Torches, Torches!!

Torches, torches, come with torches,
All the way to Bethlehem.


In January, in Southern California, you should come not with torches, but in order to see them. The aloes are blooming!  Tall orange rods burst open from bottom to top with glorious flowers. I love them. I'll take a picture, but as usual probably can't put it on!

I wrote a poem once, Torches, inspired by the autumn trees of northern New York state, in one beautiful year when I was lucky enough to get there at just the right time.  It was a resplendant year, best color ever---standing in a shower of gold leaves from the tall trees in the lane where my sister lived, I felt as if blessings of nature were falling down on me. 

Our aloes will continue to bloom for a time. There's another slightly different strain that blooms later, so if one had enough of the right ones planted together one could have months of continuous bloom.

On a different note, and from a different ecosystem, the Cape Honeysuckle in front of the bathroom windows in the front driveway is blooming flowers of the same brilliant color as the aloes.  We had it trimmed back this year, but it has quickly filled out and is always filled with bees and hummingbirds.  One time we drove into the drive, the whole bush suddenly trembled all over, and lots of little birds suddenly stuck their heads out from the clumps of leaves and flowers. I don't know what they were, and why they were there (hiding from us!) but it was such a pleasant surprise to see them pop out.

When I was a child I gave that color (prosaicly named in the Crayola box: red-orange) the name "Linda Red."  I chose it because there was an olive-green and I was jealous of my sister. Linda Red  was my color of choice, charged with vibrant energy and beauty....now, along with the bush and the aloes....a reminder of the joy and curiousity I always felt on earth. YAZZYBEL