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It's the last day of April! I'll be heading to the dojo soon, and one of my next posts will be about training (since I'm moving all my blogging over here now).
These pictures are of an amazing rambling rose taking over a neighborhood north of here. If you click on either picture you should see a full size version.
The vegies are all sprouting or growing, there are more wildflowers and roses all over, and I've posted pictures over at Flickr of one of the many peacocks displaying for hens out at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas when I was out there the other day to visit some clients.
Dogwood and rose season is upon us in Ukiah.
The story goes that many decades ago some guy went door to door, offering to plant dogwoods in front yards for free. Come mid April, this town is just full of mature trees, splendid in pink or white.
As for roses, well they thrive all over this part of the country. So as in most northern California towns, most everybody has some in their front and side yards here. Our own bushes started blooming last week. But the real star has to be an old, never pruned rambler on the Westside that has totally climbed over and around a full size tree. I'll take the camera over there sometime this week to get a picture of it.
Out front the wildflowers continue to put on a show - baby blue eyes and tidy tips - while in the back we figure there must be between 200 and 300 California poppies in full bloom. Speaking of wildflowers, the latest Big Project is underway. It's all my sister Judi's fault. The last time she was up here she contemplated the cinderblock wall that separates the carport from the courtyard with utter disgust and said "If you have to have something like that, at least make it colorful." It's true that I don't have time to paint or sew until my 5 unit Spanish class is over (late May). But I swore I was going to start the wall as soon as the weather permitted, and my friend Jill who knows all about priming and painting of the house variety was able to come visit this weekend to get me started. I selected five California wildflower colors (pale pink, pale yellow, pale blue, bright poppy orange and deep lupine purple) plus a background green, and so far the pink, yellow and blue are done.
Meanwhile, out back we added two more half barrels and so far have planted from seed peas, beans, tomatoes, peppers, broccoli rabe, radishes, onions, carrots, lettuces, and greens, plus put in as plants oregano, basil, sage, nasturtiums, marigolds, and strawberries. There are some tomato and pepper starts on order for delivery next month, as backup in case our seeds don't work.
I'm thinking that since my life feels pretty unified it is time to have one blog. I like the layout/color scheme better here so for no better reason than that will probably stop separate blogging at Zanshin Art and do it all here. Of course I'll still have the Zanshin Art website for business purposes.
The picture is of an osprey - there's a nest out on the road to Hopland I'll be monitoring as time permits.
We had some rain today, the first in weeks; not enough to make a difference in the watershed but our plants sure like it. I was going to plant broccoli rabe, black garbanzos, dill, and mustard greens today but now it has to wait for a dry day. Instead I scanned and uploaded old family pix to my Flickr site.
The front yard is a marvel to us as we walk it each day murmuring "not bad for beginners!" Daffodils, peonies, a couple of other bulbs and annuals are being actively crowded out by billowing masses of baby blue eyes and tidy tips. Miners' Lettuce happily grows and flowers in its little shady plot, waiting its turn in our salad bowl. The rockrose and beach strawberry are flowering and the ceanothus is thinking about it (we have severe envy; the ones along highway 101 and along the Grace Hudson School are in glorious flower already).
Today our neighbor called to tell us there is a dead squirrel under the spruce tree. I put on gloves and went out to see. It was a big, fat, healthy looking gray squirrel with not a mark on him. Hadn't been dead long. I picked it up in a shovel and carried it to the very back of the property, the grassless patch where grapevines are kept protected from the encroaching blackberry, ivy and pyrecantha. I scraped out a hole, buried the squirrel, added some soil and then a big chunk of wood to keep inquisitive creatures from uncovering it.
When I called Rick back to thank him for the heads-up, he mentioned he has also seen a little black and white bunny around. It had been in his yard a few days, and today when he left for work (very very early in the morning) he saw it down the street trying to make friends with a jackrabbit. The hare was having none of it. Poor little bunny probably won't last unless one of us can find it and lure it in for the shelter to take.
It's the last day of April! I'll be heading to the dojo soon, and one of my next posts will be about training (since I'm moving all my blogging over here now).
