Survivor

Most folks in the East Bay remember the earthquake of 1989. What they usually forget is a cold snap we had in early December that year that lasted over a week, with below freezing temperatures each night, and highs during the day in the high 30s and very low 40s. At that time my office was in an old mansion that had been renovated for offices; it was under-insulated and not well heated. I went to work in jeans over long underwear, and two sets of warm-up leggings over that. I used polypro gloves with the fingers cut off that I had for cold weather sailing, and wore two or three sweaters at a time. Each night we would make sure that our outside faucets were dripping slowly so the pipes would not freeze, and that all of our plants and tender trees had been sprayed with water to protect them from freezing. We moved as many outdoor potted plants indoors as we could. Despite all of that, we lost three mature Meyer lemon trees and a huge number of plants.

Among the plants we lost were almost a hundred succulents and cactus that I had collected. Most were from nurseries, but many were from cuttings or buds from plants I had seen here or there, even brought back from Hawaii. After throwing away the mushy dead plants I lost my enthusiasm for collecting and growing them, and only three remain.

This is one of them. It has not bloomed for a few years, but this year.... The bloom lasted about three days then wilted. But it was nice while it lasted.