Published in Tea with Mother Nature

·2 days ago

Whenever I see sunflowers, smiles, sunshine, and joy follow

Mammoth sunflowers earn top honors as my favorite variety. The garden drama queen grows up to a foot with 10- to-12 inch flowers. Just seeing those rich yellow petals wrapped around its burnt-almond orb sparks images of fairies hiding in the leaves and peeking out from the flowers. Or maybe…

Outdoors

3 min read

Whenever I see sunflowers, smiles, sunshine, and joy follow

Published in The Shortform

·2 days ago

A Blast Of Color Fills A White Picket Fence

Sometimes one flowering plant can make a rainbow. The hedge can grow, trail along a fence, and look like the color of Fruit Loops. Lantanas do just that. In California, they bloom every year and come in an assortment of colors including lavender, white, and multiple shades of pink. Once…

Flowers

1 min read

A Blast Of Color Fills A White Picket Fence

Sometimes one flowering plant can make a rainbow.

The hedge can grow, trail along a fence, and look like the color of Fruit Loops.

Lantanas do just that.

In California, they bloom every year and come in an assortment of colors including lavender, white, and multiple shades of pink. Once…

Published in Tea with Mother Nature

·3 days ago

Bountiful lemon tree grows from roots in Southern California

Three decades ago I planted a small stick in the ground. The scrawny thing grew from a lemon seed I carefully germinated from my father-in-law's prolific backyard lemon tree. The thing is, my father-in-law, Al, lived in Southern California in the breezy, salty coastal town of Santa Monica. My husband…

Outdoors

3 min read

Bountiful lemon tree grows from roots in Southern California

Published in Tea with Mother Nature

·Jun 11

Butterflies Soak Up the Nectar

I love butterflies. I had a butterfly net as a child and spent days idly chasing after Tiger swallowtails, Black swallowtails, Viceroys, Clouded sulphur, and so many other species. I took their abundance for granted. I’d capture them and put them quietly to sleep until they died. Then I mounted…

Insects

1 min read

Published in Tea with Mother Nature

·Jun 10

The boysenberries are here, hooray!

I confess. I picked some of the boysenberries too soon because that first bowlful is always the best. The red ones are a bit tart. The dark black ones are tangy and sweet. We planted the sprawling vine on the western fence about 25 years ago. Each fall my husband…

Food

2 min read

Published in Tea with Mother Nature

·May 31

Geese and goslings munch on greens

The park is busy on a windy, upper-70s day. After walking for a few miles the occasional gust feels delicious, as I aim for the shade. The creek that borders the trail is quite low. I remember years ago when we had torrential rains. The waterway greeted me with another…

Nature

3 min read

Published in Tea with Mother Nature

·May 25

A Fence Full of Jasmine and Joy

The weather turned quite hot, into the upper 90s, and the star jasmine broke out in bloom all at once along the side of the house. The vine with its ivory-scented flowers has completely overtaken the redwood fence flowing down to the ground. …

Flowers

2 min read

Published in Tea with Mother Nature

·May 16

Diverse plants and trees live in unison, a roadmap for humanity

Unlike people, these various plants, the Prickly pear cactus, fuchsia bougainvillea, and yes – look closely – an orange tree have all managed to cohabit in small quarters. Ironically, this profoundly diverse grouping of vegetation all has thorns. Yet, the Prickly pear cactus will fruit in the summer, while the…

Nature

2 min read