Yesterday we arrived home after being away for a little over a week. We travelled by car to the California Bay Area to attend a family wedding in Berkeley. It was absolutely lovely. The ceremony was held in a cathedral of Coast Redwoods (aka it was in an outdoor theater under the Sequoia sempervirens in the UC Berkeley Botanical gardens). Before the ceremony, I had a few minutes to tour through the botanical gardens. Along with native plantings, there were many succulents that were thriving in the hot, blazing heat. Also, I ran into a horticulture student who was in the fern and carniverous plant house on watering duty. We chatted for a bit about the calming & nurturing nature of watering. I asked why the Fragrant Honeydew had fragrant in its name. He wasn’t sure & its foliage didn’t have a scent; no blooms, so not sure if that was the key! The dripping pitcher plants in hanging baskets alongside enormous ferns tucked here & again with blooming orchids were just stunning.

The redwoods were beautiful and fragrant in the summer heat as were the eucalyptus. I was surprised, momentarily, at the already-blooming and ripening Arbutus unedo. Often I forget that NorCal is a few weeks ahead of our area of the Pacific Northwest.

While we were in the bay area, we stayed a couple of nights in the Sunnyvale area. Its sad to me to see so many new strip malls and so fewer orchards. When we were younger, fruit stands would have been filled to the brim with amazing treats. Now those same orchards are home to tacky townhomes and Jamba juice bars. One thing that remains the same is the perfectly edged lawns and perfectly boxed or balled or tiered shrubbery in Sunnyvale. I suppose the same gardeners have been doing the same things for generations in the area. Also, I was amazed at a huge new Whole Foods Market nearby. Why in the world a progressive market like this didn’t put in a permeable parking lot is beyond me. It was a stinky, hot asphalt jungle filled with huge SUVs and dieing London Plane trees. One good thing — seems they know better than to top  their Crepe Myrtles. Most were absolutely gorgeous!

After leaving the Bay Area, we drove up Hwy 1 from San Rafael to Fort Bragg. We enjoyed watching the waves, inhaling the amazing flora & fauna scents so reminiscent of my NorCal childhood — a combination of hot blackberries on the vine, baking eucalyptus, ancient cypress and redwood, dried grass, goat, ocean breezes, manzanita and more. We enjoyed a day driving through the Avenue of the Giants where enormous old growth Redwoods still tower inspiring you to stay silent and listen to the trees. The redwoods were doing a seasonal shed of old growth; at times it appeared to be snowing tones of gold through the filtered sunlight amid the trees. Beautiful but dangerous were the fall-red vines of poison oak amid the undergrowth and travelling up the trees. We saw summer-weary trilliums and solomon’s seal nodding amid groundcovers of wood sorrel.

Now that we’re home, the seasons have definitely turned. The sun is at a new angle than before we left. Tall garden phlox is about finished blooming as sunflowers, dahlias and monkshood begin their late summer show. A bounty of yellow wax beans, cucumbers, tomatoes and crook neck squash awaited our return. Tonight we will feast — a late season celebration of our return home.