The Perigee Moon and the Camellia

This cousin to the camellia which gives us tea, came to full bloom
 in the garden on May 5th, under a Wesak moon.
It takes well to that same soil that gives us the redwoods and
rhododendrons here on the Pacific north coast. Some people have made tea
from its leaves and say it contains more caffeine. I've never tried it.

I took this photo with the eastern sky and the rising moon behind me.
When I looked at the picture, I was surprised to see a tiny moon
 above the tip of a petal noting the day.

That so translucent a bloom

without scent 

would be reminiscent of 

 a simple cup of tea

in the dusky morning,

  

who would have thought 

what that would one day signify

on a perigee moon

on the fifth of May

...

This Wooden Drum

Earth, Air, Fire, and Water

here am I your long lost daughter.

To ocean’s sand and mountain’s loam

I have returned I have come home.

I wandered off a little child

into a storm, a tempest wild.

No wind no rain did fuel this storm

its tumult was of mortals born.

Earth, Air Fire, and Water

Here am I your weary daughter.    

I've traveled far through dimming skies 

and stumbled long with blinded eyes.

Pray let me sleep and dream awhile

on lily petals by the Nile.

Or I could curl up in a bower 

atop the tallest redwood tower.

Earth, Air, Fire, and Water

here am I your beloved daughter.  

This wooden drum is all I own

my hands upon it brought me home.

... 

Photograph by ©Brian Allison

bcaphotography.com
brian@lostcoastprinting.com
lostcoastprinting.com

as always, poem by Judy

...

Redwoods Mantra

In the heart of the redwoods

the living silence stands.

All else flutters, drapes, and dims.

If I lower my eyes

in no way obtrusive

I too am a veil

on the breath within.

...

The Eve of Idiocy

on the eve of idiocy
she saw children pressed between headlines
like dead flowers
loved ones go and never come back
from three wars

on the eve of idiocy
she looked back
upon the road to madness
she'd so much enjoyed
in her youth

on the eve of idiocy
the moon
eclipsed

.......

Winter Rainbow

yesterday's rainbow following the rain

leading off the holidays

Back in 2010

Pelargoniums

This 'rose scented geranium' is not that common in the garden shops that sell scented pelargoniums. It has slightly wooly leaves and might be Pelargonium capitatum sometimes called "Attar of Roses". I doubt it is the rose scented Pelargonium graveolens which is much more common in the gardens of this geographical area, the Pacific north coast of California, as the leaves are not lacily lobed. When the leaves are distilled, they give up the most lovely rosy scented floral water, the hydrosol. Every winter when there is a bit of snow, many of them die ulesss we remember to throw a light tarp over them in the evenings.

After the really cold winter we had a few years ago, it's taken many cuttings and until now for there to be enough to distill in my funny old pot still that we set on the top of the stove - one large grocery bag packed full of leaves.

I've never tried growing this plant indoors, though some sources say they do fine in front of a bright window. I think I'll take some cuttings before the night freeze comes which means I should do this tomorrow as their has been frost in the mornings and otherwise quite cold.

If I am able to keep the bulk of the rose geraniums from freezing this winter, next spring we'll be able to distill some hydrosol, perhaps a quart or two. 

Somebody Hung A Gong On The Buddleia

.

It makes a good doorbell.

Fern Bug in the Morning Dew

Each moment has the potential to expose a cosmos

that is not anthropocentric.

Pumpkin Spider

In the fall, the garden is full of of large spiders, Pumpkin Spiders. This one made her presence known on her web beside the gate into the garden about two weeks ago. She has woven her web inside out beside the pathway. That's why we see her underside.

Every day she appears from her hiding place somewhere in the foliage at the edges of her web and sits in the sun for the entire afternoon. Every day at sunset, she disappears back into the leaves and makes herself very small. Anyone who has ever picked raspberries or blackberries knows how startling it is to reach for a berry and have one of these spiders run out from beneath the nearby leaf.  Now that the weather has changed, she waits until the rain has stopped and then only comes out in the afternoons. Her place of rest during a storm is now in the salal berries growing behind the white wooden slats.

She has probably lived here all summer and we didn't notice her before because she would have been very small. In the fall, there is much more food in the greenery which these spiders inhabit, and the pumpkin spiders grow enormous at a very speedy rate. Since their sudden and amazing surge in size makes them more obvious around Halloween and since their body resembles a pumpkin, it is believed this is why they are called Pumpkin Spiders.

So, to not get them caught in our clothes or hair - they are everywhere in the shrubbery and plants and thus somewhat out of sight of  the birds and those who come upon them unknowingly -  and since they eat so many bugs, in the fall we take a break from working in the garden and leave the Pumpkin Spiders to do their business. When we walk through the gate, we are careful not to brush against her web. She ignores us.

No one I know would ever willingly kill a pumpkin spider and they are not feared for their bite as are our black widows and brown recluses and more recently, the hobo which is said to be migrating south from Oregon and Washington. Some even say they don't bite. I don't know about this for certain as they most probably are capable. However, I've gotten them caught in my hair and on my clothes many times and I haven't ever been bitten.

Any day now, she will have a name, should one come to mind.

Mosgo's

After York, after Knockengorroch on the last Saturday in August, Adam goes back to California, borrows Lib's guitar, gets in Marlan's old ranch truck and heads down the road to Mosgo's. A London pub it's not - it's a cool little coffee shop complete with local artwork hanging on the walls, computers linked by wireless internet, lots of freshly baked pastries, and an efficient sound man.  No beer, but nobody minds. The music is great and everyone enjoys themselves, Adam and audience alike.

In a few days Adam will be back in London and on his way to a music festival with Errol Linton and the Blues Vibe in Buddy's van, not Marlan's pick-up truck, but this night he's playing the Blues in a small town in northern California and they like it.

Sigh, Another Fallen Chimney Swift

This morning, another little bird, another Vaux's Swift came down the chimney. It is fat and healthy, so I did as they suggested in the Wildlife Care Center.  I picked it up and I reached as far up the chimney as I could and placed it against the side so it would cling to the bricks and creep its way back up to its nest. It grasped onto the bricks when I let go of it. See Marley in the background? The little birds make him nervous. Either he is worried that this one is a rat - the little swifts screech and screech at times - or that he will get into trouble in some way to do with the little bird. This is a photo of the previous bird to fall from the nest. I didn't take a photo of the one that fell today because I wanted to get him back up the chimney as quickly as possible. Also, it isn't a good idea to handle them unless they need rescuing or feeding. If you look closely at the bird's tail (click on the photograph to blow it up),  you can see little spines at the tip of each tailfeather that the chimney swift sticks into whatever it is clinging to.

I have gone back to the fireplace many times to listen and try and discern if the little bird is okay and will keep watch over the next days to make certain it has not fallen down the chimney. It appears that it has climbed farther up the chimney from where I placed it.  Every day, we can hear the calls of the babies as their parents come down the chimney from above. So much so, you'd think they were inside the room.

Falling Birds

We call them chimney swifts. Sometimes they are called 'faux swallows' or Vaux's Swifts. Without slowing in flight, the parents dive down the chimney to their nests which they had constructed out of sticks held together and stuck to the bricks with spit, much the same spit that holds together the bird's nests in China that become the Chinese delicacy 'bird's nest soup'. Bird's nest soup has not caught on here.

The chimney swifts cannot perch as they do not have the opposing talon - birds' versions of thumbs. They cling to things and are great at climbing up and down on vertical surfaces.

This year, the babies have been tumbling from their nest to the hearth below. When they are as old and fat as this one (I was told after I took it to the Wildlife Care Center), you can reach up into the chimney provided there is no flu or you can reach past the flu  and set the baby on the wall and it will either creep back up to it's nest or the mother will come down to the baby to feed it. I decided to leave it with its 3 other siblings I had taken to the care center each of the three days before this one fell from its nest. This little one has a little bit of food on its beak as it was just fed emergency food to keep it from getting dehydrated (soppy dry dog food made into a pudding is one recommended formula) before I took it to the Wildlife Care Center.  Today, the care center told me it has survived as did all of its siblings I had rescued, but one, who had also come down the chimney. Hopefully, it is the last one to fall. When these babies are ready to fly (perhaps in a week), they will be brought back, nearby my house, where they were born to be released.

After the nest or nests are empty and the birds have flown south, we must put a screen across the chimney once again. It is too worrying to have the little ones tumble down the chimney. Even the dog gets upset as he has been trained to not chase birds and when the little ones are cheeping and flapping about, he gets up and goes into another room.