Cleveland Sage

Good morning!

This morning as I walked into church, I plucked a little piece of Cleveland sage from a bush that I was passing.  The whole landscaping around St Paul's has been changed, in the past year, from old fashioned conventional hedging made of cultivars, into a more natural landscape made of California native plants. 

Of all the natives, I love Cleveland sage the most. It has the most beautiful, curative fragrance of any herb or flower that I've ever known.  And there are varieties within the race.  Varieties of fragrance and form of the plant.  St Paul's, I am happy to report, has the best.

Going inside, I introduced Mary, who was at the door, to the beauty of Cleveland sage.  I myself didnt know much about it until a few years ago when I used regularly to go and get treatments from a women whose front yard was hugely planted with it. I'll always associate the fragrance with her, and her with the plant, and thank both of them for each other.

Church was interesting because it wasnt bitterly cold today (being warm outside.) And we got to meet the new interim Dean, Rebecca, who preached a fine sermon.  I wished I could stay for the forum today as it sounded interesting, a theater piece about soldiers returning from war.  But I had to hurry on, and left apace.

Before returning home, I went to Sprouts and bought many good (and expensive) items of ordinary fare...all ordinary except for the almond meal and coconut flour, on which two items I hope to base a new phase of more healthful cookery. The prices of bread, chocolate, dried figs and such were high.  As I wrote to a son, I hope to recoup the steady inflation of prices and de-valuing of the USD by purchasing some silver in the hope that it will rise along with the waves, giving me something to cash in when a ten dollar loaf of bread is the norm.  I am sure he yawned gently and went back to his customary thoughts.  I wish I'd talked about this kind of thing when my kids were little and tended a little more to listen, less to deprecate old Mom's lessons. Ah well, it's a beautiful day outside, and I am spending the afternoon at the Onstage Playhouse seeing Charley's Aunt...I'll have the lingering perfume of Cleveland sage on my fingertips and lots of laughs, I hope, in my bones for you and you and you.  YAZZYBEL