Snapshot

Wisteria is associated with romance and spring, and it turns out spring love is more than a romantic idea. Longer days and increased warmth boosts phytochemicals in plants and hormones in animals. Plants transition from vegetative to reproductive growth (blooms and flowers) when Flowering Locus T (FT) is released.

Warmth and water are most always welcome in California. These happy spring flowers, coppery mesemb, Malephora crocea, cheer up spring gardens with wild pops of color, like so many little suns. They are succulents in the ice plant family. Native to Africa, this plant is considered a noxious weed in some areas and a perfect garden addition in others.

Fun facts: The chances of finding a four-leaf clover are reportedly about 1 in 5,000. Luck is involved. Clovers, or trefoils, can have more than three leaves. Five-leaf clovers are two times rarer than four-leaf, and the most leaves ever found on a clover was 63, discovered in Japan in 2023.

Fun facts: The oldest redwood in Armstrong Woods is the Colonel Armstrong Tree, estimated to be 1,400 years old. The tallest is called Parson Jones, at 310 feet. Sonoma County purchased 240 acres of Armstrong Woods in 1917 for $80,000. It opened to the public as a state park in 1936.

San Francisco, the “City by the Bay,” was named after St. Francis, a wealthy, gregarious Italian. The son of a wealthy silk merchant, he was known for his love of earthly pleasures and spendthrift ways. Kind of appropriate for a big-city lifestyle...

The game of pocket billiards started in France. Louis XI had the first table built in 1496. It was an indoor version of croquet, also a French game. Dubbed the “Sport of Kings” when embraced by French aristocrats in the 1600s, its popularity spread as billiard tables became standard fixtures in French cafés in the 1800s.

Happy Valentine’s Day, Palentine’s Day, Galentine’s Day or Self-Love Day. Whatever floats your boat or blows your hair back, it’s great to live in Sonoma County!

The e first Super Bowl took place in 1967. The Packers beat the Chiefs 35-10. There were 32,000 unsold seats; tickets cost about $11. This year’s average ticket price tops $8,000 and more fun facts from Pierre Ratte.

Fun Facts: The Grange’s full name is: National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry.  Eight individuals sitting around a wooden table started it in 1867. The eight founders of the Grange are memorialized with a marker on the National Mall; it is the only private marker on the Mall.

Rust is primarily oxidation-producing iron oxides, most commonly Fe3O4 and Fe2O3. Other metals undergo oxidation, but the term rust is exclusively used for iron. Copper’s oxidation (or corrosion) creates a blue-green color, copper carbonate (Cu2 CO3), commonly described as patina. The Statue of Liberty, clad with hand-hammered sheets of copper, has copper’s distinctive blue-green patina.