Thursday, February 3, 2022

Burst!

 One of our succulents is blooming in this firework burst shape. I love these kinds of blooms and even spent blooms. We see bare burst-like shapes along the side of the road as we walk and I find them so striking. When we had a share in a CSA farm* in Maine, we used to go into the u-pick field, which was a mix of veg and flowers, every time we went to do our weekly pick-ups. At the end of summer/beginning of autumn, there would be spent dill and I would cut some of that along with small sunflowers and other blooms. I thought the dill made a nice contrast and I loved the way it looked. I had no idea this succulent would bloom, but it's a nice surprise!

*CSA is community supported agriculture. People pay a certain amount at the beginning of the season and get a share of the harvest at certain intervals. For us it was every week and we got delicious produce, most of it picked the day we picked it up. Other producers have adopted this model and now there are various options, at least in the US and depending on location, including fish, meat, and even yarn! This model allows the producer to have the money to offset costs at the start of a season. We had a wonderful experience.

8 comments:

Linda said...

With each blog post I get another inkling that you and Bill have led a most fascinating life. Had to look CSA farm up.

And succulents never fail to amaze me with their hidden surprises. Gorgeous.

Shari Burke said...

I should have said what CSA is! I'll fix that. Sadly they are not a thing here except for a few in other parts of the country. Farming here in Donegal is dairy, beef, and sheep, mostly. Having the farm share was wonderful--looking forward to different fruits/veg coming to their harvest time, trying new-to-me produce, and eating food picked just that morning. I used to love my salads with all sorts of leaves and other stuff. Yum!

It's interesting to see what kinds of flowers show up on the succulents/cacti!

NanaDiana said...

That is an amazing looking bloom. Had never heard of CSA before this. I love that you and Bill live a rich full life and enjoy the small things you find along your path. xo Diana

Shari Burke said...

I was thrilled to be in a place with a CSA. There were a few different ones, but this was the one we found out about first. And all the farms donated to the local food bank/food pantry/soup kitchen, so I processed and cooked with a lot of it! ๐Ÿ˜‹

I am big on the little things--LOL--I'm a slow lane, quiet life kind of gal! I am generally pretty curious and find so many little things fascinating, so living slow works for me. ๐Ÿ™‚

My name is Erika. said...

Some of those pretty flowers aren't what people think of as flowers. But I'm with you about dill. Where did you used to live in Maine? I live next door in NH.

Shari Burke said...

We lived in Brunswick--about half an hour up the coast from Portland. It's a wonderful town.

We lived in NH, too. The family of origin moved to Plaistow when I was a sophomore in high school. That was difficult. About a year after Bill and I got married, we moved to Londonderry and then to Derry. We lived there for 5 or 6 years until we went west.

Rostrose said...

Oh yes, dear Shari,
I love this exploding flower shape too! Nice that your succulents are already blooming. Dill is really very attractive - smells fine (and I like the taste :-))
The CSA farm idea is great!
You wrote me about your 'pick up, knit a bit, put down' sock project - I recently started a 'pick up, crochet a bit, put down' project - a stole with a complicated (to me) pattern and a nice color gradient (from blue to green to orange and red :-)). I fell in love with the photo of the stole and just ignore that I can't crochet well enough. I will get better! ;-))
All the best from Austria
Traude
https://rostrose.blogspot.com/2022/02/italien-reisebericht-ein-tag-in-florenz.html

Shari Burke said...

I am sure the stole will be beautiful! Seems like a great project--a stitch pattern that holds your interest plus the fun of watching the colours change and seeing how they play with the colours around it and the stitches--fun!