This blog is . . .

. . . a collection of snippets abut me and my various exploits.  I created it mainly to organize my own memories and thoughts, but I am happy to share them.  Because WordPress allows me to post backwards in time as well as forward, expect to see additions in both directions.

My employment has allowed me to witness the evolution of the internet, as well as afforded me the opportunity to experiment.  I have had a multi-various ‘online presence’ for decades.  Recently I have become interested in finding those briefs blips in the internet record, organizing them via this blog so that I can see them in the context of my life.

I have also had my hand in a variety of non-online pies relating to my interests in creating art, learning about plants, and creating spaces.  Events around these aspects of my life are also being gathered into this WordPress notebook.

I have never seen facets of my life as separate from each other, so it make sense to me to bring them all into one place, but I will endeavor to provide access methods to allow easy exploration – e.g. tags, dates, etc.

20 years ago . . .

. . . while watching the evening news, I suddenly heard the name of an online friend. There had been a shooting in Redding, California, 200 miles (322 km) from our home. My wife and I were shocked as the story unfolded about the religion-inspired hate crime linked to the bombing of a local synagogue. To the surprise of my wife, I explained that I had an email relationship with one of the victims – Gary Matson – who was a well-known member of the Medit-Plants email forum.

Gary and I had just a day before exchanged some emails on topics of our shared interests – plants, botany, education, teaching. I was inspired by his projects in this northern corner of our giant Central Valley, at one of the extremities of our Californian mediterranean climate region. We shared similar ideas and encouraged each other. I could not believe that he was now gone, and under such troubling circumstances.

Gary, and his partner, Winfield Mowder, knew their killers well, even helping them set up a stand at the local farmer’s market. The Redding community was shocked at the loss of these two visionary men whose contribution to the community is still felt today. They also were given pause by how successfully their killers had concealed their inner feeling of hate.

For at least a decade, while searching through my copious emails in search of something in particular, I would stumble upon my many rich exchanges with Gary. Rereading their content, I was often re-inspired in my own efforts, in my own life. While I culled old emails that were no longer needed (we were concerned about space usage in those days), I always made sure to keep those from Gary. When the email system I was using ultimately was replaced by something newer, I made efforts to archive my old emails – unfortunately, and sadly, they were ultimately lost.

Some of you may recall Gary and his contributions to the Medit-Plants group in the late 1990s. I searched for ‘Gary Matson’ in the online archive of this forum – hort.net – you can do the same if you wish: https://www.hort.net/lists/medit-plants/search.pl (be sure and check ‘Search all years’). This archive unfortunately does not (yet) contain all the posts from the group’s inception a few years prior to 1997.

For more information about this very sad event, and Gary and Winfield’s life and contributions, see the following links.

https://web.archive.org/web/20000229034244/http://www.garysgarden.com/GaryMarcia.htm (a short write-up from gary’s ex-wife, Marcia Howe, courtesy of the Internet Archive’s ‘Way-Back Machine’)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Gary_Matson_and_Winfield_Mowder
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-Representative-Murder-of-Gary-Matson-and-Winfield-Mowder_tbl5_276597228
https://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/21/us/national-news-briefs-2-brothers-arraigned-in-gay-killing.html

Retirement

At the end of June, 2014, I retired from the University of California.  At that time, I was working for the California Digital Library, part of Office of the President which is the system-wide body over all of the 10 UC Campuses.  It was a great group of people who I enjoyed working with, but lets face it – it was work.

The type of work I was doing related to solving problems between staff and outside support groups.  When those situations weren’t providing good outcomes for our people, they came to me to help sort it out.  The best part was getting to know a lot more of our staff one-on-one.  The downside was that I was always dealing with unfamiliar technical situations and outsiders who were not always motivated to see our side of things.

The California Digital Library was formed in 1997 to help the UC community take advantage of emerging digital technologies, partnering with all the campus scholastic efforts as well as other national and international organizations with similar missions.  It has regularly broken new ground in exploiting new forms of IT (Information Technology), saving the UC system millions of dollars and facilitating the sharing of resources between the campuses and with the world.  It was truly an exciting environment in which to work.

While I never defined myself by my nine-to-five employment, there was some adjustment after I retired.  There are friends I now have to make an effort to see (they are still working!) and the rich technological advancements that I was able to witness close-hand are now things I seldom hear about.  But the group is very inclusive and regularly invites retirees to parties and social events.

Since I had been working within the UC system since 1977 (starting at UC Davis), I retired to a robust pension.  There were many times I considered making the jump to the outside world in my job search, but I found working within academia so rewarding it never happened.  I am still able to use many of the campus facilities such as its extensive libraries, which I find to be a major perk.  I am proud to have helped support the efforts of such a world class organization.

The mediterranean climate gardening FB group

On March 6th, 2013, I created a new Facebook group called mediterranean climate gardening.  I thought it might be a good adjunct to the Medit-Plants e-mail forum, but it became an entity in itself!  (who knew!)  The nice thing about this group is that once you join, you can see all of the group’s activity – new and old.  And this content can be searched!  Participants range from total plant nerds, professionals in the landscape industry, to novices (and everything in between).  The focus of posts just needs to be centered on the challenges, problems, and advantages of gardening in one of the world’s mediterranean climates.

While there are some who feel their climate is similar to a scientifically designated mediterranean climate, discussion should not be about why that might be true.  But those members are welcome to glean what they might find useful.

As of the end of 2016, the number of members is over 2,000!!  And still growing!  There are many members from California, southern Europe, Australia, and even some from South Africa.

2008 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the MGS

In the fall of 2008, our Northern California Branch of The Mediterranean Garden Society hosted the Annual General Meeting of the international membership in Monterey, California.  I recall that we were asked two years prior if we would consider taking on this task by the society’s then president, Cali Doxiadis.  This meeting is hosted by the various branches two out of three years, the third year being held in Greece when elections are held.  The majority of branch hosted meetings had been in Europe, though the Southern California Branch had hosted in 2002.  Because California had been one of the most actively growing sections of the society, this perhaps made sense.

Our committee chose the Monterey peninsula as the location for meeting, as we were fortunate that a historic hotel – Casa Munras – was just completing renovation and was eager to have our event as one of their first.  We were also lucky to have connections to a handful of very talented garden designers who were actively working in this area and had many properties to suggest visiting.  We are grateful for their cooperation in making this a spectacular event.

Some of the international membership in attendance had never been to California, or had only visited briefly many years before.  It was a treat to see their excitement over things those of us living here often take for granted.  Through explaining the details of our local expression of the mediterranean climate, we also came to learn more ourselves about the unique advantages of our locale.

Graphic for the 2008 MGS AGM

In the fall of 2008, the Northern California Branch of The Mediterranean Garden Society hosted the Annual General Meeting of the international membership.  In anticipation of the event, I created a ‘logo’ that could be used as a folder cover or front page.  Ultimately, it was used to decorate a tote bag that we gave to the meeting’s attendees.

Our aim was to highlight California, so I mused on a number of iconic natural locales, flora, and fauna, especially those relating to the meeting’s location – Monterey.  Because the committee chose the denim option for the fabric of the tote bag (considering it also an iconic fabric for our state), I had to do some selective reversing of images since it would be printed in white ink on the relatively darker fabric.

I managed the printing of the bags and was very happy with the outcome!  And they remained very popular even after the event until all bags were claimed.

Nation of Men

I joined a men’s group in January of 2008.  After working through various personal issues in therapy, I decided that I needed to become more comfortable in dealing with other men.  My therapist encouraged me and even suggested some groups.  I found it a bit daunting – meeting a bunch of strangers who right away wanted to go ‘deeper’ with me.  Overcoming my fear, I found some members of the group supportive and non-threatening.

Growing up as an artistic introvert, I found it difficult to make friends.  Being raised by an alcoholic father also made me fearful of men in general.  As a child, I was teased mercilessly by other boys and I gave them just what they wanted – I cowered, I blushed, I was afraid, I reinforced their bullying.  I was an easy target.

Those memories are still ‘wired’ inside me and they are energized when I am in a group of men.  I’ve learned to pretend that I enjoy talking about sports, I sometimes copy their boastful way of speaking, I try to limit my natural inclination to touch other people.

Being in a men’s group helped me learn how much other men are just like me – sometimes fearful, sometimes thinking they do not ‘measure up’.  Being able to talk to each other about these issues does amazing things.  Some men’s groups have specific guidelines of interaction that help create the kind of safety that would allow other men to open up to them.

I thrived in this environment and learned many best practices.  Because, when I joined the group, I was was fully ready to ‘go deep’ myself, I was able to have some liberating experiences.  I also learned how to afford other men that opportunity.  My inner child was soothed and I came to understand much more about those ancient hurts locked inside of me.

From 2008 to 2014, I have participated in a handful of different groups.  I found it an enriching experience, even when things did not go completely smoothly.  I still have a close friend from the last group – we left around the same time – who I still see regularly.  Our shared group history helps us support each other in a way that is deeper than mere friendship.  And we both feel more secure in ourselves due to our experiences in a men’s group.

Flickr photo sharing

In the Spring of 2006, I got my first digital camera.  I had been taking pictures for years, but developing film/slides was cumbersome and limited the use of my camera.  As with many people, going digital changed everything!

Looking for an online place to share my photos, I gave Flickr a try.  I found the version available in 2006 easy to use and was excited to also find that there were photo sharing groups and communities as well!  It seemed that many plant people had already found Flickr and where discussing various types of rare plants and showing photos of gardens, etc.  I joined in and even started a few groups of my own.

I was very active on Flickr for a number of years.  Then, in 2013, Flickr made radical changes to their platform.  I found it very cumbersome to use and ‘high bandwidth’.  It also more or less pushed many of the things I enjoyed about Flickr into the background.  I used it less and less.  I rarely use it today (2017) but my account is still active.

I regularly get notifications that my photos on Flickr are marked as a ‘favorite’ by other people, and my number of ‘followers’ increases – all this in spite of my inactivity.  I may try to get back to using this platform for my photos, but not before I upgrade my internet connection (something I plan to do soon anyway).

Angioplasty

For the past couple of months in 2004, I was experiencing strange symptoms that not only confused me, but also my doctor!  My wife and I are avid walkers but when doing our normal walks, I was getting a tingling sensation in my arms and strange feelings in my back.  I wondered if I had hurt my back somehow that was causing nerve problems.  My doctor ran various tests over some weeks to ascertain the problem.

At some point, he and a consulting cardiologist seemed to have suspicions that that did not share with me – instead they firmly insisted on an ‘exploratory angioplasty’.  As the day came for this procedure, I came to realize just how emphatic they were that this happen!!  I tried not to get stressed about it, but it was clearly concerning to everyone, including my wife and kids.

During the operation, I was fully awake and they had me ‘watch’ the procedure on a video screen above the operating table.  The live x-ray image was fuzzy (and I was not able to wear my glasses!) and I was uncertain of what I was seeing (the x-ray image I was given later, above, was easier to understand).

The most significant part of the procedure was that the probe they inserted through the artery in my groin region was COLD! When I mentioned this to the doctor and his assistants, they all stopped, saying there was no way I could been feeling that (i.e. there are no nerves to detect temperature in this part of the body).  I told them that I did indeed feel it and it was quite a shock!  They found the blockage and used a ‘balloon tool’ in the probe to push it aside and open the artery.

The process went well and I was placed in a ward with about a dozen other gentlemen who also had the same operation.  The next morning, each of them were discharged, one by one.  When it came to me, I mentioned that I was having a new pain in my chest, very different from before.  It felt as if something was bruised, torn, etc.  Not having heard such a complaint after an angioplasty, they decided to go in again (via my other leg artery).

My family rushed to the hospital upon hearing this!!  Fortunately, they found that all was as expected, even though I was in pain.  I was provided morphine and kept overnight for observation.

I felt this pain, on and off, for a couple of weeks after the operation.  My doctor posited that the reason for this pain was that my artery walls were very thick (not due to cholesterol buildup – they were just naturally very thick.  The ‘balloon’ procedure must have torn as these walls more than usual, causing the pain I felt.

I felt very fortunate that things played out the way they did for me – my blockage was apparently just ‘soft plaque’ that had flopped or folded in a way to create a blockage in an artery sending blood to my lungs (i.e. not to me brain, which could have killed me!).  It was also a wake-up call for me to pay better attention to my health.  Since then I have been more vigilant and careful, eating better and losing weight.  Yes, I believe I was very lucky!

Olivier Filippi speaks to CalHort

Our friends, Olivier Filippi and his wife Clara, owners of a well-known nursery in the South of France, were to visit us in California during the month of June.  While here, I asked if Olivier would like to speak to our local California Horticultural Society.  He was very happy at the opportunity to meet so many gardeners and address them regarding his ideas and the plants he was growing in his nursery.

There was enough lead time to get him onto the speaker schedule and the society was pleased to be able to feature someone traveling from so far (they bumped up their normally very modest stipend).  Everything seemed so easy to arrange . . .

I was asked to introduce Olivier to the group – most of whom were unfamiliar with his work and prestige among European gardeners.  I thought this would be simple, that is until I mounted the stage and started to describe my friend, who was sitting right in front of me.  Stage fright was not a problem – I had addressed this crown many times before and was already a seasoned speaker myself.  No, it was trying to find the appropriate words to describe the important work Olivier was doing.  I suddenly felt I would get it wrong, miss-speak, or I might even offend him!  I nearly froze!!  I was so surprised!

How I managed to get through it, I am not sure, but Olivier thanked me later so I must not have messed up very badly.  It was interesting to see these California gardeners reacting to Olivier talk (he spoke mainly on Cistus species and cultivars that are good garden subjects).  He showed many beautiful slides of his test garden where he evaluates plants.  The audience was clearly impressed with how well these plants looked, so compact and well-formed, and interrupted him about what horticultural techniques he used to get them to look that way.

Olivier was confused at first – he did not understand the questions: “When do you prune?”, “What sort of fertilizers do you use?”, etc.  I smiled in the dark, understanding the problem.  Finally, he caught on also.  “Oh!  I don’t water this garden.”  “What do you mean?!” several audience members said all at once.  “I don’t believe in watering gardens.  I just let them grow and if they fail to thrive on natural rainfall, then we do not carry them in the nursery.”  Suddenly there was a lot of mumbling around me.  Clearly this was hard to many of them to comprehend.

Many gardeners don’t even consider for a moment that plants would be able to fend for themselves after being planted.  This was one of the messages I had been trying to convey to the group for some time now and here they were hearing it from an important nurseryman with an international reputation.  I know many of the society members found ways to discount Olivier’s statements, but it does seem that at least of few started to think in this way at last.