Bay Area Friends, It’s tour season and two of my favorite tours–the San Francisco Designer Showcase and the Garden Conservancy Tours happen this month. The Showcase House runs through May 28 and the Garden Conservancy Tours run in May and June in the East Bay, Marin, Santa Cruz and Mendocino. This Saturday, May 12, take [...]
This weekend I’ll be celebrating Easter with family and friends. We should have a break in the rain which means there will be a chance to point out the pink dogwood and white wisteria in bloom. Alas, the five hundred daffodils we planted in December are almost gone. I’m sorry they won’t be here to [...]
One of my favorite Bay Area landscape designers is Keeyla Meadows. I first met Keeyla when I was scouting gardens for a major garden tour that served as a fundraiser for our children’s grade school. That was twenty-some years ago and over that time I’ve watched her garden evolve from a colorful but simple field [...]
True confession? I didn’t know the Super Bowl was happening here in the Bay Area until last Saturday when my gay Mormon activist friend Mitch mentioned how early festivities had impacted the traffic coming from the city to a conference in Berkeley that we were both attending. Now how in the world did I miss [...]
I’ve subscribed to a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) box for decades. Every week I pick up a box full of organic vegetables and from May through September I can also receive a bouquet of flowers grown on the farm (Full Belly Farm north of Sacramento). These gorgeous sunflowers were today’s bouquet. Arranging them in a [...]
As I shed things I no longer need in anticipation of our move, I’m relishing the signs of rebirth that happen every spring. When I need to take a break from digging into dark corners, bundling up clothes that don’t work for me anymore or books I’ve already read, I make my way to the [...]
On this rainy Tuesday, I’m loving these cheery photos of The FloraCultural Society that Liessa Johannsen shot for my Gardenista post about this lovely new flower shop in Old Oakland. Florist Anna Campbell opened the shop as part of PopUpHood, a group that seeks to revitalize urban areas by taking vacant spaces and linking small business [...]
Sorry to leave you hanging with promises of Peru pictures. I meant to make good on those promises, but then a few days after our return, just as I was feeling back to normal, we got a call in the middle of the night. The kind of call that lets you know the old [...]
I hear that kids are heading back to school this week. Which means, I suppose, that summer is over. Did it ever really begin? Work proceeds apace and my time away has been dictated by family obligations. Thinking about gearing up for full bore fall productivity makes me long for a stretch of emptied out [...]
Forget the flowers in your hair, if you’re coming to San Francisco be sure to bring a sweater. Especially in the summer. Because of the summer fog it’s more than coolish here, it’s downright cold. Which makes this fair-skinned Idaho transplant very happy. I love a rainy winter day the best, but a foggy summer [...]
