"Hola amiga, perdón vine desde Imperial Beach" I said to Anna weeding out the strawberry patch as I pulled up on Patty's blue bici with the hose around my shoulder and two bags of tools hanging from the handle bars at 8:10a.  I had come from IB and left just before 7a and still had to get a taxi en especial straight to Playas in order to make it almost on time.  Luckily I got paid yesterday and could afford the $10.  "¿Cómo estás?"  said Anna as we greeted each other.  We talked and weeded a bit and I went over and connected the hose on the other side of the garden couldn't hear her.  I checked out some of the plants on that side.  Everything looked pretty good EXCEPT a Salvia had been taken out.  I was so bummed and disappointed.  It was one that i knew well.  It had been picked at so much that it was almost gone about 1.5 ago but they left one strong branch.  It survived the last 1.5 and a half and was doing well to the point where I was just starting to have hope that it woulc be a big strong Salvia eventually.  shit.

"¿Qué crees?... se llevaron otra Salvia?", I gave the bad news to Anna.

She stood and walked over with me.

"No sé qué hacer."  

"Pues no poner más Salvias."

"Sí por ahora definitvamente no." and I went on to say maybe putting in that little fence we were planning to put in might help.  We walked back to the main circle and noticed there was yet another little Salvia missing.

It helped me not to get too discourgaged knowing that Anna looks to me somewhat as a person that doesn't get discouraged or that doesn't let discouragement stop me from keeping the garden up.  Or at least that what was going through my head.  Later, Jessika came by and even though I didn't like her solutions of more signs telling people that they'll be reported to the authorities (I kind of knew that's how she'd react), it helped a lot to stay encouraged and positive knowing that there were others (her and Anna) that were upset about it too.  Anyway, I'm way over the original huge disappointment that I had when I saw them missing an hour ago.   I watered the cherries on both sides and the strawberries on both sides and the encinos, and the salvia picada and the salvia escondida in the flower circles and a little water for the Salvia in the main circle.  The Encinos look pretty good.  Especially the one in the stawberry patch.

Me and Anna chatted some more.  I told her about the trip to UCLA and the possibilities that might have for more support for the garden and the park and she told me about her plans with out of the Boat org and that she had met with the Delegada about the plan of helping the orphange kids by the beach be part of the program to do their junior lifeguard program.

I found myself a little argumentative with her.  Not cool.  I still had in mind the meeting with the delegada a week ago that I felt like she was a little too agressive opportunistic.  Anna has been nothing but a huge help and has been amazing with all that she has done for the garden and I love how she has taken some ownership of it and how we are working together as a team.  I had heard that she was kind of an opportunistic person but thought "puro chisme".  Kind of made me worried, but the truth is if I was going to do something about it, the best thing would've been to mention that it bugged me how she was at the meeting as opposed to taking it out in normal conversation.  Anyway, not as big of a deal as I making it here.  I think the best thing is to let it go and maybe bring it up in a subtle way some time when we're chatting.  I also chatted with Jessika a bit.  She said she told Nicolette about the garden event for trans in Nov "...y que le gustó la idea."  She said once SD PRIDE is over, we'll start planning for it.  That sounded like a good schedule.  I told Anna that the prepa group was coming tomorrow and talked about what be a good area to save for them to do the weeding before she took off.  I continued weeding after they left and then went back to watering a second round to all except the strawberries and cherry on the US side.  Now that the water's gone down, I'll do the 3rd round.  It's about 10:15a.

The peritoma Arborea looks the same which is good since for a while it was gettting worse so I think the amount of water is good.

PIC HERE

The Monkey Flower looks a little aguitada from the extra water that Anna gave it.  She feels really bad about that.  I told her it'll be fine it still looks strong.  

PIC HERE

During the second round I thought it would've been even better to tell her that it actually helped that seeing the effects of the water cause that means that the watering has an affect and that amount of bad that it did for that one is the amount of good that it did for the others.  Pretty amazing how that plant does so well when you DON'T give it water.  Not only is does it "not love water" like Ryan from RECON said but it doesn't even like it.  I also remembered that I had thought of a name for the trans event and that it would've been good to mention that to Jessika.  Glad these things came to me.  Watering does that, the stress melts away and I start to have ideas.  I'm going to propose to Anna that we do the adaption thing with her kids when they come back in the winter together with the fence and maybe the pathway.  I hope I get a good night's sleep tonight so I can be alert and fressh with Rossy's kids mañana.  That's been a problem for me lately, for a while now.

In addition to the last round, I re-dug the water retention circles on a couple and that overflowed before getting enough water and I remembered the Malosma that grew under the isocom.  The iscoma is now pruned back so I put a rock under the main trunk of the Malosma in hopes to encourage it grow more upward to avoid getting stepped on.  Jessika also suggested cutting back the dry area of the Isocoma even more all the way down to the trunk.  After thinking about it, I think I'm gonna to take her suggestion.  Maybe mañana.

PIC HERE

As I was finishing uip, 2 middle aged guys one in really good shape carrying a bag of crushed aluminum cans. "¿Que honda amigos?".  They were acting like they knew me and I wasn't sure if it was because we had already met or if they were just friendly.  

"Aquí buscando la forma de agarrar algo de comer."  They seemed well rested and motivated.

I was glad to see them cause I was remembering when Kelly Lytle had said when I met her at the UCLA dinner, the author of the book "La MIgra! A history of US Border Patrol" asking if I'm writing my encounters down with migrants.  I haven't wrote nearly enough down to reflect the number of stories and people I've run into and gotten to know, so I was anxious to meet more.

"Duermen aquí en el Cañón?"  I asked being a litle direct.  They didn't seem to mind although it was a little unsmooth.  

"Sí, dormimos aquí y pensamos ir para allá."

"A cruzar?"

"Sí."

I gave them some change.

"¿Cómo se llama usted?"  I asked the one that wasn't in as a good of shape and was doing all the talking and as soon as he said "Tonio", I remembered I had met him before and I introduced myself to Angel also who I hadn't met before.

"Conocen al Negro?"

"Sí, sí, el Moreno." said Tonio who seemed to speak for both of them as Angel stood and shadowed over the bag.

"A veces ayuda a los migrantes."

"Gracias, vamos para allá" pointing toward the beach area where the restaurants are.

I went that way too after I got all the stuff together and stopped by to see my friend El Negro and chatted him and Pájaro a bit.