Raindrops

 

Last Sunday night we had some rain again. As I wrote before, California had an extremely wet and also chilly winter, but it had been a week or so since the last rain before that Sunday. It was a much lighter and steady rain than what we had experienced before. Hopefully it wasn't the last rain of the season. When I went in the garden on Monday morning, I was delighted by the raindrops on the plants. Everything looked so fresh and it smelled so good as well. 

In the picture above you can see the raindrops on the new leaves of the photinia. This was a beautiful tree when we bought this house, but then it started to die off and I couldn't figure out why. Now, only this one new branch is alive, the rest of the tree is dead. We cut back some parts of it because of fire hazard, but we left a good part standing. This is the base of my main bird feeding station and I can tell you that it is very well visited by our feathered friends. I can see it while I sit at my worktable and sometimes I get very distracted by it while I should actually prepare my classes or grade homework.

There are new leaves on my rose as well and the raindrops circle it like a little crown. Fitting for the "queen of flowers", even though roses aren't exactly favorites of mine. I like them, especially when they have a lovely scent, but there are other flowers that I like way more.

Tulips, for example, but you already know that. 

I also love freesias, mainly for their sweet fragrance. My friend Kris gave me a bag of freesia bulbs as a house warming present 11 years ago, and they have been doing reliably well every spring. Some of them I cut and bring in the house so that the living/dining room smells so nicely. Friends of us came for dinner last Saturday and brought me flowers from their garden, and I simply put the freesias in there as well for the three primary colors.

Water on the sedum "Autumn Joy" are fat big drops, so different from all the other ones. Sometimes you can see reflections in them, but of course not in this photo.

Look who's here!

The Hooded Orioles arrived at the end of March. One morning I stepped out and heard the familiar chatter - these are very talkative birds. I saw the male at the hummingbird/oriole feeder and immediately brought the grape jelly out. A couple days later his mate turned up as well. Later in the summer they will bring their offspring as well. That's when I have to constantly refill the jelly bowl. Other birds like the jelly as well - I've seen the Northern Mockingbird going for it as well as the Oak Titmouse; I also saw the squirrel with a red sticky mouth...

What about dandelions? I don't pull them since they are one of the first flowers in the spring for the pollinators. Since I don't have a lawn, I don't mind dandelions. 

The raindrops look very pretty on the Desert or Globe Mallow. I was a bit surprised to see it flowering so early. Last year the blooms appeared much later.

Of course Clematis is a stunner, with or without raindrops. These two are always early and often crank out a second blooming period later in the year.

I shouldn't forget "Roger's Red", a native California wild grape that grows abundantly and turns to a stunning red in the fall - hence the name. The birds love to seek shelter there in the summer.

So what is missing? Of course, it's the food part for Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date. Here I cooked a Chinese cuisine inspired dish with baked tofu, broccoli, red pepper and udon. I don't usually use a recipe for these kinds of dishes, but just remember what I ate when I lived in Taiwan and try to make something similar with different ingredients. As you can see, my wok is well used.