Blessed are the Weak

Been reading Lia Fail -- the Earth always speaks.   One line near the end resonates with me:  "the insistence that the weak matter even when they are inconvenient."  It applies to the homeless, to wildlife, and to wilderness.  

Been down to the Garden for a Thursday afternoon presentation on Origami in the Garden, a display from some artists on the Turquoise Trail that promises to be spectacular.  October - March with a chance of a seasonal bonsai display to accompany the giant metal sculptures.  We'll see.

Datura

No evening tours this June.  In the past, it's just been too hot and, with the sun setting at 8:20, things are really just an uncomfortable late afternoon walk in the Garden.  

Post-Solstice

We're already past the solstice.  There have been hikes, phenology, baking and cooking, gardening, and photography.  It's about time I got back to blogging.  

Monday Sheila and I taught the first of this year's herbarium workshops.  I collected the dried sheets this morning and some were quite well done. 

Cynara cardunculus

 Last summer we collected a couple flowering artichokes.  The students managed to whack them in half and we pressed them.  This year, we mounted and labeled them.  For such a thick specimen, I'd say they came out well.  

A New Month

Things are lining up to be a busy month.  In a couple weeks we'll have our first Camp BioPark herbarium workshop.  Then later that same week, we'll have a Nature's Notebook brown bag.  

To that end, I was working on the pressed specimens in the herbarium getting an inventory pulled together so I can print labels.  We should have nearly 80 specimens to be mounted by the students.  Some have the potential to be works of art.  

Autumn crocus, Colchicum

Queen of the Night, Epiphyllum oxypetalum