up to see sugar peas in a pod backlit by the sun.
The pea plants decided to have a life of their own and the tendrils became entwined in the branches of the tree because I didn’t stake them good enough.
I became lost in time, entranced by the simple green perfection. I l subsequently discovered there’s a word for that: ambedo.
#wordlesswednesday
Enchanted Seashells | Princess Rosebud 