When Epidemiologists Travel

 

It was time for Kaefer to travel to Malawi again. She does this every year when she and a colleague from her team teach students two short courses in public health at a university in Mzuzu. This was her third trip to one of the poorest countries on earth and like every year she was looking forward to it.

They flew with Kenya Airways from Amsterdam to Nairobi where they had a layover of a few hours. Kaefer had to take a picture of the plane's wing - do you see all the duct tape? It reminds me of the planes of Egypt Air that I took back in 1996; they looked very similar.

However, they arrived safely at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi and were welcomed with a joyful Karibu (welcome).

There were many signs put up by the Kenyan Ministry of Health.

Now, here are two epidemiologists on their way to teach courses in public health. How do you think they spend their limited time in an airport in Africa? Well, of course they have fun taking photos of Ebola warning signs - what else?

The way Ebola spreads as well as the signs and symptoms of this disease were depicted very vividly.

You get all the information you need.

Thank you to the Kenyan Ministry of Health for still believing in science.

Our two epidemiologists eventually got on their connecting plane to Lilongwe, Malawi. They were very lucky to see Mt. Kilimanjaro from above without any clouds hanging over it.

After a stopover in Nampula, Mozambique, they safely landed in Lilongwe and took to the road to Mponela where they stayed the night (it's a long drive from Lilongwe to Mzuzu). Kaefer shot her first African sunset of this trip, surely eventually followed by many more.

If You Can't Work in the Garden...

 

The last two weeks have been... interesting. I have been trying to find a healthy balance between rest and activity, hoping to get a grip on the ITBS. It's been a roller coaster, with alternating good and not-so-good days. I can't walk too much (too painful), so walks at the lake are not possible right now - and I miss it very much. My doc send a referral to PT and I'm waiting for their return call to finally schedule appintments. However, not all is bad - the icing at the beginning helped and I'm doing my stretches. I also can do some yoga and thankfully am still able to do some strength exercises with my handheld weights. Things are not too gloomy - the only thing that bothers me is that the weeds are growing.

But since I can't work in the garden, I'm simply enjoying it - and there is much to enjoy (despite the weeds). Some mornings I'm sitting in my Adirondack chair in the early morning sun, drinking my first cup of coffee and listening to the birds. There are so many birds in my garden! It is such a joy to watch them and hear their cheerful voices.

The peonies are already done blooming. I enoyed them while they lasted. Years ago I planted them in memory of my mom who loved peonies. There was always a vase full with peonies on the living room table as long as they were in season. My parents used to buy them at the farmers market (my mom was a very dedicated farmers market shopper and so am I; my daughter is becoming one,too).

The Pacific Bleeding Heart, on the other hand, is still going strong. I grows in a shady part of the garden and has spread quite a bit since I planted the first ones. A California native, it goes dormant in the summer when it gets hot and dry, and reappears in winter. Maintenance of this sweet little plant is zero.

The ground Morning Glory is a prolific bloomer. It doesn't do as well in the ground as it does in pots and raised beds where it is taking off. I cut it back sometime after the first big bloom and it will bloom again. Repeat. Here it shares a raised bed with a salvia that my neighbor gave me (and I don't know the name of) and English thyme. There's also a climbing rose in the same raised bed ("Westerland"), some white alyssum and two kinds of lavender.

Speaking of roses - "Sheila's Delight" is almost through its first bloom; the second bloom is usually less spectacular. Behind it you can see Salvia sclarea (a volunteer) and Watsonia, that I got from a different neighbor. On the ground behind the rose you might see still very low California Goldenrod. Later in the summer it will bathe the garden in a golden glow. It has spread considerably since the first planting. In late fall I simply cut it back to the ground and by the following year it will have multiplied.

Another "multiplier" is Matilija Poppy, also a California native. Its flowers are huge, but don't keep very long. It is a spectacular plant, but difficult to establish. However, once it feels at home in a garden, it spreads. Not as "bad", though, as California Aster (photos of that will come in late summer, I assume). Neither are plants for a small garden.

Yarrow doesn't spread very much and sometimes simply dies over the winter. This kind, "Moonshine" is pretty resilient, but it doesn't like some spots in my garden. I have noticed that with some plants. It's continuous learning - do you feel the same way?

Monkeyflower "Jelly Bean" - another California native - loves morning sun and afternoon shade. This one is not such a "spreader" as its companions and I love its cheerful flowers. A big plus is that the deer leave it alone. In a shadier part of the garden I also have Sticky Monkeyflower which can be found in many places here in Sonoma County.

Speaking of cheerful - of course there are California Poppies. They turn up throughout my garden in the back as well as in the front. You can't really have a California native garden without California Poppies!

Another great drought tolerant plant is the Desert Mallow - and it can also spread. I first saw these flowers in Arizona where it mingled with Saguaros and California Poppies. I knew then that I wanted it in my garden.

Last fall I planted purple sage, also a California native. During those few months it has already more than doubled in size - it is supposed to be fast growing. The bees love it and so do I.

And of course at this time of year there are poppies. Lots of poppies. These poppies are the result of seeds I put on the ground in 2012, and they have re-seeded ever since. When they're done, I take a good amount out of the ground, but let "islands" stand and go to seed. So far it has always worked.

They ceate a wonderful display with Verbena bonariensis. Purple and red is a favorite color combination of mine, especially in the garden.

Sometimes the deer come and nibble on the poppies. Happy deer...

The snails are more interested in the Woolly Sunflower (another California native).

And this little guy? Well, Kibeau is only interested in finding a cozy spot to "supervise".

All these animal and plant faces are for Nicole's Friday Face Off. 

Faces of a Coyote

 

This photo of a pretty healthy looking coyote I took more than 20 years ago during our first visit to Yellowstone National Park. I've written about coyotes several times on my blog - I just love them and what's more it's my spirit animal. I do feel an affinity to his complex character described in many Native American legends. Once in Yosemite, more than ten years ago, I had a short encounter with a coyote in a moon lit night - I wrote a short piece about it for some creative writing practice. Maybe I will post it here sometime.

But today I don't want to tell a story. Since I can only hobble around and not work in the garden - this ITBS is really painful and very limiting - I have played with AI again. I actually blame Nicole for that! Without having seen her AI creations I might not have tried out the AI feature on my photo app. It's always good when you can blame someone else (some people are real masters in that).

The watercolor feature of the AI possibilites is my prefered one. First try - relatively true to the original picture.

I can try out this feature on the same photo more than once - and I did, because I was curious what else was possible. 

This one is beautiful, but a little bit too "pastel" for me. So, another try.

A few flowers are introduced and do you notice how the face of the coyote has changed? It has become a little bit softer. I'm sure he likes the flowers, so let's see whether he can get more flowers in his meadow.

Oh yes! The coyote is smiling! Maybe he's dreaming of chasing butterflies. There must be some butterflies, right?

This last one is my favorite, even though it's completely unrealistic. The coyote looks kind of skeptical as well.

I had fun with this! All these sweet faces are, of course, for Nicole's Friday Face Off.

Another sweet coyote face, also in Yellowstone:

My Battle Against the Weeds

 

For Nicole's Sunday in the Art Room I don't have "regular" art today, but I see my garden as an art room as well. It has dominantly native flowers, but also non-native poppies that I first sowed 14 years ago and they have come back reliably every year since then. What also comes back every spring is the weeds. Some of them I'm okay with, but others are really annoying and spread way too much. Like these ones:

Cleavers (Galium aparine), also known as "catchweed". It's a sticky, vining weed that clings to surfaces - like other plants. It was traditionally used as a medicinal plant, but medicinal or not, it has got out of control in my garden and I don't want it to climb into my natives and choke them. So I had to do something.

First I did the hard work of pulling the cleavers. Since we had some good spring rains in April, they were easy to pull, but gosh! there were so many. After I had cleared an area, I covered the ground with newspaper.

Then I covered the newspaper with a good layer of compost, hoping that this will suppress the weeds for a while.

Since this garden was created on top of an existing lawn after we had bought our home in 2012, by using cardboard and huge amounts of compost (if you're interested how to do that, you can read about it here), this now resembles a lasagna with all its layers of cardboard, compost, newspaper, compost. 

It's a rather healthy, fully organic garden. Even while concentrating on battling the weeds, I still noticed little critters like this orbweaver hanging out on the clary sage (Salvia sclarea).

It is a very big garden and I'm far from done. Unfortunately, I have to pause wielding newspaper and compost because with all the bending (there isn't enough space to kneel on a knee pad while weeding because of dense planting) I hurt my right leg. It crept up on me and I didn't pay much attention to it. But the pain became progressively worse until I wasn't able anymore to walk down stairs in a normal way without stabbing pain. So on Thursday morning I called my GP and got an appointment in the afternoon. He pressed on some parts along my knee and thigh up to my hips (ouch!) and diagnosed Iliotibial band syndrome. Great! Now I'm doing stretches, hoping this will help with the pain, and no more weeding for now (or only in places where there actually is enough space for a knee pad). Wish me luck, please.

Tasting Wine with Friends

 

Our good friends Bim and Patti suggested we accompany them to an open house of a winery up in Cloverdale, the most northern town in our county. Since we weren't familiar with this winery, we happily agreed to go with them. I always enjoy wine tasting with Bim - being a wine maker himself, he is very knowledgeable about wine and the wine making process. 

He was very clear about why he went to the open house.

But then we were here for the food as well - they had cheese and charcuterie boards and a food truck served the most delicious pizza I ever ate outside of Italy.

Everything was beautifully decorated.

Our guys...

... and las chicas.

There were two tasting tables, one with their white wines and the other with the red ones.

An interesting board with all the different clamps and connecting pieces for the fermenting steel tanks you can see behind Bim.

It was such a lovely day, warm and sunny. The wine wasn't too bad either...

I loved the deep color of this Syrah.

Sometimes the Geek is the only guy in a group (we call that "Hahn im Korb", rooster in the basket). He sure enjoys that.

Is there anything better than having a wonderful time with really good friends?

Of course I couldn't leave AI (Gemini) alone... all of these faces are for Nicole's Friday Face Off. Cheers!