Category Archives: News & Reviews

I have some spectacular and large cactuses in my garden, many taller than I am. I don’t
know all of their names (some came with the house). Some (like the prickly pears)
have many blooms that open all summer. Prickly pears will have
buds and blooms and fruit all at once on one plant. Other cactuses just have
a few huge flowers once a year. A cactus I planted when it was about a foot
tall has grown over six feet. It bloomed for the first time last month. The blooms
last for just a few hours and then crumple. Here are the bloom cycles of some of
my favorite cactus plants:

Black fuzzy buds turn green

Green bud swells and turns pink

Almost open

Huge pink, yellow, white bloom

Two flowers open together

Night bloom profile

Seeds after flowers

Prickly pear flowers

Prickly pear fruit and flowers

More prickly pear flowers

Starting bud appears

Bud and stem grow

Two buds turn pink at once

Almost open

Yellow bloom fully opens

Two bloom together

Profile shows no needles

Looking inside

Flower soon crumples

Bloom turns black

Dead flower falls

Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson

I heard the always-remarkably-knowledgeable

Michael Krasny interviewing new American
Poet Laureate and Bay Area
resident Kay Ryan on the

KQED Forum (National Public Radio) show
this morning. I was very impressed and regret to write that this is the first time
I have heard Kay Ryan’s poems. Krasny’s introductory comparisons to American
poets Emily Dickinson and
Robert Frost at first seemed
unlikely. Then I heard her read. Wow! I am buying several Kay Ryan books soon.

My excellent High School English teacher, Carol Marshall, taught me that the defining
characteristics of poetry are word, image, and music.
I have found some of Ryan’s poems on the web. Her work quietly exceeded my
expectations in both first hearing and in re-reading. Ryan’s presentation of the
music of words is a delight. Here is the first poem Kay Ryan read this morning:

“Turtle”

by Kay Ryan

Who would be a turtle who could help it?

A barely mobile hard roll, a four-oared helmet,

She can ill afford the chances she must take

In rowing toward the grasses that she eats.

Her track is graceless, like dragging

A packing-case places, and almost any slope

Defeats her modest hopes. Even being practical,

She’s often stuck up to the axle on her way

To something edible. With everything optimal,

She skirts the ditch which would convert

Her shell into a serving dish. She lives

Below luck-level, never imagining some lottery

Will change her load of pottery to wings.

Her only levity is patience,

The sport of truly chastened things.

From Flamingo Watching, Copper Beach Press, 1994

Copyright Kay Ryan. All rights reserved.

Ryan’s reading reminded me of the big snapping turtle we saw trying to
cross a lakeside road last month:

Image Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson

Our family volunteers at SMUM (Santa Maria
Urban Ministry, San Jose, CA) for Studio 17, the after school homework and computer
lab. SMUM is the official charity of the
Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real.
Studio 17 is offering a summer program of field trips, camping, cookouts, etc.

My daughter Jessica volunteered to teach three Saturday karate and self-defense
classes as part of the summer program. Jessica earned her provisional

Shito Ryu Karate Black Belt in 2006, her

Shodan rank in 2007, and with two other girls started a
Taekwondo and Shito-Ryu club at
Carnegie Mellon University last year. Here is Jessica teaching her first two
SMUM classes:

1st class – first pushups

1st class – more pushups

2nd class – instructions

2nd class – blocking

2nd class – breaking a grip

2nd class – play break

Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson

My summer garden is blooming delightfully. Here are some highlights:

“Chrysler Imperial” Red Rose

“New Day” Yellow Rose

Confetti Lantana

Pink Comb Cactus

1 inch cactus blooms

9 inch cactus blooms

Barbara Karst Bougainvillea

Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson

We live in San Jose, California, which has an extensive and effective

recycling program. They take almost everything: Cans & Cartons, Glass,
Paper & Cardboard, Plastics, Polystyrene, Scrap Metals, Textiles,
Used Motor Oil & Filters. They will also pick up larger items (furniture,
appliances, mattresses) on arrangement. John and I are dedicated
recyclers and have two bins: one for garbage and the other (twice as large)
for recycling. Over the years, we recycle more and more. Last weekend, however,
we achieved a personal best by reusing several hundred pounds of steel.
(My daughter said we are paying back the environment for driving an SUV.)

Ten years ago, our house had a swimming pool with the required
fence around it to keep kids from falling in. The fence was made out of
heavy steel rail panels, painted black. Two years ago, we filled in the
pool to put in the very short rail line for WP668, our backyard caboose.
We left the black metal fence up while we were working to keep our dogs
out of the construction. Once we did remove the fence, we stored the
sections just in case some use would turn up.

Last week, something turned up. We have a long garden strip with silk
trees (also called Albizia or mimosa), privets, gazanias, California poppies,
sweet alyssum, four o’clocks, and fennel between our neighbor’s driveway
and ours. To widen our garden, after talking with our neighbor, we removed
the concrete and asphalt on our side and put up a fence to keep cars off
the plants. We spent the three day weekend constructing a new fence out
of pieces of the old. John’s welding skills came in very useful. I hate
digging post holes. We removed about 4 cubic yards of concrete and asphalt.
Tomorrow, we have 4 cubic yards of top soil being delivered. That’s progress!

Silk tree flowers

Fennel flowers

Our “new” fence

Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher