When my parents came to visit us in the United States during April 1997, we were living in an apartment near 19th Avenue in Daly City, close to Golden Gate Park. The Botanical Garden in Golden Gate Park was free to enter at the time and my mother, who loves flowers, especially liked the flowers and plants in the park. Unfortunately, since I was busy working as a newly hired software engineer in a small startup company and had a long commute from Daly City to Novato City in Marin County, we couldn’t visit Golden Gate Park very often.

At the end of 1997, after my family moved from Daly City to East San Jose, I changed jobs to work at Lattice Semiconductor, a programmable chip hardware company. Since I was working in a hardware company as a software developer, my workload was much lighter now as the delivery cycle of software products was driven by the hardware chip delivery cycle which is usually slow. My father liked outdoor activities and my mother and I liked flowers, so I started to drive my parents and my daughter to the nearby parks to walk around and to see flowers almost every weekend. I still remember when my mother first walked in Overfelt Garden Park, she immediately pointed to the evergreen trees on our left side and said: “These are osmanthus trees. We can come here to smell the fragrance of osmanthus in the autumn.” It was my first time seeing osmanthus trees in the United States and I thought they were short, less than two meters high, unlike the tall osmanthus trees I saw in China before.

During the next autumn, in 1998, we went to Overfelt Park just to smell the fragrance of osmanthus. Although the silver osmanthus flowers were sparse and could not fill the air with fragrance, my mother stood among the osmanthus trees, putting her nose close to the silver flowers and said with a smile, “It smells very good!” This scene is engraved in my memory with the joy of my first autumn with the fragrance of osmanthus in the United States.

In November 1998, after my son was born, my mother went back to China alone due to illness and my father stayed with us to help me take care of my newborn son and kindergarten daughter. I often drove my father and two children to Overfelt Garden Park, as it was very close to our home. I remember the purple morning glories blooming at the entrance of the park in summer and the aggressive geese by the lakeside in spring.

In the summer of 2000, before my daughter entered third grade, my family moved to South San Jose for a better school district. After moving, I stopped visiting Overfelt Garden Park and the name of Overfelt Garden faded from my memory.

In the summer of 2018, I moved from San Jose, California to Waltham, Massachusetts to accompany my daughter’s Ph.D. study in Brandeis University. While talking with my son who lived in San Jose, California over the phone, I suddenly heard of Overfelt Garden Park again, because my son liked to play Pokemon Go and there were many Pokemon in Overfelt Garden Park. I remembered the sweet-scented osmanthus in Overfelt Garden and started to look for the sweet-scented osmanthus while enjoying the gorgeous autumn colors in the East Coast. Unfortunately, I never saw nor smelt the sweet-scented osmanthus.

In September 2022, after returning to Silicon Valley in California from Massachusetts with my daughter’s family, we lived in an apartment for a few months. I happened to see several huge trees with silver osmanthus blossoms across the street from our apartment. The trees were taller than a one-floor house. I frequently walked there to smell the sweet-scented osmanthus which reminded me of the osmanthus trees in Overfelt Garden Park again.

In early 2023, my daughter’s family moved from the apartment to a house in East San Jose. In September 2023, I visited Overfelt Garden Park again for the first time in more than twenty years to try to see and smell the sweet-scented osmanthus. Unfortunately, seeing that the sweet-scented osmanthus trees were gone made me sad, as the trees were an object far away from my hometown which reminded me of my late mother’s love for flowers.

I suddenly wanted to see the forest of osmanthus and smell the fragrance of osmanthus which filled the air, such a scene can only be found in Xindu Guihu, Sichuan in my memory.

My longing for the massive osmanthus scene was finally fulfilled in October 2024.

Seeing the flowers suddenly made me remember the time my Mom and Dad visited Overfelt Garden in the United States and made me smile. Seeing the flowers again brought me the same happiness I felt back then.

Postscript:

Before returning to China at the end of September 2024, through an alumni from Sichuan Normal University, I invited Sichuan’s gold medal tour guide Jiang Yu to plan a few days of travel for my aunts and uncles from my mother’s side in Zigong. I thought of Xindu Guihu, so I put this place on the itinerary. Unfortunately, my aunts and uncles did not want to stay overnight outside, so this plan fell through. Finally, I accompanied them on a one-day tour, chartered a six-seater business car for 1,000 yuan, and went to Lizhuang, Shunan Bamboo Sea, and Yibin.

The autumn colors in 2021

The White Mountains in New Hampshire:

The Flume Gorge in New Hampshire:

The North Bridge Conccord in Massachusetts:

The Gibbet Hill in Massachusetts:

In 2022, I encountered the silver osmanthus huge trees.

After my parents came to the United States, we moved from Daly City to East San Jose. All the memories and thoughts were written here after I read my late mother’s limerick (1998).

I have a long and interesting history of playing Pokemon Go with my children in San Francisco and in Boston here

In 2016, I had not thought of enjoying osmanthus in the golden autumn, but I enjoyed the of tasting golden osmanthus flowers in the golden autumn, as I had dried osmanthus at home. This is the story

I like wintersweet flowers very much but have not seen them blossom since I came to the U.S. in 1989.

During the Spring Festival in 2017, I visited Sansheng Plum Village Happy Plum Forest in Chengdu in Sichuan. I stayed in the forest for a whole day after noticing the forest was filled with wintersweet flowers that were fully blossomed. I realized that I needed to see, smell and touch the wintersweet blossoms in person in order to fully enjoy their beauty, fragrance and texture.

I wished my children could have experienced the multidimensional enjoyments of wintersweet blossoms with me in Sichuan. Sadly, they were in school during that time that wintersweet flowers blossomed in Sichuan.

Unexpectedly, my wish was granted the next year and I was overjoyed.

It was in early February 2018 that my children and I saw wintersweet blossoms in Kew Garden, London. There is the Duke Garden, which is known as a mysterious garden, inside the Kew Gardens. The Duke Garden is a quiet small garden surrounded by brick walls and iron gates. Since I like gardens, we visited Duke Garden and were surprised to see a wintersweet blossom leaning against the brick wall next to the iron gate of the garden.

I feel that this old and tall wintersweet, which stood in the most noticeable front of the Duke Garden, must have quietly displayed her beauty both now and in the past. I also remember the wintersweet in the Jingqi Pavilion of Yong’an Temple where Emperor Qianlong studied in Beihai Park in Beijing; two big bushes of wintersweet grew on both sides of the stone stairs in front of the Pavilion.

Then I realized that wintersweet is a prominent flower in both Eastern and Western royal gardens, I was very happy because the wintersweet blossom is also a prominent flow in my hometown. I used to see wintersweet blossoms every year in my childhood in my hometown Zigong, in the Park, in the Salt Administration Bureau where my mother worked, and in front of the kindergarten of Shuguang Middle School.

The chain of thoughts led me to see that people throughout the world agree upon the beauty of the wintersweet flowers, regardless of nations or class rankings.

I think of the couplet in the Jingxi Pavilion of Yong’an Temple in Beihai Park, Beijing: “Enjoying in a calm and quiet state, comprehending without go faraway (悦性适应静，会心何必遐).” comprehending without going faraway is a kind of cultivation; comprehending at a faraway place is a kind of harvest.

Going faraway made me appreciate my hometown more and made my love for flowers stronger.

(I am in front of the Duke Garden, 2018-02-08.)

(Introduction to Duke Garden.)

Postscript

After returning to Germany from London, one day my daughter asked me if wintersweet is the national flower of Taiwan, because Taiwan has adopted the national flower of the Republic of China, the plum blossom. After checking online, I told her that wintersweet is a shrub, plum blossom is a tree, and wintersweet is not plum blossom, thus is not the national flower of the Republic of China.

Wintersweet blossom is a prominent and elegant flower. “Wax: its petals are like beeswax, and its texture is like twisted wax.

My daughter then said that she thought wintersweet was also a tree, since the wintersweet in Kew Gardens looked like a tree (I guess the Western gardeners had done a lot of pruning, leaving only a very few branches to grow), but the wintersweet in Jingqi Pavilion had the characteristics of a shrub.

This year, many flowers are blooming in the orchard in Xincun, a suburb of Changping, Beijing: roses, peonies, hibiscus, bougainvillea, dahlias, and begonias…

The orchard with hundreds of flowers in full bloom has become a veritable flower garden.

As a flower maniac, I took many photos of pretty and gorgeous flowers here, Ying, my uncle Yongyuan’s wife, changed her WeChat profile picture to a blooming big red rose, so beautiful!

Watching the bees buzz around a purple rose, I said, “This rose must be very sweet.”

Ying smelled it and said, “It smells so good! We can use it to make rose candy.”

I answered: “In the past, my nanny Yeyi used sugar to pickle rose petals. The pickled rose candy smelled very good and it was delicious when eaten in glutinous rice balls!”

Ying said, “We can collect this type of rose petals to make rose candy too.”

The next day, I saw my uncle Yongyuan collecting all the petals of the bloomed roses that Ying and I talked about to make rose candy yesterday. I asked happily: “Are you collecting them to make rose candy?”

My uncle replied: “Rose candy? Nonsense. I am making rose wine!”

I immediately felt that I had met a liquor lover who was better than me, as I was just a flower lover.

There are many roses in California. I had used sugar to pickle rose petals to make glutinous rice balls in the past, a thing I watched and learnt from my nanny Yeyi when I was little. I enjoyed using various fruits to wine for many years; but I only started to make osmanthus wine last year after I learned it from my uncle Yongjia in Nongtuan Mountain, Zigong.

Today, my uncle Yongyuan’s words made me feel that all the uncles on my mother’s side are true liquor lovers. I told myself that I will definitely make some rose wine after coming back home.

We live in East San Jose, where has high population of Spanish speakers. In late October, several small tent shops appeared on South King Rd, a main road in East San Jose. The shops were close to the houses on the street, and there were many golden, orange, and dark red flowers outside of the tents, in the open spaces between the sidewalk and the street. They looked like Halloween decorations from a distance. One day, my daughter and I were driving by this area and I commented: “So many flowers on sale on the street, are we starting to decorate for Halloween using real flowers now?” After hearing my question, my daughter said, “These flowers are used to celebrate the Day of the Dead in Mexico, it’s not for Halloween. Do you remember the movie “CoCo”? It was about the Day of the Dead, and there were a lot of golden flowers in the movie.”

I like the movie “CoCo” very much, and I also learned from the movie “Death is not farewell, forgetting is” which I used often nowadays after both of my parents passed away. However the movie did not help me link the Day of the Dead to the name of the gorgeous flower.

Knowing that the dazzling flowers on the roadside were sold for the Day of the Dead in Mexico, I curiously walked from home to the tent shop to take a closer look at the flowers, because I like flowers but I don’t know the names of the flowers for the Day of the Dead.

On a warm and sunny autumn day, while walking to the shop, I played Pokemon Go on the way which made my trip more interesting. Crossing several streets with sidewalk traffic lights, I arrived at the first tent shop. There were many five-gallon plastic buckets filled with flowers on the ground inside and outside the shop. Looking down at these brightly-colored flowers, I felt the enthusiastic and excited. The bucket was crowded with golden, orange, and dark red flowers, exuding heart-warming enthusiasm; looking closely, each flower was clustered by cascading and curved petals, appearing chaotic and lively.

The golden and orange flowers are marigold and the dark red flowers are celosia (cockscombs). The sales lady in the shop pointed to the golden marigold said: “This is the angel.” I found the tales about Mexican Day of the Dead flowers online: “With the bright coloring and potent fragrance, marigolds are thought to attract the souls of the dead to the ofrendas prepared for them. Decorating the altar with dark red cockscombs will bring vitality and joy, and reduce the gloomy atmosphere associated with death; another saying is that cockscombs symbolize mourning and the blood of Christ – a prime example of the syncretism between catholicism (Spain) and ancient Aztec (Mexico) Day of the Dead traditions.” It seems that these flowers convey unrestrained joy when paying homage to the dead in Mexico, unlike the commonly used white flowers which pay homage to the dead in China, such as calla lilies, white chrysanthemums, white lilies, and white carnations. These flowers convey subtle sadness.

Looking at so many brightly-colored flowers, I thought of my late mother who loved flowers. I guess my mother in heaven will say upon seeing these flowers: “Too colorful too crowded.” Because my mother liked simple, elegant, fragrant, and dignified flowers. I don’t really like these kinds of flowers either. I remember after watching “A Little Chaos”, a movie starring Kate Winslet and about the construction of the Gardens of Versailles, I sighed: “ I should go to some real gardens to enjoy real flowers, instead of watching a movie.“. Now I also realized that to enjoy the sight of flowers, you need to be immersed in them to have a personal feeling.

There were also many hanging paper-cuts on the wall and colorful skull decorations and small altars on the shelves in the shop. This was my first time seeing such decorations and I asked the lady in the shop: “Could I take some photos here?” She smiled and nodded her head to show her approval. I took a few photos in the shop and asked the sales lady: “When is this holiday (Day of the Dead)?” She said, “November 2nd.”

I walked from my home to the tent shop on the street for sightseeing. Although the distance was short, it felt like I had gone far to Mexico and experienced the local customs there, because I could more intuitively see the gorgeous flowers and colorful memorial offer the festive atmosphere during Mexico’s Day of the Dead. I didn’t know marigolds when I was a child, but I knew cockscombs as they were common household flowers in my hometown. Now marigolds are more vividly associated with cockscombs, the Day of the Dead, and the movie “CoCo” that I watched with my children in February 2018.

Little Episodes

1. Marigolds and Cockscombs for Day of the Dead：

Medicinal effects of marigold:
It can cure dizziness, colds and coughs, whooping cough, mastitis, gills, etc. Marigold is rich in lutein, an antioxidant that can inhibit the risk of cancer and heart disease. Ingesting foods containing lutein can prevent and treat cataracts and delay eye degeneration caused by age.

Cockscomb flower can be used medicinally and edible, cooling blood and stopping bleeding.

2. Various commemorative items for Day of the Dead sold in the shop：

3. Small tent shops on the street opened for the Day of the Dead：

After walking in the Rose Garden for a long time，as the very few shaded benches in the garden were all occupied, I went back to my car, took a folding chair from the trunk, brought it to a shady place, unfolded the folding chair, sat down, took my MacBook Air out from my backpack, and quietly enjoyed the beauty in front of the blooming roses and also inside my memories, I slowly continued writing my story about Lake Cunningham Park which I visited a few days ago.

Suddenly a voice came from my left asking what I was doing. I looked up and saw a man wearing sunglasses, a cowboy hat, and holding a cane standing to my left side in front of a big tree. I didn’t want to be disturbed, so I politely told him: “I am writing a story.” He then asked me what I was writing, how did I connect to the internet, and how did I charge my gadgets. Guessing the people visiting here on a Thursday are likely flower lovers like me, I told him that I was writing a story about visiting an East San Jose Park, my MacBook was online via my iPhone’s personal hotspot, and I used a portable charger only for my iPhone as the MacBook has enough power for a day. Then he said he is also a writer, so we started chatting while he was standing and I was sitting.

After we enjoyed our conversation, he said his name is Rhawn Joseph (I call him RJ), seventy over half, a serious writer who focuses on cosmology. As I didn’t know anything about cosmology, I asked him if he had been to the Lick Observatory on Mt Hamilton and was surprised to hear he hadn’t visited there. Then He said his team had found photographic evidence of fungus-like organisms on Mars. After I got home, I found out: “Astronomy is the study of objects and phenomena beyond the earth, while cosmology is a branch of astronomy that studies the origin of the universe and its evolution, such as the Big Bang, the origin of chemical elements, and the cosmic microwave background etc.”

Chatting about Brain

I didn’t know much about cosmology, but I thought it was cutting-edge science, so I asked him if he hires newbies, because my son, who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Kings College London, was studying for a master’s degree in applied mathematics at Santa Clara University, is currently looking for a job. He said he isn’t hiring.

Thinking of he is over seventy, I asked him what else he had studied before. He said that he studied neurology in the 1970s. I am interested in the brain, so I asked him a few questions and felt his answers were concise and easy to understand, and I felt grateful.

I once bought three brain-mind music CDs, because I often felt I did not have enough brain cells to help me process work related information and I wanted to improve the power of my brain. I listened to them for several months, but I didn’t feel any effect on my feeling of short of brain cells. So I had doubt on the music-brain relation. In mid-July, after my granddaughter was born, Alex, the new father, often plays music for her. I wanted to know if listening to music can really strengthen the brain. After hearing my question, RJ said: For example, repeated exercises are always beneficial to strengthening the body muscles; some music makes him happy, and some music makes him crazy. My comprehension is: “Listening to certain music is good for strengthening brain muscles and regulating emotions.” I started to play musics that I feel relaxing and cheerful to my two-month-old granddaughter now.

During the three-year COVID-19 pandemic, I saw and heard that friends around me experienced different types of depression. I wanted to know from the perspective of brain nerves, “Why do people become depressed?” RJ roughly said: People who are depressed may think about too many problems; if I try to think a lot I may feel depressed too; nowadays, too much information on the Internet and a lot of them are negative information, reading too much negative information will easily lead to depression; so he does not read negative information about himself, otherwise he may also become depressed. My understanding is: “Think simpler and read less negative information online will help to avoid depression.” Unfortunately, I forgot to ask him how to self-heal from depression. My personal experience is that the ups and downs of experiencing hardship in life may enhance the power of self-healing of depression.

While living in Waltham, Massachusetts, on the East Coast, I visited Walden Pond often. Every time I walked around Walden Pond I smelled marijuana in part of the wood trail. Now living in San Jose, California, the private use of marijuana has been legalized. I noticed more places where I smelled marijuana, so I asked: “It seems that more people are using marijuana in public park now. Should I avoid taking my grandchildren to those places?” RJ answered: Smoking damages the lungs, and drinking alcohol is not good. The Hawaii fires in August had adverse effects on people’s lungs and skin; the dangers of second-hand smoke are well known. After listening to his explanation, I thought that marijuana also belongs to second-hand smoke and it is best to avoid it if possible. Of course, with my true love for liquor, I said that drinking a little alcohol is good. I also remember what Professor A, who is also a serious writer, said at one of his birthday dinner: “When I was young, if I had an idea but felt writer’s block, I drank a bit of single barrel whiskey, and after that my writing became much smoother.”

Chatting about Rose

Flowers always bring me joy, so I enjoyed chatting about roses with a regular visitor here in my favorite rose garden; I enthusiastically shared all my knowledge about roses, and it was very satisfying.

RJ asked me: “Do you like it here?”

“Yes, I like this place a lot. I used to come here often at lunch time when I was still working. I wrote a few short stories about this rose garden.

RJ said: “I often walk here, and of course I drive here at night.”

Hearing that he often comes here, I shared my opinion of this garden with him: “I think this is one of the best gardens in the world, because the roses in the rose gardens of British and German palaces are not as variety as here, nor as beautiful as here.”

RJ added: “Rose.”

I didn’t understand, why he said that, so I continued: “Because California’s climate, there are many varieties of roses that bloom for a long time here, so I think it is one of the best gardens.”

RJ repeated: “Rose.”

It suddenly dawned on me that he was correcting my imprecision when he said rose. I quickly changed my words and emphasized the rose: “I think this rose garden is one of the best rose gardens in the world.”

Suddenly, he reminded me of the brave gentleman I met by the Charles River in Massachusetts, because he came to talk with me in the middle of COVID, while answering my question, he corrected himself that the binocular on his cane should be a monocular. Then I thought of the roses in Boston Public Garden and asked RJ: “Have you been to Boston?”

RJ said, “I studied at Yale, which is near Boston.”

Hearing that he had gone to school near Boston, I thought it would be a rare opportunity to express my dissatisfaction with the metal fenced roses in the Boston Public Gardens to a person who had been to Boston, at a rose garden where everyone could stroll among the flowers. I said quickly: “Did you know? at the Boston Public Garden, the oldest park in the United States, roses there are all fenced inside metal railings. You can only see the flowers from a distance but cannot smell the fragrance up close.” After finishing speaking, I remembered that I had noticed the roses were all fenced while visiting the Public Garden in June 2021, along with my daughter and Shirah.

RJ asked: “Did you smell the fragrance of roses here?”

I pointed to the left side of the garden behind him and said: “Yes, I just went and smelled my favorite sugar moon, a white and very sweet fragrant rose. Unfortunately, there are only a few blooming sugar moon roses there, I had to put my nose close to the flowers to smell the fragrance.”

“In April and May, the whole garden is filled with the fragrance of roses.”

I said, “Oh, I came here in late April this year and saw a lot of flower buds, but not many roses. I didn’t smell the fragrance here.” In fact, there is no trace of the garden full of fragrance in my memory.

RJ added: “I also went to another place to see roses.”

I can’t find another good place to enjoy roses near Silicon Valley in my memory, because the roses in Filoli are not as good as here, and it is not worth going there just to see the roses. I blurted out: “Where else would you go to see roses?”

RJ didn’t expect that I was serious about the place he went to see roses. He thought for a while and then said: “Guadalupe Rose Garden.”

I also knew about the rose garden there and said: “I went there a long time ago to see roses too.” Remembering that the last time I went to Guadalupe Rose Garden as a driver for my daughter and niece who were playing Pokemon Go. I asked RJ: “Do you play Pokemon Go?”

RJ: “No, I don’t play.”

“I think the roses there don’t grow as well as here, because the garden was too dry.”

RJ: “Yeah, that place hasn’t been good these past few years.”

…

After returning home, I carefully sorted through the photos and writings of my visits to the rose garden in April and May in the past few years. I really didn’t write down the scene of the garden filled with fragrance. I must go to the rose garden more often in April and May next year, maybe then I will be able to feel the grand scene of the garden full of fragrance of roses.

More about RJ

Before we say goodbye, I asked RJ if I could take a photo of him to write a story about chatting with him here. He happily agreed. After I showed him a few photos I took, he seems not satisfied and put down his cane and did a few cool poses for me to take a few more photos.

Because I heard from Alisa that her husband Ronnie, my Ph.D. advisor, recently went to a senior center to give a lecture about Mars, I sent them RJ’s Cosmology website, hope they are interested.

Me and the Rose Garden

1. 04-23-2023, the first spring after returning from Massachusetts, I visited the rose garden and saw many buds and very few flowers.

2. On December 11, 2019, before I left California for Massachusetts, I thought I would miss the rose garden, so I hurriedly drove to see it at night. I still remember that I felt very heavy when I took this photo…

3. On 2019-05-04, Limin invited me to volunteer at the rose garden. I enjoyed our long-lasting friendship and taking care of the garden.

【Youth Day】 Volunteer. Together with the middle school students in their early teens, we pulled weeds and laid shredded wood for the flourishing rose garden… Feel the youthful vitality, breathe the fragrance of roses, and nourish the evergreen heart in the beautiful and attractive San Jose Rose Garden, my paradise. Happy May 4th Youth Day.

4. 2018-04-14 【Rose Garden】The San Jose Rose Garden is festive and cheerful at dusk, filled with young men in suits and ties and pretty girls in floor-length skirts. Roses in the garden: many are ready to bloom, but few are in full bloom, with different beauty.

5. 2017

In September, after the very hot summer, I visited The San Jose Rose Garden to look for roses matching the red shade of my pretty toenail that was painted by my daughter.”

In April, 【Beautiful scenery】The flowers in the San Jose Rose Garden are in their prime and intoxicating. I am in their colorful world at dusk: tender, sweet, and infatuated.

Guadalupe Rose Garden

2016-08-14 【Smile】 Today, Sunday, I accompanied two young beauties to play Pokemon Go in downtown San Jose. As a driver, my uniform was approved after four rounds of inspections (the cheongsam, dotted dress, and black and white twill dress were all rejected). Fortunately, I am humble. Tonight I am wearing blue health slippers to go with this short skirt!

Related Stories

In September 2017, I and my daughter visited one of my favorite local gardens Filoli in Silicon Valley.

In June 2020, I had noticed the roses were all fenced while visiting the Boston Public Garden in June 2021, along with my daughter and Shirah.

In September 2020， I visited Walden Pond.

In October 2020, I met a brave old gentleman who came over to chat with me and was very articulate.

In January 2021, on a super cold Sunday in Boston, My daughter, my son, and I played Pokemon Go for an entire day.

While sitting and walking in the flower blooming April court garden, I was not bothered by tearing nor sneezing, the common symptoms of pollen allergy, and I praised myself for my well-prepared trip, as I took with me eye drops to relieve itching, ginseng slices and ginger slices (a home remedy for treating pollen allergy), and alcohol-marinated garlic (used as sterilizing). Being a senior traveling alone, I pay careful attention to avoid getting sick and maintain a good appetite without diarrhea and constipation. To expedite going to the paid restroom, I prepared Euro in coins right after I arrived in Germany. Today, I planned to stay in the garden for an entire day because I knew someone knew about the nearby restrooms. But on the door of the very old restroom in the Residenz there are only German words without symbols. Thinking “Her” is female in English, I guessed “Herren” would be female in German, and I almost embarrassed myself. Actually, “Herren” refers to men and “Damen” refers to women. When I saw the men’s and women’s restrooms with symbols at Frankfurt Airport, I thought it was people friendly, so I took a picture.

When I met families in the garden, I usually took a few more looks at them, as I had noticed that flower loving families were relaxed and joyful while walking in a garden. Being a flower loving solo traveler who is often in a garden, I felt people who love flowers and family carry unspoken joy and kindness.

It was very apparent that people bypassing the bright red quince flowers did not stop to enjoy the quince, unlike the many people who stopped to enjoy the blooming magnolia and take photos of the magnolia flowers in the garden on the left side of the Residenz. Although bright red quince flowers have a big advantage over pale magnolia flowers in terms of color, the former is less-known than the latter and is ignored by many garden goers. Wandering around the quince bush, I tasted the subtle feeling of being left out in the cold from my favorite quince flowers, feeling pity for beauty in my leisure; wandering around the quince bush, I saw a spectacular natural bouquet: in front of the red quince and purple lilac was a large green wall with a door that was shaped by cornelian trees, and at the end of the green wall were blooming pink cherry and white magnolias. In this small corner, my mother’s favorite magnolia, my favorite quince, lilac, and cornelian all presented a panoramic view to me, which created an atmosphere with a vaguely floating feeling and a lingering emotion.

At dusk, a gardener riding on a bike around the gravel road of the garden called out that the garden would be closed soon in English. On my way back home after walking out of the garden, I was intoxicated with the pleasure of watching beautiful flowers all day in the garden and heard someone singing on the roadside from a distance.

Following the music, I went into a side road and saw a male singer sitting on a high chair and holding a microphone singing. There was a black stereo on the ground next to his chair playing the sound track and a green box for tips and a stack of brochures on the ground two meters in front of him. Looking at the scene behind the singer, the sunset splashed gold on the white building to make an elegant and bright artistic background for the singer, I thought he had the good taste to pick this place as his natural stage. Because it was late, the passer-by in a hurry didn’t stop to listen to his song. However, the singer who didn’t mind the missing audience sang beautifully with passion, so I stopped to listen to him sing to show my support. The more I listened to him sing, the more I liked his voice. After finishing the first song, he sang a second song, which was an American pop song that I was very familiar with. However, tonight this song impressed me more than ever before. After enjoying beautiful flowers in a garden for an entire day by myself, I enjoyed the beautiful male voice of “I say love, it is a flower” which was full of emotion. This lyric made me feel that flowers have a soul. After spending a day in the garden with me in their natural form, the flowers waited by the roadside to let the singer express their feelings in such a way that touched me deeply. I felt thankful to attend a special concert of American pop songs with the soul of flowers after doting on flowers in a German garden for an entire day. From the song, I heard my soul: “The flowers I love and my love are in harmony: love is a flower, and flowers contain love.”

Little Episodes

1. 04-16-2022, in this small corner, my mother’s favorite magnolia, my favorite quince, lilac, and cornelian all presented a panoramic view to me, which created an atmosphere with a vaguely floating feeling and a lingering emotion.

2. 04-16-2022, in the Wurzburg Residenz Court Garden in Germany, a threesome family bypassing the blooming quince, the father and the son who was on crutches walking side-by-side in front with empty hands, and the mother with two bags was walking behind wearily, a picture of a mother pampering two big boys:

I remember a scenery that I saw on Natural Bridges State Beach in Santa Cruz California a few years ago, a picture of parents pampering their teenage son. Then I remember that my neighbor and friends sighed: “Nowadays, lots of young men are spoiled by their parents” and that some mothers joked about treating their husband as a son. While looking at the threesome family bypassing the blooming quince, I felt that making casual jokes is one of the nice ways to laugh at oneself and feel a sense of relief.

08-2016, on the Natural Bridges State Beach, in Santa Cruz California, a threesome family enjoying the beach, the father on the left, the son in the center, and the mother carrying a big bag on the right.

04-13-2022，many people who stopped to enjoy the blooming magnolia and take photos of the magnolia flowers in the garden on the left side of the Residenz. 【looking at Magnolia】 At dusk, I sat in my favorite place watching magnolia, one of my late mother’s favorites, being loved constantly by many people… I told my mother: “You enjoyed this very beautiful scene, right?”

04-16-2022, people bypassing the bright red quince flowers did not stop to enjoy the quince and I felt sad for this:

3. I was asking my daughter where the restroom is and which one is for females.

04-21-2022, the men’s and women’s restroom with symbols at Frankfurt Airport:

4. At dusk, a singer is singing on the street.

5. The 1979 pop song “The Rose” written by Amanda McBroom. In my memory “I say love, it is a flower” was sung solely by female voices.
Some say love, it is a river, that drowns the tender reed
Some say love, it is a razor, that leaves your soul to bleed
Some say love, it is a hunger, an endless aching need
I say love, it is a flower, and you, its only seed

Its the heart afraid of breaking, that never learns to dance
Its the dream afraid of waking, that never takes the chance
Its the one who won’t be taking, who cannot seem to give
And the soul afraid of dying, that never learns to live

When the night has been too lonely and the road has been too long
And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong
Just remember in the winter, far beneath the bitter snows
Lies the seed, that with the sun’s love in the spring becomes the rose

The COVID-19 pandemic has lasted for more than a year now, so conventional social gatherings have also stopped for more than a year.

In the middle of May, the weather is getting warmer but not hot, and the school spring semester will soon be finished, well-respected Professor W commented about the more than 2-hour long gathering celebrating his retirement as “the most pleasant surprise” this year. These words, the time, and the weather stirred a longing for a gathering among my daughter’s friends, including the retired professors. Everyone was enthusiastic for a recital. Professor A prepared an opening speech for the recital, Professor W will bring his own sound system and saxophone to play, Grace and Shirah practiced together for a piano and vocal piece.

Due to COVID-19, the originally planned indoor recital moved outdoors, in Rachel and Carey’s backyard, and it is called “A Garden Recital”. Rachel invested lots of time and resources on this garden recital by planting many flowers in their backyard. My daughter bought a big tent, as the weather forecast predicted rain on Sunday afternoon. Rachel prepared cheese, fruits salad, and baked cakes ahead of time. She also bought a few 2-Tier or 3-tier cake stand fruit plates.

At noon on Sunday, Alex, Carey and I set up the tent in Rachel and Carey’s backyard. Their four children brought the food, drink, and utensils to the garden and set up the chairs too. Grace and Lou brought their electronic piano from home. Shirah brought home-made self wrapped sweets too. A few of us were busy working from noon to 2:00 pm to stage the backyard for a garden recital of sixteen attendants. This preparation experience helped me realize that the hostess who is hosting a family garden recital is indeed a warm-hearted capable organizer. Thanks Rachel!

The early summer family garden recital was very successful. Professor A’s opening speech was focused on his research area, Grace played the piano, Shirah sang a few Italian and German opera songs, some with Grace playing piano, some just by herself. Rachel and Carey’s twin played the instruments that they will be playing in their school concerts soon. Professor W. brought his own sound system and played a few pieces of music on his saxophone. After the garden recital, we all enjoyed the delicious food prepared by Rachel, chatted about little episodes with keeping social distance during this pandemic, and little stories of family members.

Today, Rachel showed me the new additions to her garden, I learned that a white flower is called bleeding heart and wondered why a white flower got such a blood name. After the recital, Martha and I enjoyed the beautiful flowers in the garden and she pointed to the bleeding heart and commented: “The shape of this flower is like a heart, a small drop of red from the heart shaped flower, so it looks like the heart is bleeding.”

Little Episodes

At the opening of the garden recital, Professor A gave a speech. Rachel and Carey’s children were sitting outside the tent. Here under the tent sat: Maratha, Professor W and his wife, Lou, Alex, my daughter, Grace, Shirah, Carey, Justin, and Rachel.

The chairs in the garden recital:

The food prepared by Rachel:

Rachel was chatting (from left to right):
Shirah, Grace, Rachel, Professor A., Lou, Martha, Professor W. and his wife:

Alex, Rachel, and Lou:

Shirah, Grace, Rachel, and Lou:

Pretty Shirah and Grace with Lou:

Two days later, I found the bleeding heart flower described by Martha:

It was raining in the morning and I took an umbrella out for a walk.

On this cloudy rainy gray day, all the trees still have bare branches, Waltham didn’t seem to have any sign of spring, although the purple and white magnolia flowers in California were already in full bloom, and the canola flowers in my hometown Zigong were now all in golden color.

When I walked across the campus bridge over South Street, I saw a tree full of yellow flowers on the slope at the end of the bridge. The yellow flowers with raindrops were sparkling.

In the rain, I stopped at the end of the bridge. One hand held onto the umbrella, and the other hand held onto my iPhone to take photos of the yellow flowers. I didn’t realize that my holding my umbrella I was getting in the way at the end of the bridge.

A hurrying teacher stopped beside me and waited for me to make way for her to pass.

As I stepped aside, I pointed to the sparkling yellow flowers and said: “Look, the flowers are blooming.”

The teacher turned her head and saw the tree full of yellow flowers and sighed: “Wow, It is so pretty!”

She looked at the yellow flower tree and suggested as she walked away: “If you can photograph the contrast between the dead leaves and the yellow flowers, it would be prettier.”

”Thank you. Have a nice day!” I happily replied.

I stood at the end of the bridge, watching the teachers and students rushing to their classrooms in the rain, enjoying a picture of the traditional “Going to school in the morning” in fine days at a school campus on the East Coast.

In China, “Morning, go to school” is a completely different scenery now. Because of the coronavirus, high schools and universities have begun to teach online; teachers teach and answer questions through video conference at home, and students listen and ask questions through video at home. “Going to school in the morning” means students don’t need to get out of the house or care about the weather anymore in China.

In a very short period of time, this coronavirus has provided a new model for “going to school in the morning”, which shows that the reform of educational methods is not always difficult. (Coronavirus has quickly promoted the online teaching methods that may require long-term evaluation and small-scale testing and reviewing feedback in normal time, to such a great scale : colleges and middle schools across the country. Heroes are rising in difficult times!)

The tree full of yellow flowers on the slope at the end of the bridge:

Today, I am on break. My daughter asked me to buy prescription canned food from our vet Ruth for our cat Kara. I suddenly realized that since Xiaobing, my grandson, was born, we have been neglecting Kara, because Xiaobing is much smaller than Kara, Xiaobing cries louder than Kara does, plus with sleep deprivation we had less energy for our Kara. A few times, when I heard Kara crying in the middle of the night, I realized that I forgot to put her into her bed.

On Thursday afternoon, while resting on the couch in the living right after jogging, I heard my daughter saying from the hallway: “Mommy, did you not take off your shoes before you came in?” Still sitting on the couch, I thought a bit and replied: “Yes, I walked in with my shoes on. Is something wrong?” She said: “I just stepped on poop here, so stinky! Did your shoes bring back the poop?” I stood up, walked to the shoe rack and bent down to pick up my jogging shoes to take a look, and said: “The bottom of my shoes are clean. As the road is still covered with white snow, it is unlikely I would step on poop without noticing it.” While cleaning the floor with alcohol, my daughter sighted: “Then, it must be Kara who accidentally pooped here.” I said: “After being neglected for more than a month, I guess Kara was upset and forget to poop in her own sand box.”

Many things, just like taking care a baby and a cat at the same time, if I didn’t experience it, I could not imagine the little troubles.

Little Episodes

1. Kara’s history
My daughter adopted Kara about a month after our Prince Frosty passed away. Kara had stayed in the animal shelter for quite a long time, as she pees randomly at random places and needs to eat prescription food. After Kara came to our family, she peed a few times on my bed and made my bed was very stinky. My daughter had to use a mixture of soda and vinegar to remove the bad smell. My son once commented: “I read that cats only pee on things belong to people she does not respect.”, to which I felt was very ironic.

09-14-2019, A newcomer to our family, Kara was very shy.

12-15-2020, After staying with us for more than a year, Kara often sits pompously.

2. Kara and flowers. In the fall of 2021, winter came much earlier on the East Coast than on the West Coast, there were very few flowers outdoor. In order to adjust to indoor life, I started to write little stories of flowers in the vase and Kara in October.

Oct 1, 2021
Peruvian Lily in a vase,
Japanese chrysanthemum on the vase.
In the Morning,
Inside, flower and a cold arrogant cat
Outside, flower and the beautiful blue sky.
I start to record flower in a vase journey.

Oct 2, 2021
Carnation and Peruvian Lily,
Flowers.
Sleeping Soundly and Pompously,
Kara.

Oct 4, 2021
Flower in the fall
Purple chrysanthemum, green chrysanthemum.
Cat in the fall
Self prettying, becoming chubby.

Oct 4,2021
Impatiens flower,
a gift from a friend.
Birman cat,
my daughter’s pet.
The cat doesn’t touch the flower at all.

Oct 6, 2021
Down, red roses, arranged by my daughter,
Beaming with joy.
Noon, Birman cat, adopted by my daughter,
Being lazy.

Oct 7, 2021
Carnation,
in the simplest style.
Birman cat,
in a cute pose.

Oct 8, 2021
Blooming Peruvian Lily
Pondering Birman cat

Oct 10, 2021
Purple flowers: chrysanthemum, carnation, dahlia.
Cute Cats: ours, friend’s, all lovely

Oct 10, 2021
Faded flower.
Sound sleeping cat.

Oct. 18, 2021
My daughter’s flowers, showing autumn is intoxicating.
My daughter’s pumpkin carving for Kara, is very alike.

Oct 10, 2021
Pretty flowers, beautiful.
Quiet cat, graceful.

Nov 21, 2021
Our Kara doesn’t touch flowers, but enjoys pondering nearby a window. Today, while I was trimming yellow leaves and faded flowers of 2-week old Peruvian Lily, Kara finally showed up. Peruvian Lily really has a very long blooming period.

dec 2, 2021
Pretty red roses, unique
Honest Birman cat, loyal
December 1st
A day is a small beginning of a month.
A month is the big tail of a year.

It’s sunny and cold outside today. Although Thanksgiving has passed by for more than a week, the Thanksgiving flowers are still in bloom in the living room vase. The red rose from the last day of November is still lively in the December dining room. The impatience in the kitchen will bloom again. From the dining room to the living room to the kitchen, the flowers in the vase and the flower buds in the pot make me feel refreshed, because the joy brought by flowers is always a very real sort of energy.

The impatience bud was eye-catching. Watching the red-rose-colored impatience bud gorgeously set off by the green leaves, I remembered the impatience was given to me by Rachel before the cold weather this year after she had transplanted it from her garden to the pot. She told me, “The impatience likes sun so placing it by a window with direct sunlight is good”.

I put the impatience by the window above the kitchen sink after we moved to our new house. The impatience seems to enjoy the new place as soon after it settled down, it started to grow flower buds, in red-rose-colored single-layer flowers which would bloom occasionally. Whenever the impatience is blooming, I always tell Rachel, “the impatience blooms again. It’s beautiful!”, because Rachel cares about the flowers she gave me. I joked with my daughter: “Rachel is one of my favorite people because she likes to send me flowers. She sent me a pot of dahlias in summer and a pot of purple chrysanthemums in autumn. The impatience she gave me in October is so lovely as it is the first flower to bloom after we moved to our new home.”

I always thought the impatience bloomed only in the summer so I was very happy to see it blooming in the winter. The impatience will always remind me of Rachel and our many sweet gatherings in 2021.

In March, we had homemade dessert in her new house.
On Easter Sunday, we hid eggs in her garden and played games together.
In May 16th, we had a Garden Recital to celebrate the end of the 2021 Spring Semester in her garden.
In June, Rachel invited me to attend her twin children’s school concert recital and to celebrate her eldest daughter’s junior high school graduation.
We had my favorite crepes in her home when my son visited us in July. Homemade crepes were so delicious.
In September, she gave me the zucchini grown in her garden and a pot of purple chrysanthemums.
In October, I chatted with her in-laws who came from Seattle to visit her family.
At the end of October, Rachel’s family came to help us with moving.
She made crepes on Thanksgiving Saturday in my house.
In early December, Rachel took time to go shopping with us so we can enjoy her 20% employee discount.

Looking at the impatience quietly, I also remember my childhood past time of smashing the impatience petals and painting them on my fingernails to dye my nails, the impatience was multi-layered on a long stem at that time.

People love flowers, flowers are pleasant. Human love can be nicely passed on via flowers.

Little Episodes

Blooming impatience:

Flowers at home today：impatience, the Thanksgiving flowers, the November red roses.

09-25-2021，purple chrysanthemums

07-09-2021，my son was preparing the crepes filling sausages in Rachel’s house.

05-16-2021， Rachel and I in her garden:

03－13-2021，Dessert made by Rachel:

Our many sweet gatherings in 2021.