for most of the weekend there’s been a gentle rain falling and soaking into all of our LA gardens, including mine. a high bank of clouds has remained over the hills in my highland park neighborhood with an occasional flotilla of bright white cloudpuffs sailing overhead. it’s been atmospheric and cozy. sweater weather.
and on my morning walks, every berry, petal, and leaf was alive with silver orbs. drip drip drip
with the gentle rainfall many angelenos tuck inside, light their fires, and pretend we’re having a proper winter. i would do the same if i had a fireplace. but since i don’t, i like to tromp about the gardens and inhale the fresh scents of fecund earth, blooming flowers, scented leaves, pine needles, bark.
i move quietly down dark paths through the forest all aloney on my owney. deep breath in. deep breath out.
the flowering shrubs glow beside rain-soaked trunks.
globes of water wait for a breeze to set them into motion.
this is a fairy forest. especially enchanting since rain has been rare this year.
our california lilacs are blooming – lavender petals, tightly huddled together.
i spied a wildly cresting euphorbia of some sort. what strange bit of genetic mutation causes these plants to forego their normal stemmed structures and produce these fan shapes? for now it is a mystery to me, but i am a great admirer of their wild & lovely crested curves and clusters.
enormous ruffly poppies. 3-4 feet tall and just beginning to bloom.
in my next life i will be a traveling botanist. collecting specimens for illustration. recording growth habits and methods of seed dispersion.
do you see the ladybug?
i bow to the kingdom of plants.
over and over again. each one stranger and finer than the last.
when i got home i flung the windows and doors open wide. sat at my desk and wrote down my thoughts. listened to the birds and dripping water.
i got a few things drawn and recorded in the sketchbooks this week.
i saw a hanging basket of jasmine today on my walk and decided that is what i will do with this plant! a hanging basket on the back patio and next spring cascading masses of tiny white flowers to enjoy.
i’m still enjoying the sweet perfume she makes inside.
while i was writing i started to wonder where my stickers had gone. i searched high and low and couldn’t find them. but did find a dust jacket under a pile. one search led to another and soon i was going through the bookcases and finding things from previous searches, but no book and no stickers. no matter.
since my shelves were overflowing again i made a collection to take to one of the little free libraries on a nearby street. in between a couple of light rain sessions i headed out to make my delivery. i like to take stock of what’s in the wooden house of books and rearrange. make the display enticing to the casual passer-by. i wonder who will select a dog-eared copy of the kama sutra i donated. who will want some old ivan doig novels or a book on the warming planet, a woman’s guide to mythological symbols. hmmmm…
i am in desperate need of wider bookcases and will have some made especially for moss cottage this summer. wider shelves to hold my little-old-lady-in-training knick knack collection as well as my growing shell & beach glass collections. not to mention the mountains of books.
i managed to find this 1996 mini-series on ebay. based on the rosamunde pilcher book i listened to recently. excellent! it features a few of the actresses from call the midwives. i’m carefully rationing it. one hour per night.
that’s all the news that’s fit to print friends. hope your weekend is drawing to a lovely close, that you have lots to look forward to on the horizon, and that you aren’t chasing your tail around your house looking for books or cat stickers.
I thought you might live in Highland Park. Both sets of grandparents lived there so every Sunday we would visit from San Gabriel. Those certainly were the good ol’ days!
Life is speeding by for me these days. Trying to figure out where I shall move to once I put my home up for sale. Not a clue… Maybe because it will be hard to say goodbye to this wonderful place. A place I designed and the land I found to put it on and all my wonderful plants. Each day is filled with trying to downsize my things. So at the end of the day, I am exhausted. But I always save emails from the mistress of Moss Cottage to read. I love your outlook on life and all your travels you’ve taken us on. And then there is Wyatt a cat I’ve never met but am in love with. When he was ill I worried. Just love his pictures and seeing what he has been up to. Never stop blogging Mary Ann, please. I went and read Valerie’s post and she does write beautifully too. My blog is sleeping right now but hopes to wake up soon.
wait. you’re selling your log cabin with the 10 acres and gardens?!
remind me again of your location. PNW i know, but where exactly?
will you relocate in that general area?
WAKE that blog up and lemme know when you do. xo
Hi Mary Ann –
Funny you should say, “Wish you had a blog” because I DO have a blog. I haven’t posted in over a year and I’m not likely to post now since my life has changed so much in the last 2 years. I established my blog as a means to help me cope with living on country property and maintaining sanity. It did help me to write about my tribulations from 2012 to around 2016. I’ve included 3 posts you might enjoy as a way of knowing me better. I don’t think I’ll renew my domain with the server at the end of this month as I’m not using it anymore so I don’t know if these posts will still be accessible in a couple of weeks. But here you go. I’m glad I found your blog. I really enjoy it.
http://www.accidentalhayseed.com/2013/08/does-this-quilt-make-me-look-fat.html
http://www.accidentalhayseed.com/2015/07/a-hot-cup-of-redemption.html
http://www.accidentalhayseed.com/2015/08/ask-and-you-shall-recieve.html
oh drat. i do wish you’d keep blogging. but if you can’t i guess i better get to reading before the show is over! loved this post…
“So, we sold almost everything we owned and loaded up the car and moved to a part of the country that had been calling to us. A place that’s brand, spankin’ new. At least to us. Remember when we were young and we’d close our eyes, decide to do something and then do it without overthinking it? Ok, some of those things turned out crappy but what about the stuff that turned out so good that you still can’t believe it happened to you?
That’s what I’m looking forward to.”
Oh my, those rain-kissed berries! Just gorgeous! Loved the post. Love your pix.
Loved the intimacy of your photos, the sense of wonder of both images and words, and the serenity of: “i move quietly down dark paths through the forest all aloney on my owney. deep breath in. deep breath out”.
From another “deep breather” here.
That odd looking plant is called a fasciation, and you can read about it on wikipedia here : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasciation. These are said to be highly prized for Japanese flower arranging…I’ve seen several at my local Ikebana club’s shows.
another mystery solved! will log into my Open Cases book!
good work grasshopper.
I regularly enjoy your missives. We just saw a very sad film on how the coral reefs are dying. The name of the film was Chasing Coral. Blessings on you. Mary Blakney
i have heard of their death. dreadful!
thanks for this. i don’t know this documentary.
I absolutely love your blog!! Pictures and words are wonderful and uplifting. Keep posting.
why thank you missus joyce 🙂
Oh Mary Ann. Your shining spirit and words and photos filled with wonder, color, and gratitude were a comforting balm. Thank you beautiful friend, you are radiant.
xo
Had no idea there was a miniseries of “September.” I do remember Angela Lansbury being in a miniseries of “Shell Seekers,” which never ever lived up to the book. 🙁
Hello dear,
When will you be up in my neck o’ the woods? Drop me an email.
xx
Your nature pics are always tremendous. Oh my gosh….did not know September came in a DVD! Keep us posted if it’s good enough to search after!
it’s very 90’s flavored, but i confess to enjoying it. give me your address (click on email link) and i’ll send it your way when i’m done. you can pass it along to the next person!
Awesome floral photos!! We saw our first ladybugs of the season on Saturday ~ a sure sign of spring!
Plants are some of the best-dressed people. Have you been to Theodore Payne nursery, urveyor of native plants and seeds in La Crescenta? When I lived in LA, I loved to visit the Yaupon holly, the stand of Romneya (Matilija poppy, which I cannot grow in central TX due to freeze/snow) and to see things like pine cones the size of a football.
yes have been to theodore payne nursery.
the matilija poppies are just beginning to releaf from their old stalks this time of year
I loved your photos! Especially the red berries and lovely Borage with the lady bird on it! WE have had some lovely rain here in Brisbane , further north whole town’s cut off including kids on a school camp.. Supposed to be three days but they were there for at least another 2! Bet they were the longest days of those teachers lives.. Enjoy the rain!
I love your photos! How nice it is to see such vivid landscapes in the heart of LA. Maybe in my next life I’ll take high quality photos like you and paint like you. Thanks for the inspiration! I’ll be heading to Miami and Key West later this month. I think I’ll take my sketch pad with me and see what happens.
Hello, I am new to your blog, subscribed last night. I learned of you ( and the blog) from my Mom. I read some of your previous posts – am so enjoying it all! I also live in California, Salinas to be exact. AND I’m am elementary school teacher here in my town too. I also LOVE plants, but don’t paint, so I will enjoy that through you. Wonderful photos and commentary….oh, and I too have cats, both followed me around the yard all day today as I worked, dug, trimmed, pulled, etc. We have a lot in common. Enjoy your week and I’ll look forward to your next post
hi jamie! salinas! home of the john steinbeck library if memory serves me. haven’t been through there in years, but i always loved the small town feel of it.
valerie i’m using my iphone – it takes great up close photos! far away…not so good, kinda grainy
wish you had a blog so i could follow along on your journey back to florida. haven’t been to key west since the mid-1980’s