Too hot to blog! Fa troppo caldo per scrivere nel blog

That's right. That's my excuse for disappearing for 2 months. I spend too many hours a day watering and napping. It's hot, it's humid and I can't think, much less move.
I get up at 5:30 (dogs' fault), I open windows and doors, I water for an hour and a half, I feed the pups, I close windows and doors, I feed myself, I nap and read for hours.
Come dice il titolo, questa e` la mia scusa per non aver scritto in questo blog da ben due mesi! Passo troppe ore ogni giorno ad innaffiare ed a dormire. Fa caldo, e` umido e non riesco a pensare, tantomeno a muovermi. Mi alzo alle 5,30 (colpa dei cani), apro le finestre e le porte, innaffio per un'ora e mezza, do da mangiare ai cani, chiudo le finestre e le porte, do da mangiare a me stessa, dormo e leggo per ore e ore. 
Lavender, Helychrisum italicum, Oleanders - Lavanda, Elicriso italiano, Oleandri. 

I was very lucky and got to go visit my cousins in the Gargano area of Puglia (the spur of the "boot") for a week, where we went to this beautiful beach every day - 17 kilometers of clean sand, warm water and very few people. Per mia grande fortuna sono stata per una settimana a casa dei miei cugini sul Gargano ed ogni giorno siamo andati su questa bellissima spiaggia - 17 chilometri di sabbia pulita, acqua calda e pochissime persone. 

I wouldn't mind a bit if I were still there. Non mi dispiacerebbe affatto essere ancora li`.

Just photos - Solo foto

Shades of white and green - tonalita` di bianco e verde

The trees with white blossoms are wild cherries (Prunus mahaleb). - Gli alberi con i fiori bianchi sono ciliegi selvatici (Prunus mahaleb).

A Forsythia provides a splash yellow - Una forsizia contribuisce un tocco di giallo

From a couple of weeks ago, Cirillo leading five puppies (my two and their 3 stray sisters) on a wild goose chase. Ecco Cirillo un paio di settimane fa che porta sulla cattiva strada una banda di cinque cuccioli (i miei due e le loro tre sorelle randage).

A prelude to Spring - Un preludio alla primavera

Last week the sun shone brightly and the air was warm for several days in a row. Even though today it's raining and cold it doesn't matter, because we've had a taste of things to come and know that Spring is on its way. It can make all the difference in the world. I spent a good part of those days basking in the sun's glow, reading a little, looking around me, enjoying the silence.
La scorsa settimana abbiamo avuto vari giorni in cui il sole ci ha riscaldati e illuminati e anche se oggi di nuovo piove e fa freddo, poco importa, perche` abbiamo avuto un assaggio di cose a venire e sappiamo che la primavera e` in arrivo. E questo puo` cambiare tante cose. Ho passato buona parte di quei giorni scaldadomi al sole sul terrazzo, leggendo un poco, guardandomi attorno e godendomi il silenzio. 

I wasn't the only one enjoying this prelude to Spring. 

Non ero l'unica a godermi questo preludio alla primavera. 

There were flowers dancing in my head. 

I fiori mi danzavano nella mente. 

Into the woods with no existential thoughts - Nel bosco senza pensieri esistenziali.

(con versione italiana)

Saturday ritual - walk in the park with Eden, but this time no existential thoughts like the last time. Just feeling light and airy - Gemini must be in one of those places. I'm thinking about maybe going to Italy in June, how could anyone get existential over that? I guess I could, but in a very different way. I haven't been in two and a half years, since the trip on which I took 800 photos. This time I would take videos too, and I'd get a laptop. But I don't know, I'll think about it tomorrow, tomorrow is another day...
Rito del sabato - passeggiata con Eden nel parco, ma questa volta senza pensieri esistenziali come l'altra volta. Solo una sensazione di leggerezza - si vede che il segno dei Gemelli e` in uno di quegli spazi......Sto pensando di andare in Italia a giugno - come si puo` diventare esistenziali pensando a quello? Chissa`...forse potrei, ma in una maniera diversa. Sono due anni e mezzo che non ci vado, da quel viaggio in cui ho scattato 800 foto.  Questa volta farei anche dei video e mi comprerei un laptop. Ma non so, ci pensero` domani, domani e` un altro giorno....


We left the woods and went into the sun. Abbiamo lasciato il bosco per andarcene al sole.

I love these plants, and they are blooming all over San Francisco right now. I can never remember their name. I want to say Eremerus, but I don't think so. Do you know what they are called? Every time I see them I want a garden filled with them.
Mi piacciono tanto queste piante e in questo periodo la citta` ne e` piena. Non mi ricordo mai come si chiamano. Mi viene in mente Eremerus, ma non so. Voi sapete come si chiamano? Ogni volta che li vedo ne vorrei un giardino pieno. 

Trees - Gli alberi

  Trees have the power to calm me. I can be wound tight and stressed, but when I am with them I breathe a sigh of relief. They live three blocks from my home and they are the best part of the neighborhood. I visited them this morning with Eden. Gli alberi hanno il potere di calmarmi. Posso sentirmi tesa e stressata ma, quando sono in mezzo a loro, non posso fare a meno di rilassarmi e fare un sospiro di sollievo. Vivono in un parco a tre isolati da casa mia e sono la parte migliore del quartiere. Questa mattina, con Eden, sono andata a trovarli.

Do you see her? La vedi?

We are fortunate to see another Spring.............and these flowers are for you.  Abbiamo la fortuna di vedere ancora un'altra primavera...................e questi fiori sono per te. 

Sunflowers are amazing

They are SUNflowers, and yet they bloom even in my back yard in one of the foggier neighborhoods of San Francisco.

Next year, if I still have a patch of dirt available for gardening, I want to plant a forest of them!

Sweet Inspiration

That is the name of the rose pictured above, which I photographed this morning in the Rose Garden of Golden Gate Park, during my weekly walk there with my dog, Eden.

I'm posting it as a wish for all of us this coming week, that we may receive some "sweet inspiration" in one form or another.

Prayerbook Cross

One of the few things I like about living in my current neighborhood, where I've been for three years now, is that I can walk about four blocks and enter Golden Gate Park, through the Rose Garden no less.

So continuing in my recently begun habit of going for walks in Golden Gate Park at least once a week, and more often if I can, this morning I took Eden for our 12th walk. Why I didn't start this weekly walk tradition sooner, I don't know. In any case, today I didn't take any photos of her cavorting on the lawns because I feel safe letting her off leash only on Saturdays when the main road is closed to traffic.

Instead we went somewhere new.

I've passed this sign several times and always wondered where it led. So we followed it up a small hill and arrived at the monument in the photo at the top of this post.

You can click on the photo to make it larger (don't know why only the first photo in each post can be enlarged, but maybe someday I'll find out...), but if you don't want to I'll tell you what the inscription says:

"Presented to Golden Gate Park at the opening of the Mid-Winter Fair January 1 AD 1894 as a memorial of the service held on the shore of Drakes Bay about Saint John Baptist's Day June 24 Anno Domini 1579 by Francis Fletcher - priest of the Church of England - Chaplain of Sir Francis Drake - Chronicler of the Servise. "

I'm not completely sure about the last four words because the stone is eroded where they are carved. In fact, the area seemed a bit neglected as well. When I read it I realized that if I had gone up there just two days ago I would have been there exactly on the 430th anniversary of the event it commemorates. It's such a strange feeling to think about walking where others who are long gone have walked, and that someday I too will be long gone.

Of course I also photographed plants, some whose name I know because they had a name tag, and most whose names I do not know. Maybe I'll enlist the help of Dave's Garden again.

'Honor' Rose

The folks at Dave's Garden did it again! The photos below are of

California Buckeye (Aesculus californica)

A Beautiful Mystery

a beautiful mystery
Originally uploaded by stonetta

UPDATE! I know what it is and where it is. It is Masterwort (Astrantia), it is in the Rose Garden at Woodland Park in Seattle, and it is not a vine. All courtesy of the kind people at Dave's Garden. I am going to add their link in the sidebar if they are not there already.

Original post:

I shot this photo in the Seattle Botanical Gardens, or was it the Rose Garden? Or are they one and the same? It was near the zoo and it was a beautiful place, but I could not find an ID tag for this plant.

I've posted it to the Plant and Tree Identification forum on Dave's Garden, but am posting it here as well in case one of you knows what it is.

Unfortunately, I can't remember if it was a climber or a shrub. Darn.

A Walk in the Park

On April 24th I started a routine of taking Eden for a walk in Golden Gate Park every Saturday morning, and more often when on vacation. Today was our 11th walk since that first one. Only Eden and I go because last September my sweetheart Asha died,

and Joshua would rather look out over cliffs by the ocean,

or sunbathe.

So it's just me and my Eden for our walks in the park.

We walk through the Rose Garden on our way in and on our way out. It's definitely the time to enjoy its bounty.

Kaleidoscope

Strike it Rich

Tournament of Roses

And one of my favorites, which I keep photographing over and over,

Windrush

The way I see it, you've got to fill your senses with beauty and color, whenever possible.

The Blue Hibiscus

The Blue Hibiscus is apparently no longer classified in the genus Hibiscus. Its botanical name is Alyogyne huegelii (formerly Hibiscus huegelii).

I've had one growing in my backyard for a year now and it's surviving quite well, with not too much care. I'm an erratic and fickle gardener, lavishing attention and affection on the plants in my life in sudden bursts of passion, when every yellowing leaf is promptly removed, the slightest thirst is quenched with gentle showers of cool water, and organic nourishment is proffered, only to later forget them for months at a time.

Luckily for them, and for me, I am currently going through one of my nurturing phases.

Whatever her real name is, I call her "beautiful".

Father's Day 2009

I've been doing so much gardening lately that my parents have been on my mind even more than usual.

Both my parents loved being surrounded by lush plants and both were excellent cooks. While they lived at their house in the southern Italian countryside, from 1972 to 1987, my father was a gardening fiend, staying out until after dark to tend to 3 acres of flowers, vegetables, fruiting and non-fruiting trees. In the summer the sun would have long gone down and he would still be outside. When we yelled to him from the house, "What ARE you doing out there?" he would sometimes answer, "Fertilizing the roses!", the fertilizer being "liquid gold", if you know what I mean.

In the photo above and in the one below he is the light blue speck in the distance.

When they moved to Seattle in 1987 my mother became quite passionate about the plants on the deck of their condo and in the apartment, and joined my father in his love for gardening. After his death in 1993, for the next 12 years, she kept the flowers blooming.

June Gardening Bug

It's the June gardening bug, and I've got it bad.

Since my return from Seattle less than a week ago I've been to the garden center four times and I've never come out empty handed. In fact, I've always come out carrying a lot of plants.

My latest trip was this morning and my excuse for going there at 8:30 am was that there was a sale and I needed a new pruner. Right. I walked 16 blocks to get there and came home by bus and on foot carrying a box full of plants and dangling a small bag with the pruners.

Annuals, perennials, natives and non-natives. You name it, I got it. Well, that's obviously a huge exaggeration, but that's how it feels. I also have to keep buying bags of something called Organic Bay Area Forest Mulch Plus, which I love, because I live in one of the foggier parts of San Francisco and the "soil" is sand. I do, however, feel lucky to have any dirt at all in which to garden. It's not loam, but it will do. Until I can move to Seattle anyway.

Seattle and my brother's and his girlfriend's garden there, with the beautiful peonies I went on about in my last post, are what got me gardening crazed. Before going there for vacation I was a bit despondent about my foggy, sandy backyard. By the time I got back I was plant-obsessed. From the photos below, taken in their garden, you can see why I went a little crazy.