What Makes a Weed?

This is the head of a wavy leaf thistle I pulled out of the canyon last year and planted at the cabin. I find many of the naturally occurring plants in this part of the world to be very attractive. Why not make the most of them? 

When first transplanted, the thistle didn't do that great. I overwatered it, trying to give it an edge over it's thistle brethren left back in the canyon. Once I figured out these thistles really are a desert plant, preferring drought, I backed off watering and it seemed to slowly recover.

This year, our special thistle sprang forth! It's huge! In my opinion, it's also beautiful and definitely loaded with giant pink'ish flower heads bees and butterflies adore. I love the spiky dusty green color of the leaves.

Yep, It's a thistle. I've gotten teased and queried several times. Why are you planting weeds?! It's a weed! You planted a thistle...? Don't you know that's a weed? It's going to spread everywhere....

What makes this beautiful thistle a weed and other plants not a weed, exactly? Because it's now beautiful is it no longer a weed? Is it still just a beautiful weed? Or at some point does the quality of the experience tip the scale into a garden quality "plant"? I find the architecture, scale, size and color of this thistle PLANT to be stunning and interesting. Definitely in the top 5 of anything I've planted, ever. This thistle has singlehandedly created it's own bouquet of bees, butterflies, moths and small sunflowers which are protected from voracious deer within the boundaries of it's thorny self.

      

It's curious this epic piece of greenery could still be viewed as a weed and therefore undesirable. It hardly takes any water. It's local and adapted perfectly well to it's environment. If you live in Eastern Washington, I recommend this particular variation of thistle. It's a dramatic addition and more readily available than say, an ornamental artichoke. (Which are also beautiful, like Jurassic-sized thistles). 

In the world of "weed control" I'm collecting the seed pods before they bust open and make a mess for the neighbors. So relax.

With all that said...

These horrid scotch thistles are taking over our garden! And, guess what? I hate them! For all my high minded ideas about beautiful weed/plants, I feel cursed by these obnoxious, irrepressible little weeds. Payback for purposely planting that other thistle. These green demons erupt over night, and seem not to care when you grab them by the root and throw them in a heap. It's as though they crawl back to their original hole and root themselves back into place! Add water and they multiply like Gremlins. We could spend hours picking them. They aren't pretty. To date, I've been trying to kill them with my bare hands, gloves would help. They hurt my feet when I step on them. 

They are even more irritating because I am now aware "weed" only exists in the eye of the beholder. Given my heavenly and peaceful wavyleaf thistle experience, I know I am hating these scotch thistles by choice, which is further irritating. 

I must start carrying my regular camera around with me! I love this image of the bees on the head of our beautiful thistle blossom. When I whipped out the iPhone to snap a pic there were only two bees. At the moment I pushed the button a third bee photobombed us. Which brings me to...wow, the power of embracing process! An element of photography that often blows me away has to do with the process and timing of things. Synchronicity and Delightful Surprises. Plant thistle year one. Year two, thistle explodes with drama and color and right when you take a photo three bees collect to pose for one, unpredictable and precious moment that is forever captured. These beautiful, synchronistic and precious moments expand to the degree the images/moments shared.

Our coach, Caron, is fond of saying "Where focus goes, energy flows and results show". For example, focus on ugly and you get more ugly. Focus on beauty, and you get more beautiful. This concept of focus expanding results points to why I believe art can change the world. Three bees, one thistle, inquiry, process, being with, snap photo and now, untold numbers of people can reexamine, even if for a nanosecond, their automatic judgements about how life is supposed to work. Also they are free to contemplate and enjoy the pretty colors and the inherent wonder of nature. Focus on Beauty, Beauty expands.  

We would love to hear your xeriscaping successes and see your favorite images of ugly weeds. 

Where the Green Citronella Grows

Sadly, Bowie did not make it. Losing her was a difficult transition for us both. Bowie taught us a lot. Among other things, how to love more sweetly, with less attachment.

We would have preferred to learn our lessons with a living, purring Bowie still around for us to hug and tend.

Thank you, Bowie.

Animals. Because We Don't Have Enough To Do

Apparently, Chad and I aren't quite happy unless we are up to our gills in projects. This is one reason I find it challenging to post on a regular basis, especially now that Chad is working full-time at the Seven Bays Marina.

Everywhere we go, every step we take includes an entourage of dogs and cats at our heels.

Mr. Moneys got neutered last week. He's a much more calm and dedicated doggie now...though I still feel a little guilty, I must admit I enjoy his constant companionship and lack of competitiveness and aggression. He seems happier, we'll run with that. 

Snickers (pictured immediately above) is the consummate hunter. He came in the other day and gave me that "Lassie...what is it?!" vibe. He brought me outside so I could celebrate his most recent kill with him...a giant mole or gopher or something. Earlier in the day I noticed he was rooted to one spot and thought he might be sick...? something seemed a little off. Turns out he was doggedly pursuing his prey. After giving him lots of puppy high fives and butt pats I brought him inside, waited a few minutes went back out and buried the mole/gopher/thing in the garden. 

Chester and Riley are happy in their respective baskets. Now that Chester has his own basket, he's not quite comfortable unless he's in it. Riley's basket simply will not do. So now we have to juggle cats to make everyone happy. Strangely, the cats are not roaming around the grounds much unless we happen to be outside with them. So far, our fears about them getting lost or consumed by the wildlife around the hall have turned out to be a non-issue. Thankfully. Pix to follow.

Yesterday, I was looking out the window while on the phone with a business associate of mine and a huge Bald Eagle launched itself from the field directly across the street from us. It gave me chills...so beautiful and epic. I hope he stays away from our livestock. 

                            

The most recent addition to our pack are two kittens that were living in the crawl space underneath our hall. Chad rescued first one, and then the other a couple days later. We don't know where the mom went. The tabby is a healthy and vibrant young kitty. Buddy LOVES the kitties, guarding over them while relentlessly kissing them. The little black one, "Bowie" is teardrop of a kitten. She's tailless, her legs are gimpy and she's cute as a button. We'd like to keep her. Only problem is that her rear-end is not developed normally, and it appears she may have trouble going number 2. We talked to the vet and she may be viable...though unlikely. Most of these kittens don't make it. Please pray for Bowie. We are feeding and tending to her as if she'll be okay. 

                           

Now we are nursing two little babies every day on top of everything else. How do these things happen?! Are we in tune with our lives and dreams, or simply nuts for taking so much on? Or something else? Regardless, it's hard to beat having two well-fed, content kittens falling in a huddled sleep on your chest. 

We are working hard. We have lots of plates spinning. The random eagle-flying, kittens-cuddling, or excited-dog moments make make all the trouble worth it. We like knowing our animal friends are happy. 

Beehive

There's a lot of news to share. We've been too busy to keep caught up, much less blog about it. Chad has done a ton of work around here...it's hard to believe how much he's accomplished.

For now, today's big news is the beehive we found inhabiting a couple holes on our northern wall, underneath the neon "north star". 

What's fun about this is, we've been talking for a year how we would like to keep honey bees. And there we have it, our very own hive we get to extract from our very own wall! We love when the universe works like that. I'm excited to photograph whatever the hive looks like once we open up the wall. 

Now we get to acquire beekeeping outfits. 

I think it's fair to say we are concurrently excited, grateful, appreciative, scared, daunted, overwhelmed and optimistic about this whole North Star Hall thing. We see the possibilities and know we have tons of work to do. Sometimes it seems like everything we do involves some element of epic project. We have to figure out how to solve a myriad of problems daily. It's not always "fun". At the same time, miracles also occur for us daily. This place has a special energy. Our intentions include maximizing, sharing and enjoying the specialness whenever possible. Please stay tuned and thank you all for your support! We couldn't pull this off without you! 

Snake in the Tree

Who knew these things climb trees? He/she was there most of the afternoon, probably so he could catch bees gathering pollen from the blooming locust trees. Later in the day I happened to catch the tail end of him disappear into the tall grass below. 

Western Tiger Swallowtail

Western Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly by Val Mohney on 500px

Arrowleaf Balsamroot

Arrowleaf Balsamroot by Val Mohney on 500px