So mixed reviews on Morning Glories in our bamboo thicket from those on my various social media gardening groups. Hopefully I won’t regret what I just did, which was to “transplant” this one over the arbor at the top of the outdoor staircase. You may be able to perceive here that I planted the roots in the hanging pot. I guess I will monitor it to see how far it grows.
My own backyard garden continues to amaze me. Within the bamboo “forest” near the upstairs lookout, I found this purple flower on a non-bamboo plant. Further into the thicket, I came across this old tree stump I almost forgot about in the three years since I moved in, but now I see it’s covered with mycelia.
Someone else’s trash in Benicia now adorns the front porch. I love it, and it matches the color of the house trim!
Some who visit our home venture up the low-rise (love it) backyard stairs to our “lookout” behind the bamboo. From there one can see the East Bay and Crockett’s C&H Sugar Factory from our backyard. It’s the closest thing we have to a water view. We recently installed an arbor at the top of the stairs and have been brainstorming how to set up the lookout for a zen area of sorts. We began the journey by making it a real relaxation point today with phase one. This phase was adding an egg/gravity chair that leans back and is like a hammock. It’s suspended and so comfortable without the large footprint of a full hammock. For years we did have a hammock in another part of the yard. We donated it recently after deciding it was not used enough to be worthy of its footprint in most of our spaces, opting for another set of lounge seating. Besides that, the full-size hammock was too unwieldy for us (and our senior dogs) to use very often due to how challenging it was to get in and out of it. Moreover, we had to worry about mold developing on the material when it rained too much. Some years that was not a problem at all. Dismantling it and putting it away during the wet season was a pain and we like to think of our backyard as everything being year-round friendly, despite the rain and wind.
Below are pictures of the arbor and the new egg chair being modeled by Polar and Peaches.
Former San Franciscans really made the most out of this yard which had been a mechanic’s workshop for years prior to their moving in. It’s so inspiring to see what they’ve done in a few short years, albeit during Covid. Michael and Ed (Blade) are bringing so much brightness to this part of Oakland with their beautiful home and garden, and it’s not a surprise in the end that their permaculture facilitates Michael’s longstanding vegetarian diet, which I identified with.
In Suisun, there is a Solano Trust property called Rush Ranch. We went there for an astronomy lecture that is open to the public. There were lots of folks there, including kids and a scout troop. They had terrific telescopes that allowed us to look at celestial objects. With the help of smartphones with star map applications, they were able to navigate very precisely. Some of the telescopes were even homemade.
Shame on Italy. The gay news reports that some lesbian mothers are having their names removed from their children’s birth certificates to exercise their homophobic power.
Italy is my mother’s home country, where most of my relatives continue to live. The country may be risking a court overruling from the EU with this outrageous act of homophobia. I fought for years as part of what is now called FamilyEquality.org to make sure this kind of family destruction was not sanctioned by the United States in certain backward states. Now EU member countries are trying to push the envelope and reverse all the progress Europe has made toward recognizing all types of families.
I wrote Family Equality hoping they make a statement condemning what Italy is doing and how the EU should respond. As an Emeritus Board contact (with the honor of being listed on their website) and especially as an Italo-American, I am outraged to my core.
The organization was known as Gay & Lesbian Parents Coalition INTERNATIONAL (GLPCI) when I was on the Board between 1996-2001. While I’m glad they no longer have a trans-exclusive name, I do remember at our conferences having parents from other countries who wanted to see how the USA was securing rights for queer families like ours.
Tree Stump Mycellium:
Side Yard Fountain:
