Bernal Hill's photogenic flea market was fun for a short visit. I often think I should go there (and to the farmers market) more often for the blog. But I'm reluctant to put myself in any position where I might find something new that I didn't know I needed to have.
You've seen my garden. You know how I am with plants. Imagine that mania translating across other platforms. Not cool. Instead of collecting things, I collect pictures. Not even photographs. Snapshots. If a picture can't capture a scene in a quick second of pointing and shooting, then the scene is left for someone with more patience. Someone with an agenda. I live in the quick moment. I just want to hit you with a hot note.
Listening and hearing your comments, my dad finally agreed to cut down the Tragic Ash. Rest in Peace, Tragic Ash. Vive le Tragique Ash!
We lolled about in the Mission District while my car got smogged, and popped down to the garden after watching the Obama inauguration.
Obama clearly ranked high on this year's List of Big Things. I consider myself moderately invested in poltics, but weakly engaged in the process (because I have other interests). I was happy for the change, but Obama didn't do (and continues not to do) anything for me. What's the big deal about Barack Obama? I don't get it. There's nothing there.
But then he has a Nobel Peace Prize (haha) and what I have I got? Seeds to plant. I garden and tend my little piece of heaven. And I have a camera to help share that with you, whoever, wherever you are. That's all that happens around here.
We took a little jaunt around Nob Hill. I shared my best friend's small, very urbane apartment.
Our hike to the top of Twin Peaks marked the first, substantial post of 2009. We took the 24 Divisadero bus to the Castro and walked all the way up.
We finished off January with a class I didn't care for on making herbal medicines, and a little visit to Chinatown.
Later that day I joined Twitter. It's been a disaster for the blog by siphoning off my blogging energy. You may recall my goal of 300 blog posts in 2009. I feel short by, wait for it, 109 posts! I made 74 fewer blog posts in 2009 than I made in 2008! Sheesh. What should my resolution for 2010 be? I'm reluctant to make any resolutions. I want to say something perfectly clear to anyone whose wondering: My commitment to this blog is permanent and steadfast. I may lack inspiration for periods of time, or be engrossed in life details that preclude blogging, but blogging will always resume here in the same manner that has gone on here for two years here, and two years previously on the other blog. The blog, such as it is, is a central part of my life and I value it. I hope that you enjoy it too. Having you here is wonderful.
February 1st was cool and crisp. We enjoyed some coastal vignettes.
I finally found the low, endemic form of Fremont's Camas on Bernal Hill
and afterward we used Adah Bakalinsky's book Stairway Walks of San Francisco to visit parts of my neighborhood I'd never seen before.
I especially enjoyed this picture of Tecomaria capensis, Ceanothus sp., Salvia leucantha, Euryops pectinatus, and Rosmarinus officinalis (blurry, in front) blooming all together in a community garden.
I won a poetry contest on Garden Rant for free seeds from Botanical Interests.
It rained on February 15, so I rolled out Bloom Day Ellis Hollow-style, using a scanner and black cloth.
I made bloom day posts every month in 2009: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December.
I finished reading Julia Childs' outstanding biography My Life in France late one night and blogged about it first thing the next morning when I woke up. At the time, I had no clue a movie starring Meryl Streep as Julia Child was in the works. Julie and Julia was easily my favorite movie of 2009, for sure.
We took a 3-mile hike on Pulgas Ridge and waited for rain.
In March I was a tourist in my own city. We visited Fishermans Wharf,
and the Musee Mecanique.
And then I was a tourist in someone else's city.
And by city, I mean remote tropical island.
Ah, so nice. We're going back in March. I am counting the days.
We came home to spring in full swing.
We took the stairs to the top of San Francisco's tallest building at 555 California Street to benefit the American Lung Association. (Second tallest in absolute height, but built on a hill, 555 stands taller)
(I want to do it again in 2010, but we're catching that plane to Hawaii right afterwards and I don't want to push it. We'll see.)
April is usually the best month for a garden, and 2009 was no exception.
We popped up to Seattle for a few days. The fascinating bonsai specimens at the relatively obscure Elandan Gardens in Gorst blew my mind.
We also had a fabulous dinner in West Seattle and visited the Kubota Japanese Garden.
When I got home we went to lovely Capitola. The blogger even made a rare appearance, getting a kiss!
We watched the surfers and found what must be the world's largest specimen of Echium fastuosum.
Going north this time, we stopped at Russian River Roses on our way to Healdsburg.
I did an East Bay garden tour and only enjoyed one garden. I was shocked. I don't think the gap between designer gardens and gardener gardens ever seemed so stark to me. I learned that I am not a designer gardener. Big surprise to you, I'm sure.
Meanwhile, my own gardener garden... we got an unusually late rain in May.
Seattle visitors came to us and we took them to Point Bonita Lighthouse in Marin County,
and Telegraph Hill
and North Beach in San Francisco.
Back home the garden seemed unseasonally wet for May
I used pictures to vent about something I read on Garden Rant. We recollected 2005, the year I began to garden.
We used Adah Bakalinsky's book as a guide stairway walks in 2009 whenever we could. Here we are on Russian Hill.
We visited an old haunt for a few hours right around the time that I got sworn in as a juror on a 5-week trial in federal court.
I lost a lot of blogging momentum during those weeks, but I got this nifty trip to Preservation Park out of it.
During a trial recess, we busted of town for a weekend and made it all the way to Mendocino, among my favorite destinations.
When you go, plan to spend 2-4 hours just exploring the coastal cliffs around town.
The garden didn't miss me very much while I was on jury duty, but I sure missed the garden.
2009 was not a banner year for vegetables, but I enjoyed my first Magda squash.
Edgewood Park was beautiful in late spring.
According to the blog, I finished jury duty on June 24. and celebrated with Bloody Marys a the Cliff House with an old friend. We visited the Camera Obscura.
Recovering from jury dudy, I painted the garden door green and entertained many visitors.
I visited Filoli
and the Pulgas Water Temple right next door
followed by lunch at Rossotti's.
Back in the City we admired the giant urn in Forest Hills, took in the view from Mount Davidson,
I hiked along the beach in Half Moon Bay and stumbled upon artist Michael Powers' incredible house.
We popped up to Seattle again for a couple days and I saw Ciscoe Morris's front yard, and had another fabulous dinner in West Seattle.
We got up to Guerneville twice this year and played Pee Wee Golf under the redwoods.
It was nice to finally see the Moraga Tiled Steps. And the stairway walk around Golden Gate Heights ranks among my most favorite despite, or perhaps because of, the seasonal foggy summer conditions prevailing on the day we did it. Four stars for the Golden Gate Heights walk.
We visit the Garden for the Environment all the time, but I saw several things in late July that I tremendously enjoyed.
And we saw some great plant combinations on stairway walks below Twin Peaks
and above the Castro.
I received kind gifts from FitzGerald Nurseries in Ireland by way of my Twitter and friend Carri Stokes and Pacific Plug and Liner. In addition to this bright red cordyline, we also got two "black plants": Phormium 'Black Adder' and Ceanothus 'Tuxedo'. I have high hopes for both plants in the coming years.
by late August, the garden settled in to full relaxation mode. This is among my favorite time of year when the ground has gone bone dry for lack of rain and the adaptive qualities of our Mediterranean flora work their magic.
I was usually home for the small flocks of house sparrows who visited the bird bath quite reliably at 11:30 every morning.
The Green Gulch Farm Trail hike has been on my to-do list for years. In 2009, I finally made it. I'll do it again in spring 2010. The hills were dormant the time we got to them in August.
September was way too hot to lug myself around Potrero Hill for a stairway walk, but I did it anyway.
We welcomed the appearance of blue in the hot, Indian summer garden--cooling things down a little bit.
Elsewhere I began to pay attention for signs of fall.
I offered to help my neighbor with some gardening, and he turned me down.
Blue skies and fog are often the rule in September's San Francisco.
We had great fun navigating the straw bale labyrinth at Arata's Pumpkin Farm
I gave you my take on freaky-deaky Bolinas and we made a pilgrimage to legendary Larner Seeds for wildflower packets.
By early October, the light was getting awkward for taking pictures, but I had raspberries to show you and the Sea Squill bloomed (Urginea maritima).
A huge rainstorm blew in off the ocean in mid-October and effectively put an end to summer.
We got 2.5" overnight, rare in California; the garden rejoiced.
I finally got a great picture of Miss Patty.
We jumped at our second opportunity to visit Guerneville in 2009, and this time you also got nearby Monte Rio and Cazadero in the bargain.
October ended with one of 2009's big highlight, a weekend in Calaveras County to visit Calaveras Big Trees State Park. We spent the night in Angels Camp, grabbed lunch in Murphys, and spent the day hiking the north and south groves.
Back in the City, Bernal Hill was romantic at dusk.
The frequency of blog posting declined with the decreasing amount of daylight.
We went to Ukiah, but there wasn't much to see up there either. I squeezed out another stairway walk in December. And that pretty much brings us up to where we are now.
Are you writing a year-in-review post? Mine was light on the actual gardening this blog is nominally about. I still have 2 days, so come back and maybe we'll talk about major developments in the garden, like removing the bamboo, and the experiement with gravel mulch. We also got a new compost bin and I fought off marauding attackers.
If we don't talk again before 2010, I wish you a fun, memorable, meaningful night. Do something special for yourself and your family. Enjoy the Blue Moon. Happy New Year!
