by Bela Johnson | Mar 1, 2023 | gardening, high desert, lifestyle, nature, Uncategorized
As I watched and wept, my beautiful roses,planted deep and well in this nutrient-deficient soil, desert dirt; raised bedscreated by the former owner, filled witha mixture of native turf and whatever he could find, and I added dozens of bags of topsoiltilled in by...
by Bela Johnson | Oct 26, 2022 | gardening, musings, nature, patience, Uncategorized
Fifteen degrees on the outdoor thermometer, and I dread walking out to an unheated greenhouse, though he tells me I should, prepares me for what I am about to witness; Tomato plants first, laden with unripened fruit, no fault, didn’t get the structure built on...
by Bela Johnson | Oct 5, 2022 | climate change, community, gardening, lifestyle, nature, Uncategorized
These slate skies are familiar, in a strangeillogical way; here, there are mountains,no sea in sight, and though mists appearlike fog, it is high desert with rivers runningthrough forested landscapes, their watersunreliable as winter ocean waves in Hawaiior storms...
by Bela Johnson | Jul 15, 2022 | gardening, lifestyle, musings, nature, perspective, Uncategorized
From the dark ocean to the lighter skiesof New Mexico, Mother Earth remainsmy focus, my love, my joy; It took awhile to learn different soils,rich loam to clay and sand, mysteriousdeep sea waters to high altitude desert,cradled by Ponderosa and piñon forests,and yes,...
by Bela Johnson | Jun 18, 2021 | animals, climate change, desert life, gardening, nature, philosophy, Uncategorized
Mysterious new things moveto the cadence of nature’s drum,the cry of destruction loudly rings;Aloha aina, care for the land,it matters not where we chooseto root ourselves, the mandateis the same: we must returnto the Garden, discover innocence lost when simple...
by Bela Johnson | Feb 25, 2020 | gardening, musings, nature, perspective, Uncategorized
I had to look twice, glancing out the kitchen window as the flutter of a mynah bird’s jet black wings jogged my vision into memory, the giant frond of a Queen Emma lily flung carelessly by a kicking wind, bent not broken into a shape resembling the appendage of...
