Succulents and More™

Last week, somewhere on the internet, I stumbled on a black-and-white photo of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo  standing next to an enormous agave. The image was striking—beautifully composed and hauntingly expressive. Is Frida saying hello? Or goodbye? Is she sad? Or just pensive? The fact that there's a gigantic Agave salmiana  in the frame makes the picture even more memorable, at least for me. Toni Frissell: Frida Kahlo (Señora Diego Rivera) standing next to an agave plant, during a photo shoot for Vogue magazine, “Señoras of Mexico”, 1937 Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Toni Frissell Collection, LC-F9-01-3707-25 -8 What caught my attention beyond the image itself was the credit line: “Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.” A quick Google search led me to the  Prints and Photographs Online Catalog  (PPOC), which contains about 1.2 million digitized images, many in the public domain.  I ran two searches, for...

Sorry for the alliteration, I couldn’t help myself. Blame it on the ongoing heat here in the Sacramento Valley. Speaking of which: We escaped the heat this past weekend by slipping off to Mendocino on the northern California coast where we attended a wedding in blissfully cool 65°F weather. Overcast skies, too! I couldn’t ask for more. Since I’m always on the lookout for things to blog about, my curiosity was piqued when I saw this sign in Fort Bragg, the town where we were staying: See what it says? “… and Gardens!” What kind of gardens could a motel have? A motel, mind you, not a fancy resort with a hefty landscaping budget. I set out to find out, and I was blown away. Come take a look.