Forsythia

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Taken just a few days ago when the sun was shining, looking for all the world as if Spring was here to stay. We're so easily fooled! Yesterday and today have been gray, rainy, stormy, hail-y, windy, blustery - Wintery.

This Forsythia has quite a history: Originally from my mother's garden, she gave it to me when I moved to Winters. I planted it in the garden I designed and built from a canvas of bare earth, where it grew and flourished for 10 years.

When we moved up here 13 years ago, I took a cutting of it with me, planting it and moving it several times until it came to rest where it now grows at the foot of the horse corral.

It doesn't do as well in this climate, but it puts out enough blossoms each year to remind me of my mother - the original master gardener.

Copyright © 2006-2007, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved.

Dark Woods

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On the overland trail between Trinidad State Beach and College Cove. The dark, twisted branches remind me of spooky childhood nursery rhymes.

Copyright © 2006-2007, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved.

Trillium or Lily?

Pin It I spotted this yesterday, growing along a creekside trail just off the beach. It looks like a trillium, but I'm waiting for verification. I'll place a link when I know for sure.

3/26/07: I was too quick with the "publish" finger yesterday. Had I waited, would have changed the title of this post.

My friend Donna sent me the correct name of the beautiful and unusual lily pictured above: Fetid Adder's Tongue (Scoliopus bigelovii).

Also called "Brownies", I've walked by the foliage before and wondered about them but there were no compelling blooms to write home about. Had I seen anything like this, I wouldn't have passed up taking a photo.

Copyright 2006-2007, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved.

Camo Spider Returns

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Will you just look at how this guy mimics the shape of the rose sepals?

I am continually amazed at their cleverness in disguising themselves.

Here's a side shot so you can see who's under there. Yep! It's baaaack!

Copyright 2006-2007, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved. No content of this blog, including text and photos, may be copied, re-located or otherwise reproduced, in full or in part, for personal or monetary gain, without the express permission of the author.

First Sparaxis

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Sparaxis, Harlequin Flower, Wand Flower. No matter the name, they begin to bloom just days after the first daffodils and violets. Making me smile. Assuring me that summer will be here before I know it.

Copyright 2006-2007, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved. No content of this blog, including text and photos, may be copied, re-located or otherwise reproduced, in full or in part, for personal or monetary gain, without the express permission of this blog's author.

Moss And Lichen

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Lichen, the gray-green , and moss, the darker, lime green, are growing on the top of an old redwood fence post. You can see just how small they are in relation to the nail head.

Copyright 2006-2007, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved. No content of this blog, including text and photos, may be copied, re-located or otherwise reproduced, in full or in part, for personal or monetary gain, without the express permission of the author.

Still Life With Bas Relief

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Sometimes, in the garden, things just pile up.

Copyright 2006-2007, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved. No content of this blog, including text and photos, may be copied, re-located or otherwise reproduced, in full or in part, for personal or monetary gain, without the express permission of the author.

Brown Frog

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Another "camo-critter", barely visible to the inattentive. Me and my little camera ... we're rarely inattentive.

Copyright 2006-2007, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved. No content of this blog, including text and photos, may be copied, re-located or otherwise reproduced, in full or in part, for personal or monetary gain, without the express permission of the author.

Quince At Sunset

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Promises of a bumper crop . . .
Never has my quince bush been so loaded with blossoms nor so beautiful in a sunset's golden light.

Copyright 2006-2007, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved. No content of this blog, including text and photos, may be copied, re-located or otherwise reproduced, in full or in part, for personal or monetary gain, without the express permission of the author.

Blushing Peach Daffodils

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Taken early this morning, I had to get way down below these shy beauties to get these photos, they nods their heads so low.

Copyright 2006-2007, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved. No content of this blog, including text and photos, may be copied, re-located or otherwise reproduced, in full or in part, for personal or monetary gain, without the express permission of the author.

Very Violet

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March 14, 2007

Copyright 2006-2007, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved. No content of this blog, including text and photos, may be copied, re-located or otherwise reproduced, in full or in part, for personal or monetary gain, without the express permission of the author.

Jeepers Peepers

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A company of croaking frogs have been creating a nightly froggy cacophony on Raven Ridge; along with the arrival of the swallows, a sure sign that Spring is upon us.

Once I was able to coax it out of the grass, this pretty critter wasn't at all shy about having its picture taken.

Copyright 2006-2007, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved. No content of this blog, including text and photos, may be copied, re-located or otherwise reproduced, in full or in part, for personal or monetary gain, without the express permission of the owner/administrator.

A Daylight Savings Time Sunset

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7:30 pm and the sky is still blue. And orange, yellow, peach, mauve, apricot...

I'm not always happy about this whole setting our clocks ahead thing, but with sunsets like this that go on late into the evening, how can I complain?

Copyright 2006-2007, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved. No content of this blog, including text and photos, may be copied, re-located or otherwise reproduced, in full or in part, for personal or monetary gain, without the express permission of the owner/administrator.

Grandmother Rock

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She looks out over Trinidad State Beach and Pewetole Island. Kerchief on her head, hands resting in her ample lap, she waits. She is called Grandmother Rock. Photos taken March 11, 2007, copyright Raven Ridge Gardens.









Copyright 2006-2007, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved. No content of this blog, including text and photos, may be copied, re-located or otherwise reproduced, in full or in part, for personal or monetary gain, without the express permission of the owner/administrator.

The Swallows Are Back - Spring Has Arrived!

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Photo above: today
Photo below: yesterday

The beginning of Spring officially may be March 20th or 21st, depending where in the world you live, but here on the north coast of California, it's the return of the swallows that marks the true turning of the season.

Morning opened its eyes at dawn today, looked in its closet, and decided, "Enough gray, already! It's time for some color, some sunshine, some warm air."

And so it was. And is. A warm, sunny, beautiful day with a clear sky so blue it sparkles.

A sky filling with swallows.

I've been marking the return of the swallows for a number of years and have never seen them up here before the 16th of March. As I woke up and saw the beginnings of a beautiful day and later felt the warmth in the air when I stepped outside, I thought of these delightful harbingers of Spring but put off searching the sky for them, thinking it was still too early.

Then I received an email from my neighbor: "The swallows have arrived! There are three of them in the sky!!"

I raced out of my office and there they were: Four, then five, scouts flitting and swooping around the house and shop crying, "Oh, look! There's Ted and Alice's nest!", and, "Look here, George, Bob and Carol's house is still in good shape. They'll be able to use it again!"

Swallows always talk in exclamation mode.

My neighbor, D, and I now declare that Spring has officially arrived today, March 11th. The swallows have made it so.

And boy are we glad.

Copyright 2006-2007, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved. No content of this blog, including text and photos, may be copied, re-located or otherwise reproduced, in full or in part, for personal or monetary gain, without the express permission of the owner/administrator.

Daffodils

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Daffodils. Those portenders of spring are ablaze with bloom here on the north coast. Giving hope that the end of this cold, wet, snowy, incessantly gray winter is near.

From top to bottom:
Photo 1: Single example of a drift of daffodils on the bluff overlooking the ocean. These have a double trumpet, are growing where there is no garden, and re-bloom like clockwork year in and year out.

From my garden, photos 2 and 3.

Photo 4: The drift of daffs overlooking Trinidad State Beach and Pewetole Island.




Copyright 2006-2007, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved. No content of this blog, including text and photos, may be copied, re-located or otherwise reproduced, in full or in part, for personal or monetary gain, without the express permission of the owner/administrator.

Snow On The Northcoast

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On February 27th, it snowed. A lot of snow. Right down to the beaches. The most amazing part is that it stayed for two days.

Of course, we were all just delighted.