Tag: Garden

Springtime at Ananda 2023

In 2022, after 2 years of pandemic shutdown, Ananda village re-opened its Springtime at Ananda tours of the Crystal Hermitage Gardens. Many thousands of visitors came out to view the 17,000 tulips.

Downtown Ananda Village
Crystal Hermitage

There is much more to the gardens than 19,000 tulips.

Azalea, Rhododendron, roses, peonies, Forget-me-Nots, etc

The gardens have been evolving for over 30 years when the Crystal Hermitage was built by Swami Kriyananda. For a long time it was enjoyed by Swami and also the village residents, however in the past 10 or so years has become a destination for visitors from the Bay Area, Sacramento and Reno as well as many locals.

Upper Gardens
Wisteria

Any time I am in the nearby towns of Nevada City or Grass Valley and mention I live in Ananda Village, it is met almost always with “oh the tulips are so lovely. I enjoy coming out to see them”

Over the winter, 19,000 tulips were planted, trails rebuilt, and other improvements made. This year Mother Nature has delayed the bloom with cold, wet weather so far.

The good news is the gardens will be open probably clear into mid May.

Check out the tulip watch page for latest info.

Harvesting garlic

Lotsa people plant gardens and store for for emergency use. Few people include garlic. It is one of the essential food groups I love along with olive oil, chocolate and Parmesan cheese.

Last year we tried planting a pound of garlic as an experiment. It went well so we decided to plant 6 lb this season. Planting happens in November, about the only thing happening then. And not much to do over the winter but let it germinate and grow. We covered the beds with straw. Then we waited

Mid June we harvested.

We had planted 6 pounds of garlic in the beds. We watered a few times when it was hot. Mid May we trimmed off the garlic scapes which made for some fun dinner additions and in mid June we harvested over 120 garlic bulbs! We cut off the tops, trimmed and washed off the dirt, and laid them out on our patio table to dry off a little.

Garlic on patio table (right side in shade)

We bundled them up and hung them from the basement rafters in cooler dry air to season. Should be ready. We hope to use some bulbs for replanting in the late fall.

Garlic hung in basement
This garlic for planting next fall

As for the chocolate, I will just buy and keep in storage.

The Last Travel Pod Post

If you have never seen our old travelpod blog which is shutting down, here is the last post in it’s entirety:

Star Date Sunday, June 11, 9:15 AM PDT

This is the last post from Travelpod to you for three reasons.  I thought the last post might be it but this is definitely the last post.  We so much enjoyed this phase of travel and are now happily “home” at Ananda Village, fully engaged in community life, and many volunteer projects as well as cycling, railfanning and working in garden and yard (yes yard, heh heh).

First off:  Blog shutting down

The Travelpod blogging system we were using got bought out by a bigger “borg” and they are shutting it down June 18 so I need to send this to you before they do.
Screen Shot 2017-06-11 at 9.17.41 AM
HOWEVER – An enterprising young soul has undertaken the task of providing archive space for the history and I have migrated a copy over there.  If you want to see any of our travels you can find them at the following link: http://bit.ly/PhotoKent_TravelArk I hope to resurrect them elsewhere so we will see.

 Secondly:  We sold CharLi

We sold CharLi,  our RV to a wonderful couple in Oakdale, Ca, about 3 hours south of here.  They have been looking for a long time for this model and were thrilled to be able to buy it.  The added bonus for us was his willingness to buy the tow package also.  And he was able to uninstall it so I hitched up Mr. Toad one last time to CharLi and drove both down to his home where we spent all day removing the system.  He will install on his jeep.  So we are done.  See photos below of CharLi with new owners, and a photo of Jim under the Jeep removing the tow bar.  Not an easy task!

The Happy new Owners
Removing tow system

Lastly:  I have a new blog

I have begun a new blog called “PhotoKent’s Musings” which I am just beginning to use.  It will feature some photos I take and also some photos I may have shot in previous years but I will talk about how I made the photo. So it will be less of a travel blog and more of a creative process blog.  You can click on this link to find the blog:  https://photokent.blog.  (oh wait, you are here already)

If you wish to subscribe to updates when I do make a post go to the bottom of the home page and add your email address then you will get an email notification when I post which is usually weekly or so.  It will also appear on my Facebook page when I post too.

It has been a wonderful journey and now a new phase opens up.  Please consider subscribing to my new blog.  And above all, be filled with joy in your life!

Kent

PS  here are some additional photos I posted all from iPhone

Sraddha & Kent at Luau
Working in the yard
Cycling with my buddy