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?
By the end of this week, my daughter will come to visit for three weeks. I can't put in words you how very excited I am. As you can imagine I have a ton of things to do before that, so I will write only one blogpost this week and share it to the blogs of Bleubeard and Elizabeth, Rain and Nicole. Most probably I won't be much in blogland until well into the second half of February because I would like to make the most of the limited time with Kaefer.
Today I'm taking you to Yosemite, the place we like to call "the national park in our backyard". When Kaefer was little, we used to spend every MLK-weekend in Yosemite. It is around my birthday and I didn't want to get any gifts, just a weekend in the snow and some wonderful nature. We have visited Yosemite in every season, but winter remains my favorite time there.
Be warned: This is a VERY photo-heavy post! These photos were taken over several years and some of them were still made using film.
There are three landmarks that make Yosemite famous. One - and maybe the best known - is Half Dome. It is popular to hike up on top of Half Dome - every summer, cables are put up that make it possible getting up onto the granite dome. You actually need a permit for that and if you're not leaving really early, you will be stuck in a "cable jam" at the foot of the cables that you reach after an already long and exhausting hike. I have never done it - I prefer to keep some mystery about this beautiful huge rock.
The second landmark that is extremely popular with climbers all over the world is El Capitan, a sheer wall of granite that goes straight up. Almost always you can see some figures hanging in the wall, trying to scale it. Maybe some of you have seen the movie "Free Solo"? If not, here is the trailer with some impressive images of El Capitan. The movie itself is very worth watching.
Then there are the many waterfalls - landmark no. 3 - of which Yosemite Falls is the most popular one. With a total of 2,425 feet (739 m) it is the tallest waterfall in the continental US. It has three drops: Upper Yosemite Fall, Middle Cascades and Lower Yosemite Fall. In the following picture you can see Upper Yosemite Fall with its huge cone of ice and snow at the bottom of the upper tier. In the winter, sheets of ice break off the rock wall during the day and you can hear the loud boom throughout the entire valley.
In the winter, you are only able to visit Yosemite Valley (and Badger Pass for skiing), whereas the High Country is not accessible because snow closes Tioga Road that leads through the High Country. That part of Yosemite you can only visit from late spring to the middle of autumn. We once camped in the High Country in the middle of October and we ended up camping in the first snow of the season. Tent camping, by the way.
So we spent winters in the valley. I always loved the almost magical winter mood there, walking across the snowy meadows and listening to the booms of the ice sheets from Yosemite Falls.
Early mornings when the sun hasn't climbed high enough to reach into the valley provided some wonderful sights.
The white trees against the dark rock on the shady side created their own special magic.
The snow sparkled and there were so many beautiful ice crystals to admire. You just had to open your eyes and look for them. They were everywhere.
Little treasures were found in the snow.
I loved the snow caps on branches, wood and especially on the rocks in the Merced River.
There were beautiful reflections in the river - the Merced River can be pretty wild, especially in the spring, but in the winter I have often seen it very calm.
This little girl was extremely excited about the snow. We always brought her wooden sled with us (that we had bought in Germany when she was still a baby) and she enjoyed sledding down the hills so very much! I share this with Nicole's Friday Face Off.
When evening came, people gathered on Sentinel Bridge to take pictures of the setting sun on the face of Half Dome with the reflection in the Merced River. Later, the full moon would climb up in the sky.
Of course there is quite some wildlife in Yosemite. The Yosemite Black Bears seem to be the smartest of them all. Not only are there bear-proof trash bins and food lockers everywhere, you are also not allowed to leave any kind of food or smelly stuff like toothpaste in your car. If you do, you pay a heavy price since these bears know how to break into cars and you get fined by the National Park on top of it. Even the smallest candy wrapper can be "smelled out" by the bears. If you want to leave your car in a parking lot and leave for a hike, you need to store your food in the food lockers provided at every parking lot. We sometimes saw bears strolling through campsites in bright daylight, looking for food and trying to get into trash cans (that they haven't figured out - yet). The deer are plentiful and not shy, neither are the ravens of which there are a lot (if I'm not mistaken - I hope David doesn't tell me that this is not a raven, that would be such a disappointment), and of course I have a deep love for the coyotes. If I have something like a spirit animal, it would definitely be the coyote.
All of this is even more beautiful because I was able to experience it with these two people. Can you see the pink scarf around Kaefer's neck? Rain's prompt is scarves this week!
Without any more words from me, here are a few more atmospheric images of Yosemite:
Since I mentioned that I'm sharing this with Bleubeard and Elizabeth, I need a drink for T Tuesday - for me, the best drink in winter is hot chocolate. If it has whipped cream on top, even better. And look at my new cat mug!
For Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date I'm sharing a recent dinner I cooked - fusilli pasta with Italian sausage, carrots and fennel. I didn't use a specific recipe for this - just browned the meat, sautéed the carrots and fennel with some herbs, and then threw it all together. It was delicious and the leftovers will be turned into a different dinner.
I leave you with the famous Tunnel View over Yosemite Valley at sunset.
Rain's prompt for Thursday Art and Dinner Date is "glass". Of course the first thing that came to my mind was wine glass - what else? Come on, I live in wine country after all.
But of course there are so many other kinds of glass as well - warning, this is a very photo heavy post. I had way more photos to choose from and really had to restrain myself here!
Let's start with glass in architecture - like these glass buildings in London (left) and New York City (right).
Munich's modern airport, the only airport in the world with a beer garden (which was the first fun fact our daughter told us after we had arrived).
Windows can offer great views...
View from Dominus Flevit Church, Jerusalem
... or no views at all.
Hagia Sophia, Istanbul
Many churches have beautiful windows with stained glass that provide a very special atmosphere.
Cathédrale de Notre Dame, Paris
And the opposite - broken windows...
What would be a ride on the London Eye without the glass?
I have a thing with windows in old buildings.
It is simple magic when the evening sun is reflected in windows like here at Langer Markt (Long Market) in Danzig/Gdansk, Poland.
Window glass is perfect for reflections...
... and can be used as a fabulous center point like here in the Bundestag (Parliament) in Berlin.
Mirrors, of course, consist of glass
The German word for mirror is "Spiegel" - and with this I add a different take on our prompt: "Spiegel im Spiegel", a hauntingly beautiful piece of music by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. You can listen to it here:
More glass - blue bottles on my kitchen windowsill.
Glass in art - the incredible glass creations by Andy Cao and Xavier Perrot, "White Cloud" (left) and "Red Lantern" (right).
Finally, glass in (street)lamps...
Baden-Baden, Germany
Hagia Sophia, Istanbul
On my porch
Let's not forget the dinner part of today's TADD. I love to use my wok for cooking, usually without any recipe. It is fast and delicious. I made Udon noodles with tofu (baked in teriyaki), broccoli and red bell pepper - very tasty.
As usual I had made too much for us to eat in one sitting, so I took the leftovers and made a meal with shrimp that I had marinated in toasted sesame oil.
If you haven't done so, please stop by my giveaway-post and vote for your favorite photos.
