This goes out to Joseph Jonas, encouraged me to get mushroom spores. He also helped me set up these shiitake logs. And they just sprouted! My miracle of the day…. Thanks, Joseph!    

  We’re back from our summer vacation! Mexico was amazing, but it’s also so good to be back in Santa Cruz. It’s always a surprise returning to where you live, if you’ve been gone for a while: plants grow--or die, if they haven’t been watered (ours didn’t--thank you, Kyle!!); critters make themselves at home in your home, dust settles. Actually, there wasn’t too much to clean up this time, but I kept wondering why our…

If you’ve ever ended up here, you have met Sally. She was the first to greet you, joined you on hikes into oaks, bay laurels and “the redwoods” and gave you company during lunches on the patio. She’s the real guardian of this place and now that she’s getting old, we don’t know how we could possibly replace her. When she came to us, she was the fastest runner, took down a deer or two…

It feels just amazing to be gardening this spring – maybe because it was almost impossible to spend time outdoors the last few months without getting completely soaked. And even though most of us got tired of all the unusual atmospheric events many weeks before it stopped raining, we knew it was good to counteract the drought. And our soil loved it. Not sure if it was because of all the rain, or the goat manure…

The epic, unending rain has soaked the soil--and we're ready for a nice wildflower season. Here are some Lupines not far from the house on the back side of the Loop. We're going for more hikes. How about you?