Wonderful tropical fruits

One of the delights of traveling in tropical America (especially Colombia) is all of the amazing fruits.  Mango, papaya, bananas, and pineapple were regulars on our breakfast plates.A diversity of tropical fruits (from Uncover Colombia)But maracuya (passion fruit), mora (blackberry), guanabaya,...

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Traveling in Colombia

Wax palms (Colombia's national tree) in the Valley of CocoraGoogle thought it was "suspicious" that I wanted to sign into my blog account in Colombia.  Hmm. And the only way to verify my identity was to receive a text message on my cell phone (which didn't work in Colombia) or answer a series...

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Green gardening DOES matter

A bluebird at sunrise in my yard. Bluebirds are important bug predators in the ecosystem.At the beginning of a new year, there are many speculations on what might happen and to-do lists of what you could do to improve your own situation.  Normally, I shy away from making such proclamations, but...

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The holidays in Florida

Sugar snap peas are delish right from the vine.Starting from the point of the knife: oregano, curly parsley, garlic chives, purple & orange carrots, sugar snap peas.It's two days before Christmas and the rains are headed our way, so it was time to harvest some of the Christmas dinner.  The...

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Greens and clear mountains

A quick trip "up the hill" for a meeting found me admiring the clear view of the mountains and a lovely sunset.late winter greens from a previous yearA bonus from this trip was collecting greens (arugula, mustards, kale and turnip greens) from my unprotected raised beds. It's rather remarkable how they've...

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Back to normal?

Finally, our curiously warm and wet days for early December are trending back to normal, after being punctuated (on both ends) by severe freezes.It was 71° yesterday.  Very odd. It's triggering some early flowering, but not like last year oddities, that's for sure.  But I remember a Christmas...

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A lovely hike

A gift of an unexpected Sunday afternoon in the mountains (thanks to a plumbing issue requiring Monday attention) was a lovely hike along a short segment of the Mountains-to-Sea trail, along the Blue Ridge Parkway.Remnant snow made the trail slippery in spots, but the views were lovely.Galax and mosses...

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