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Friday, June 22, 2012

By the Waterfall: Late Blooming Honeysuckle

There are a few stray blooms of honeysuckle blooming in latish June near the waterfall on the Sylvan Trail in Edgewood Park. This is one of my favorite spots for a bit of time travel. You just couldn't find a better time portal than a shady glen like this.

 It's the spot where I took a short trip back to visit with an Ohlone Rumsen family group last fall.

Remember? Here's the story
       - Indian Summer at Edgewood (No. 3): Rose Hips


(Co-Published with ...

Friday, June 1, 2012

Mariposa: The Time Travellin' Spud

(Co-Published with The Simple Romantic


Click on my Jolly Mariposa Lily Illustration Above to Get Up Close and Personal 
With This Native Darling

Mariposa, as I bet you know, is the Spanish word for "butterfly". That was what this beauty's petals, apparently, made some early botanist thing about when they first saw this late spring/early summer flower.

On my morning study break, I took a time travel jaunt back to the middle of the 18'th century. There I found that the native Lamishan (an Ohlone people) think it's equally fanciable as a taste treat.  The group I met up with were digging up the bulbs of this (as we'll as some of the  other local Calochortus). One of the women told me that her cousins up valley usually boil or roast them. Her folks, however, like them fried. The results looked, and tasted, much like what  I do with a friendly spud.