Chorus of Winter Buds

This is a really sweet book that shows the winter buds of plants that look strangely human: Chorus of Winter buds.

This book is very reminiscent of Karl Blossfeldt's photos from Urformen der Kunst, only with poetry and a humorous slant.

I first heard about Karl Blossfeldt while taking a drawing class with my daughter and several other grade-school children.  What fun that class was to see how kids draw.

Even Famous Architects build Fruit and Vegetable Gardens

I was looking through the Bernard Maybeck archives in the UC Berkeley Environmental Design Archives and ran across this plan for a fruit tree and vegetable garden. The garden is for the Leon L. Roos House in San Francisco.

Look! A vegetable garden designed by Bernard Maybeck!

"I had a little nut-tree" by Roald Dahl

Walnut on Mission Creek

I had a little nut-tree,

Nothing would it bear.
I searched in all its branches,
But not a nut was there.

'Oh, little tree,' I begged,
'Give me just a few.'

The little tree looked down at me

And whispered, 'Nuts to you.' 

We all think that Grandpa Dean would have loved this poem!

And here is a famous "Nuts to you!" from WWII.

Stinkwort, Stinkweed, a stinky weed by any name

Stinkwort - not only does it smell very bad, but
it can cause dermititis and diarrhea.  

Stinkwort.

You can't avoid running into it where ever you go. In Fremont, I see it along side the road here and there, at the California Nursery Park, at Coyote Hills, at Ohlone College. You can identify it 65 miles per hour along the freeway. It's one of the only green plants at this time of year.

In August and September, in our hills in the Mission Peak Preserve, the sticky monkeyflower is burnt to a crisp, the California Fuchsias are still hanging in there, and we see various kinds of flowers in the Asteraceae family (what I used to call a "comp"..."daisy" flowers to others). It's nice to visit the native plants that are blooming at this late time of year.