Reverting to Nature

Changing the title just a little, this 'ghost tree' is slowly being reclaimed by  nature. It burned in the Nun's Fire of 2017 and is slowly and, I think, rather beautifully being reclaimed by nature.

We went on a circular walk in the Sonoma Valley Regional Park this morning, climbing the hill past the now completely plant covered pond. It's a shame we can't find a place where Spike can swim safely because he loves it. Most of the creeks are not deep enough, especially this time of year, and are often inaccessible. If the lakes aren't toxic, they are off limits for dogs. The beach is delightful, but it is an hour and a half away and has unpredictable waves. Anyway, we continued on across the ridge, down  through wildflower covered hills*, to the main paved trail, past the ghost tree, and a few more like it,  and back to the parking lot. It was a lovely morning and we met two women with rescue boxers...the first of which was called Marigold, which struck me as a wildly inappropriate name.

Dana came by this afternoon and went around the garden convincing John that he didn't have to pull every single weed out by the roots and that quite a lot of them could be ignored completely to become part of the landscape. She is going to come back and help John with some basic maintenance on Wednesday.

I was saddened to hear about the death of Pope Francis. He put up quite a fight and got back to some limited papal duties. It's really too bad that one of his last audiences was with JD Vance who excused his less than inspirational meeting with the comment that he is a 'Baby Catholic' (converted in 2019) and acknowledged that 'there are things about the faith that I don't know'. Like compassion and caring for others for starters....



* In extras most of which will probably disappear in a few days. the last extra is blooming poison oak, something I don't ever remember seeing before.