Precious Waters

Tuesday was my last day at work before the summer break. The last couple weeks had been very hectic and busy as they usually are at the end of the school year. But now the seniors have graduated, the other students left for their summer weeks off and we used the final two days to tidy up the library and get the textbook room in order for the beginning of the next school year. Then our break started.

It's a weird feeling to wake up in the morning knowing that you don't have to go to work for several weeks. It didn't take me long to seize the opportunity and walk around my beloved lake. I just wanted to walk enjoying the scenery and decided to leave the camera at home. Of course I saw way to many things I wanted to photograph, but fortunately I still had my phone with me. These pictures were all taken with my LG G4 over the course of two mornings.

There is a paved path that travels around the entire lake, but I usually stick to the horse trails. For obvious reasons they are not paved, well maintained and usually less crowded.

One of my favorite parts is the Fisherman's Trail that leads right next to the lake. The blackberry bushes were overgrowing almost everything. These plants are very invasive and unfortunately crowd out the native plants, even though the rangers do their best to control them. The lake is mostly hidden behind the high plants, but the sound of many birds is present all the time. To the left is a slope with many trees, some of which display beautiful bark color or an interesting shape.

I know the spots where I have seen black-crowned night herons in the past. I always stop by there, and sure enough there was a juvenile black-crowned night heron fishing for his breakfast.

On the other side of the lake I saw an adult one - maybe his momma?

Sometimes I walk up the slope to the huge water tanks near the paved path. The shadows of the trees on the tanks drew me in that morning. I love the shape of all these trees.

Turning back to the lake this view always captivates me.

I met Canada Geese with their young ones on the slope - I was quite surprised not to see them at the lake but in this dry environment. They were busy nibbling the seeds on the grasses.

Look, who I met here! S/he came out on the trail from the side, surprising me. Lucky for me I was still about 30 feet away and I made sure to keep a respectful distance. S/he eventually decided to disappear in the tall grasses up the slope and I could proceed unharmed.

Along the trails by the lake there is always a lot of beautiful vegetation in those places where the blackberry bushes haven't overtaken. Gorgeous thistles, seedpods of salsifies, Queen Anne's Lace and something I couldn't identify.

Then I decided to leave the path by the lake and follow the horse trail up the hill. There's no one there except for the rabbits and snakes.

The views are gorgeous and always remind me why I love living here. All the fresh spring green is gone by now - we haven't had rain for weeks - but I also like the "golden" look. It's so typical for California in the summer.

It was here that I discovered this beautiful dragonfly.

The trail then leads into the forest and it seems you're entering an entirely different world.

This tree was still standing the last time I walked along this trail. Change is ongoing. The fungi on the trees looks interesting and is constantly growing.

There are more wildflowers to find, especially those that like some shade. We're almost at the end of our trail. To the left you can climb up into Annadel State Park (it is much steeper than it looks), to the right you get back to the lake.

Or you can stop at this picnic area next to some old Redwoods. Take a rest, write in your journal, listen to the birds and do some push-ups (that's what I do).

Taking the path back to the lake I end up at the Children's Memorial Grove right at the lake. A few years ago together with some friends we put in a tile for Katie here.

Back in the parking lot I noticed that the California Buckeye is in full bloom. I love these trees!

It was a beautiful morning at the lake and I plan to come back as often as I can during my summer break. This place feeds my soul and every time I'm here I feel like my entire body relaxes and my thoughts are going in a positive direction. Often I don't think anything, just take in the nature around me, listen to the birds and watch the herons. It's time just for me and a precious gift.

An Image and Its Story - May 2018

Oh May - so many photos of flowers and plants in my garden. Every time I was out there I discovered something new that I had to take a photo of. It's a wonderful month in the garden.

And of course it's the time of the poppy. Not the California Poppy but the Papaver.

There was a time when I had an abundance of Papaver poppies in my garden. In fact, there were so many that they were smothering other flowers, taking away light and water. It had reached a point where I said "Enough" and pulled out the poppies as soon as they were gone. As a result I'm having less poppies in my garden this spring. These, however, do the "poppy thing" and pop with their brilliant red.

They always remind me of Germany. They are flowering a little bit later in the year than here in California due to a much harsher climate. But when they do it's breath taking. Fields and fields of green (grass), red (poppies) and blue (bachelor's buttons or cornflower) with the red playing the dominant role. I've loved them when I was a child and I still do. It's something I miss here - but then we have the fields of orange poppies in the spring which are stunning as well. They just don't carry all the memories the red poppies do.

Even the name is beautiful. We call this flower "Klatschmohn" for which I can't offer you an adequate translation. The dictionary says "poppy" which of course is correct, but it doesn't completely reflect this special name. It's just another one of those German words that are impossible to translate.

This particular poppy in the photo showed its beauty one morning when I did my first round of the day through the garden. A completely new flower, just having escaped its green shell/skin, not yet opened to the light. It will not take long until the bees will discover this new kid on the block and buzz around it.

How Green was My Valley

No, this is not a post about a family of Welsh coal miners, but about a hike we did in April in one of our regional parks, Sonoma Valley.

Sonoma Valley Regional Park was smack in the middle of the October fires - this was the Nuns Fire - and almost completely burned. It was closed for weeks and weeks after the fire and only opened at the end of 2017. When we went there in April we were prepared to see a lot of damage, but we were in for quite a wonderful surprise - a green valley.

While there were scorched tree stumps and burned tree bark, the fresh green color of the vegetation was what really struck. Nature was recovering for sure! The park looked healthy even though it was quite clear that an inferno had taken place only six months before.

People came out in crowds to enjoy this beautiful gem between Sonoma and Santa Rosa.

As expected there was wildflower galore - and this was only the beginning of it.

We first walked through the valley - an easy stroll - but we decided to go up into the forest for our way back, a much more hilly and strenuous hike.

And as you can see, the forest didn't look too good. A lot of the madrones and manzanitas were charred, but the good news is that they didn't die and will probably recover. When we got closer it was amazing to look at the bark of the trees.

The fire was not able to destroy these beautiful trees. It is breathtaking to witness how nature heals itself and how fast it springs back to life. While it will take a while until the entire park will have recovered completely, it is so encouraging to see how everything comes back to life. Just a little stumble along the way...

Not so much for us humans, though. There were still burnt down sites that hadn't been cleaned up, even six months after the fire. Over and over again we are shown the dimension of this disaster.

It's so much easier and encouraging to look at nature.

But despite the earthquakes, wildfires and following landslides I love where I live. I don't think I'd like to live anywhere else right now.

The Garden in May

Marguerite Daisy "Summit Dark Pink"

May is a beautiful month in the garden. After rather shy early spring months the days are finally warming up and the garden is exploding with color. The soil is not yet dried out as it will be very soon and pretty cool nights keep some of the moisture. Just like every spring I had to pull out some plants that didn't make it through our mild winter, and that means there are spots in the garden that need to be filled. Several trips to my favorite nursery were in order. Ah, a gardener always finds space in the garden for new plants...

The California poppies - our state flower - always draw the attention. They are such happy flowers. Who can resist this good-mood color?

 Eschscholzia californica

They turn up everywhere - they are annuals but very busy (and successful) re-seeders. They come in different shades of oranges and there are even pale yellow ones that look rather delicate (they are not!). When they appear next to other plants they can create stunning color combinations - like with these gaillardias (blanket flower):

Gaillardia "Burgundy"

The Spanish Lavender is always the first of the lavenders to bloom, either in pink or in purple. The pink one even blooms in winter, it never seems to stop. Unfortunately I have lost the tag to it and can't tell you which one it is.

Spanish Lavender "Otto Quast"

A neighbor once gave me some seeds of the lovely Nigella damascena, also known as Love-in-a-Mist, after I had told her how much I like them in her garden. I sowed them and then forgot about them. They turned up in the spring of last year, re-seeded, and now I have so many more. They are simply lovely.

Love-in-a-Mist

Since this is a low-water, drought-tolerant, deer resistant (for the most part), mainly native plants garden the Matilija Poppies are a must. It is easy to plant them, but not that easy to grow them. Some gardeners actually plant three of them so that they will end up with one surviving because so many of them just die. I had tried to grow them in the Brookdale house where they always died. I gave them one last chance here, planted only one (always the optimist) and got lucky. The thing is - once you get to the point that they're established they grow and grow and grow.... and turn up in other parts of the garden since they spread by rhizomes. A plant only for the big garden and a complete stunner.

Matilija Poppy with Verbascum "Southern Charm"

Talking about poppies, let's not forget the "real" poppy, the Papaver. Up to last year I had so many of them that I was afraid they would take over completely, so I ripped most of them out before they went to seed. This spring I have far less that I will let go to seed again. They are way to beautiful to get rid of them completely. Some of the people who regularly walk by my garden (and always stop to chat when I'm out there) actually told me that they miss my poppy garden...

This is a favorite spot in a shadier part of the garden (thanks to a huge Blue Elderberry):

The Chinese Foxglove in the back have multiplied, the flowering currant has become quite big, the hollyhocks are doing okay after I sprayed them with "Liquid Fence" to discourage the roaming deer to have them for dinner all the time, the smoke bush finally grows in (it experienced the same fate as the hollyhocks) and everywhere - and I mean everywhere - there are wild Forget-Me-Nots. Just recently I moved the birdbath - two bigger terracotta pots put on top of each other upside down and a terracotta saucer on top - into this space and the birds seem to like it in this spot much more than in the old one. It's more protected I guess.

Rehmannia Chinese Foxglove 

Forget-Me-Not

One last plant - this one I discovered two years ago and planted it out of curiosity. It has become a true showstopper. It is growing like mad right now and the flowers are starting to perk up. This is Salvia sclarea "Piemont". It pretty much thrives on neglect, and if I'm not mistaken I see little ones popping out of the soil - they readily re-seed. The erect flower spikes, once they're open, are two shades of lavender and white. Stunning.

With the exception of the very first photo all these images are from my huge front garden. The backyard is still a work in progress. Maybe - I still have to think about that - I'll show some pictures from there as well. It has a blanket of weeds (aka "lawn") that I'm slowly sheet mulching into something more beautiful.

Some flowers in the front try to escape through the redwood fence that the Geek and I built five years ago.

Nepeta, Catmint

Can you imagine that it all started out with this almost six years ago (after the sheet mulching was complete)? From this...

... to this:

 If you want to know how I did the sheet mulching you can read about it here.