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Summer Solstice Garden

The summer solstice arrives in a matter of hours here on the Pacific Coast, allowing for more daylight hours in the garden. I stepped out earlier this morning to take a few photos while the light was just so. I enjoyed the quiet, for the most part, but a male hummingbird took offense at my presence and kept flying so close to my ear that I could feel and hear his vibrating wings. He eventually tired of his warning flights and settled in at the feeder that Mike lovingly attends.

A hummingbird perched on a red feeder, sipping nectar from a flower-shaped opening.

These sunflowers are filling the corner vacated last year when we removed the invasive wisteria. The transplanted succulents are doing well there, though one of them got a bit scorched in the last heatwave. Deeply scented gardenias are flourishing, apparently enjoying the additional filtered light. It’s emerging as a lovely corner in the front garden.

Bright perennials fill the garden’s center by June, with most of the spring bulbs and annuals past their prime. Pink gladioli are fanning out from places I’m sure I didn’t plant, creating a hodgepodge of pink throughout the garden. I don’t mind a bit.

The Russian sage needs a good dressing of worm castings to improve the soil, but it’s a pretty purple nonetheless. 

Close-up view of vibrant purple flowers with fuzzy textures, surrounded by green foliage.

I had a surreptitious visit with my secret strawberry patch. I haven’t deliberately planted them for a few years, as they rarely do well. Last year, a plant appeared in the front garden under a sage shrub. Over the winter, it sent out a runner, and now we have two plants.

We shared one strawberry in May, didn’t get to the second or third berry before an unknown critter, and we have a chance at one more today. Oh my goodness, it’s the little things that make me smile.

In the “be careful what you wish for” category, we’ve harvested pounds of apricots from our grafted tree, so laden with fruit this year that I had to support one of the limbs with a garden trellis. I’ll write more about the tree soon.

As the seasons change on both sides of the world, I hope you’re finding ways to enjoy the outdoors or to pursue a craft. Immersive reading is a great escape as well. We enjoy Netflix in the evening, laughing at an hour of standup comedy or diving in to a great mystery or of late, The Other Bennet Sister from the BBC.

Here’s one more garden gallery:



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Garden Themed Scrappy Cards

Kate of Tall Tales of Chiconia invites us to share our scrappy creations once a month for a meme she calls scrap-happy. I’m sharing three cards this month.

Imagine my delight when planning a baby shower card, reluctant to trot out the twentieth-century culture trope of pink or blue, to see this delightful, digital invitation.

A baby shower invitation featuring an orange character with a smiling face, surrounded by colorful flowers and leaves, with the text 'a little CUTIE is on the way!'

Cuties are small mandarin fruit, and the oft-used descriptor of adorable babies and, stating the obvious here, they’re orange.

A few years ago, I bought a paper pack with 6 x 6 inch sheets of fruit-themed paper. I have a few odds and ends left, plenty to make this card,

Colorful patterned paper strips featuring illustrations of various fruits, including lemons, oranges, and kiwis, arranged on a grid background.
A colorful 'Congratulations' greeting card featuring vibrant fruit illustrations, including oranges, lemons, and strawberries, set against a geometric patterned background.

and I found the perfect gift bag to go with it. It’s fun when things come together like that.

A gift bag decorated with colorful oranges and green leaves, featuring the text 'hello little cutie' on the front.

The other two cards used up the last of my beloved beehive paper and three rub-on bee transfers.

A decorative card featuring an illustration of apples and bees with the text 'you brighten my day'.
A birthday card with a circular design featuring honeycomb and a bee, set against a background of green foliage.

The following bloggers participate in this monthly challenge. Thank you, Kate, for inspiring us.

Kate, Eva, Sue, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Tracy, Jan, 
Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen,
Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, 
Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Viv, Karrin,  Alissa, Tierney,
Hannah and Maggie

An Enchanting Week in New Mexico
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An Enchanting Week in New Mexico

A May visit to New Mexico with my dear friend, Barbara, provided a lovely break from day-to-day life and the barrage of unsettling world news.

By phone and text, we planned ahead, agreeing to have unscheduled days, interspersed with activities and put-your-feet-up time in our residence hotel, making for a relaxing holiday. I flew to New Mexico from California and Barbara traveled from Ohio.

We stayed in Albuquerque for the week, with a day trip to Santa Fe. My friend Mary Ann was born and raised there, so she gave us a few recommendations. While there, we visited the Old Town and prowled a few shops, including a wonderful museum store, where we had lively conversations with the proprietor and a few guests. We ate authentic New Mexican food at a local diner, then walked through Burro Alley to the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum.

The museum features decades of the artist’s work, some familiar, like the close-up flower paintings she’s known for, along with works from art school through her later life, when she lost her central vision.

Of particular interest is the final exhibit hall, featuring the work of several Native Pueblo people and addressing some of the conflict between O’Keeffe and the area’s Native people and this country’s relationship to the land we live on, land stolen from native ancestors.

Back in Albuquerque, we had a thrilling ride on an aerial tram that ascended to 10,378 feet, depositing us at the crest of the Sandia Mountains. You can take a peek at the spectacular aerial views of the tram ride on the Sandia Peak Aerial Tramway website.

We took in views from windy observation decks, then enjoyed fruity drinks and decadent creme brulee banana splits while continuing to appreciate the view from our cozy seats.

Each tram holds about twenty standing-room-only passengers, and they alternate along the side of the mountain throughout the day. Employees of the restaurants also travel by tram, as do all the food, beverages, and other items needed to keep things running at the top. It’s an impressive operation.

The climb moves slowly with several brief stops, taking about 15 minutes to reach the top, with a 15-degree drop in temperature once on the decks. We had an amazing time.

Toward the end of the week, Barbara discovered Farm & Table via their Facebook page. This local gem features a restaurant, the family farm, and a cultural gift store called La Parada.

We loved La Parada’s around-the-world offerings and unique displays and enjoyed chatting with the shop owner and curator. La Parada is Spanish for “the stop”. Originally, the building served as a stagecoach stop in the 1800s. You can read more about the history of La Parada and Farm & Table here.

Dinner was fabulous, and we got to wander the gardens afterward, a treat for this gardener’s soul. You couldn’t ask for a nicer evening.

Our final adventure for the week was an interactive murder mystery dinner theater of a sort, more camp than drama, but fun nonetheless.

A man in a tan suit and patterned tie stands holding a rolled document, looking thoughtfully at someone. A woman in a white dress stands in the background, partially obscured by a plant.
Dinner Detective Host
Two women standing next to a banner for 'The Dinner Detective,' featuring a crime scene motif and promoting murder mystery shows.
The Dinner Detective

I’ll end with one of those pinch-me moments: we spotted a roadrunner racing through a commercial parkway, and fortunately, no Wile E. Coyote in pursuit.

A close-up of a roadrunner bird standing on a paved surface, surrounded by small flower petals.
Roadrunner

mweep, mweep

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Bobbing for Apricots and Craving Strawberries

We’re not really going to bob for apricots, but we could.

A close-up view of a tree branch laden with green fruits surrounded by various green plants and foliage.

Apricots hang inches from the ground.

Last year, we hired an arborist to prune our grafted plum and apricot tree. They shaped it beautifully, and it produced lots of fruit, most of it plucked clean by the neighborhood squirrels. No matter. The arborist thought the tree would hold its shape for a few years.

Instead, our grafted fruit tree has sent out long branches, heavy with fruit and dangling close to the ground. I had to prune several branches last month to make the path walkable. When I returned from holiday, the weight of the fruit had pulled most of the apricot branches to within inches of the ground,. The plum graft was standing tall.

This morning, I thinned the branches, removing the ones that were once again draped over the walkway, hoping that the substantial weight doesn’t snap limbs from the tree.  Not for the first time, I may have left a few strands of my hair and a bit of scalp on a low-lying limb. Ouch.

The cherry tomato plant is producing lots of green tomatoes, and the beefsteak has formed at least 2 large fruits.

To our delight, a volunteer strawberry plant appeared under a shrub in the front garden, then sent out runners for a second and perhaps a third plant. So far we’ve had two berries. 

Close-up of strawberry plant leaves and flowers in a garden setting.

Before the advent of tech and the birth of “Silicon Valley,” Santa Clara County was known as the Valley of Heart’s Delight. We were once the largest fruit producer in the United States. 

“Overall, California  produces roughly 90%of all strawberries grown in the United States, with cultivation occurring year-round across approximately 37,000 acres of the state’s central and southern coastal regions.”

All this is to say that if we want delicious, fresh strawberries, there is no need to grow our own. As we move closer to June, I’m looking forward to smoothies, blueberries with frozen yogurt, strawberries, either alone or on cereal, or blended into fruity drinks.

Do you have a summer favorite?

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Celebrating Mike’s Birthday: A Cozy Getaway in Carmel

We celebrated Mike’s birthday with a brief, mid-week holiday to Monterey and Carmel.

A man smiling while standing on a wooden deck by the shore, with rocky coastline and blue ocean in the background under a clear sky.
Mike near Canary Row

Leaving daily life behind for Carmel’s cool, coastal weather and quiet streets felt restorative.

Carmel, California, is a quiet, quaint oceanside town that’s worked hard to keep things that way, and who could blame them?

We had brunch at The Village Corner when we first arrived, and when they brought our bill, it was slipped into a paperback book rather than the usual vinyl folder. Enlarged black-and-white photos of famous people who live or lived in Carmel decorated the walls. Pulitzer Prize winner John Steinbeck is perhaps the most famous.

After brunch, we continued to the center of town and browsed shops and scouted places for dinner. Narrow alleyways and equally narrow stairways are prominent, adding charm to our meandering.

We had a fabulous meal on our first night at Pepi’s Little Napoli Bistro Italiano. The cozy ambiance felt like a warm hug with great service and tasty food. Instead of a large meal, we ordered four dishes to share. I should have skipped dessert, but where is the fun in that? At least we had a twenty-minute walk back to our hotel.

Carmel doesn’t have street lights at night, which proved a bit challenging as we traveled back up the gentle hill to our accommodations.  I wore low-heeled shoes, but heels nonetheless, since we were dressing for dinner. We traversed brick sidewalks, sandy step-downs, and in some places, no walkway at all. Mike was at my side and steadied me a few times, but it was the ultimate test of my new hips. It is fair to say they passed.

The following day, we drove to Cannery Row, immortalized by John Steinbeck in 1945. It wasn’t as I remembered from many years ago, and it is now a bit cheesy, though facades of many buildings still remain. We hung out on the beach at the base of a hotel and took in the vast view of the bay.

Since we were on holiday, we enjoyed ice cream for lunch on the patio at Ghirardelli Chocolate, then took the scenic drive along the Monterey coast. McAbee Beach and Pacific Grove Beach are pictured below

I found a nice linen shirt for Mike’s birthday, and I picked up a small selection of postcards at my favorite pharmacy. We laughed out loud at a display of muslin tea-towels on the back patio of a small shop called Ami Carmel. I quipped to the shop owner that she could charge admission. I bought my son, who is setting up house, the one that says “Stove is for display purposes only.”

A decorative display featuring a sign that says 'STOVE FOR DISPLAY ONLY.' Below it, there is a humorous quote about coffee and wine, emphasizing their importance in life.
Witty tea towels

Highlights included time spent reading and putting our feet up by the gas fireplace, afternoon naps, and snacking from the bag of taffy we picked up at the old-fashioned candy store.

A quaint storefront with a moss-covered, thatched roof, featuring a window display filled with sweets and colorful flowers. The entrance shows a glimpse of a cozy interior, surrounded by greenery and stone pathways.
Cottage of Sweets

Then, just like that, it was time to drive home as we considered our next getaway together.

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And Now It’s May

An extended heat wave in March, followed by a mix of high temperatures and rain, has left my garden confused.

After days of temperatures reaching 15 to 25 degrees above normal, our orange tree started dropping leaves. The pittosporum did the same. I hooked up a hose to our rainwater tanks and gave both trees a long soak, grateful for the stored water.

My self-seeded sweet peas (Lathyrus odoratus) didn’t like the heat either. They normally do well into June as summer temperatures set in, but the prolonged, excessive March heat sent them to seed before April’s end. I pulled them out over the weekend. I have one sweet pea vine hanging on under the Magnolias’ shade, but it, too, is fading.

Under the Acer, Four o’clock plants(Mirabilis jalapa) are up two months early and already blooming. It’s all a bit unsettling.

Temperatures have climbed again this week, as our dry season approaches. San Jose’s semi-arid climate is typically rain-free from May through October.

I’m trying to reset my expectations and remind myself that all the native plants in my garden continue to thrive, and several of the succulents are flowering. 

We shopped for a pair of tomato plants a few weeks ago and dug holes between rainy days. Fresh garden tomatoes are a summer highlight.

I stumbled across a few sunflower plants at a local nursery while shopping for mulch and scooped up three. In recent years, I planted sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) from seeds, but foraging squirrels unearthed them just as quickly. The new plants have already doubled in size, and now the squirrels will have to wait for the bounty. They’re welcome to eat the seeds after I’ve enjoyed the cheerful flowers. (Photo below of California Grey squirrel, 2014)

Elsewhere in the garden, I’ve manifested good fairy energy by turning a redish root into a garden swing, with a former soap dish serving as a ladder to reach it should the fairies choose to rest their wings. More garden debris forms a hanging post for an abutilon bud lantern. The playground resides under the hydrangeas.

I planted two cellpacs of sweet alyssum (Lobularia hybrid) in pots on the back garden steps. The honey scent teases the nostrils, pleasant but not overbearing, and it’s a fan favorite of butterflies and bees. It tolerates the heat better than most annuals.

I spotted a gorgeous orange butterfly this afternoon from our kitchen window, but I was too far away to capture a decent photo. I need to practice my “be like a tree” skills, where I hold still long enough for the butterflies to land and stay awhile. I’ll let you know how I get on.

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Loving Our Planet

“We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.”

~Native Proverb

I’ve always liked this quote, and as we honor Earth Day, it continues to resonate. 

I’m grateful to live in a state with strong environmental laws, beautiful lakes and streams, access to clean drinking water, and a commitment to combating the climate crisis. I hope we’re not too late.

A serene stream flowing through rocky terrain, surrounded by trees and sparse vegetation.
Alum Rock Park, San Jose
A coastal view framed by tree branches, showcasing waves crashing on the shore under overcast skies.
Carmel by the Sea, Carmel
A woman wearing a gray sweater and blue jeans stands on a sandy beach with a seal resting in the background, overlooking a serene ocean view.
Año Nuevo State Park, Elephant Seal in background
Scenic view of a suburban area with palm trees, greenery, and cloudy skies in the background.
View of Silicon Valley from Harwood Hill, San Jose
A serene garden landscape featuring well-manicured lawns, a reflecting pond, and neatly trimmed hedges. In the background, hills are visible under a clear blue sky, with a prominent yellow tree adding a splash of color.
Filoli National Trust, Woodside
A group of sea lions resting on wooden docks above green water.
Beneath the Santa Cruz Wharf
Sea Lions
Three horses grazing in a lush green field with rolling hills in the background under a cloudy sky.
Open Space, San Jose Foothills
A close-up of green and yellow flowering plants among various types of lush foliage in a garden setting, featuring distinct succulents and vibrant orange flowers.
My Humble Garden

“The earth is what we all have in common.” — Wendell Berry

A Pair of Scrappy Cards
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A Pair of Scrappy Cards

I’m sharing two cards for this month’s challenge to create with scraps, hosted by Kate at Tall Tales of Chiconia. The idea is to use up your stash, be it paper, fabric, or any other crafty medium, by creating something new.

The first card uses a pair of patterned paper scraps. The green print is subtle once it’s die-cut into the leafy background, but it still adds variation in tone.  The blue mixed-media styled paper is the last bit of one of my favorite paper packs from 49 and Market. I used it to cut three circles. For dimension, I brushed the outline of each circle with a dark blue distress oxide ink, then added a greeting using vellum. I brushed a light amount of ink on the white card background to soften it, and that’s one scrappy card done.

A decorative card featuring intricate die-cut floral and leaf patterns, layered with circles in shades of blue and a translucent overlay with the text 'for a great friend'. A small blue bird is depicted on one of the circles.

I had a lot of fun with this second card, using a variety of my seemingly endless green scraps to cut multiple pieces of foliage to create a birthday card.

Various pieces of textured green craft paper and metal leaf die cuts arranged on a grid cutting mat.
Green scraps and dies

My friend has recently started collecting and nurturing house plants. She told me about a shop called Leaf & Vine that sells houseplants and indoor plant accessories created by local artisans.

Business card for Leaf & Vine Urban Plant Shop featuring a wooden design.

I bought her a gift card to the store and incorporated it into her birthday card as a faux planter for my scrappy foliage. The gift card is adhered with foam squares, but it can be removed easily when she decides to redeem it.

An open greeting card featuring botanical illustrations, with a cut-out design on the left and a layered green foliage composition on the right, along with a wooden label for 'Leaf & Vine Urban Plant Shop'.
A decorative card displaying greenery patterns and the text 'Leaf & Vine Urban Plant Shop' on a wooden background.

Thank you, as always, Kate, for inspiring this monthly challenge.

You can see what other bloggers are up to at the following links.

Kate, Eva, Sue, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Tracy, Jan, 
Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen,
Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera,
Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Viv, Karrin,  Alissa, Tierney,
Hannah and Maggie

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WordPress Housekeeping (Spring Garden Pics)

I changed the settings in my comment section today. Please let me know if it becomes cumbersome in any way.

More and more, I see “someone” or “anonymous” comments from regular readers. WordPress has settings to avoid spam, but if not logged in, it apparently allows the comment without identifying the user.

Another puzzle, as yet unresolved, showed up earlier this week. My spam folder contained several comments, all from long-time followers. I usually ignore the spam folder, assuming it’s doing its job, so it was a shock to see these lovely comments land there.

I’ve used some of the forums in the past, but without much success, or frankly, patience, trying to get through the weeds. In my world, weeds are tamed from a kneeling pad, garden fork at hand.

If you’re a WordPress user, commenting while logged in lets me know it’s you.

If you’re a friend popping in from Facebook, you can leave your name and email address (the email is never published), so I know it’s you.

And finally, as my mother used to say: “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” Alas, that’s what the spam filter is for, yet here we are.

My garden:

Shaded garden
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Two-Ingredient Flower Vases

The lovely Cathy at Rambling in the Garden encourages her followers to share a vase of flowers from our garden each Monday. It’s also a fun way to explore the creative side of flower arranging. She calls it In a Vase on Monday or IAVOM.

It’s April, so the options are plentiful.

I’ve cut flowers for three vases today, using two garden components in each.

The tall glass jar has been patiently waiting for long stems. My friend Jasmin filled it with sunflowers and brought it to a dinner party earlier this year. I’m happy to have three lovely Calla Lily (Zantedeschia aethiopica) stems to show off the glass shape. I’ve clipped twining green fern (asparagus setaceus) for a walk on the wild side.

A clear vase holding three white calla lilies and green fern leaves, placed on a textured table outdoors.

My second vase, also a gift, came from a friend’s kitchen. I’ve been helping her declutter, and when I spotted this pretty pitcher, I mentioned how much I loved the pattern. Portmieren debuted this collection in 1972 when I was 12. She said it had belonged to her mother, and she was getting rid of it, so lucky me. 

It’s not intended for flowers, but that’s never stopped me. My research indicates it’s a “Garden Drum Jug Pitcher from their Portmieren Botanical Garden collection,” but around here it will now be known as a flower vase. I’ve filled it with sweet peas (Lathyrus odoratus) and sprigs of Jerusalem sage (Phlomis fruticosa), a soft-leafed beauty from the garden.

The final vase for the day is a tiny treasure I picked up in nearby Campbell from a shop that sells items made in California.  It’s no taller than a deck of cards, but perfect for these sprigs of Silver Siberian bugloss (Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’), along with more of the green fern.

A small blue vase holding a few green leaves and delicate blue flowers, placed on a black table in a garden setting with blurred greenery in the background.
A vase containing greenery and delicate blue flowers, placed on a table outdoors.

I’ve placed the first vase on our dining table,

A wooden dining table set with a floral centerpiece featuring white calla lilies in a glass vase. The table is adorned with a decorative cloth, and wooden chairs are positioned around it.

the sweet peas in our living room,

A black clock displaying the time on a wooden table next to a white pitcher filled with vibrant purple and pink flowers, accompanied by a small green bowl containing decorative cards.

and the wee vase on a shelf in my crafting room.

Two framed illustrations hanging on a wall, featuring architectural sketches. Below them is a decorative table with various items, including a colorful pot, a small painting, and a vase with greenery.

It’s sitting on my “homage to Canada” shelf, along with a photo of my mom, and other Canada treasures. The framed art above are a pair of garden designs from one of my dad’s horticulture studies. The mixed media tag with the nigella is a gift from artist and blogger Wilma Millette nd the postage card is from my friend Donna.

Please visit Cathy, our In a Vase on Monday host, at Rambling in the Garden to see what others are sharing. I promise an uplifting experience.