San Francisco, California, April 20, 2020

I sit in the same chair for dinner every evening, facing the deck and the trees beyond. I love the spikey, woven pattern of the 30-foot yucca (yucca gigantea) that serves as backdrop to my view. I’ve watched that yucca grow for the 15 years I have been coming here, but I do not remember seeing flowers, or at least so many as I counted this weekend from my chair.

Giant yuccas form flower clusters the size of young toddlers once a summer if the light is right. Though not as prolific as that, the ancient yucca in front of our house inevitably draws someone to our door to ask politely if he can cut the flowers down when we’re lucky enough to have a few. Fried yucca blossoms are a delicacy in Central America, and I imagine these beauties could feed a family for a week! The neighbor’s tree, meanwhile, is much younger and more vibrant so the flowers are not a complete surprise, but they are out of season. Must be last year’s crop that we simply never noticed, we concluded Friday evening. But still the tree kept catching my eye through a rather gloomy weekend. Why don’t I remember seeing them there before?

Lingering over last night’s dinner, I watched the yucca catch the last light from a western sky, and it was suddenly clear - these flowers are NOT dead and dried! They are new, bright and wildly prolific. The mystery is how they could have appeared out of nowhere and in such generous numbers. There they are - full fledged. We did not see them form and grow. Or maybe we were too preoccupied to notice.

Experience and Wikipedia tell me the flowers will last for months, especially sine no one can covet them from the street. From here on out, you can bet that I will spend each and every repast paying attention to that gift.