(All cactus blossom photos were shot in our back yard)
1. For us in the education game, we are approaching the end of the academic year. Time to celebrate what has been accomplished, do what is yet to done, write reports, give congratulations, graduation, and say farewell. It is touchingly wonderful to see how a random bunch of prospective teachers are transformed in a year’s time from uncertain individuals into a tight group of well trained creative teachers.
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| Education Building ( where we hold our seminars each week ) - Mills College, Oakland |
I feel well ‘fed’ by my participation in my classroom visits and weekly seminars where the entire group meets. My work with each student teacher ends with a final 3 way evaluation meeting between the cooperating teacher (used to be called the Master Teacher), the student teacher, and me… These meetings will all be celebrations of success this year!
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| Central lawn area - Mills College Oakland |
2. It is also the season of surprises in our garden - without any great
decision to move in that direction I have many cactuses integrated into our
garden - they grow nicely in and among other plants.
This time of year is
time that the cacti show their stuff. When I go out in the morning I look
to see which cacti are blooming their big extravagant blossoms.
Several of them
bloom for only one day (or one night) some are designed to be pollinated by
bats that come in the night for nectar.
Their ephemeral bloom just adds to
their beauty. Those pollinated by bees
or birds have an exquisite perfume about them too. My interest in cactus began in Mexico
where I saw the marvelous uses the local people used cactus in their home
gardens.
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| Cactus garden in Oaxaca Mexico |
I really came to appreciate their unique form and features.
Once back home, I noticed one of my neighbors had some cactus in her
yard. When I commented on them, she invited me into the back yard where she had
a vast collection of mature specimen - some several feet tall.
She said
that I was free to take cuttings or dig up small offshoots of any that I wanted
- how could I turn down such an offer? Now, years later, those cactus
have grown into large specimens.
One thing people often don’t realize is
that cacti actually grow at a steady pace.- and they also send out little side
shoots that make sharing easy. Often people who try to grow them, over
water them, and then they die of rot – they will take a lot of drought! A sister in law introduced me to the huge
variety of succulent plants - ands gave me a several to get started…
So as a
result I felt like I just gravitated into an arid garden - and I started
selecting other plants that complement the cactus and succulents. The effect is
a low water, low maintenance (weeds don’t grow if you water very little) - but
its filled with a variety of textures, colors, and forms in all the seasons of
the year,
2. Since I spend a lot of time on the freeways travelling to visit my student teachers I have a very eclectic mix of radio stations I listen to. All of these can also be listened to on line…
KQED - public radio http://www.kqed.org/radio,
KALW - public radio - San Francisco http://kalw.org
KKUP - A funky volunteer station - very diverse programming some wonderful - some horrible http://tunein.com/radio/KKUP-915-s33617,
KZSU - Stanford University Station - also diverse - some great, some not http://kzsu.stanford.edu,
My preferred latino music station when I want to practice my Spanish http://recuerdo1003.univision.com/recuerdo-san-francisco,
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| Not my photo - but some road guy has a weird sense of humor |
I want to highlight one weekly show that it the perfect answer to getting stuck in heavy traffic – Its on the Stanford station once a week - but you can stream it from their website… It's a conversation between a Progressive theologian and a Stanford biologist… it’s funny, and often profound…cancelthefun.com Click on a segment to listen on your computer: (Warning the first few minutes on the first segement are just a little silly – but hang in there is gerts good)
