Mimosa Blossoms for Women's Day

The only mimosa tree (also called acacia) I've noticed in town cascades over the barbecue hut next to the Masonic Lodge on Main Street. They used to have salmon barbecues here as an annual fundraiser. Right now the blossoms are at their peak.

March 8th is International Women's Day, but is almost never observed in the United States. The first time I heard of it was when I lived in Hungary a dozen years ago. Saretta pointed out on her Molfetta blog that Italians traditionally give women yellow mimosa blossoms for this occasion. So today, I offer these to you, wherever you are.

Just four more days will complete a year of Willits Daily Photo.

Winter Bee

Willow catkins are opening up these days, offering plenty of pollen for bees to gather in their leg pouches.

The Flower of February

With our daffodils running strangely late, it's nice to see the violets are right on schedule. I caught this one several days ago, before the blessing of rain now falling. Happy Friday the Thirteenth!

Winter Irises

It happens every year. This one variety, whatever it is, of Pacific Coast Iris blooms here in the dead of winter. We've had night temperatures consistently at or below freezing, last month saw weeks of snow, ice, drizzle and dark skies, and yet these flowers felt the impulse to form. Normally, Pacific Coast Irises bloom in the spring and early summer. They are native to this region, if not this far inland, and have been collected and hybridized by horticulturists for garden use in a surprising variety of colors. They should call this one January Survivor.

Red Hot Pokers

These showy flowers, Kniphofia, defy the seasons and brighten up the darkening days of December. They are native to Africa, but have been growing in Mendocino county for at least a century. Like the spuria irises I mentioned before, they were planted around some of the hotels and farmsteads. I remember when my grandfather had wrought iron fireplace tools, and if you left the "poker" stuck in the fire and coals, it would turn this orange-red color. His house was on the site of an old stagecoach hotel, and one of these grew below a nearby redwood.

Datura

Last week, I found several Datura plants growing in the same vacant automotive service development as pictured here and here. It is deadly, unless you don't take quite enough to kill you. In that case, it's highly hallucinogenic, and has a long history of use for religious, and even defensive, reasons (disabling the enemy). By looking at the leaves, it seems these are Datura innoxia, a different species of Datura than Jimson Weed, which has spiny leaves and is found in desert regions. Having said that, I don't believe this is native to Little Lake Valley, so I must assume it would have been planted for its decorative qualities.

Buckeye and Swallowtail

California Buckeyes are native to the interior coast ranges, and are related to chestnut trees. The name comes from the appearance of the large nuts as they emerge from their shells. The trees have evolved to tolerate the long, dry summers, and frequent droughts here. They always drop their leaves before any of the other plants, which shortens the number of weeks their big leaves aspirate moisture. But this year ended its rainfall much earlier than usual, so even as this plant is still opening blossoms, some have turned brown, and some of its leaves are yellowing in preparation to drop. This swallowtail butterfly is working against the clock to get its job of pollinating done so some nuts can form in time.

No Loitering

It's Pizza To Go, so resist the desire to remain stationary. This is a Zen Monday offering.

Garden Heritage

Spuria irises grow well in this area; so well, that they often outlast the houses they were originally planted with. They were typical of homes, cabins, and stagecoach stops more than one hundred years ago, so clumps of these graceful flowers can sometimes be found near meadows and fields where buildings once stood. They also persist in town by some of the older homes, and along with flowering quince and climbing roses, Greening apple orchards and mock orange bowers, they hark back to an earlier time in garden fashion. A few more images are in my Overflow blog, linked here.

June Theme Day: The Corner/Local Shop

Mariposa Market is the best place in town to find organic groceries, nutrition supplements, grooming products, tea sets, and even organic cotton socks. On weekdays, it closes by the time I get home from work, but I do use it on some weekends to get bread and yogurt and dried seaweed. There's no way to miss the giant sunflower mural there on this curve of Main Street. Click here for additional pictures of this market in my Overflow blog.

This is a great day to explore the world as 174 City Daily Photo bloggers respond to the "Corner Shop" theme. Click here to view thumbnails for all of this month's participants. Have fun!

Western Azalea

Native to the streamsides of our north coast woodlands, the Western Azalea (Rhododendron occidentale) smells heavenly outside my office door. This one is about twelve feet tall.

Shedding Petals

It's not only the orange or yellow (or both) of the petals, and the pink disk at the flower base, but the blue-green gray of the foliage as its foil, that captivates me. This is one of the plants comprising "medicine chest" gardens currently being promoted by herbalists here in Willits, as another component of localizing an array of resources for self/community sufficiency. While related to the opium poppy, the California poppy (Eschscholzia californica) does not alter awareness or have similar narcotic effects, according to herbal references. But it is reputed to be a mild sedative and topical painkiller.

ClosedPoppyBunch Jigsaw Puzzle

Violet Bouquet

Happy Mother's Day!

There are a couple of women in the region, who happen to be moms among other things, whose personal blogs I visit often:

Redheaded Blackbelt
The View from Amy's World

This ceramic pot belonged to my grandmother, then my mother, then me. I'm off to visit my mom today. Cheers to you and yours.

Dried Flower Vendor

Our weekly farmers market began this month, and I got there early on the first day. The sellers are required to wait until the appointed hour to conduct business, so this one filled those few minutes with a book.

Frida and Diego

The end of a cinderblock row of apartments bears this tribute to Mexican artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, echoing their style anew. An artist friend of Frida and Diego who was his assistant in a San Francisco mural project, Emmylou Packard, lived about forty miles away from here in the coastal village of Mendocino for many years. Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Do Poppies Dream of Blue Skies?

The state flower of California finds a foothold in the crevice between the Willits Rexall Drugstore back wall and the alley pavement.
BackAlleyPoppies Jigsaw Puzzle

Redwood Sorrell

First described for science by English botanist Thomas Nuttall in the early 19th century, Oxalis oregana is native to the deep shade of mature coast redwood forests. If hit by direct sunlight, the leaves will fold downward to reduce their exposed surface, then rise again as shadow is regained. While edible, they are loaded with oxalic acid, so are very tart and should be avoided by people vulnerable to kidney stones.

I'm fortunate to have these in my front yard, sheltered by the north-facing porch. It looks like somebody has already had a nibble on them.
Oxalis Jigsaw Puzzle

Homage to Abraham

City Daily Photo Blog booster, and generally a spreader of goodwill and avuncular humor, our own Abraham Lincoln of Brookville, OH, has a tremendous ability to capture bees and other splendid wildlife in minute detail and glorious color. He is our Bee-Whisperer.

Alas, I am not. But I tried. And tried. Yesterday was spectacularly warm and springlike, so the minute I got off work, I went searching for bees. I found them, but they tend to move around a lot. And I can't hold my camera that still for very long. So out of all of the day's attempts, this one actually got focused on the fine little hairs on some newly sprouting apple leaves, which, up until about a second before I clicked the shutter, had a little ladybug on them. He ran to the blossom. Out of focus. *sigh*

Ornamental Grace

This ornamental cherry tree struggles to survive behind the supermarket and self-service laundry at Evergreen Shopping Center. The soil is cruelly compacted and dumped with broken concrete and waste lumber. Last year, a sack of what looked like plaster broke open and was left abandoned at its roots. Soon the rainy season will end, and no one will think to irrigate here. Whole limbs have blackened and fallen from it, and yet this little tree persists in living, offering its springtime beauty to this dreary, forsaken patch of earth.
OrnamentalCherry Jigsaw Puzzle

Plum Blossoms on Elm Street

The pink will give way to purple-red leaves, shading commercial storage units from the hot afternoon sun this summer.