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We are now living in very stressful times which can have an adverse effect upon our immune system making it easier for us to get sick and catch colds.  There is a way of helping our bodies deal with stress naturally through a group of herbs called "adaptogens". Paramount in this group of herbs is "Eleuthero" (formerly known as "Siberian ginseng").

The letter’s return address read Melbourne, Australia and it’s stamps had the face of a Koala on them.  I was excited, as I had received an email earlier from a cousin I did not know existed, who had spent a great deal of time and effort locating me.   This letter from Andrew ended with how great it would be if we could meet someday.  And meet someday we did.   I am so fortunate to have made the hasty decision last May to travel to Australia and meet this new-found family of mine.  Had I waited until this year the trip would never have happened.    Hasty (another word for impulsive) decisions have usually worked well for me, except for that one day in my kitchen.   Soon after losing my Hubby Norm I remember standing in the kitchen looking at the plethora of pots and pans hanging from a pot hanger, cupboards and drawers full of dishes, and cooking equipment, all put into play when I would cook for him.  That day I hastily decided to rid myself of memories.  Little did I realize  memories are not easily erased simply by removing pots and pans, nor would  buying unfamiliar ones clear my mind.  However, one thing this hasty decision did teach me is that I do love to cook and cannot go without cooking.  I love to teach others to cook and I love to see my family and friends enjoy the fruits of my labor.    During this new way of life we are now leading, plus the alone time we now have, I have been cooking more complicated dishes and reinventing ones that are familiar, but time-consuming.    A few days prior to the Fourth of July I looked at my good friend Rosie Chalmers and hastily said, “Lets have lobsters for the Holiday,” and boiled lobsters for the Fourth of July we had.   My plan was to reserve the lobsters’ shells in my freezer along with their legs (lobsters have ten meat-filled legs), which would be cooked into a tomato-based lobster bisque, my hubby’s favorite soup.   Two days prior to July 4th, I ordered four 1 ¾ lb. lobsters on-line from Maine which would be shipped live, overnight.  Two of these were to be gifted; one to neighbor Mike and the other to the Mountain Gardner, Jan.  By ordering $100 worth, shipping was free.  The entire order cost $138…$34 per person.  The meat from the lobsters was too much for one meal, making the cost of each dinner at $17.  Coupling that with the soup yet to be cooked, which uses only tomatoes and cream, plus a few minor ingredients, we are down to a mere $12 each for three meals of lobster.  Not an expensive hasty choice after all.   Our big day arrived, and having brought a pot of water to a boil, Rosie stepped up to the task and with her bare hands picked up Larry lobster and popped him into the pot.  A mere 14 minutes later, out came Larry and another lobster went in.  I was grateful as this is the part of cooking I have trouble with, whether it be live clams, crabs, or especially lobsters, anything moving.   After a few hours and with a lovely Cosmopolitan cocktail in hand, Rosie and I sat down with our lobsters on a plate and tools ready… a lobster cracker, long thin forks, and kitchen shears.  Well, the crackers didn’t work.  This was to be a tougher and messier undertaking than anticipated.  We moved our Larry lobsters to a large cookie sheet and had to resort to a hammer and a block of wood if we were to have lobster for dinner.    Well worth all of this effort?  You bet, and maybe, for me at least, are the  memories.  Memories from the past as well as new memories stored for the future.      Dear Readers, use this unusual time we have found ourselves in to make memories with those you love.  You never know when you will need them. Lobster Bisque (Serves 2-3) In a large soup pot add 2 Lobster carcasses (shells) and legs along with:1 Tbsp. butter1 Tbsp. olive oil6 cloves of smashed garlic3 carrots diced2 celery ribs diced1 cup red onions diced1 cup white wine6 cups vegetable stock1/3 cup tomato paste½ tsp. fresh peppercorns2 bay leaves1 Tbsp. Italian parsley1 tsp. ground thyme½ tsp sea salt½ tsp. cracked pepperBring to a boil, turn down to medium simmer and cook for one hour.   Remove from heat and strain broth.  Set aside. While lobster broth is cooking, dice reserved lobster meat into 1 in. chunks and sauté for two minutes in 2 Tbsp. Butter.  Remove meat and reserve butter for the roux. For the roux, add additional 6 Tbsp. butter and ½ cup all-purpose flour to pan and whisk continually over medium heat until lightly browned and nutty smelling. For the bisque:  Slowly add reserved broth to the roux, whisking quickly.  Turn down heat to medium low. Add ½ cup dry Sherry Wine and 1 cup heavy cream and ½ tsp. saffron. 

Last year I bought a dwarf butterfly bush and planted it in a pot near my entry. I’m not sure if it’s a Buzz Hot Raspberry or a Lo & Behold Pink Microchip but it’s in full bloom and will continue through fall if I keep it deadheaded. The swallowtail butterflies love it and the scent is so sweet and so strong I can smell it through an open window. In this time of hanging out more at the homestead it brings a smile to my face.  Fragrance in flowers is nature's ways of encouraging pollination. Just as it draws you to take a deeper whiff, it lures insects to blossoms hidden by leaves. Some flowers are fragrant only at night and attract night-flying pollinators like moths, while others are more fragrant during the day and attract insects like bees and butterflies. The fragrance itself comes from essential oils called attars that vaporize easily and infuse the air with their scents.  Aroma chemistry is complex and the smell of any flower comes from more than a single chemical compound. These molecules are present in different combinations in different plants, but often they are markedly similar which is why there are irises that smell like grapes and roses that smell like licorice. Our noses can detect those chemical compounds that have a major impact on the aroma. Often a particular molecule will make a large contribution.  Some roses, for instance, derive their scent from rose oxide and others from beta-damascenome or rose ketones. These molecules are detectable by our noses at very, very low concentrations. Carnations, violets, lilies, chrysanthemums, hyacinth- all have their own set of compounds that contribute to their scent.  It’s interesting also that as we become accustomed to the same smell our brain phases it out. A compound called ionones, found in violets and rose oil, can essentially short-circuit our sense of smell, binding to the receptors. This shut down is only temporary and the ionones can soon be detected again and registered as a new smell. Place sweet-smelling plants where you can enjoy them throughout the season. The potency of flower scents varies greatly, so consider the strength of a fragrance when deciding where to put a plant. Subtle fragrances such as sweet pea. lemon verbena, scented geranium and chocolate cosmos smell wonderful right outside the back door. Add stronger scents by your deck, pool, spa, dining area or gazebo. Stargazer lilies, jasmine, lilacs, daphne, citrus and peonies will make you want to stay awhile.  Several easy-to-grow shrubs have fragrant flowers as an added bonus. Mexican Orange (choisya ternata) blooms most of the year. Pittosporum eugenoides, tenuifolium and tobira all have tiny blossoms that smell like oranges. too.  The tiny flower cluster of Fragrant Olive (osmanthus fragrans) have a delicate apricot fragrance.  Other fragrant plants include California native Philadelphus lewisii (Wild Mock Orange).  Calycanthus occidentals (Spice Bush) is native to our Central and Northern California mountains. Their fragrant burgundy flowers smell like red wine. Ribes viburnifolium, carpenteria californica and rosa californica are mildly scented, too.  In spring there may be nothing quite as spectacular as a wisteria vine, loaded with fragrant purple, pink, blue or white flower clusters, covering an arbor or pergola. Pink jasmine is another vigorous vine with intensely fragrant flowers as is Evergreen Clematis.  I can't leave out the old fashion border carnation or dianthus. Their clove-scented flowers are born in profusion making them a nice addition to the mixed flower border and containers.  The list goes on and includes scented plants such as nemesia, wallflower, Japanese snowbell, hosta, coneflower, vitex, viburnum, nicotiana, phlox, rose, sweet pea, hyacinth, lilac, flowering crabapple, heliotrope, lavender, sweet alyssum, peony, moon flower, southern magnolia.  Be sure to include fragrant plants that release their scent in the evening, especially in the areas of the garden you most frequent after dark. Since the majority of night-scented blossoms have white flowers, these plants also light up the landscape at night. Angel’s Trumpet (brugmansia) is one such plant as is flowering tobacco and night blooming jessamine.  Plant vines for fragrance in your garden. Evergreen clematis (clematis armandii) bloom with showy white fragrant flowers clusters above dark green leaves in the spring. Clematis montana is another variety of clematis that’s covered with vanilla-scented pink flowers in spring also. Carolina jessamine's fragrant yellow flower clusters appear in masses from late winter into spring.  Ideally, when you've finished, your garden will smell as intriguing as an expensive perfume. The top note will be floral- jasmine, honeysuckle, rose. The middle register will be spicy, such as the vanilla of heliotrope or purple petunias or the clove of dianthus. Finally underneath, the tones that give perfumes their vigor, like artemisia, sage and santolina.   Not every inch of the garden needs to be fragrant but a waft or two of fragrance from the right plants can turn a garden from ordinary to enchanting.

In 2019, Pacific Gas & Electric Co., and other California utilities instituted massive preemptive power shutoffs in 30 counties, designed to prevent wildfires during strong and dry winds.

With sheltering in place and not working for the past three months, I have had the opportunity to better notice the natural rhythms of my body. I’m surprised to discover that my energy is not consistent, but ebbs and flows from day to day. With time on my hands, I am able to honor these natural rhythms, and I am feeling so much more balanced, healthy, joyous, and calm. This made me think of all the times I have forced my body or my mind to be in a place that, naturally, it is not. How many times, because of my busy schedule, have I jacked myself up with caffeine, dark chocolate (my drug of choice), carbs, or sugar to get my body and mind to perform at the same high level every day?

If you’re feeling penned in these days, you should check out a new park!   Discovery Park, located next to the new Felton Library, is now open! Nancy Gerdt, President of the Felton Library Friends and Friends of Santa Cruz County Parks’ board member, was eager to share more details with me. “When we began our whole library campaign in 2005, it went through many iterations.  It wasn’t until 2015, when the county bought land on the other side of Bull Creek that we thought of a new park, which worked so well with our theme of environmental conservation.”

Is your garden starting to look a little bedraggled? After a few hot spells, have the plants in your yard gotten a taste of what’s to come for the rest of the summer? After your’ve chosen climate adapted plants how much water do they really need? Here’s how can you keep everything happy and not waste water. All plants need water- even those that are tolerant of our summer dry conditions. Water makes up 90-98% of every plant we grow. It's needed for photosynthesis, as well as reproduction and defense against pests.  With summer water bills arriving this is a good time to re-visit how often and how much to water that landscape you’ve spent so much money to create. Basically, you’re wasting water if you’re not watering deep enough to moisten the entire root ball or if you’re irrigating too often.  Photosynthesis is one of the most remarkable biochemical processes on earth and allows plants to use sunlight to make food from water and carbon dioxide. At temperatures about 104 degrees, however, the enzymes that carry out photosynthesis lose their shape and functionality. A garden that provides optimum light and water but gets too hot will be less vigorous.  Plants have natural systems that respond to heat problems. Plants can cool themselves by pumping water out through the leaves for a kind of swamp cooler effect. They can also make “heat-shock” proteins which reduces problems from over heating. All these strategies can take resources away from a plant’s other needs like growth, flowering and fruiting.  So how much water do different types of plants need during the heat of summer?  Be sure that you water trees and shrubs deeply, checking soil moisture first with a trowel. Established small to medium shrubs should be watered when the top 3-6 inches of soil is dry. Water large shrubs and trees when the top 6-12 inches is dry. As a rule of thumb, trees and large shrubs need deep but infrequent waterings. They should be on a separate valve than your smaller shrubs and perennials. Water ornamental trees 1-3 times per month depending on the type and soil. Tree roots grow 12-36 inches deep and require 10 gallons of water per inch of trunk diameter.  Apply water with a soaker hose, drip system emitters or hand held hose with shut off and soft spray attachment according to your water district’s restrictions. Don’t dig holes in the ground in an effort to water deeply. This dries out roots even more. Be sure to water the root zone to the indicated root depth every time you water. Watering deeper than the root zone only means you are wasting water. You can test how deep you watered by pushing a thin, smooth rod into the ground soon after you irrigate. The soil probe should easily slide through the wet soil but become difficult to push when reaching dry soil.  The roots of smaller shrubs reach 12-24 inches deep in the soil. Established native shrubs may need only monthly waterings to keep them looking their best while other shrubs may need watering every 7-10 days during the heat of the summer. Perennial roots only go down 12 inches or so and may need watering once or twice a week depending on type.  When is the best time to water? Watering in the morning is the most efficient whether you water by sprinkler, drip system, soaker hose or by hand because the water soaks deep in the soil without risk of evaporation. This bolsters the plant for the day and has dried from leaves by evening reducing the risk for foliar diseases like mildew. Plant roots are also more receptive to watering in the morning.  Is it true that water droplets will scorch leaves in the midday sun? According to a study, fuzzy-leaved plants hold  water droplets above the leaf surface and act as a magnifying glass to the light beaming through them so there is a very slight chance of scorch.The study also reported that water droplets on smooth leaves, such as maples, cannot cause leaf burn, regardless of the time of day. But no matter the time of day, a plant that needs water should get the right amount. 

As we head into summer, all of us need a little sunshine, literally and figuratively. This spring tested our resolve in ways we couldn’t have foreseen, but it also presented new opportunities to work together for the greater good of our community.