The Apostrophe Blog
The morning started in fog. Then a slow-to-emerge sun began to take over the day so we headed to the happy place that is Cistus Nursery on Sauvie Island a dozen or so miles out of town to look for a few more native licorice ferns—specifically the Polypodium glycyrrhiza ‘Rowdy Creek’ that the Cistus folks found growing on a stony cliff in the Redwood Belt right on the Curry County/Del Norte County line of Oregon/California. I have two already and they are thriving in our front yard shady garden.
First a stop at the post office in St. John’s then across the beautiful bridge above Cathedral Park and down along the railroad tracks and the shore of the Willamette River to get to the fairly new bridge that arches over to Sauvie and its houseboats and farms and plant nurseries and wildlife habitats. Today it was a reflecting pool everywhere you might look—muddy fields, furrows trickling with wet, the shimmer of the early afternoon sun on the river, fog and clouds and the wispiness of a dynamic January sky above. All this beauty felt like such the contrast to the toxicity of the news the past few days in this breaking and broken republic. But two examples: the hideous tragedy of the fires in and around Los Angeles and the adjudicated felon in court in New York to have his sentence unconditionally discharged because no one is above the law except the rich (mostly white) people it appears.
The landscape at Sauvie Island and the greenery of plant life at Cistus Nursery reliably serve as guaranteed balms for my battered and bruised soul. Once again, both worked their healing magic today. The licorice ferns? Sold out. But I did find a very cool fern—Asparagus deflexus—from South Africa’s Drakensberg Mountains to plant as a climbing vine in our front shade garden next to the air conditioning unit. And how beautiful is this Pacific Northwest ecosystem where we live?
Interests: Reading, writing, not arithmetic. The art and craft of poetry. Photography. Vegetable and flower gardening especially heirloom bulbs and dahlias. Movies in real theatres. Theatre on real stages. Art in real galleries. Crossword puzzles and, of course, Wordle. Singer-songwriters like Aimee Mann and Patti Griffin. All kinds of music especially 1930s jazz. Venice, Italy! The Dude abides.
- Friday Afternoon Landscape - January 10, 2025
- Turning Away from (Anti-) Social Media… - January 8, 2025
- The Promise of Spring - January 7, 2025
