January of 2007 we had an unusually severe winter in San Diego County. Peter and I traveled to Spain for the birth of our first grandchild. When we arrived home from Spain in February several trees and shrubs had died on our property, or so we thought.
Since I had been to Ireland with my mother on a garden tour four years earlier I had longed for a garden hedge like the kind I saw all over southern Ireland! They are filled with all kinds of plants. In this way, the freeze in my garden in California was serendipitous for creating a new interest in the garden; a garden hedge! My gardener and I started to let all the plants that survived the freeze grow together. Then an amazing thing happened; some of the plants and trees that had supposedly died miraculously came back to life! Those branches that didn’t recover acted as support for the other climbing shrubs as they grew skyward and formed a solid hedge. As the plants, shrubs and trees grew I was enthused each time Sergio pruned the hedge. My mother came over one day to videotape a segment on properly pruning a garden hedge. The Correct Way to Prune a Hedge. The hedge consists of Cape Honeysuckle (Tecomaria capensis), Periwinkle (Vinca minor), Weeping Fig (Ficus benjamina), Mock Orange (Pittosporum tobira ‘Variegata’), and Abutilon.
If you check out Pat Welsh’s video above, Pat teaches one the correct way to prune a hedge. Looking at this hedge now, it needs to be thinner at the top than it currently appears in the photo. Back to the drawing board!
The hedge is now three stories high and creates welcome shade on a hot afternoon!
Grandchildren’s Room and Francesca’s painting in the hallway
This evening my older daughter and her family will arrive from Spain for a visit. I am so excited to see the whole family! The grandchildren’s room is ready and I look forward to the patter of little feet running up to their room to see what outfits Mimi has on the wall for them. The Pink Grandchildren’s Room
Pixies and Fairies Painted by the Author/Artist when she was seven years old
Two paintings that I created years ago when I was a child myself are framed and hanging on the wall . My mother had kept these paintings and had them framed for my oldest daughter’s first birthday.
For those of you, like me, who have grandchildren who live miles away, you know the feeling of feast or famine with the family.
I have been gardening in the children’s garden seeing that it needs attention! There is a jungle gym for the children to play on as well as many little gardens for them to dig and plant in.
A song came to mind that I heard years ago that matched my mood and excitement of the day. Michael Franti – Say Hey For years I searched for it on the internet and suddenly discovered it again.
Enjoy July whatever fun events or happenings you might have planned. I will look forward to being back in touch mid-August!
Bye for Now,
Francesca
Elephants at The Circus Painted by Francesca When She was Seven Years Old
Del Mar was a sleepy little beach town when I was growing up, coined Gasoline Alley by some. There were at one time thirteen gas stations in our little town when Highway 101 was the main thoroughfare to the City of San Diego. The County Fair was a big deal for folks when it came to town! Within a few days of the County Fair closing the Races would start. WOW! Movie Stars all up and down the beach! Summer Days in Del Mar
Lucy and Desi Had a House on The Beach!
I remember summer mornings swimming in the ocean, warm, sleepy afternoons painting and playing with our Barbie and Madame Alexander Dolls and plastic horses with my sister and friends. Our step-grandpa was John Lloyd Wright and we lived right next door to him. We called him Grandbot.Grandbot invented five toys. The most famous one was Lincoln Logs. He also invented a toy called Wright Blocks. They were sooo much fun to play with!!! Wendy and I loved making horse corrals and pastures on the grass for our plastic horses to run! The most fun part of our play for me was setting up the elaborate houses and pastures and placing our plastic horses in them, dressing and undressing the dolls in different outfits!
We also loved playing Indians (Playing Indians) and I loved playing Queen and Geisha girl. I would get bored of those two games quickly because once I was dressed up there was nothing for me to do except sit on the throne and be waited on. I remember one time my sister and our friends bowed down in front of me and said Salami Salami Baloney Baloney! We all fell into gales of laughter! My mother would help me get all dressed up to be a Geisha in a kimono with an obi. But once I was dressed up all I could do was sit, the outfit was so binding! After all that I would ask my mother to please help me get out of the outfit!
As a child I would become bored with some of the games. Looking back on it I am so happy to be an adult! Sometimes with all the stresses of adult life we may look back on childhood as an idyllic time of endless freedom and happiness.But in actuality many of us have more freedoms as adults. I guess what I am saying is even with all the seriousness, grief or traumas that we go through, when immersed in happy work, exercise, helping others we can free the passion of life!
Happy summertime! On that note I am going to go take a swim in the ocean!
Happy Swimming or whatever you love to do for exercise in the summertime.
Sunflowers are so much FUN to Grow!!! If you have a place where you can put them every year they give so much joy! I smile every time I walk out and look at the field full of these tall prehistoric plants! Maybe that is why we love them so much! They have been around for a long time! And we feel the earth connection all the way back to cave man and beyond!
I actually did not know why I had never grown them.
In late June of 1996 Peter, Erica and I traveled to Madrid, Spain to see our older daughter Yvette who had been an exchange student from UCSD for the whole year. We then traveled by Eurail and Rick Steves suggestions of lodging and places to visit throughout Europe for one month!
Author’s Daughters in Provence, France, 1996
First stop off Eurail was the town of Arles, a town rich in Roman history and ruins in the province of Provence, France. We stayed in a small hotel for one week traveling to charming small towns such as Aix-en-Provence enjoying the multitude of nature’s sites through traveling through the countryside from small town to small town. The countryside was carpeted with fields of Sunflowers and fields of Lavender! In breathtaking excitement the girls and I ran into some of these fields and we could not stop taking pictures! It was awe-inspiring to experience!
Several years later Peter and I moved to a property that had lots of land. I planted a Giverny style garden with Nasturtiums lining one of the paths all the way down to horses in pastures far below our home. A girlfriend stopped by one day and exclaimed
Fran, why don’t you grow sunflowers!? I actually had no idea why I had never grown them! Especially since we had experienced the beauty and wonder of this ancient plant in the south of France a few years earlier!
Fran and her daughter Erica in a field full of Sunflowers, Provence, France, 1996
I love the very tall ones! This particular girlfriend gave me a bunch of seeds. I planted them and WOW!!!! So much FUN! This year I am planting a second Parterre of them so I will still have some when my grandchildren come to visit in July! After planting the seeds I cover the area with netting so the crows don’t pull up my seeds. I put the netting about three feet high on stakes. When the Sunflowers reached the netting I remove the netting and they continue to grow up to eight or nine feet tall! This year I bought the seeds online; some for their height, some for their seed production, and some for the Mammoth flowers. And then it is FUN to sit and paint them or take pictures to put on Facebook :) or just sit, smile and watch them grow. Have Fun Growing Sunflowers!
Fossils of Ancient Member of the Daisy Family Discovered in Argentina
The Dutch born, post impressionist, artist Vincent Van Gogh famously painted a number of still life pictures of sunflowers. One such painting was sold at auction in the late 1980s for a little under $40 million USD. However, researchers at the Argentinian Museum of National Sciences have discovered their own “portrait of sunflowers” with the finding of two exquisitely preserved fossilised flowering heads in southern Patagonia (Argentina). Sunflowers are members of the Asteraceae (otherwise known as Compositae – we think) Family. This family of flowering plants (Angiosperms), is one of the most diverse and widespread of all the plant families. This family includes plants such as the daisy, dandelion and commercially important plants such as the tea bush and sunflowers.
Plant material is rarely preserved as a whole fossil, for instance, a fossil of the entire plant with roots, leaves and flowers all together. Fossils normally occur as isolated individual parts such as cones, pollen grains, pieces of trunk and such like. Delicate flowering heads (capitula) are extremely rare in the fossil record. However, the discovery of a fossil that shows two complete flower heads, winged seeds and the flower stem is helping scientists to understand the evolution of this very important group of plants.
The fossil has been dated to approximately 47.5 million years ago (Eocene Epoch) and it was found in strata along the Pichi Leufu river. During the Eocene, this part of the world had a sub-tropical climate with average temperatures of around 19 degrees Celsius. The dense flower-head would have been attractive to pollinating insects, suggesting that flowers such as these primitive ancestors of the sunflower already had a long established relationship with insect pollinators.
The Fossilised Flower Heads
Dr. Viviana Barreda, one of the authors of the paper, the details of which have been published in the journal “Science”, suggests that the finding of this fossil supports the hypothesis that the ancestors of the Asteraceae Family evolved in the southern region of Gondwanaland and spread to most of this super-continent before this landmass began to break up. This would explain the wide geographical dispersal of related genera.
Scientists believe that the common ancestor to a number of related plant families first evolved in sub-tropical Antarctica, (which was part of Gondwanaland), before migrating to Australia and South America as Antarctica cooled and became an unfavourable climate for most plant species.
Commenting on the discovery, University of Vienna (Austria) botanist, Dr. Tod Stuessy stated that this fossil and the related pollen grains were clear evidence of the existence of the sunflower sub-family at the early stages of Asteraceae diversification. Dr. Stuessy wrote an accompanying article to the Argentinian scientific paper. He went on to add that little is known about the origins of sunflowers and there is much still to learn about how these plants evolved and spread all over the world or indeed how members of the Asteraceae became so “incredibly diverse.”
The scientific paper on which the journal article is based is the culmination of two years of research.
The Healer’s Healing Garden in SpainA Photo of a Garden Reminiscent of the Healing Garden in Spain
I just saw a beautiful garden photo on Facebook and it reminded me of friends of my daughter in Spain who have the most Beautiful Garden! The husband used to be a brick mason and now he is in the Healing Arts. He practices Craniosacral therapy and also massage techniques to help with physical and emotional health. His wife is a lovely calm woman too. She seems to be a healer in vibration. I have been to their garden several times and have enjoyed the garden immensely when Anushka was a baby and later with Mikaela, her younger sister. The husband is always gardening when he is not working. He has no outside help. He does all the work and in my opinion the garden looks like Monet’s garden outside of Paris, Giverny. One can even see a factory from the garden but when you are in this lovely garden you are entranced by its beauty and the industry in the background disappears. The wife has brought me tea and/or cafe con leches and an assortment of homemade goodies while I waited with the baby in the garden. The lady of the house is also an artist and when one is inside their beautiful eclectic home, unless you pinch yourself you might think you were in Santa Fe, New Mexico rather than northern Spain!
Being in this healing paradise for an hour or two at a time with one of my grand babies I always feel an urge to paint! If the grand baby was awake I would drink in the moment and enjoy watching the child look with wide eyes at nature around her. When one of the babies was napping I would sometimes take out colored pencils and draw what I was experiencing visually. But many times I sat with a huge smile fixed on my face drinking in the magnificence of nature directed by man.
These luscious moments of life where we are truly in the moment are treasures that we can draw on through our lives.
I am thankful for beauty where I find it; in people in experiences in tragedy in beauty and ultimately in love.
Here’s to having experiences that we look back on as ahhhh moments!
Bye for now,
Francesca
Painting that Francesca painted from thoughts of Spain www.francescafilanc.com
We all know someone or are that person who is dying of a disease, or someone whose body is failing as a result of old age. As my father said on his deathbed “Honey, nobody gets out of here alive!”
In 1993 I was fortunate to go on a trip to Alaska with my husband and other family members. The trip did not leave me where it found me!
This picture shows the huge tide differential of thirty-six feet!
Alaska was the most adventuresome trip I had ever experienced! We flew into Juno taking in the sights for a few days. We then were on a chartered boat (the Alaskan Solitude) eighty-nine feet in length for ten days in the Inland Passage. The scenery was beyond belief, simply beautiful! We saw glaciers up close and personal, whales as far as the eye could see in every direction breaching, porpoising, and lobtailing. We anchored for several days off an island where the wildlife had never seen humans, or so our guide assured us. There was a thirty six foot difference in the tides every day so our guides had to plan carefully or our Zodiac would be gone out to sea or completely stranded, high and dry. As we walked quietly in the small streams of the island my boots were surrounded by salmon, alive, dead and dying, on their way up the streams to mate.
Author artist watching the whales!
Starting out as small eggs in a stream bed, they hatch and begin their journey downstream towards the ocean. They spend a couple of years in the streams and rivers growing from small alevin to juvenile smolts. At the mouth of the streams and rivers, the smolts school together and ready themselves for the trip out into the ocean. During this time, their bodies change to adapt to the seawater. The young adult salmon then head out to sea and spend several years swimming in the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska. Once they have fully matured, they will swim back to their original stream or river where they re-adapt to the fresh water and swim back up the stream to reach their spawning grounds. Sometimes this means swimming up rugged rivers with miles of rapids and even waterfalls to leap. Once they get back to their natal stream, they breed and lay their eggs. After spawning they generally die within a week, fertilizing the stream and creating a nutrient-rich environment for the new infant salmon that are about to hatch. (From Fishex.com)
Author palmful of wild blueberries – they were delicious!
The eagles swooped in for salmon, the geese flew thick overhead and landed to drink. Bears were eating salmon.
I also note this when I am watching a nature show on KPBS about Africa and how the animals are eating each other. On the one hand it seems so gross, but on the other a natural and essential part of life on our planet!
I was thinking then too how sad we are when friends and loved ones are sick and pass away to the next realm but really it is the way of life and we are all in it and part of it! In living we are dying and in dying we are living! Our struggles health wise and physically and mentally are all part of this wonderful mysterious amazing journey that we call life! But who knows what is in store for us in the hereafter! By mistake I often comment that we have a granddaughter born on the same day that my deceased husband was born! Maybe I say it not so much by mistake as affirming his birth into his next life! Wherever and whatever that is! Many times when I have been sad I go out for a drive in my car with the top down. It clears my head to drive with the wind in my hair! I remember riding my horses after my father passed and how good that felt to be one with nature! Gardening and painting both also clear my head! Sometimes the sadness just won’t go away as much as I try rise above it, thinking my life is so good this is ridiculous! But maybe we are to accept these stages, times and experiences. Maybe it is all part of the whole.
Pete and The Author in the Zodiac Going Back to The Boat After Dark!
In writing this blog I am reminded of one of the most amazing spiritual and breathtaking experiences of my lifetime! I was alone on deck. The others had gone inside for lunch. Standing on the bow of the boat, I was transfixed and mesmerized as if time stood still. The only sounds to be heard were the sounds of whales Breathing and Splashing as they waved their flukes and breached in all directions as far as the eye could see!
A couple of weeks ago I was in Northern California visiting my daughter Erica and her children. While Erica was busy working I took her girls for a walk in the double stroller.
The temperature of the air was in the mid to high 80s. I rushed from shady side to alternating shady side of the street in this delightful sleepy town of mainly cottages. As I walked at quite a rapid clip to transport my, by now, sleeping grandchildren to the next shady spot, I came upon a white picket fenceedging the garden and property of a home.
A huge smile swept across my face. I stood there in the shade for some minutes transported to another time and place. Who does not love the sight of a white picket fence? I venture that it conjures up all kinds of wonderful feelings and emotions for many people.
It is about as American as Corn on the Cob, Watermelon, Apple Pie and Fourth of July! One can see an American Flag blowing in the wind in ones imagination if there is not one there already! Ice Tea and Ice Cold Lemonade come to mind too …or maybe even a Mint Julep!
As I stood there in the shade, a warm glow swept over my body and into my soul! I smiled broadly and thought of fields in upstate New York, Virginia, or Mississippi with horsesfrolicking gaily through extremely green pastures! White Picket Fences in friends’ gardens lined with Zinnias, housing Marigolds and Delicious Edibles, or White Picket Fences with aromatic Sweetpeas and Roses inside.
I thought of my cousin Fran and her husband Dr. Ron’s Gentleman Farm home in upstate Connecticut, a White Colonial house, two story with a huge children’s bedroom that had paned windows where my sister and I got to sleep. I pretended that it was our real room and house. I was in the moment and never wanted to leave! I also pretended that I was all grown up and that it was my home. Looking out the windows I could see fields lined with white picketfences.
I was pulled back to reality as a bicyclist passed by. Saying goodbye to my delicious musings and memories I continued on the walk with two darling, peacefully sleeping granddaughters.
Today would have been my beloved husband’s birthday. Pete passed away of invasive bladder cancer May 9, 2007 at the age of 54, just short of his 55th birthday. Way too young for this day and age! But in the time of King Henry VIII, fifty was considered a long life. Life is so interesting isn’t it?! The twists and turns down this marvelous path we call life that we have no idea or prediction of what is going to happen… Or do we? It has been six years since Peter passed away and in that time I have had thoughts and feelings and experiences that have been part of a patchwork quilt that weaves in and out; experiences, thinking, contemplation, horror, retreat and discovery!
I am prostrated with grief one minute, exhilarated in another, and feeling intense physical pain and cannot catch my breath in the third! Pathos gripped me in such a way that I felt I could never break free of its grasp! I felt as if I were being strangled by a boa constrictor! But the interesting part of the human condition is that with time we can come out through the other side and feel immense joy and love again! My daughter shared a sweet photo of herself and her dad on Facebook today. I had been working in the garden and writing another blog post when I saw her post. It is a lovely memory but also made me sad. Between writing I have been deadheading roses and Pride of Madeira.
California Live Oak on Author/Artist Property
Although Live Oak was one of Peter’s favorite trees, we had never planted one. At the time of Peter’s passing there was a very scrawny little tree that I was tempted to pull out of the landscape but then in surprise realized it was a Live Oak, possibly planted by birds. Live Oak is normally a very slow grower! At times since Peter’s passing I have shown the tree to my girls. Look how this treehas grown! I walked into the garden yesterday and was amazed that this tree in only six years time has gone from thirty inches to a large healthy tree with a strong trunk over two stories high!
Love you and miss you Peter! You are remembered on your birthday and always!
When our oldest child was a baby I used to say Yvette would be upset when she got older because she lived in Hawaii for almost half of her first year of life. Too young to remember the amazing time we had! Although being exposed to such beauty at a young age definitely went into her psyche.
That was the year that I said I had three summers! My husband, Pete, was working for the government installing the first computer system for the sewage treatment plant at Pearl Harbor. Yvette was three months old and we lived in Honolulu from October to November of 1976. We then returned to live there for the months of May and June in 1977.
In those days my folks used to vacation at a friend’s private shack in Kihei, as Betty called it, twice a year. They would go for two weeks in the fall and two weeks in the spring. Betty had a guest house on stilts. Rolling grass and palm trees extended out in front to her private beach. (Beaches in Hawaii are public, but her little beach was so secluded, being at the end of the road, it was rarely used.)
The view took one’s breath away! And the beach had the softest creamiest colored sand. The way the sand felt between my toes was like nothing I had ever experienced before. The ocean felt like velvet on my skin and the snorkeling off Maui was stupendous! The most colorful coral and water teeming with fish I have ever experienced to this day! The colors of the coral were every color in the rainbow and more; vivid pink, orange, blue, purple, red, violet and white!
Pete and I had decided we had seen the best and knew that the island had been developed. So we chose to remember Maui the way we experienced the Island staying with my folks one week in the fall of 1976 and one week in the spring of 1977.
As our girls grew up we vacationed on the North Shore of Kauai several times.We also frequented the Kona Coast of the Island of Hawaii and Oahu, but I had never returned to Maui until two weeks ago.
Naturally the development has continued on the island in the intervening years, but nonetheless I was not disappointed and had a fabulous time!
The very first day we arrived I found Betty’s Beach. The property is now covered with condos but the beach is the same! My friend and I stayed at the Maui Coast Hotel in the town of Kihei.
The hotel has good prices and they have a great concierge service with Expedia. Whether or not one choses to do some of the many activities the island has to offer, it is great to hear the options! We met in the lobby of our hotel with other guests to hear the fun things available to do!
The author at the top of Mount Haleakala
We chose to go on a 45 minute helicopter ride that toured Molakai and Maui. We also chose to take the snorkeling trip to the Molokini Crater and lastly to take in a Luau at a neighboring hotel.
The day that we went on the helicopter tour, we then took a drive to Kula experiencing a botanical garden and then driving up to the top of Haleakala. The day was crisp and clear!
We ate dinner at the Kula Lodge on the way back to our hotel. It was beautiful and romantic. The views were spectacular and I would go there again even though the food was underwhelming.
The highlight of our snorkeling trip was a surprise sighting of whales fluke waving and breaching right in front of our boat! I was disappointed to discover that much of the coral has died and lost its color. Development and agriculture are the most significant threats to Hawaiian coral reefs because of runoff containing sediments (soil and silt) and chemicals and nutrients from lawns, farms, golf courses, construction sites, storm drains, cesspools and septic tanks. The runoff of sediment reduces sunlight penetration and smothers corals. The reef then starves to death because it can’t manufacture food from sunlight any longer.
We had a fun experience of being there the same week as some friends who showed us excellent snorkeling spots! Honolua Bay offered some great underwater sights. My friends had the amazing experience of swimming with a pod of dolphins back in the mid 1980s in this same Bay. Honolua has treacherous surf in the winter-time but amazing snorkeling in the spring and summer.
Snorkeling in Honolua Bay
After visiting with friends in Napili Point we drove up around the end of the island. The road is a single lane in areas and rules dictate that the person heading downhill has to back up and make room for the person coming uphill, often a dangerous situation and the map reads,
The road around this north side of Maui is desolate but very picturesque. It also has a very narrow section of road and a sheer cliff and no guard rail before you reach Kahakuloa. Not for faint-hearted. Drive at your own risk.
All in all the eight days were fun, beautiful and had new surprises to offer!
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 illness will lead to erectile dysfunction. As a rule, this may include high blood pressure, anxiety, or a venous leak.
The third Monday of each April is Patriot’s Day, a favorite holiday in Massachusetts! Additionally, it is also the day of the Boston Marathon.
Terrorist attack in Boston at finish line of Boston Marathon!
As soon as I heard the news I quickly called and texted my sister, my nephew and his sweet girlfriend, and my daughter and her family. Thankfully I found out that everyone was ok. My nephew expressed so beautifully that he and his girlfriend were with close friends and that they were taking care of one another.AsI watched the news I became more and more upset! I texted my friend Peter in Texas. He is a flight attendant and we were talking about the horrific events of 911 the day before by phone. In the past when Peter and I have discussed 911 Peter told me that as soon as the 911 lockdown was lifted and people could fly again, he got right back up in the air to show the terrorists that we are not afraid! My friend has made it a point to be working every single September 11th since 911 2001. Peter has been flying for 38 years.
After watching the news about Boston play the same horrific tapes over and over for four hours Monday night I read my niece’s terrific blog post.
Rebecca speaks of Humanity pulling together to help one another; people becoming family who had never met. We have had too many horrific events in our nation as of late! What is wrong with our world?! The anger and pathos we feel are natural emotions! I think a lot of us are feeling where and when is the next shoe going to drop! I know I do tonight! I am, as I am sure you all are too, thinking of the tragic and horrible events that happened in Connecticut at the end of 2012 and the list goes on and on!
These are the times that try men’s (and women’s) Souls. . . Thomas Paine
Many thanks go out to all the public servants! The firefighters, the policemen and women, the nurses, doctors and all other lay people who have run to the disaster to help their fellow human beings. Here’s to reaching out with love to our fellow men and women in our world with help, which translates to Loving One Another!
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 hard-on 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.
