Each year I wait for them in my garden and so do the robins, varied thrush, jays, spotted towhees, grosbeaks and band-tailed pigeons. The fruit of sambucus mexicana, a California native plant, is relished by an incredible number of songbirds. The creamy flower clusters in the spring are a favorite of bees and other beneficial insects. My Western Elderberry grows tall and gangly in the shade of a California bay tree, shorter and more compact in the sun. Their exuberance for life makes me happy just to watch them provide for so many other species.

When we were little, we all loved bright shiny objects, but for Physicist Joe Jordan it was a little different. He remembers a favorite family story that started when he was three years old. While visiting his grandmother in the Shenandoah Mountains, someone suddenly noticed he was missing from the dinner table. They found him half a mile down a dirt road. When his family asked what he was doing, Jordan replied, “Just looking at the moon.”

EDITOR,