Early Spring Garden

 

Ceanothus

Because we have had a colder and much wetter winter than usual, everything in my garden is at least two weeks late. When I compare today's state of the garden with the photos of last year at the same time, much more was already in full bloom in 2022. 

But there are sure signs of spring and I can see how the garden is waking up - not that it was ever fast asleep during the winter months. There is always something in bloom here. Like this lavender - "Davy's Love" - that has been flowering all winter long.

At the beginning of last fall I got rid of two of my camellias because they were too close to the house and therefore a fire hazard (I have been fire scaping for two years now). But there is one in the back that is doing spectacularly every winter (other than the remaining one in the front, which is clearly struggling and I might take that one out as well). See for yourself.

Right beneath it is the little bird angel that I took home several years ago. No one wanted it because it has a broken toe. I love it. This is my contribution to Nicole's Friday Face Off.

Forget-me-nots are in the same shady area.

The potato vine has been blooming for a few years now. I planted it last spring and the rainy winter really helped it to get established. It has grown a lot.

Sweet Alyssum is a favorite - I love its beautiful scent that always remind me of my childhood.

There are two California Lilacs (Ceanothus) in my front garden that I planted 10 years ago. I was a bit afraid that the winter would have been too wet for them since they don't need much irrigation, but they have been doing great. One is in the top photo and one in the following one:

The French Lilac looks promising as well - French lilacs have been my dad's favorites, so of course I had to have one (actually three) in my garden, just like the peonies that were my mom's favorites.

The native pink flowering currant Ribes sanguineum var. glutinosum is flowering happily. This is such a unpretentious plant, thrives on neglect and provides both for pollinators and our native birds. I have five of them and wouldn't mind another one.

Tulips don't really do well in California, at least not after the first year. They need the freeze over the winter which usually they don't get here near the coast (they most certainly get it in the mountains). So I didn't even plant any bulbs last year because the years before had been kind of disappointing. Last spring I got about 50% of what I had planted. I decided to save money and labor and just passed up on tulip bulbs.

What a surprise when I saw tulips peeking out of the soil after our colder-than-usual winter! And most of them carry flowers (often only the leaves appear, but this spring there are FLOWERS!!!). I had forgotten how many bulbs I used to plant. They're coming up in places I had completely forgotten about. This probably has been the best surprise this spring so far.

Are there any beautiful happenings in your garden?

Looking for Wildflowers

 

California Buttercup - Ranunculus californicus

After all the rain we have had so far (we are still not done), California is going to have an abundance of wildflowers, just a little bit later than usual because it also has been colder than the years before. Today I had a low energy morning due to not having slept well last night, and finally I decided to drive out to Crane Creek and see whether there are already any wildflowers. This beautiful park is only a 25 minute drive from my house and one of my favorite places to go when I need a mood booster.

There weren't that many wildflowers yet, but what I love about this park is the many big native trees you can find here. There was water in the creeks and the sound of low bubbling water was my companion the entire time.

Then I discovered the first California poppies, Eschscholzia californica - my all time favorites. We have many native flowers and plants, but nothing comes close to the happiness of these orange flowers. No wonder it's our state flower.

More trees, mainly native oaks, some of them dying or decaying. No matter what shape they're in, they are true stunners.

And more water - the last time I was here, we didn't have that much water in the creeks. After all these dry years it was wonderful to see all this moisture.

The California Buckeye, Aesculus californica, has already completely leafed out and on some of the trees I could see the beginning of the bloom "candles" - just a few short weeks and they will be in their full glory.

Another beautiful native oak. Aren't these trees amazing?

The "fairy hair" that you can see in many of these old trees is often mistaken for Spanish Moss (Tillandsia usneoides). Spanish Moss does NOT grow in California; it requires a humid climate and can only be found in the Carribean and the Southern US. What we see here is Lace Lichen (Ramalina menziesii). It is so common that it has been designated the California State Lichen.

Close to this beautiful oak I found California Saxifrage (Saxifrage californica), a shy little flower that seems to prefer shadier locations.

Another beautiful view - I take this trail every time I'm here because I love this so much.

The last tree before the parking lot (and the first, if you're just starting out).

For my drink that I need in order to qualify for Bleubeard and Elizbeth's T Tuesday I have another one of the German beers from our Advent calendar. "Erlkönig" is a beer from Bavaria; however, "Erlkönig" is also a poem by the great German poet and playwright Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, a poem I have known since I was a child when I still wasn't aware how incredibly sad it is. Sad and very beautiful.

Here is a pretty good translation of the poem (Franz Schubert wrote the music to it):

The Erlking

English Translation © Richard Wigmore

Who rides so late through the night and wind?

It is the father with his child.

He has the boy in his arms;

he holds him safely, he keeps him warm.

‘My son, why do you hide your face in fear?’

‘Father, can you not see the Erlking?

The Erlking with his crown and tail?’

‘My son, it is a streak of mist.’

‘Sweet child, come with me.

I’ll play wonderful games with you.

Many a pretty flower grows on the shore;

my mother has many a golden robe.’

‘Father, father, do you not hear

what the Erlking softly promises me?’

‘Calm, be calm, my child:

the wind is rustling in the withered leaves.’

‘Won’t you come with me, my fine lad?

My daughters shall wait upon you;

my daughters lead the nightly dance,

and will rock you, and dance, and sing you to sleep.’

‘Father, father, can you not see

Erlking’s daughters there in the darkness?’

‘My son, my son, I can see clearly:

it is the old grey willows gleaming.’

‘I love you, your fair form allures me,

and if you don’t come willingly, I’ll use force.’

‘Father, father, now he’s seizing me!

The Erlking has hurt me!’

The father shudders, he rides swiftly,

he holds the moaning child in his arms;

with one last effort he reaches home;

the child lay dead in his arms.

Translation by Richard Wigmore

First published by Gollancz and reprinted in the Hyperion Schubert Song Edition

 

Playing in My Art Journal

 

Finally, after a very long dry spell, I have a little bit of "art" to show you today. A couple weeks ago I played in my art journal again. The photo above was the beginning; I had arrived at that phase when I didn't really know how to go on and stepped away from it for a day or two. I find that this almost always helps . Eventually I continued working on it - I forgot to take any photos of the progress, so here is the complete page:

It's pretty obvious that I created this page while joining an online meditation retreat with Sharon Salzberg.

Both Valerie and Erika encouraged me to link to the AJJ challenge "Anything Goes".

A couple days later I started another page, but so far I haven't got beyond the "ugly" phase.

At the moment I have no idea how to go on from here, but something will eventually come up.

While trying to get some order on my work table (unsucessfully), I found this mixed media piece again that I started sometime last fall and then put it to the side because I wasn't happy and also didn't know what to do next with it. When I looked at it this time, I realized that this looks like Mount Bennett, a mountain I can see from my bedroom window. I hadn't noticed this before. This gives me a much better idea how to proceed.

This was my art part for Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date. Let's get to the food now. This is not dinner, but what I sometimes have for lunch. Four falafel (these are the frozen ones from Trader Joe's) with a ripe avocado, followed by a piece of chocolate as desert. Yummy. 

Pacific Sunset

 

When we were on our way back from our trip up the coast, we were just in time for the sunset when we had passed Jenner. We stopped at our favorite beach, Goat Rock, when the sun was just about to touch the horizon. There was no marine layer, aka coastal fog, and we were able to witness this spectacle that never ever gets old.

Kaefer walked closer to the water because she loves to take close-up photos of the surf, but she always  kept an eye on the ocean. She grew up here and knows how dangerous the Pacific Ocean can be.

Being Kaefer, she had to stick her feet in the water, no matter how cold it was (and it was very cold - at our coast, the Pacific is never warm. This is not an ocean to swim in - for that you need to go to Southern California.) Standing behind her, I was able to take one of my favorite photos during her visit.

Far too soon the sun dipped below the horizon.

The clouds over Goat Rock turned pink and the still glowing horizon was reflected in Kaefer's sunglasses.

Where's the drink, you might ask, since I need to share one for Bleubeard and Elizabeth's T Tuesday. Well, I already showed you the beer and cider we had in Gulala, so today I need to pick one from the archives. This one is a Turmweiße by Kuchlbauer. Do you see the interesting building on the can? This is the Kuchlbauer Tower, an observation tower designed by Austrian architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser on the grounds of the Kuchlbauer brewery in Abensberg, Lower Bavaria. Hundertwasser died in 2000 during the tower's planning phase. The tower was completed under the direction of the brewery's owner, Leonhard Salleck, with architect Peter Pelikan overseeing construction. It is 34.19 meters tall and is home to 4,200 Weißbier glasses (remember my post about German beer glasses?). It also has an exhibition of the brewing process and explains the Bavarian Purity Law. This can, by the way, is from a German beer advent calendar that we found at Costco last year.

Exploring the Tafoni

 

Our daughter hadn't been here for even 24 hours when we took our first trip to the ocean, the place that she had missed the most. We decided to go to Gerstle Cove in Salt Point State Park, a place that the Geek and I had only discovered last year and we wanted to share it with Kaefer. It was much calmer this time.

First we saw the harbor seals hanging out on the rocks.

There was much more driftwood on the shore than the last time we had been here, a sure sign of a very high surf during our crazy weather in January.

 When we arrived, Kaefer enjoyed just sitting on the shore and looking out over the ocean while we were taking photos of her as the "solitary mermaid" and the reflections in the tide pools.

But then she started to explore the tafoni and was just as mesmerized as we were.

We also enjoyed watching the cormorants sitting on the rocks and not minding the surf at all. However, there were no black oystercatchers this time.

Of course we had to take those family photos.

But mostly we explored the tafoni. I saw a lot of tiny living things on the rocks and just admired the beautiful shapes and forms.

In between we stopped every now and then just to take a picture of our girl.

A few years ago, Kaefer had given me a lensball for Christmas because she knows how much I enjoy photography and thought I would like to play around with it which I have done often. I had brought it with me and wanted to take some pictures of the tafoni with it - and as you can see, I wasn't the only one who did this.

Eventually it got very chilly at the coast and we decided to go for lunch. Of course we wanted fish and chips (another thing she had really missed) and went up to the Seafood Shack in Gualala. This is one of the best places for very fresh and delicious  fish and chips along the Sonoma-Mendocino coast. We had clam chowder in a bread bowl and, of course, rock fish and chips. Lecker, as we say in German.

Fish needs water - we had it in the form of some good local beer, a Scrimshaw (from Fort Bragg further up the coast) and Kaefer opted for some local cider from Sebastopol. You guessed it, this is for Bleubeard and Elizabeth and their T Tuesday.