The Week that Was: My story of the 2015 Willow Fire I heard the news online and called my husband, Tractor Man to come look. We could see a column of smoke at the far end of the valley two miles away.. This would become the 5,700-acre 2015 Willow Fire, which began at 2:30 pm on…
Here in the Sierra foothills of California, sometimes the Autumn season brings a feeling of melancholy to gardeners, faced with drooping faded flowers, drizzly rains and overcast skies. Larry Rettig, a member of Dave’s Garden website, pondered this feeling one day while out walking and a poem just came to him that expressed all the…
Do you get up early? I do,…but have found that many couples have one. One that gets up at dawn and the other who sleeps through it all. The cool air, the purplish cast in the early, early dawn, the soft peeping of the first birds all draw me out to sleepily make my coffee.…
Across the valley, where Willow Creek flows south, there is a tall sugarpine that becomes backlit at a certain point in the morning. It must be on our side of the mountain, but far below. Here it is in November: Early morning, February 15th, I woke up to see everything covered in a frosting of…
While going out to photograph my ‘first views’ of February in my California mountain garden, I already know that my predictions of January 1st,…that we’d have snow by now, are false. My photos are for Town Mouse’s meme, First Views. Visit her post, and sign in to the Mr Linky tool there to join in! …
The first photo is from a set taken this month after a small fire broke out in the valley a mile up from my California mountain garden. It shows a Ponderosa pine tree superimposed over the column of smoke. The second photo shows the same tree appearing through the gathering storm. Welcome rain! The valley…
Did you think you were through gardening in California Sierra mountains? Usually we have rain and snow, but noooo. Here are more winter gardening ideas and things to do for the Sierra foothill garden in California: Get ready to sow seeds. Rake out and remove weeds in the area you want to seed. Do not add…
We took this photo up on the hill above our house, in the California Sierra foothills on Tuesday. There is still fire danger out there and you can see the burned trees from 12 years ago. This smoke above was from a stolen car set on fire. Fire slowly spread through our property in August 2001 before we…
Winter solstice 2011
The winter solstice — which marks the beginning of winter and the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere — comes tonight at 12:30 am EST. Afterward, the days will get longer. Celebration time!…
How the wind blows here… Here by the national forest, when you don’t hear anything unless there is something, you pay attention to change in sound. Tucked in bed last night with a book and just one small light, I did not hear, as much as became aware, of a soft steady sound like a…
Color in the garden Not only plants provide color in the Sierra foothills… On certain days in the fall, the setting sun focuses its light in a strip of light on the mountain. All these views are looking east onto the Peckinpah Ridge. It’s a sign of the changing season to me. Even on stormy…
Learning about watering for California natives …and some Mediterranean plants in a home garden in the Sierra Foothills. I like to hand water. It’s relaxing, …cool on a hot day, I can watch over the newly-establishing plants and weed a bit in the wet, soft soil. I like a hose sprayer that doesn’t leak…
Welcome Summer!
On the summer solstice which is today, the Northern Hemisphere receives more sunlight than on any other day of the year, but that doesn’t mean the first day of summer is also the hottest day of summer,…except here where I live.
Rudbeckia, Black-Eyed Susan, a California native
Garden first, breakfast second
Going out to the garden first thing with a cup of coffee and some clippers can be a good way to start the day during our summer heat spells in the Sierra Foothills. I try to take advantage of the long days by getting out in the garden before I eat breakfast! Watering pots and clipping the spent blooms in the garden are much more pleasant then and it’s amazing how much you can do in half an hour or so. With no chores in mind, you can putter and groom, pinching a flower here and there before you begin your day. …
As some of you know, I live very near Yosemite National Park, a place where my family has vacationed since I was a small child. My parents traveled here in 1950 and fell in love, as a young married couple, with the incredible granite walled canyon and the Merced River running thrugh it all. We camped,…
Come into the snowy garden
Everything in life is speaking, in spite of its apparent silence.
~Hazrat Inayat Khan
Come in,...sit down, I want my garden to see you.
Icy bird bath, no bathers today.
There is a way that nature speaks, that land speaks. Most of the time we are simply not patient enough, quiet enough, to pay attention to the story.
~Linda Hogan
5:30 am- After making the coffee and finishing up last night’s dishes and the family sleeps, turned around to see the sky lit up with red, …another brilliant sky for Christmas Day dawn. Grabbed the camera and bounded up the hill to photograph it over the house and over the goat shed. Not feeling the…
