First Signs of Spring in Atherton

Before I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, I associated magnolias with the American South. Magnolias grow and bloom like crazy around here too, they love the mild Mediterranean climate. I especially enjoy these blossoms every year, when they pop up in front of the tiny Atherton Library.

Crazed Blooms - Hidden Souls

Early Spring Sings At The Creek

Sixties Children Tune

Cream Cups - Ideal for Fairies

Platystemon californicus - Cream Cups

Poppy heritage
Local fairies dwell herein
Cream cups shine in spring
~ ~ ~
Web Resources
Fairy Housing http://www.hikingedgewood.blogspot.com/2012/11/fairy-houses.html

Fairy House, Tood's Stool or Spoor's End http://www.hikingedgewood.blogspot.com/2013/11/fairy-house-toad-stool-or-simply-spoors.html

Edgewood http://www.friendsofedgewood.org

Co-published with Hiking Edgewood and Postcard From California

Native Power! Poppies and Red Maids (Hiking Edgewood)

Enjoy the lovely details by clicking on the illustration above

Poppies, shout it.

 Red Maids love serpentine soil! 

We're the one percent!

We're so lucky to be able to enjoy an historic wildflower bloom at Edgewood, where rate serpentine soil  does it's best to keep invasive non-native plants at bay. Only one percent of California plays host to the rock type that produces this special dirt. 

Let's hear it for the natives!

~ ~ ~

Web Resources

Edgewood Rocks: Geology and Soils

http://postcardfromcalifornia.blogspot.com/2014/03/edgewood-rocks-geology.html

Edgewood Nature Preserve http://www.friendsofedgewood.org

SLO Deerweed in Full Bloom (Hiking San Luis Obispo)

Deerweed
Lotus scoparius
Click on the illustration above for all the glorious detail

Deerweed (Lotus scoparius) was in full bloom when we hiked Madonna Mountain, in San Luis Obispo  a few weeks back. The deerweed is only just starting to show yellow, up here about 200 miles north at Edgewood Nature Preserve in the San Francisco Bay Area.

With it's shiny bare red stalks in the winter, deerweed adds an arty element to it's surroundings. It also provides nectar for gorgeous mint-green hairstreak butterflies. So, I'm thinking about giving this native a try the next time I'm visiting SLO and swing by Las Pilitas Nursery (http://www.laspilitas.com/nature-of-california/plants/lotus-scoparius). Las Pilitas is a great native plant nursery, but they have very specific hours. I recommend you call ahead if you're going. (You can also get plants from them by mail.) And double check with them on the directions. The drive over from the freeway to the nursery is rural California at it's best as well. Keep an eye out for wild turkeys, quail and bears - not kidding. Ask about the bear that used to be somewhat of a regular at the nursery.

Plain Sewing for Disneyland

(co-published with MeEncantaCoser/EnchantedBySewing.blogspot.com)

Me in my my Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Shirt)
on a quick spring break at Disneyland

As regular followers of my Me Encanta Coser Enchanted By Sewing blog and podcast may have noticed, I spent a lot of time focusing on improving my sewing techniques over the last couple of months. The green and golden jungle print shirt (previously blogged about as my Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Shirt) in this photo, was the product of that work. 

After so much effort when it came to crisp edges, pattern fitting and alteration I had fun making a couple of simple tank tops with no pattern at all and the simple joy of scissoring wherever I wanted. The results were perfect as layers under a travel wardrobe for a recent quick-hop Disneyland trip with my grownup daughter. With my new green shirt as a top layer, I managed to pack light - using just a very small rolling suitcase for the trip. My simple shirt and tees wardrobe,  made a second floor motel room and return-by-Amtrak trip really easy - no problem hefting that bag up steps, onto the top shelf of the luggage area, or pulling it up the gap between train and track.

I loved this opportunity to use machine embroidery
I almost forget to use a top layer of stabalizer between
the needle and knit fabric! You know what happens if you
forget, right? The fabric is sucked down and gummed up
 under the throat plate and it's awful.

I enjoyed using machine embroidery to create this lovely zebra, the only motif on the green shirt for which I had a match on my (now) old-fashioned embroidery machine, which uses cards instead of the more modern downloadable designs. I also made use of an inexpensive white tee - which I totally cutup and simply used as fabric. The binding (and headband - which you see simply tossed over the hanger here) was the remains of a tee that didn't work out. I loved the 100% cotton knit fabric when I found it - at Stone Mountain and Daughter in Berkley-, but it had an awful lot more stretch than I realized and the long sleeved tee I made  out of it is too broad and too short. It just didn't work out. But the remnants make great trim for this zebra shirt. Now that I've experimented with this tee, and another, I'm hoping to make a similar one out of better quality white cotton knit. I think I've still got enough of the black and white remainder for binding and enough black thread for another zebra too!

If you have machine embroidery capabilities and haven't done so on knits, make sure you use a top layer of stabalizer as well as a bottom layer. I use the kind that looks like saran wrap. You tear it away and any remainder washes away.

This is my kind of uniform
Something I can put on every day
and pretty too

As I've said before, I like making pretty clothes that I'll get a lot of wear from. Whether I'm in the land of Princesses and castles or back home on my bike, I'll get a lot of use out of this zebra tee. And I'll always enjoy pulling it out of my drawer.

Machine embroidered tees like this, keep me enchanted by sewing.

Primrosing CA Style

Primrose rises smaller

then other garden flowers.

But just so hope blooms.

Hawks Ahead (Marsh Hawk/Northern Harrier Hawk)

Click on the illustration to get up close and personal with this lovely   hawk.


I saw this gorgeous fellow, and his mate, yesterday at Edgewood Park. These days they are commonly referred to as Northern Harrier Hawks, but since I first saw Circus cyaneus at the Palo Alto Baylands, I prefer the good old fashioned sobriquet of Marsh Hawk.

Nature's Mardi Gras OR You won't catch me K'Vetching!

Click on the illustration above to start celebratin' a little natural Mardi Gras spirit on the Clarkia Trail at Edgewood Park, San Mateo County, California in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Leapus Forward- Jumpin' Jackrabbit Style

Click on the illustration above, to put a little Spring into your step

I knew this giant jackrabbit heading down the Edgewood Park trail in my direction today was trying to tell me something.

Turns out this coming Sunday marks our daylight savings changeover. Yup it's time to leap forward an hour. I don't think this particular Lepus californicus has any health concerns when it comes to springing forward, though many people do. According to this article early alarms puts the population at a greater risk of heart attack.

"Lepus", no kidding. This gigantic fella was leapus-ing to beat the band. 

Bloomin' Madness, Western Style

å

Click on the illustration above, for the full rich madness of 

blooming Western Leatherwood.

My perfect study break is heading over to Edgewood Park between classes.

I've been watching and waiting for these Leatherwood buds to burst out into their blooming' heyday.

Their time was brief, but lovely. I know what trail I'll be hiking next year, waiting for a little more of my kind of March Madness.

I'm Willowin': Spring Comes Early at Edgewood

Click on the illustration above to enjoy some willow'ing nature

Romancing England: The Face of Love in Northumberland

Please click on the illustration above for the full details when it comes to baby-love.

Walking Hadrian's Wall the week before last, we encountered a paradise of sheep. In the past I've been a goat fancier but now I've found that English sheep, particularly in the spring'y month of May, are pretty fanciable. Now I know what inspires the artists of children's stories to draw all those gamboling lambs.

Trail to Windy Hill: Spring

Click on the illustration above for a fuller view

of Spring on the Windy Hill Trail

Wild Iris and Columbine make up for a faint brush with invasive stinging nettles and one minor tumble-down-the-trail. Nothing broken, nothing sprained - but most important HOW IS THE CAMERA???!!!

As to stinging nettles, in the past we didn't to have them in the area. Can't actually figure out what they're good for, though this site shows how  to cook them, but I'm not taking a chance on picking the wrong thing. Also I don't think it's legal to collect plants in the mid-penninsula regional open space, even plants that those in charge of the Open Space are working to pull out.

I actually think those nettles are here to TAKE OVER JOBS FROM LOCAL PLANTS. Of course the word on the trail is our local plants don't apply for those jobs.

Spring in my Driveway: Days of Bees and Wisteria

Please click on the illustration above 

to fully enjoy the bee bounty

The bees that patrol the wisteria in my driveway, are actually bumble bees. But those girls zip back and forth too quickly for my camera to catch. I wonder what bumble bees do with the pollen if they don't make honey. And do they help pollinate they way their apian buddies do? I'm sure there's an answer out on the web if I wanted to google all day. 

That sounds like a song doesn't it? 

Google in the mornnin'

Google in the evenin'

Google at suppertime.

Cuz of my bumble bee darlings I'm googlin' all the time.

The bees I included here (much-altered from the original) originate from an obliging honeybee I found in the park near my house.

... And yet I've always preferred Wildflowers (April Calendar, with Passover and Easter dates printable)

Please click on the calendar illustration above to enjoy the details 

Or for printing

And yet I've always preferred wildflowers. 

I was terribly disappointed when I checked the pages of  Jane Austen's novel Sense and Sensability to find that Marianne Dashwood never actually uttered those words. They were only spoken in one of my favorite movie versions.