Author: Francesca Filanc

Last week my sister called our mother and me.

Let’s meet down at Swami’s to go swimming. Swami’s is my favorite beach right now! Fran, it’s like when we were kids! No crowds and the beach is amazing!

 We have been having unseasonably hot weather for San Diego this summer. I really should not complain because by comparison San Diego is quite comfortable year-round. A friend who lives in Texas assures me that I live in paradise. The water temperature has been in the mid 70s°F, in places the water feels like a bathtub, closer to 80°F.

Summers growing up in what was then a sleepy little beach town, I could not wait for school to be out and go to the beach every day. My birthday is in July and all I wanted every year was a new raft. I remember my parents would come into my bedroom and place it on my still sleeping form. Oh, the excitement I would feel! I remember a silver blue plastic raft that I received one year. It had clear plastic so I could look down into the water where my head would rest. Thinking back, I can even recall the smell of the new plastic and the feeling it invoked to run into the ocean clutching my raft!

For the millions of us who love to swim it is no small wonder. The human body is made up of so much water! I was talking to a friend about this just yesterday.

 About 70 percent of the human body is made up of water and, coincidentally, more than 70 percent of Earth is covered in water. Water creates an environment that sustains and nurtures plants, animals and humans, making Earth a perfect match for life in general. Nasa Site

 Water is so soothing to us! Maybe it feels like we are back in the womb. I have always found it so interesting that as human beings we often do not enjoy the gifts that we are blessed with in our own backyards!

It had been years until recently that I had been to Swami’s beach let alone swimming there. First off, the walk down the stairs is breathtaking. Chalky white sandstone cliffs line the beach. On a clear day views to La Jolla fifteen miles down the coast. No wonder Swami’s has been made world famous by the Beach Boys and professional surfers! Not to mention the Self-Realization Fellowship Temple from which Swami’s derived its name.

Wendy, our mother Pat and I laughed and played in the ocean. Our mother had not been in the ocean in over five years. What a great way to spend a couple of hours riding waves and frolicking in the surf!

My deceased husband’s mantra was work hard and play hard. Pete’s way is, of course, not everyone’s but I do appreciate the fact that my sister reintroduced me to a life-long pleasure from my childhood. Just down the street!

Here’s to doing fun and creative things like painting and swimming and taking advantage of the opportunities we have at hand to enjoy life and nature.

Bye for Now,

 

Francesca

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did somebody tell you about watermelon Viagra? If you’re concerned about sexual disorder, you have to study about it. Erectile dysfunction, defined as the persistent failure to maintain an erection to the orgasm, exerts an estimated 15 to 30 millions men in the United States only. Because some of symptoms are medical emergencies, it’s considerable to know what to do if they happen. On occasion kidney disease will lead to erectile dysfunction. As a rule, this may include high blood pressure, anxiety, or a venous leak.

 

As I was strolling through my garden yesterday and then during my daily walk,  I saw some beautiful butterflies, some whose names I don’t recall, but others remembered from childhood. There were always many butterflies in my mother’s garden when I was growing up, Morning Glories to Monarchs. Frequently as a child I experienced  Mourning Cloaks landing on my arms. Nine years ago I saw a all-yellow butterfly for the first time.  I actually wrote about it in my journal years ago and drew pictures of them with colored pencils.

The Cloudless Sulphur showed up in my life as hope! At Norris Hospital USC, Los Angeles, my beloved husband had just been diagnosed with stage 4 invasive bladder cancer. Peter was 51 years old. We were up on the 6^th floor and there were dozens of these beautiful butterflies flying from one building to the next through the Eucalyptus trees far below. Peter went on to have surgery at that hospital a few days later and was proclaimed cancer free. We were all elated and again right after the surgery I saw dozens of the Cloudless Sulphurs flying below his room!

Tragically Peter’s cancer returned and he passed away four years later. But I still saw Cloudless Sulphurs in front of my car on my walks and everywhere I drove! Even after the loss of my husband the yellow butterflies continued to be a symbol of hope. In those first hours, days, months and years that I saw the butterfly I would smile and say “Hi Pete.” It was as if I was getting a message from him or he was coming around to say hi, all is well, all is ok.

As a very young child I thought that butterflies symbolized transformation, and possibly reincarnation. None of us really know exactly what happens after we pass away. I believe we are transformed to a higher place and vibration if we have lived a good responsible life. I can remember telling my mother and friends that I found butterflies fascinating in that they were teachers. They start out as caterpillars, build themselves a chrysalis and after weeks or days blossom into the most beautiful creatures that have no resemblance whatsoever to their former selves!

Often while painting I start out with a specific idea in my head. But then as the painting develops it becomes even richer than my original plan. South Beach is one such painting. I worked on that painting for eight months. It started out as butterflies and dragonflies. It ended up resembling a man’s face with a dragon coming out on the right. South Beach was in a show a few months ago and about fifty people sat around discussing this one painting for an hour. Maybe the fact that I started out by painting butterflies made the transformation energy that intrigues and gives deep thought to viewers.

In my mind, as in Alice in Wonderland, butterflies are one of God’s amazing gifts to our world; and to us as humans to be able to ponder and revisit the myriad of meanings in this insect. If nothing more than the pure beauty this insect adds to our gardens. It is worth in my opinion to plant the plants they like to encourage them to come to my garden.

Here is a list of plants to attract these fabulous “fairy type” creatures to your gardens:

Buddleias– they come in many colors and grow very tall, Salvias– all types, Abutilon, Lavenders, Cenonothus, Lavatera, Leonotis, Arbutus. Check my mother’s website and blog http://patwelsh.com/

 

Have fun attracting butterflies into your world!

Bye for Now

Francesca

 

Just recently I have discovered that composting like painting is a passion of mine!

I have been composting for about twenty-five years on a large scale. But this was always a very simple method that my gardener and right-hand man Sergio has helped me with throughout the years. I call it the Lani Frymiller method. If you are blessed with a large piece of land, take a square area and buy a flake of alfalfa hay and spread out evenly over the ground. If you have horses or can obtain horse manure, cover the hay with a thin layer of horse manure. Repeat the process of layering interspersing with garden waste including lawn clippings.  (Do not include any poisonous plants such as Oleanders.) Within three months I would have beautiful dark loamy compost at the bottom of this pile. I have a little tractor that Sergio uses. Before the tractor Sergio would just dig it out from the bottom with a shovel.

Some people include their kitchen scraps (vegetables and fruit, no meat or bones) in this type of compost pile but I would never did because I was concerned about encouraging rats.

About four years ago I dropped by my sister’s house to see her beautiful new raised beds and vegetable garden. While in the garden Wendy exclaimed,

 Fran, come see my composter!

 Wendy had researched, googling world’s best composter. Joracame up on the Internet. This composter is made in Sweden. That country is so GREEN it is actually the law that every family composts their kitchen scraps!

Wendy proceeded to demonstrate, adding kitchen scraps, vegetable, fruit and fish, into the composter. The composter has two chambers and she was able to show me a completed batch. Like magic, in three months she had dark loamy soil that smelled marvelous! I decided I wanted to do the same! After ordering the Jora online, I picked out a spot in the garden to put my composter. I was so excited I found myself checking the front porch every day in anticipation of its arrival.

 Finally it arrived and I was as excited as most women are about being given flowers or a new piece of jewelry! The sign of a true gardener?

 To begin, I put a small bucket of horse manure in the bottom of one of the chambers to jump-start the composting process. Although this is not necessary, it does speed up the process. I started adding the kitchen scraps regularly. I bought online an attractive crock that matched my kitchen décor from Gardener’s Supply to keep next to the kitchen sink and collect vegetable and fruit scraps. Per my sister’s advice, I bought Original Feline Pine Pellets. They are made out of wood. It is important to buy the pellets and not the sawdust.

Here’s the process, step by step.

Carry kitchen scraps to composter.

Turn composter eight times to distribute the contents.

Open chamber and if necessary, with a hand-held three-prong cultivator, break up any large chunks or lumps. Then add kitchen scraps.

Close the chamber and rotate several more times.

Open the chamber and sprinkle a handful of the feline pine pellets from the pet store.

Close the lid. Don’t rotate composter until next day when you add your next batch of kitchen waste.

(If you turn the Jora right away pellets will make compost lumpy.) The wooden pellets soften overnight and you can then turn the composter several times to mix all the ingredients.

One can become very educated or be seat of the pants like myself. A friend of mine in Olivenhain Garden Club, Robin, gave a lecture on home composting for our club. She suggested this book to buy: The Complete Compost Gardening Guideby Barbara Pleasant & Deborah L. Martin.  Frankly I have not read it but I do love making the compost! My tomatoes are especially marvelous this season! Maybe in part due to my home made compost.

I decided to blog about composting this week. My heart was filled with so much happiness yesterday as I, smiling, carried kitchen scraps to my composter in the garden. I opened the lid and smelled deep loamy compost.

I was thinking, to myself, what a spiritual event it is to make compost. Out of the dead comes the life. We can enrich our soil and grow fruits and vegetables to eat to put the waste back to make more compost to grow more food. What a totally amazing happening! This is so deep that it is kinda the meaning of life and feels so creative!

It is not us that does it. It is like a cut on our arm healing. Life has the seed of life in it whether soil, vegetables, people and animals.

Wow what an amazing world life is!

Happy Composting

Bye for now

Francesca