We often mention the cognitive dissonance of the Northern California seasons. Green in winter, brown in summer. We will focus on the green….and the flowers that hang on through winter. The roses get their petals knocked off by the rain, but they keep coming back. The rosemary is still in bloom and a few of the bees are working the blossoms. The hummingbirds scrap over the remaining flowers (and let us know to back off!). Our kind of winter.
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Tag Archives: flowers
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Falling Leaves Amidst The Flowers
Autumn is a conflicted season in the Bay Area. We play at the beach while the snow covers the mountains. T-shirts at the Thanksgiving table (at least some tables). The golden hills turn green. Leaves fall amidst the blooming flowers. There is always a touch of spring here, always something new, always growth. But some leaves still color and then fall.
On the east coast people speak of the “fall colors” and loving the seasons we don’t really have here. We do have seasons and beautiful leaves…we just need to look a little harder. And if we want winter, we will just have to drive to the mountains… 😉
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Raindrops And Roses
As we move toward winter the rains come. Overall, this is a good thing. The pastures go green, our lakes recharge and there is snow in the Sierras. And it makes things pretty in the garden. We just wish the rain wouldn’t knock the petals off the roses…sniff…at least more are on the way. And this is still California, it is supposed to be 80 degrees next week. No complaints.
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A Visit To Brookside Orchids
Just a few miles away from our “farm” there is a little secret. Tucked behind a farm stand and an equestrian center, lies a small, balmy haven of color, Brookside Orchids. We will do a full post on this amazing business, but in the meantime we visited to pick up a gift and couldn’t resist taking a few photos (and we do mean a “few”- there is so much more to share). Walking around in a warm, humid greenhouse filled with thousands of orchids and hanging plants is simply delightful. It feels like a dream. Here are some photos for the weekend…
An orchid that evolved to look like a fly…cool.
Bat Lily, not an orchid, but amazing to look at.
We leave you with an orchid that smells like vanilla and licorice, It only flowers a few days a year, but it certainly draws attention when in bloom.
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Back to the Roses
While summer is winding down across much of the country, northern California often has a second or “Indian” summer in September and October. For many of the microclimates in the Bay Area, Indian summer offers better weather than our “real” summer. This time of year, the fog will roll back some, the wind slacken and sometimes go offshore and things will heat up. On the farm this means tomatoes through September, another crop of strawberries and more roses. We don’t know if we will have Indian Summer this year (it was already a good summer, no need to be greedy). But a new bloom of roses is here, so we may as well share.
The bees drinking from the bird bath. A popular spot for the bees and the only place other than near the hive where they get a bit ornery.
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Our Honey And The “Little” Flowers
Honey from the flowers at Putney Farm.
The crew busy at work on the mint. Supposedly we may get a bit of mint flavor in this honey.
This week we got the first large batch of our late spring / early summer honey. (We have sort of a co-op going on and will explain how this all works in a later post). Very exciting. Most of this honey comes from our early season flowers, so it combines the nectar of the fruit blossoms, herb blossoms, roses, wisteria and the ornamental plants. Later in the year the lavender dominates, but this is truly a blend from the garden and orchard. Surprisingly the honey is very light in color and flavor, with some delicate herbal notes. We served it with grilled figs and it was lovely. (And we just ate a bunch with the honeycomb…what a treat. Might include it in a few cocktails, too.)
Arugula flower.
Red leaf lettuce flower.
Normally our local honey is a “mountain” or “forest” honey that runs darker with more bitter notes from the variety of flowers the bees work, and that is not a bad thing at all- these honeys are big, rich and complex. But we will admit to enjoying our more traditional golden honey. It seems the bees focused mostly on our garden this spring. And that got us thinking about all the “little” or “lesser” flowers that supplied such light, tasty honey.
Rosemary flowers.
Like many gardeners, we sometimes focus on our “big” flowers like roses, but we have many lovely flowering ornamental or ground-cover plants. The bees seem to like most of them, and we figured it would be fun to take a few photos of these “little” flowers. And after enjoying the honey from these flowers, maybe we shouldn’t call them “little” at all…besides, any excuse to walk in the garden with a Macro lens is a good one 😉 Continue reading
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