Category: Glimpses

The Palo Verde Tree

Our local botanical gardens is open again! I took one of the dogs, Smudge, my X100V, and off we went, following the trails up and down. We have missed a lot of the early spring blooms, such as the narcissus and daffodils, but the trees are beginning to blossom. At the top of the hill is the cactus garden, filled with a variety of desert plants. There are barrel cactus, crowns of thorns, cholla, saguaro. Other drought-tolerant plants are there, too. The best of the day, though, was the Palo Verde tree, fully dressed in its light yellow-green leaves.

Last Year, This Year

Fire season has begun! Up the coast, along Highway 101, the first fire has broken out near Gaviota. The land is hilly and grassy, and rugged in areas. This makes stopping the fire more challenging, and when the winds pick up, it can travel so fast. We have been having a heat wave in the 90s F for the past few days – today is supposedly the last one like that in our area. Then, down into the 70s F, which is much nicer. I used to love the hot winds, but they have become more fierce and destructive over the last few years that they are more frightening than ever.

This photo shows what we can be up against. The new spring growth, becoming lush in our seasonal rains, changes to dry, dead tinder for a wildfire. The swath of grey is last season’s new growth.

Early Morning

Today promises to be frying hot – 91F or more. The house is already closed up to keep it cool – thank goodness for modern insulation! – so we don’t have to use the air conditioning. I took this image not too long ago on a considerably cooler day, and that is what I want to think about rather than suffocating heat! The plus side of the heat is flowers love it and as it is too hot and bright to go outside for strenuous activities, it is a perfect day to do things around the house, like sewing and such. Domestic life suffers in the summer around here.

Wooleryness

My box of knitting – a sweater in the round, to be steeked into a cardigan. The whole process of steeking entails sewing down a bead on either side of where you CUT THE SWEATER. From there, well, let’s wait until then! Too scary to contemplate for a first-time activity.

Oh, how Covid-19 makes you bored and brave (or foolish) at the same time!