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Continue reading →: Happy DEAR Day
It’s Drop Everything And Read Day- I hope you’re reading something wonderful. I just started reading Ruth Hogan’s beautiful novel The Keeper of Lost Things on the Libby app. (Libby is one of my best friends, and libraries are one of my favorite places). I’m traveling currently and hope to…
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Continue reading →: A tribute to books where rabbits turn real
I grew up with The Velveteen Rabbit, a book that I always felt a connection with, because I had my own stuffed rabbit. His name was Ho-Bunny because when my dad returned from a work trip and brought him in to my room, family legend has it that 18-month old…
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Continue reading →: Microadventure- trip to Buckhorn Baths Motel
I’ve been fascinated with this place since the first time I saw it, passing by a couple years ago on an errand with my mom. It has so much character, and I have this weird urge to buy it and restore it, which is not within either my budget or…
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Continue reading →: Wildflower pilgrimage to Anza Borrego State Park, California
I took a short trip to Anza Borrego State Park on March 14-16th to commune with the wildflowers. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that “…the earth laughs in flowers,” and right now, the Anza Borrego desert is filled with laughter. I spent a night in Indio, since I couldn’t afford any…
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Continue reading →: (My) first cactus flower of 2024
I saw my first cactus flower of the year on a hike last Saturday (March 9th)- a single blossom on a little pincushion cactus tucked under a shrub. Most of the rest of the cacti are at least a week or two from blooming, I’m guessing. I would have missed…
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Continue reading →: Primavera – the birth of spring
I don’t speak Italian, but I do think it’s a beautiful language, and “primavera” is one of my favorite words, maybe in part because of the Botticelli painting of that name, but also because it means “the birth of spring,” which is something to celebrate. This is the time of…
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Continue reading →: “The wisest thing is to be on the path.”
I’m reading an interesting book by David Brazier, Zen Therapy: Transcending the Sorrows of the Human Mind. This title quote is in reference to the process of becoming a bodhisattva, but I took it as a straightforward suggestion to go hit the trail. Later, I resumed reading, and Brazier goes…
Wonders Never Cease
Welcome to Distracted by Wildflowers. My name is Gretchen, and I’m a writer, park ranger, artist, and activist. I aim to explore and celebrate this incredible world we share, and like the Lorax, I speak for the trees… and the fish, and the bears, and the nudibranchs in the tidepools.
Tidepools and Wildflowers 