The first time I remember noticing this beautiful mid-summer blooming purple bush was about twenty years ago, up near Masonville, west of Fort Collins.

I couldn’t get over how cool and refreshing it looked in the midst of such a hot summer day!

So when I moved up to 7,000 feet and started my own garden five years ago, I knew I would have to have a few of these bushes sprinkled throughout.

This plant has turned out to be one of my most dependable bloomers every summer. It needs no extra water once established, the deer and critters don’t touch it and it comes back every year bigger and better than before. It attracts lots of bees and butterflies, and this year it’s begun creating new plants around itself! I love the way it starts blooming in mid-July when most of my other flowers are finished.

I found out online that these can be propagated from seed by “collecting their fruit—a light brown, winged nutlet. Harvest these seeds and place them in damp sphagnum moss in a plastic bag. Put that in the refrigerator for three months, then sow them in pots. Transplant them outside in spring.”

Mine seem to be propagating themselves with no assistance from me!

In spite of drought conditions down here in southern Colorado, my garden continues to bloom. May, usually one of our wettest months, was rough here, with a little over a half inch all month. In the past week or so we have seen Colorado Springs, two hours north of us, receive a half inch of rain as well as Trinidad to the south. We just keep getting skipped over…

But still my sky garden blooms!

The most dependable early bloomers, even in a drought, are the Walker Low Catmint, Yellow Yarrow and Rocky Mountain Penstemon, although I am also having great luck with ‘Red Knight’ Knautia Macedonica and Red Gaillardia now that they are established.

Remember Rocky Mountain Penstemon (Strictus) has to overwinter once before it will bloom.

A couple volunteers I really enjoy each year is the very early local Penstemon, Yucca flowers and…

…the Showy Four O’Clock, which grows from a taproot deep in the ground.

I am lucky enough to have one perfectly located in front of my Buddha. This was not planned, it just happened. It’s just starting to bloom now.

After the great disappointment that Perennial Favorites near Rye has closed for good, I hurried down to the nursery in Walsenburg and purchased two new plants this week. I bought a couple Echinacea ‘Mellow Yellow’ and ‘Dusty Rose’ Salvia. I’ll let you know how those two turn out later.

I’m trying to get some non-purple flowers in my garden, but it isn’t easy for a a total purple lover like me!

I have been re-educating myself lately on Black and Native American history. And on one program I saw last week on PBS, a Black man asked us all such an important question:

When in our history was America great for African-Americans? What time period are we trying to go back to exactly?

Let that question soak in for a minute or two? Then ask yourself this:

At what time in our history was America better for women than right now?

I know, these silly catch phrases pass us by without much thought, so think about this one for a minute. Those who support Trump believe things used to be so much better than now. In other words, the “good old days” of lynchings, and shooting a black man for jogging, wife beating, child abuse and wife murder, those were the great times from our past.

How about the millions of Native Americans we killed either with diseases or plain old murder?

Trump says: Let’s get back to those days of American greatness!

I saw a silly meme the other day, but there is also some truth in it:

When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.

This is why I am re-educating myself on American history. My life has been supremely privileged. Growing up in Kansas as a European-American I never experienced racism, but I did understand sexism from an early age. Both suck. And to any European-American who disagrees I say, how would you like to be black or of Latin American descent in this culture? For most of us it would be quite instructional. We might suddenly get it.

The good old days were only great for those of great privilege….

As mentioned in my previous post, I have been watching and absorbing a new appreciation of the Native American peoples who lived in the Americas before the beginning of European conquest. One fact that was never communicated to me when I studied “American History” in high school was that the first Spaniards, who murdered and subjugated the Incas, confronted over 10,000 years of Native American existence, culture, beliefs and traditions. I had no idea how well-educated and well-organized this population of over 100 million souls was when European began destroying them. For example, their expertise in the area of astronomy far exceeded the Europeans until the time of Galileo in the 1600’s.

Did anyone ever teach me these facts when I was studying the history of the world? Did anyone even care?

I have also learned recently that one of the factors that strengthened the bonds of Native Americans through many centuries was their reverence for their ancestors:

Due to the sacrifices of our ancestors, we live.

As a scholar of Chinese history, this reverence reminded me of traditional Chinese society. Those that had the resources often built large shrines to their deceased ancestors and worshiped them. This parallels the Native American honor and respect for their elders.

While I was watching the PBS series “Native America” this week, I kept thinking about how we European Americans feel towards our own elders. I spoke to one friend about this contrast and he said, “It seems like we just want to send them away and lock them up in a nursing home…”

Did your family honor and appreciate your great-grandparents and grandparents while you were growing up? Did you sit with them and ask them to share their stories of sacrifice for their country and their families?

Where would you be without them?

One factor to consider in our own history is that only those Europeans who were willing to leave their ancestors behind emigrated to the Americas. Most of us left centuries of family history behind to move here.

Our recent pandemic is decimating our elderly population as I write this. Covid-19 is hardest on the elderly, with those 65 and older accounting for 80% of U.S. deaths from this disease, according to the CDC. So many lives and stories lost. And yet I feel little sadness nationally. These are the Americans who helped to build our world, and now they die lost and alone.

As I age, I feel our disrespect for the wisdom of our elders. I just turned 65 and I certainly do not feel respect or reverence for my own hard-earned wisdom.

Those who do not learn from history are destined to repeat it…

Can we let ourselves ponder the possibility that wonder awaits us in simply opening our senses? That awakening to the magnificence and mystery of life can be brought about with the slightest shift of our attention? That awe is available whenever we open our hearts? That moments of the most abiding belonging are within us always?

In the wilderness is the preservation of the world. – Henry David Thoreau

I remember back in 2006, when I was just beginning to learn about social media and blogging, I read a great book about what this kind of publishing freedom could mean for all of us. My favorite quote from back then was:

“Freedom of the press is only available to those who own one!”

The other idea that has stayed with me for the past 15 years is exactly what the word ‘remarkable’ means. Today it means ‘going viral.’ It means so many people told someone else about something they saw on the internet, that it feels like the entire world knows about it now!

How often do you see something that is truly remarkable? Here’s mine:

I was messing around the other day, looking for solar lights that I liked as much as my simple little pink flamingo that switches itself on around 8 pm every evening.

They look like cheap artificial flowers during the day, but at night they light up and and then start changing colors! They are truly REMARKABLE! I love to watch them all evening. I know they seem expensive, but I think they are worth it!

The butterfly solar lights are extremely cool too!