THE GARDEN

It has been a difficult year for the garden, I suspect this is due to the drought. Although we have to fight the birds and raccoons, we usually get pretty good Apple and Fig crops but this year both trees gave minimal produce.

 

Up until last year, the pomegranates came in OK, but they were kinda bitter, but two years ago, someone suggested feeding that tree with coffee grounds, and while last year, we had a pretty tasty harvest, but we are pretty much looking at the entire 2015 harvest (small in quantity, but the flavor is finally there).

 

Last night, we took another blow.

Sub freezing temperatures are rare here in the East Bay, but we are experiencing a bout of it now. Our Meyer Lemon tree just emerged from its November/December dormancy, and is currently pregnant with fruit. Naturally, we waited until nightfall to decide to protect it from the frost, so I was out there climbing a ladder in the dark.

 

This morning, the dog’s water bowl was topped with a layer of ice. I suspect that many of the fruit tree buds are damaged.

Will this take a further toll on our produce? Who knows, Mother Nature has some pretty strong survival mechanisms working for her.

They say that what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger. Maybe the buds that survive the frost will cause the whole plant to produce more vigorously.

As Roseanne Roseannadanna would say, ” It’s always something”.

 

 

Advertisement

MEN AT WORK

 

 

Not long ago, my friend Claudia called me.

We worked together about 15 years ago, but a few years after we went separate ways, and I lost track of her. We reconnected through the metal arts community that my wife is part of, and I am grateful. Among her other qualities, Claudia has a curious mind, and is someone who I could sit and talk to for hours (and often did).

I tend to remember people by their sense of humor, and never forgot something Claudia said to me once- “Women don’t need a sign to let someone know they are working”.

On the day she called me, I was going to San Francisco, to spend the afternoon walking around exercising my photography muscle, and decided to exercise my body as well by walking up Telegraph Hill to Coit Tower, a monument that a SF philanthropist built and dedicated to the City. In the small visitors rotunda at the base of the Tower is a circular mural that depicts much of San Francisco’s alliance with worker causes that were prominent at the time.

There must have been a cosmic connection because it was too much of a coincidence that I was there on the same day that I had spoken with Claudia, so I took this photo to commemorate the cosmicness of it all.