Another year comes to an end! Our theme this year has been The Roaring Twenties (for the 21st century). We shook off the dust of COVID-19 (with reasonable caution), and spread our wings to travel and explore further a field than our back yard and San Ramon.
It was a thrill to take some real trips again. Visiting Alaska required getting on a plane for the first time in several years. There we enjoyed seeing beloved family members and fantastic scenery that was just waking up from its winter slumber. Visiting Dinosaur National Monument in Utah and Colorado entailed an 1800-mile road trip across the high desert and back. There we explored dinosaur fossils, petroglyphs (patterns etched in stone) and pictographs (patterns painted with pigment on stone), and the geology, flora, fauna, and history of the region.
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| Clockwise: Birthday flowers in a pottery vase (by Brad Nebeker) Travelling and exploring nature, dinosaur bone fossils, and petroglyphs (Utah) Dyeing fabric with indigo (Indigo tinctoria) Visiting beautiful gardens in all seasons (Filoli in summer) |
Throughout the year we visited gardens, such as the Jensen-Olson Arboretum in spring and Filoli in the heat of summer, and enjoyed nature in all its forms, such as birds, critters, lichen, plants, and trees. Dyeing with indigo was also a thrill - seeing that transformation from emerald green to indigo blue, and trying out resist dyeing techniques from around the world. We also worked with a local landscaping firm and now have a firm plan just waiting to be executed. For fun we learned about the birth flowers of each month and the meaning they convey. Movies, books, and the history of plant hunters in the West added spice to life, along with the pleasure of family and friends!
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