Tag Archives: fennel

A season soft and warm.

smells, summer, weather, , , ,

I am so thankful that a week and more of warm days has been bestowed on us here at the end of Summer. You can tell I love this season best, if you just look at all the posts over the years that have summer in the title. I am always searching my mind and and heart to find a way to describe what happens to me, when in the final weeks we often get the best of the season — the earth has warmed up, and for some reason the marine breezes don’t move in every afternoon and force us to put on our sweaters.

I’ve been taking advantage of this unusual situation as much as possible, and sitting in the garden to read my book, or just to soak up the feeling of being comfortable. I’m noticing.

(Not soft but stickery.)

When I walked along the nearby creek this week, I remembered another benefit of living in this climate with no summer rain, often for four months or more. The plants that thrive or survive the yearly drought eventually come to the end of their productive season, and if there is heat at this time, it draws out the essences such that I am grabbed by the aromas as I walk past. There is a lot of jammy scent right now, from the Himalayan blackberries that grow wild all over northern California; the ones that never fully ripened back in high summer are now dehydrating on their stems.

And the ubiquitous fennel, also growing wild, though it’s also not native. These exude a licorice flavor into the air about now.

According to the forecast, we’ll have another ten days of highs in the 80’s and even 90’s. I think that is just the best way to transition into October.

Scents of a September morning.

quotes, smells, , , , ,

I was excited to walk to the library this morning. Only that one errand needed doing, so it wasn’t necessary to drive from place to place. I love staying home, but I also like taking walks. It’s having to get in the car and into traffic that is a bother.

So off I went, wearing my newish pack that one of my grandsons gave me last Christmas, with his wishes for fun adventures wearing it. It was just the right size for my wallet and the three books I was returning, all related to the Iliad. I’m still reading that classic, but I was done with those commentaries.

I had barely got around the corner when I ran into the first roses on my way. I was surprised — I must have been driving past them several times a week recently, but clearly with my mind elsewhere. As I was within a few inches, and not rolling past in a car, it was easy to stop and look into their faces. I sniffed all the colors along the fence, and they were delicious. These below were my favorites, because of their romantic nature:

I thought of what Elizabeth von Arnim said about this experience:

oleander

“[Walking] is the perfect way of moving if you want to see into the life of things. It is the one way of freedom. If you go to a place on anything but your own feet you are taken there too fast, and miss a thousand delicate joys that were waiting for you by the wayside.” 

Fifty steps further on, I caught a whiff of something sweet, and looked up to see that it was the oleander bush that towered above me. I don’t know if I’ve ever noticed the scent of oleanders — but how could that be? I have known them my whole life, and was pleased to encounter so many in Greece last year.

A few more steps, and I came upon a riot of blooming rosebushes at a busy intersection. This path was truly a highly decorated and aromatic one.

And then onward under the canopy of tall redwood trees, in the sunshiny and mildly warm air, and my heart was light. I soon reached the library — only to find it closed. A tall fence closed off the entrance, and a sign told about renovation, and that it would open again in the spring. In the meantime, we could use a temporary facility a few blocks farther away. What to do? Would my feet complain if I added this extra distance to their task? I decided that I didn’t want to extend my walk further, and turned back toward home, a little disappointed. I would have to drive to return my books after all. But worse things could happen.

Walking home the other direction I noticed different sights, as I looked down into the creek that is full of willows, waving in the breeze and showing their silvery undersides. I took the little shortcut along the creek, passing by this spot where the sunlight is often filtering through the trees in such a way that it makes me want to stop and sit a while, on the nice bench that has been installed there. But the bench faces into a big tree trunk, and doesn’t have a great view. So I never do.

This fennel plant was in bloom and smelling like licorice candy.

Next time I think I’ll plan to walk all the way to the temporary library. It’s likely that by then the roses will be gone, but I’m sure there will be some other good things on my path. And I won’t be going too fast to see them.

Little shining water.

nature, , ,
A favorite eucalyptus tree.

Yesterday my godmother called, suggesting that we go for coffee or a walk. What a nice idea! I knew I needed the walk, and didn’t need the coffee, so she came over, and we ambled along my usual path, but farther than I’ve been going lately. That gave me the oomph to go again this afternoon, on a Sunday of all days, when typically I need a nap more, and rarely get that…

It’s been a week or more since the rains, I can’t keep track, and the creek has quieted down to a silver ribbon. Actually I walk along two different creeks, and cross the bridge where they merge.

The tender fennel ferns are popping out greenly.

Primroses were floating all around.

smells, summer, wildflowers, , , , , , ,

My friend K. and I took our first ever hike together — unless you count tromping up and down hills in San Francisco, which we used to do at Christmastime. It was a pretty easy walk, just over two miles, in a place I’d never been before. Three gravel pits near a river have been turned into small lakes, and the trail passes by two of them and loops around the third.

pennyroyal

As soon as we set off from the trailhead the distinctive late summer scents of live oak and fennel and redwood filled my consciousness. It was midday, and the warmth of the air brought out their special essences and melded them into that perfume that is one of the best things about the hot season; it makes me feel at home, and quite wealthy.

Rough Cocklebur

We saw large clumps of Rough Cocklebur, a new one to me; poison oak (of course), and — elderberries! I had just told a blogger last week that I never see elderberries unless I go to the mountains. And here were gobs of them. I wasn’t prepared to gather the berries, and it probably is forbidden anyway, as they are growing on public land. I didn’t even “gather” a photo, but you probably know what they look like.

The chicory wildflowers were the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. Usually they are fading or for other reasons not very photogenic when I see them. This is the same plant from which the root is used to make a drink that people use as a coffee substitute. I have developed a love for the drink, hot or cold, that I brew from chicory that has been gathered and roasted by someone else.

chicory

My favorite discovery of the afternoon was Floating Primrose Willow, Ludwigia pepoides which was growing all around the lakes and out onto the water in broad swaths. [update: in my original title I called them “willow flowers” but Linda pointed out that in so doing I gave the impression that they are willows — they aren’t at all, are in a family of aquatic plants sometimes called water-primroses.]

K. and I hope to make a habit of our hikes together; neither of us can seem to make it happen if we are trying to go alone. We loved this outing so much. May God help us to continue!

Floating Primrose Willow