Foothill area history, discovered… The question was, ‘Does anyone know anything about this map?’ Found at a thrift shop or on eBay, I can’t remember, I put this map in a frame in 2005, and loved how it provided a context to the setting of our new home in the foothills. The map clearly shows Bass…
I learned Latin names of plants from my mother at an early age and become a logophile, a lover of words, especially gardening terms and names of plants. I love the richness of all the local and ancient names of flowers and plants. In this charming essay, you’ll find a schedule of bloom that, if…
Field Trip: Hornitos On a recent photo trek through the area between the Sierra foothills and the Central Valley of California, the little tiny town of Hornitos was found, baking in the 105 degree heat. My brother Ken accompanied me. Quiet and deserted now, the one-street town once had 15,000 people living there, Mexicans who…
Why do they do it? Not for fortune or fame–few outside native plant circles know who they are. People like Lester Rowntree, a plant explorer extraordinaire, who traveled the length and breadth of California to find and record the locations and characteristics of California native plants simply lived for this ‘doing.’ When’s the last time you thought…
Today, since the backyard hen house is the new dog house, I have a short biography to share for any of my chicken loving friends. Documenting chicken breeds and,….family history! Franklane Sewell (1866 -1945) lived in Buchanan, Michigan for many years in a house on Walton Road, a house with a north facing skylight. There was both…
After establishing our home on Malum Ridge, looking out onto Peckinpah Mountain, I heard from neighbors about the logging history in our town of North Fork, CA. I became curious about the Peckinpah name and being a bit of a history buff, I decided to dig a bit further. This is what I found. Peckinpah Mountain rises 6000…
Lewis & Clark discoveries we can plant… In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson requested $2500 from Congress to send Meriwether Lewis and William Clark off on the Corps of Discovery expedition. See how their discoveries influenced the garden world of today in our foothills! Lasting from 1804 to 1806, this was the first exploration of the new…
