reposted from november 28, 2018:

gifting

in english it’s a persimmon. in french it’s a kaki. in latin it’s diospyros kaki. which explains the french. but none of them explains my husband’s calling them, in a rare moment of verbal confusion, “kaka,” which really, i think, misses the point. today a new friend stopped by, a fellow stanford alumna, a fellow engaged human being who likes just enough of the same things as i do, and knows just enough about things i don’t know anything about, and who makes good conversation over tea. she brought me these three persimmons/kaki/kaka. it checked all my boxes. aesthetically beautiful. delicious. disposable. unique. custom chosen. and of california origin. truly some of the most talented and intuitive gift-giving i’ve run across in recent memory. thank you, sally. i hope i was half the hostess that you were a guest.

persimmon fruits from menlo park, ca (Diospyros kaki)

i love spring rains

spring rains are one of my favorite things. they wash away the salt and sand from our roads and cars, wake up the dormant plants, and leave behind little raindrop sequins. they are the first occurrence that makes me believe winter is really over.

leaves from an umbrella tree plant

same not same

this assemblage reminds me of the concept of style. how each one of these shells is in the style of an auger shell. but each shell is different from every other shell. just as every shakespeare sonnet is both shakespeare and unlike every other shakespeare sonnet. just as every georgia o’keefe painting is both uniquely itself, and a georgia o’keefe. and a frank gehry building is always a gehry and never the same as all the other gehrys. i am wondering what a mary jo hoffman looks like. an image that stands proud as itself and that also whispers the name mary jo hoffman.

auger shells from the gulf of mexico and the mediterranean

jumping the gun

okay, is it weird that i have been almost giddy for two days since i saw the magnolia buds swelling?  although we are probably a week or two from the first blossoms, my friend chel gave me a good sized cutting from her tree so i could force some early blossoms indoors. on a similar note, my son and husband tapped the maple tree in our backyard yesterday, on a whim, and the they already have a gallon of sap in just 24 hours. it’s so funny, that after 7 years of doing STILL, i am still caught off guard every single year at just how quickly things start to change in mid-march.

magnolia blossom

rainbows are circles

spring rains are a good time to keep an eye out for rainbows.  look for rainbows whenever the the sun is behind you, and the rain is in front of you. did you know that all rainbows are circular? it’s just that the horizon interrupts the full circle so we only see part of an arc. i just learned that! people in airplanes can occasionally see full circle rainbows. i went down the rabbit hole of rainbow optics today. i’ve included the quote below which best tries to explain the phenomenon simply.  anyway, this circle of winter weeds stems reminds me of both rainbows and rabbit holes. two of my favorite spring things.

winter weeds

p.s. “Rainbows don’t exist! They are nowhere in space. You cannot touch them or drive around them. They are a collection of rays from glinting raindrops that happen to reach our eyes. Raindrops glint rainbow rays at an angle of 42 degrees from the point directly opposite the sun. All the drops glinting the rainbow are on the surface of a cone with its point at your eye. They can be near and far. Other drops not on the cone also glint sunlight into rainbow colors but their rays do not reach our eyes. We only see those on the cone. When you look down the cone you see a circle. So rainbows are circles!”