. ~ Hello! ~ .
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Here are just a few snapshots of the last few weeks...
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| My friend and coworker, David, and I took his kayaks out on the Napa River. We had a great time exploring the river from Kennedy Park at the south end of town almost all the way to Trancas on Napa's north side. We saw a lot of birds, including green herons, osprey, and kingfisher. It was a fun day! |
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| I helped my good friend Eddie's dad with a nice low-water perennial flower bed. It was fun to design a garden that doesn't have to contend with deer. I picked a lot of my favorite plants with the goal of "tons of color" in mind. Rudbeckia, Coreopsis, Buddleia, Gaura, Salvia, Heuchera, Ceanothus, Gaillardia, Kniphofia, Monarda, Japanese Anemone, Oenothera... |
Oh, and while we did not do any fishing on kayak day, I have been casting a line around the house whenever I get the chance... and I caught a pretty big catfish the other day!
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| We'll be eating good tonight! |
An update on the outdoor cat situation: While I am proud to have gotten 3 young cats fixed this year, I am slowly coming to terms with the notion that I may be the only one feeding them, and may have to do it on a regular basis... I only started doing this so that I could trap them, but now I don't think they are going to the neighbor's house for food anymore. They live around my house and act like I am their sole food provider, and I can't let them go hungry, sooo......
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| The 3 closest cats are the 3 that seem to have "moved in" with me, sleeping in my salvia bushes and lounging on the outdoor furniture. |
I learned about a species of native bee I wasn't previously familiar with. The digger bee. They are solitary bees (so they don't pool their resources and do that level of social stuff). They nest in holes in the ground. And I believe it is the same species of bee that I was so excited to catch a video recording of as it "buzz pollinated" my tomato flowers last year. "Buzz pollinating" is a special coevolution between some species of bees and some species of plants, which have flowers requiring a certain frequency vibration in order to shake loose their pollen and pollinate the flower more efficiently. Tomatos are one such plant. Anyway, the digger bees have a slightly wider body shape, and more of a black-white coloration, rather than the stereotypical black-yellow of, say, a honeybee.
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| This one was into the Agastache at the nursery. Digger bees are a little more rapid-moving than honeybees, making for a challenging photo shoot! |
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| Coming in for a landing. . . |
Here is another snapshot from Van Winden's, the nursery I work at. Our "California Native Plants" corner! We started grouping some of our natives here a year or so ago and it has been a nice feature of the bedding section of the nursery. With water restrictions going into place and more and more awareness of drought and the advantage of planting water-wise plants, which many California natives are, more and more people have been seeking out native plants.
With summer setting in and the land drying up, as it does every year, I am proud to have a good selection to offer our customers! A perk of being the plant orderer is I get to represent plants I really believe in, and that makes me feel good at the end of the day.
And meanwhile, back at my own home, I have a nursery table of my own plants:
What has been really exciting me lately (I think about checking on them every morning and it motivates me to do my day 😊) are these Dudleya farinosa I started from seeds collected out around Salt Point this past winter. Dudleyas are commonly referred to as "Live-Forever", as they are slow growing and some can be very long-lived, poking out of cracks and crevices in cliffsides along the California coast, as well as inland.
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| Those two in the back right are the standout over-achievers of the bunch. My little guys!! 💚 |
And last but not least, a throwback to the Fourth of July when Mark and I collaborated on some seafood paella cooked over open flame in Mom's backyard. We used clams, shrimp, chicken, peppers and a bunch of other good flavors - Yummy yummy yummy!
~ Thanks for tuning in ~
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~ Have a beautiful rest of your day! ~
