Japanese Maple earrings Swirl tan and brown leaf liter

tan and brown leaf liter beneath the canopies of these shredding bark trunks

While living in San Miguel de Allende

Other figs would be cut crosswise and laid in the sun to dry for making Sykomeda—a cake of figs

These vines are annual climbers with slender coiling stems

cucumbers and pole beans

Japanese Maple earrings Swirl tan and brown leaf literAs a child growing up in the Midwest I took solace in a neighbors yard under the canopy of a rather anomalous tree with beautiful lacy purplish red leaves. Later, I learned it was a Japanese Maple which explained its bark scars that looked like slanted eyes kindly watching over me. I spent seasons getting to know this tree. Each spring tiny pointed leaves appeared and within days I could almost watch them emerge into lushness. The tree would send out