Topanga Bubbles

A round life...

2011-11-29T22:56:00.000-08:00

...does not fit in square lunch boxes. I've really tried.

She can!

2011-11-25T15:54:00.000-08:00

But can she make a cherry pie....

2011-11-23T17:51:00.000-08:00

Pie. It all started with one simple word.

Yesterday, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, an old friend (and I don't mean she IS old, just that I have known her since before I was even really ME) posted on Facebook that she was grateful for: pie. And I was hungry and my head reeled and my mouth watered. The day before, at about the same time (the I've-cooked-two-kids-breakfast-and-packed-their-lunches-and-dropped-them-at-school-but-haven't-eaten hour) a blogger I read had mentioned popovers AND posted a picture, which prompted me to run to the kitchen and whip up a batch. They were good. I ate them with Stilton and gouda and apricot jam. But THIS was pie. It was two days before Thanksgiving so on everybody's mind (and lips) were apple and pumpkin. But the image lodged in my brain and taste buds was CHERRY. Oh, those Rainer cherries I had put up in light honey syrup this summer called to me and said, "THIS is why you put us in these jars." And I resolved to bake a cherry pie, darlin' (or is it charming?) Billy.

I researched some recipes online quickly and consulted The Joy of Cooking. It seemed that I needed tapioca to thicken the cherry syrup, in a nice clear, unassuming way. Tapioca. Not something regularly stocked in my kitchen. So, I needed to hit the grocery. But life gets in the way. I got the tapioca yesterday afternoon, when I took the girls for their Halloween treat from Gran and Poppy (who live 3000 miles away and sent $$) -- they got frozen yogurt. But then it was time to cook dinner, eat, clean up, bath, bedtime. No cherry pie.

Today was a new day and I was determined. Yesterday I had considered buying a crust and just filling it. But that seemed wrong. Those hand pitted cherries could not go in a store bought crust. I looked at the go-to recipe for crust for so many people -- Ina Garton's recipe. But hers uses shortening. Uh, I just can't. Part of my "hang up" is straight up nutrition -- trans fats, GMO's, all that... bleh! But there is also this. I remember Crisco in my mother's pantry when I was a child. I remember her pulling it out to fry chicken or such things. I remember looking into that open container, at that gorgeous snowy white STUFF. And thinking, "OH MY that looks yummy. I want to taste it!" And tasting it. And finding out that it somewhere between doesn't-taste-at-all and makes-me-want-to-retch.

And, total pie aside, brief off topic! Today for the kindergarten party in Gregorie's class, I made popcorn. I, as I always do, popped it in coconut oil. And every time I open the container of coconut oil I look in, at the gorgeous snowy white stuff. And I stick my nose in. And I inhale. And I usually taste. And I always think, "THIS is what I expected back then. THIS dreamy goodness!"

But anyway, I decided that an all butter crust was the thing for me. So, I went with Smitten Kitchen's all butter recipe. And I started at 4 pm and clearly hadn't thought about "chill it for an hour or two" part. So, I waited. And dreamed of store bought crusts. And thought about the fact that I don't actually own a pie pan. Hmmmm..... All this was a bit much, so I drank some homebrewed IPA and thought that tomorrow would be a good day to make a cherry pie...

[to be continued...]

Tying down bubbles

2011-10-20T20:58:00.000-07:00

I was working on my short story tonight and I needed my journal. And I couldn't find it. Not my "right now" journal, obviously, but my Journal. The big one. I needed a quote from it. To make part of the story "hang". And I looked and looked. And while I was looking (panicking) I saw the popcorn pot in the sink. And I started to wash it. And I saw the dish rack full of dishes drying. So, I started drying/putting away. And I came to the lunch boxes. The Bento Boxes. Oh, the nice, square boxes into which I pack the nice square lunches. "Where is my Journal????" And I dried the boxes and set them on the counter and dried all the little rectangle containers that go in... And I thought, "MY LIFE DOES NOT FIT INTO SQUARES! IT DOES NOT FIT IN THESE BOXES!" And I remembered where my Journal was. But I'm still wondering where my life fits into these boxes....

Sycamore Canyon

2011-10-02T22:17:00.000-07:00

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Hoppiness is

2011-09-14T22:46:00.000-07:00

I owe this blog much more than just a bunch of pictures of my not too fruitful garden after 6 weeks of silence but with the girls in the middle of the second week of K and 1st grade and me still trying to get a handle on our new "lifestyle" I'm not sure I can deliver tonight (I'm hoping to get this all loaded while the chicken strips coated in pastured egg, ground flax seed and panko oven-fry in some walnut oil...) Lunch tomorrow for the Bubbles will be the aforementioned chicken strips, spaghetti squash (that I roasted earlier with some walnut oil and sea salt), crostini, and melon chunks. Hopefully arranged artfully in their bento-style boxes, with a flower! Maybe I'll remember to take a picture of that too... But in the meantime, I am really really really proud of this picture (and not just the picture, of the subject too!):

Click on it - see it up close and gorgeous! Happy happy hoppy hops!

So, another garden thing I'm feeling really happy about (because honestly, there isn't much this year -- tomatoes have wilt, carrots are lovely but few and far between, something ate the broccoli, something LARGE, not aphids or such, the cucumbers, well, typical cucumbers for me, etc etc...) is THIS!

OMG a PUMPKIN! From the volunteer plant growing in the morel habitat (not the new plant I actually PLANTED). So far I have SEEN one single female flower and I rather, um, forced her to do the deed. So, I think I made this!

Other things that make me hoppy, I mean happy...

My magnificent ever growing rainbow chard.

Chive flowers with honey bees.

Everbearing strawberries.

Ripe strawberries.

Self seeding arugala.

A broccoli sprout from???? There are actually a dozen or so of these! Volunteers always seem so much stronger in my garden so I'm hopeful this might become something great.

Yeah, like this crazy pumpkin!

Under the pumpkin, there grows some lovely baby chard!

More baby chard!

And all is not lost up above, in the sunny beds.

Figs! I picked (and ate) two yesterday! A dozen or so to come!

Bell peppers.

Dahlias! Loaded with honey bee tho I couldn't capture a picture that way.

Yellow bell.

Banana peppers -- hmm, are these the sweet or the hot? I never know until I cut in!

The blackberries have made an arch across the tipis.

And we do have SOME tomatoes.

Yellow crookneck.

I was hoping to find another rogue pumpkin back here, where the planted pumpkin has spread into the hops, but no.

Pumpkin-hop jungle.

What I found was this lovely spider!

And just one more time:

Acceptance

2011-07-30T22:47:00.000-07:00

Mothers and gardeners have something important in common -- they both come to realize that there are things they can do, and things they can't; situations they can control, and those they can't. At some point they likely determine that there are fruits they can cultivate, and some they just can't -- though, I'll admit, I have yet to concede anything in my garden or with my kids!

Today I spent a couple long, sweaty, itchy hours working on my tomato bed. I pruned extra foliage and added strings and raised others to keep the tentacle-y vines "contained", off the ground, exposed to the ripening sun, free from molds and fungi.

I managed to tame this bed somewhat, to get it "under control". But I turned around towards the pepper bed and realized there are tomatoes, volunteer tomatoes, that I will never control. They sprout up every where. And tend to take over. This is the pepper bed. And that is a big ol' cherry tomato vine lying on top of the pepper plants.

The only thing that is growing in this box that was actually PLANTED in this box is the dill, which you probably can't even see. The tomato and the tomatillo are both volunteers. And have taken over.

I decided to leave these PLANTED tomatoes to themselves (other than the store bought cages) -- no pruning. I'm curious, this is an experiment -- the tomato plants themselves are store bought and therefore not as near and dear to my hearts as the little former seedlings in the big bed.

Despite encroaching tomato plants, I have managed to grow some nice peppers this year. After a complete pepper failure last year, I'm enjoying these beauties:

I even picked a couple today.

I ate them in my lunch lettuce wraps and Gregorie made quick work of the carrot. I did manage to grow her part bunny, part bear.

My carrots this year have not been that successful. I do have this lovely bed of them growing though

and I can't bring myself to thin it!

I have decided that if my beans won't grow and my blackberries want to take over the tipis, so be it.

And I have resolved that sharing strawberries with the wild things is just part of the game.

I have learned that I CAN grow calendula and cucumbers (after several failed attempts),

But I cannot make my crookneck squash produce a female flower.

And while I cannot stop this planted pumpkin from overriding its cucumber neighbors

or this volunteer pumpkin from shading the chard seedlings,

I CAN make this pumpkin have sex.

By picking this male flower

And pollinating this female.

I left them stuck together for good measure.

I can make (or at least help) the hops grow up the twine

but I can NEVER tame the mint, sage, or borage!

Frankly, the potatoes look a little out of control too!

I cannot make my husband clean up the dog poo. But I can clean it up myself. I'll spare you the picture.

And finally, I cannot keep my children from making messes.

But I can make sure they clean up!

At least most of the mess...

I can explain everything...

2011-07-25T23:50:00.000-07:00

Looking up.

Looking over.

Looking out.

Looking up.

Looking down.

It's not easy being green.

It really isn't.

Looking even further down.

Bring on the purple.

I don't wanna be green.

Hoping for purple.

Hoping for red.

We like pink.

I'm cool with yellow.

Green is fine with me.

Us too.

Ah, who knows what color below grows.

Pink and purple here.

We stay green.

I'm pretty in pink.

Green on blue.

White on green.

Red on green.

Green on green.

Green on red.

Green.

Green on brown on blue on green.

Green on ground.

Green on brown.

Green before greener.

Geen before bluest.

Clear on green.

Clear on greener still.

Happy 5th Birthday Gregorie Ann -- or the Story of the ET, I mean, Tipi

2011-07-20T23:27:00.000-07:00

G: Grandma, I'm kinda scared.
A: You wanna sleep with me?
G: I forgot my crown.
A: That's okay. You wanna sleep with my sheep?
G: Okay. Can I have the moose too?
A: Okay.
G: How about an apple.
A: No, that's for the morning time.
G: How about we have it in the nighttime. As a snack?
A: No. In the morning time.
G: Okay. But what if I wake up in the middle of the night?
A: If you need a snack you can have some. But just go to sleep. NOW!
G: I can hear the traffic. I can't sleep. [there is NO traffic, btw]
A: GREGORIE, go to sleep now. [I'm waiting for her to say, "Go the fuck to sleep!"]
G: This is MY ET. You don't make the rules in my ET, I mean tipi. It's my tipi. My tummy is empty.
A: That's not true. You should have eaten more dinner.
G: It's my ET.
A: It doesn't have anything to do with the ET or the TE or the TP.
G: I'm taking the basket outside. I'll go eat with the coyotes.
A: MOOOOOOMMMMMMM, can you make Gregorie go to sleep?

Uh, no. Five years later, and NO, I can't.

Okay, that is not where I planned to start this post but well, as I was typing that is what I heard...

Rewind to yesterday.

I was cleaning the house, sort of delayed Spring cleaning. Or 5th bithday party cleaning. Or just cleaning because houses NEED cleaning. And for once they weren't UNcleaning. The house. In fact, they were actually cleaning OUT the house. Carrying all sorts of stuff to the driveway. Where they had set up some sort of makeshift camp. With lots of stuffies and blankets and of course doll clothes (though there were no dolls to wear them).

I had asked Mr. Bubble to fill a galvanized tub with some sand to make a play area for the party. I meant on the back walk. But he put it right there, in the driveway camp. And the Bubbles had obliged by bringing all the sand toys, from the back walk. The camp was becoming a tent city, without a tent.

Dinner came and went and bath too. And they said, "We're going to sleep outside in the camp." With no tent, I asked?

A: Yes! You and Daddy can sleep together. In our bed!
G: Yes! It will be ROMANTIC!
A: Make us a baby sister!

And out the door they went. And 4 seconds later they were back.

A: We need a tent. There are raccoons out there.
G: And coyotes.
A: And it's cold!

So they slept with me.

Today I went to the Valley to pick up the bikes Gam bought them. As I was driving home I passed a small shop I had passed a thousand times before -- right on Topanga Canyon Boulevard, just south of Ventura. I'd noticed it before -- it sells custom and vintage baby furniture. There is always something cute out front. Today there were adorable tipis out there. Hmmm... I drove a block further and then I said, "I NEED one of those. For Gregorie's birthday present. Well, I at least need to find out how much they are..." I quickly circled the block and parked as close as I could to the storefront (as the bikes were in back, spidy webbed in but not locked...). I walked into a special space, a complete custom boutique. The owner/designer was speaking in Spanish to a potential vendor about showing his wares. They paused and I inquired about the tipis -- I got the new price, the price of the older display model, and the price of the new display model. I considered, for about a second, and took the new display model.

When I got home the girls were at the camp. I told Mr. Bubble about the bikes and the tipi. And I asked him if he minded if I gave G her gift early -- I mean, there they were playing the exact game that inspired it. Why waste a day of her tipi sitting in the bed of the truck????

She, they, instantly loved it. And made plans for sleeping in it. They further fortified camp. Which further emptied the room I have to clean tomorrow... They pulled out extra covers. And clothes for tomorrow (Sherri, the lemon skirts and green t's to match). Then they packed a picnic basket of apples and eggs and cheese sticks and fruit leathers. And a jar of dry oats.

And when the time came, they got flashlights and started out and....

they came back in.

But, with it being the Eve of G's 5th birthday and all... I couldn't let it go...

I thought, "This is a moment. A moment, a turning point, that I can INSIST on to get them out of my bed." Not that I really want them out. I love them there. Most of the time. But they do not have a baby sister because... And G has really taken to this strange habit of trying to plant her toes somewhere between my knees and my kidneys. So, yeah, out with you!

At first I just set up the ET, I mean TP. And they started rolling the stuff back in. And then I thought, "If I really want them to SLEEP here..." Duh! Roll out the bed from under mine! Genius! A perfect set up!

Who's doing the work here?

For real!

OK, I'll play too.

We're in!

Making funny faces!

AH, not in, but OUT! Check out the oatmeal mess though...

G'night hamster!

The Share

2011-06-25T22:27:00.000-07:00

This past week Alex finished her final days of her first year of school (kindergarten at Topanga Charter Elementary). Friday was her last "share" (what we called "show and tell" when I was in elementary school). She chose a family photo, which I'm proud to say has been a big theme of her shares all year -- most kids bring in toys or gadgets -- I love that what she wants to share is her family and our tales. Well, it has been so much a theme that I wasn't at all sure that the framed photo of the four of us, my parents, and my bro, SIL and niece and nephew hadn't already been shared! So, I suggested that she take instead a photo from the Panama Cruise we took with my folks a few years ago. She enthusiastically agreed. And then I was struck with the realization that I had no idea where I had stored those photos...

Well, I did eventually find them.

But not before I found a large box and an overflowing bag of "stuff" -- finance stuff. Commercial real estate structured finance stuff, to be exact. Research and deal summaries and statistics and theories I had accumulated over a career in that stuff. Stuff that holds ZERO appeal to me now. I pulled the box out of the girls' closet with emphatic disgust. "WHY is this crap taking up vital space that could be used for craft supplies and to-be-grown-into-Patagonia-jackets-bought-on-great-sales and memory boxes?" I got the whole stinking pile to the hall before I paused and said, "Could I... Ever... Maybe? Would I... Ever? Maybe..." NO NO NO NO! I could not would not could not join the dance. Again. Ever. The Stuff must go. But as of this writing, it hasn't.

But it's sitting in an annoying enough location that it will soon. Go somewhere.

The other day, this day specifically, I was going to stake the tomatoes and went in search of our sledge hammer. I thought that it was in a box in the storage area under the back deck. I dug around through the cobwebs and the dried oak leaves, checking box after box (why why does Someone not organize that area????). I never found the sledge hammer, though I did find several boxes of tools and one of old tupperware containers. And I also found a large box of law books. Heavy hard covered tomes into which I poured my brain and spirit and over $100k over 20 years ago. (Yes, 2011 will mark the 20th anniversary of my graduation from Columbia Law School -- scary how that time has... well, no it's not actually scary at all -- in 20 years, wow, the lives I've led... the journey to arrive HERE has been grand; I digress...) For the longest time those ridiculous books (because trust me, I NEVER had cause to consult one after my graduation one sunny day in May in Morningside Heights -- no reason to ever lift one and crack it open) sat on a shelf in my living room(s). My Black's Law Dictionary still sits on my shelf. But that's different, a true reference manual, which has been cracked. These were text books, nothing more than class materials. But they were so HEAVY, so serious. Maybe their presence reminded me to be proud of my JD, a degree that led me down the proverbial garden path. Until I found myself on the right garden path. But I AM proud of my JD, proud of my education, my knowledge, my abilities, proud of my career (to an extent), proud of my journey. I don't remember when I put those books in a box and moved them into a dirty cellar. And I wonder why I put them there -- did I ever think I'd want, or need them again? I'm going to send them packing. This week. With the Stuff.

Remember those cruise photos? I found those in a bag that had somehow become a last minute carry on tote as we boarded the ship. (Where did we get that bag? I'll have to ask Gregg.)

Inside the bag I found the photos, a bunch of "scrapbook material", and my journal The journal I started the winter before my year long solo adventure of self discovery -- three times across the US and to Panama and back. Yes, I had been heartsick over its missing status. Thank the Universe for the Share!

p.s. I just now realized that I could have used one of those heavy books to drive in my tomato stakes...

A really big spider! Oh my!

2011-06-20T22:43:00.000-07:00

Today, the first really hot and sunny day in over a week, I decided to stake my tomatoes (yeah, I'm smart that way).

While I was pounding and tying and sweating and swatting, I saw something out of the corner of my eye, hanging out (literally) in the pear tree.

Gregorie and I found him/her wonderful and fascinating and we took lots of pictures!

Gregorie helping

The pepper bed

And my NEW bed, with tomatoes and beans, which I just realized I forgot to cover with bird netting -- crossing fingers!

Onion goggles

2011-06-15T22:20:00.000-07:00

Today Gregg made some amazing onion soup for dinner.

As soon as Greggie saw him slicing onions she ran to get him the onion goggles she bought him for Father's Day. But then, she put them on herself!

After the slicing was done, she took over with the cooking! So I should say, Gregg and Greggie made some amazing onion soup for dinner (btw, all with homegrown onions and thyme!).

Of clutter, screen time, and embarrassment

2011-06-13T22:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was chatting with a group of friends about stainless steel appliances and whether kitchen appliances needed to match and stuff like that and one perfectly obnoxious friend (KIDDING, totally love her) shared a picture of her absurd, insane, perfectly lovely kitchen. Aside from the fact that her kitchen is just beautiful, what we all noticed, and what we all commented about, was the complete lack of clutter on her counters. So she shared another picture today. Ahem... still NO clutter.

So, being pretty anti-clutter myself, especially in the kitchen, I looked around. My kitchen was in good shape. I had some dishes drying in the drain rack which I quickly put away and then I snapped these photos:

Then I started wondering, hmmm.... how does the rest of the house look? I knew I had vacuumed the office and cleaned all the toilets and sinks/counters in the bathrooms, but I hadn't actively "cleaned up". I had, multiple times told the girls to be sure to clean up whatever they were playing with before they headed outside to seesaw. But I had doubts...

I looked in the living room:

Okay. Good.

Then I checked the office. Uh oh.

Well, I mean, it's okay, in terms of clutter/neatness-- just a basket of clothes to go on the line. But what is Alex doing in here? With her vReader? Hmmm... I took the clothes outside and then checked the girls' room:

Uhhhh... again, okay on clutter. They DID clean up. They just didn't go outside! Yikes!

Oh, and here is the other one in the master bath, with the Mobigo. GO OUTSIDE NOW!!!!!

Ahhh!

So later one of the girls (Greggie I think) got ahold of the camera and snapped this:

One word: GUILTY! And yeah, that's an Etsy shop and I bought myself two rings... Double yikes!

Today in p-p-p-pictures

2011-06-11T22:00:00.000-07:00

This morning I tried my hand at braiding garlic. My first couple attempts were not grand:

But by my third try I was getting it down!

I'm pretty proud of this last braid. So, I hung it by my front door.

And took lots of pics of it!

I'm also pretty proud of the potato chips I made for dinner!

And I'm most proud of my princesses on the porch eating peach popsicles! (I think my favorite part of these pictures is there pheet!)

Test balloon

2011-06-08T23:27:00.000-07:00

Trying out this new poem -- perhaps a work in progress.

Let me lead you down my garden path

And tell you tales of love and wrath...

Walk with me while sunlight soothes

And tell me all your pithy truths

Did you dream of wealth and power

and ignore the dew on fragile flowers

Or did you rest on bended knee

and understand the strength of trees

Did you breathe the fresh green air

and lead with heart without care

Or did you sell your soul to Mr. Man

and then go sell his corporate plan

Where do you stand, and lie your head?

Where is YOUR place?

What will they say of you when you are dead?

Does your mirror like your face?

I have no tales of wrath to tell

Least not any you know not well

I leave my anger by the way

and try to smile upon the day

My world hasn't space for greed

Instead it calls me to sprinkle seed

For HERE
in my tangled garden

love and hope and joy and peace

have won.

Recycled flowers and the scent of dirt

2011-06-07T23:38:00.000-07:00

Today the girls and I went to the garden store to get some marigolds to put along our tomato bed. I also decided we could use some other annuals to make a cutting garden. I chose several 6-packs of dahlias. Between the store and home, a few of the blossoms fell off. Once home, we pulled an overgrown bed of radish plants (that were not making any radish "balls") to make space for our new flower garden. Many of the radishes were blooming. Alex cannot let a blossom go to waste:

When I finally cleaned up for dinner I found this beautiful bowl on the kitchen table. :-)

I spent the weekend in Portland with some fabulous, fun friends. On Saturday after brunch, Monique and I strolled around a little neighborhood with cute little shops. We stumbled into one that sold soy candles and goat milk soaps and felt hats and sweet little girl dresses made from recycled fabrics. I found an adorable dress that would be perfect for Alex to wear to her 3 R's day tomorrow but at $36 for a size 6 recycled dress, I passed. But I could not pass on the soaps. There were all sorts of scents. The traditional ones from lavender to tangerine to patchouli. Wonderful sages and evergreens and roses. At 3 for $10 or $5/piece I decided to go with 3. My first choice was plumeria. I had decided the soaps would be a Father's Day gift for Gregg and he loves that scent. Then I found Campground. It's deep, piney earthy-ness quickly convinced me. Then there was Campfire Smoke. Um, no. We don't need that -- any of our clothes that haven't been aired out since the wintertime fires in our bedroom fireplace already carry that aroma! But then -- Dirt. Dirt. Yes, a soap called Dirt. I smelled it. I was hooked. It was perfect. I could only imagine how in the wet heat of a shower it would transport the 4'X4' world of our bathroom into a perfect post rain garden!

Now the soap, along with some chocolate covered coffee beans and some chocolate covered cacao beans and an out of print limited edition tome on the history of beer in the US that I found at Powell's, was supposed to be a Father's Day gift. But I'm not good at that waiting sort of stuff. So, I gave it all to Gregg on Monday. And today, for whatever reason, he put Dirt in the shower, but didn't use it. So, tonight I showered. And there it was. Deep and rich and calling me. And while it wasn't mine to use FIRST, I did buy it... So, use it it did. And it was every bit as wonderful as I'd imagined. Like bringing a Spring rainshower into your tub. I feel clean and fresh, because of Dirt...

I'm not sure how Sonya Lee feels but she looks happy enough.

Roots

2011-06-07T00:04:00.000-07:00

God bless the roots! Body and soul are one.

Theodore Roethke

A peace parade

2011-06-02T22:37:00.000-07:00

I'm sure a lot of you went to a Memorial Day parade. We did too, sort of. As we do every year, we went to the Topanga Days Peace Parade. Since I think some of my readers may have never seen a peace parade -- one without gun-toting Marines and symbolic canons -- I thought I'd show what one looks like -- just a small town parade celebrating community and a call for peace. Before anyone gets up in arms at my "lack of patriotism," let me declare: I believe, with all my heart and soul and being that it is possible to honor those who have served, to offer memorial for those who have died, to pray for those currently serving, while still believing that war is not the answer. We may be a bunch of hippy freaks, but we have a unicorn!

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Harvest New Moon?

2011-06-01T22:49:00.000-07:00

June 1, 2011, new moon, in the sign of Gemini. Various tribes around the globe and throughout history would describe this lunar phase as falling between the Flower Moon and the Strawberry Moon (Algonquin) or between the Milk Moon and the Flower Moon (English) or the Hare's Moon and the Honey Moon. Regardless, nobody called it the Harvest Moon! And it's obviously not the time for pumpkins and big turkey dinners but here in SoCal at least, harvesting is an almost year 'round thing. So between my own garden and my CSA goodies, I've been amply busy with the art of putting up!

I already discussed (or shared pictures of) my garlic harvest below. It's still sitting in a big pile outside, waiting to be braided. Waiting because I have been busy. First I did aprium halves in light syrup. I did some plain, and a few with fresh mint and a few with fresh dill:

Then I made some aprium/honey jam. And finally today I finished up 10 pounds of pitted cherries in extra light syrup (I used raw cane sugar for most but tried a few in a honey syrup):

And I still have this very large salad bowl full of ripe stone fruit in my refrigerator!

Meanwhile, I also pulled the onions:

Which opened up the long, sunny bed for the tomatoes (I don't have a picture of those planted but I put about 30 plants in this bed now):

The row of carrots in front is maturing and slowly being harvested and I am putting new seeds in tomorrow. I think we'll also put some marigolds in among the yarrow border.

Spring into Summer, Hare to Honey, Flower to Strawberry...

The status of things...

2011-05-26T23:55:00.000-07:00

Let me lead you down my garden path

And tell you tales of love and wrath...

Or maybe I'll just show you pictures of my kids and my plants and my stuff...

Redwood cones

Nasturtiums

Onions

Woodland garden

Pumpkin and potato growing in my morel habitat

Imagine, an oak seedling

Sage

Chard

Redwood

Redbud

Spring harvest

Spring salad

Apples

Peaches

Rainbow chard

Tomato seedlings

Pansies

Hops

Snapdragons

Nasturtiums

Garlic bed, pre-harvest!

Onion bed, last week

Peas

Lettuce and wild arugula

Making meatballs

And flatbread

Self portrait

First lemon

Another SP

Alium harvest!

Garlic!

Potato flowers

Garlic bed now -- almost clean slate!

A new clean slate for planting

A bird in my car

An inadvertent harvest

2011-05-16T22:04:00.000-07:00

While I was weeding the garlic and onion beds the yesterday ("weeding" means pulling ash tree seedlings for the most part), I decided that the yarrow had gotten OUT.OF.CONTROL. I know it's a beneficial and I like it well enough, but when it jumps the border of the bed and becomes insidious inside and hides my carrots from view, well, it's time for some yarrow-taming. I pulled clump after clump, unintentionally dislodging a few intentional plants -- the almost-ready-for-harvest onions and volunteer potatoes pictured above, as well as about a dozen baby carrots that were quickly devoured by one to-remain-nameless 4.8333333-year old....

I couldn't let those sweet little onions go to waste and as I already had a few in the crisper drawer (from the CSA box) I decided to make onion powder! I thinly sliced the onions and put them in the dehydrator.

Today Alex and I pulverized them into some yummy smelling sweet onion powder!

Next on the agenda: buy some raw cream to sour, mix up some fresh onion dip, fry some potato chips....

At just the right angle

2011-05-09T23:04:00.000-07:00

Sometimes life comes at you a little sideways, catches you off balance, but if you take a moment or two to adjust your perspective, things usually come into focus...

Caterpillar Conundrums

2011-05-02T22:39:00.000-07:00

This morning Gregorie and I found this caterpillar in the bedroom. He/she must have fallen out of the live oaks onto the deck and then just crawled right in. I suggested that we put him (okay, "it" bugs me, and since I don't know the caterpillar's gender, I'm going "neutral" with the "masculine") in a home to see his metamorphosis but that prompted her to demand to know what he would become. She got the Field Guide. I searched online. We found no blue and orange, spikey haired caterpillars living in CA. So we snapped a few pics and sent them off to some butterfly/moth experts. Haven't heard back yet.

I know, lots of pics of this little dude, but look how fun he is!

Next, Gregorie just played her silly self.

Until she founds another caterpillar, in the peas!

I need to send his picture in too, because he's also not in the book.

But check out my peaches.

My blackberries.

My apples.

Oh, and my lunch!!!!!

A hands-on husband (or, I have the strangest grandchildren...)

2011-04-13T20:49:00.001-07:00

You all may recall that some time last year Alex married a tree. I tried to find the blog post about it to link but couldn't (will try again when Gregorie is yammering in my ear). Today we were driving over the hill to the Valley to get Alex's hair cut. This conversation went down in the car.

A: When we go to Gran and Poppy's, who will take care of the fish?
M: I bought a self feeding disc and Max is also going to come by. The fish will be fine.
A: Who is taking care of the cabin while we are here in Topanga?
M: Nobody really. Frank makes sure nothing is wrong but the cabin is really on its own.
A: That's just not true. My tree husband is there. He is looking after the cabin.
M: Oh, okay. That's right.
A: My pine cone babies are there too. My husband is taking care of them too. He is a good daddy.
G: I married a mountain. He's right over there.
M: That's nice Gregorie. A mountain seems like a strong thing to marry.
G: We have a baby. Our baby is a bear.
M: Makes sense that you and a mountain would bear a bear.
G: We're going to make another bear baby.
A: Gregorie, you shouldn't have two babies. Two babies are HARD.
G: Mom had two babies and it was easy for her, right Mom?
M: Ah, yeah. Pretty easy. Two babies is okay.
A: Gregorie, Mom had Dad to help. Your mountain husband is just not going to be around very much. You will have to take care of the babies all by yourself and two babies is HARD. Especially if they are bears. Pine cones are easy. Bears, not so much.
G: You're right Poodle. I guess I'll just have this one baby.

A cat, a dog, a garden. And a couple kids thrown in for fun.

2011-04-06T22:20:00.000-07:00

The cat

the dog

And the garden is always everywhere.

Here are my peas a week or so ago -- they have grown substantially since but I haven't gotten around to a new picture.

The pomegranate tree has leafed out into glory. It's still small but maybe this is the year it will fruit.

And maybe this is the year for our pear too -- it has fruited the last few years but not prolifically. This is year it has the most blossoms I've seen.

The fig

For the blackberries

The camelia

Azalea

Flowers for a friend's salad

Redwood cones

And oh yeah, the kids! Dog, cat, and kid, with shadow

Hammock and hidden kid

kid

kid smells ribes and climbs

Ladybug release

The bright and shiny side of hoarding

2011-03-31T23:24:00.000-07:00

The mental disorder of compulsive hoarding has recently (relatively, more so in this TV-free home) come into the spotlight. The A&E show, a CSI episode, and the entertainment community chatter that comes from this type of exposure. My reaction to my first cognizance of this condition was a sort of horror -- certainly to the extreme versions depicted in television programming, but also to the idea that even in lesser forms people would crowd their private spaces with things that, well, should just be thrown OUT. A crowded private space makes me twitchy, itchy, unhappy. I struggle to keep the stuff that we NEED tucked appropriately away; I could never allow the collecting of useless, worn out, depleted items.

But then, I also struggle with waste. Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. In that order. I have made great strides over the last couple years to Reduce. I have always Recycled. Lately I've been focused on Reuse. Before anything is composted (already a reuse), recycled, or ugh, trashed, I think, does it have any life left in it? Could it BE something else? I used to save yogurt cups and repurpose them as paint containers for the girls craft projects. Eventually we had plenty of paint containers and while those cups stack conveniently enough I realized enough was Enough -- time to switch to exclusively homemade yogurt. And of course the side benefit of no more waste (or stacks) is the taste. Then there was the milk. Until about a year ago (I'm not sure exactly when) I drank mostly this fine un-homogenized, pasteurized (as opposed to ULTRA pasteurized), glass bottled milk. I enjoyed the milk. Loved to eat the cream off the top. Really loved the returnable glass bottles. But I'm growing. Learning. Evolving. And I now believe we should only, or at least mostly, drink raw milk. So I gave up those lovely glass bottles and switched to this wonderful raw milk. Which I adore - YUMMY! But, it comes in a (BPA-free) plastic jug. Jug UGH. For a while I clenched my jaw and closed my eyes and put the jug in the recycle bin. And then one day I said, "Hmm... these could be something else for sure. Something HERE. Not something that requires shredding or melting or re-processing. Something that does not require a factory to make it. I was sure there was SOMETHING. So I saved them. And I saved them. And the cupboard that had first made room for them became dedicated to them. And then they overflowed that cupboard. And I said to myself, "You will not end up on some lame ass second rate cable channel's version of Hoarders (because by now the REAL show must have run its course and let's face it my compulsion wasn't THAT bad) just because you can't RECYCLE! Purge." I took armloads of jugs to the blue bin. Ahh.... And then the twitching, a different one than I get in crowded spaces, started again. And I started again. First I decided they could be bird feeders. I let the girls paint a few, cut some feeding holes, strung them up.

But, fact is, I drink milk faster than birds were eating the seed out of these not-so-perfect feeders. And let's face it, how many painted plastic jugs, um, I mean feeders, do you want hanging about? They were stacking up again (outside now - the cabinet thing was bugging me -- okay, so I clearly will never be a true hoarder). And it was March...

Time to start seeds. Tomato, pepper, tomatillo, eggplant, cucumber, melon.... yeah, lots of seeds. I checked the supply of left over coco fiber pots and scrounged around the saved pots from plants purchased and put into the ground and found I was short. And as I glanced around I saw the pile of milk jugs. Eureka!

Yes, cut them in half! Make a pot and sprout protecter out of each one! Brilliant!

Somehow, I still didn't have enough (partly because the Bubbles insisted on making more bird feeders as soon as they saw me cutting the jugs) and I was Reduced to trying an egg carton. We'll see....

And I put the egg carton in the upside down tadpole habitat since that experiment failed...

Oh, and remember those glass bottles? Yeah they all came with a plastic cap -- any thoughts? I was thinking wind chimes....

Flash Flood

2011-03-23T11:34:00.000-07:00

The post below shows some pictures of the aftermath of Sunday's incredible storm here in Topanga but those pictures don't really convey just how intense it was. Rain was falling at rates approaching 2 inches an hour at the heaviest. I'm not sure how much rain we got in total from the storm but our rain gauge showed a rolling 24-hour total of 6.5 inches at several points in time. The roads around us became rivers as seasonal streams and creeks jumped banks and found new routes as a result of the sheer volume of water and the tremendous amount of debris washing down the hillsides.

This video on Youtube was taken right at the intersection of Highvale (our ingress/egress road) and Topanga Canyon Boulevard. It DOES capture the intensity. My friend who lives up the street and who had visited me on Sunday before the storm got crazy blogged about her experience here. Check out her story and pictures.

As I type this the blue skies of the last two days are giving way to grey and the rain is supposed to start again. We are only slated for a 2" total -- fingers crossed on that!

Washed fresh and clean...

2011-03-21T20:46:00.000-07:00

...just in time for Spring!

This afternoon we saw blue and felt sunshine -- a welcome relief after the intense rain of the weekend.

Under dry skies I went out to explore the gardens, see the damage, warm my bones. My poor little lettuce sprouts got beat down

but this Japanese maple glistened in the sunshine.

The onions took a hit.

but the garlic stood tall.

The peas have grown since I last checked on them

and the cat approved.

In the lower beds I found pumpkins sprouting in my morel habitat

and steam rising (tho I'm not sure you can see it here).

The untamed yard breathed green.

This poor ceanothus got so heavy with water droplets it fell in the path.

I headed out of our yard to see what had happened outside our gate. More steam was rising in the warm sun, off my neighbor's car port.

The neighborhood stood shiny and fresh

but told the tale of last night.

It was a scary night, and some of the results are not pretty but others are:

In the middle

2011-02-08T00:27:00.000-08:00

Most nights the Bubbles fall asleep in here, the den, with me, while I write or read or play on the computer. Then I carry them to bed. Usually, it's easy to decide whom to lie in the middle, next to me, and whom to put on the outside -- somebody's been sad or sick or just super cuddly, somebody's been wild, or rough. But tonight, I'm looking at them, soft and beautiful and sweet (and did I mention soft?) and thinking, hmm, maybe I have to go in the middle. I HATE sleeping in the middle. But yeah, the middle it is for me tonight. Between the poet and the coroner (more on that later).

This post is brought to you by my dear Thembi

2011-02-06T21:46:00.000-08:00

...who reminded me tonight (though I already knew) of how lucky I am. She and a group of mutual friends and I were talking about the weekend being over. I said that I was bummed about that even though Monday only means Alex goes to school (no work for me or Mr. Bubble). And Thembi said that I was one lucky lady. This is what I said.

I AM a lucky lady. And in fact I just had that exact thought as I walked thru the kitchen into th[e den]. The last hour has been less than stellar -- Gregg had a beer too many watching the Super Thing and was goofy at dinner, such that I sent him to bed. And then I turned to see a messy kitchen, two kids in need of a bath, a living room strewn with stuff they played with while we watched the game -- all with me feeling flu-ish and it being an hour until Alex's bedtime. I was just like F!!!!!!! I ran the bath, cleaned the kitchen, straightened the stuff, dried them off, put the PJ's on, shined the damn sink, and came in to take them out to see the Smile Moon. But Gregorie had fallen asleep. Alex and I went out and the moon had set. We vowed to get out to see the bigger smile tomorrow. We came in and Cat Steven's Moonshadow was on my playlist. I looked at my sparkling kitchen and my beautiful daughter and listened to "If I ever lose my eyes, I won't have to cry no more..."

Yeah, it's all damn good. I'm very, very lucky!

Life on Trophy

2011-02-05T23:24:00.000-08:00

It's nice to live here, deep in this cool canyon, with our shady trees and mild weather (well, not as mild as most of LA County but still...). But one of the really nice things about living on Trophy Trail is that you can hike right into the Topanga State Park. We used to do that often (in fact, when I worked, Gregg did every day, carrying both little bubbles). But life gets busy and you need to remember. So last week we headed out into our home park.

This picture is interesting to me because the houses across the way on Dome trail seem SO near!

Let's go climb a tree!

2011-01-25T22:29:00.000-08:00

Today Gregg scaled that loved/hated by me ash tree and tried to thin out some of its lower branches to let more light onto our garden beds. That tree is tall! And I'm glad he didn't go too high! Though, I know he went higher than I cared to watch or photograph. BTW, you may notice that most of the leaves are gone (finally) and the new ones have already started. That arbol does not give me a break! That is without even mentioning the one million seedlings I have pulled (of the probably ten million it has dropped!!!).

A Topanga Sky

2011-01-23T22:27:00.000-08:00

Tonight's sunset was spectacular! I noticed the pink glow while I was working in the kitchen. I stepped out first on one deck:

And then on the other:

Back in the kitchen, I found a different kind of beauty -- this amazing head of kale! Which became a delicious salad with a chopped tomato, the juice of a Meyer lemon, and some walnut oil.

Earlier in the day the girls worked on beautifying Stella.

And Gregorie shared her favorite face.

Deference

2011-01-18T23:39:00.001-08:00

I'm just redirecting today's post to here:

http://bubblesgobye.blogspot.com/2011/01/feliz-cumpleanos.html

Today in Pictures

2011-01-17T21:36:00.000-08:00

My amazing omelet -- red chard and gruyere:

A small winter harvest:

Mama working:

Alex in the kitchen:

And setting the table:

A pair of chairs:

Daddy tries archery:

[The last 5 photos are courtesy of Gregorie.]

A healthy dose of Vitamin D!

2011-01-16T22:41:00.000-08:00

Round and round and up and down!

2011-01-15T20:57:00.000-08:00

Pets, by Gregorie

2011-01-15T20:43:00.000-08:00

[This is yesterday's post. All the photos were taken by Gregorie.]

And some self portraits too!

She laughs at this one and says, "That's me. Taking a picture of my reflection in the mirror!"

Getting Out

2011-01-13T22:24:00.001-08:00

We've been a little out-of-characteristically housebound this week. Gloomy weather and the sickies had us pretty huddled and cuddled in the den. Yesterday the weather turned and today we were able to get out and feel the warm sun and breathe the fresh air. YEAH!!!

Alex climbed a tree.

Gregorie climbed a ladder. And posed for me.

There is new growth everywhere.

And old -- this darn ash tree still hasn't lost its leaves!

And I still haven't cooked up/taken down the Fall decorations!

Spring is coming -- time to lose the pumpkins!

APAD -- He always makes me smile

2011-01-12T22:48:00.000-08:00

I'm a hypocrite, but I like myself anyway

2011-01-11T22:03:00.000-08:00

First of all, and this has nothing to do with being a hypocrite, just an administrative matter, if you will -- I'm dropping the APAD prefix for a regular daily post that includes a picture/pictures. If I am not writing a post and am just keeping up on the pictures, I'll title the post APAD -- . I don't know why I'm telling you all this -- I'm sure you don't care! Back to the point of the post...

Just yesterday I was talking with a friend about grocery budgets and spending on food generally. I commented that we rarely eat out anymore since I just don't find most restaurant food appealing -- I have become a complete snob about the ingredients in my food and the source of those ingredients, let alone the manner of preparation. Well, this morning the little, formerly-sick Bubbles woke up and wanted potstickers. They begged and begged to go out for Chinese food for lunch. I was happy to see their appetites had returned so I obliged. And we enjoyed the food. When I went to pay, I realized that I had forgotten my wallet at home (I had put it in my farmers market sack

and then set it on the counter when I emptied the sack and it never found its way back to my handbag).

[Total aside, the wallet was a Christmas gift from Alex -- her school had a market where the kids could pick gifts -- she bought a ball game for Gregorie, a cashmere scarf for her dad and this wallet for me. I was very proud of her choices.]

Humble and embarrassed, I explained to our waiter, who was lovely. And trusting. He said to come back to pay whenever we could in the next couple days. Already a hypocrite I couldn't also bear being a freeloader/dine-and-dasher as well, so we drove home and then back over the hill to pay the bill. Yes, the family who tries to limit drives over the hill to twice or three times a week. Twice a hypocrite, I guess.

After paying the bill I decided to hit Home Depot (I won't even touch on the hypocrisy involved with shopping at a big box retailer, hussssshhhhhh) because they had storage boxes on sale and I needed one for the girls Barbies (sssshhhhhh). While looking at the boxes and comparing quart and gallon capacities (I can multiply and divide by 4 easily enough but why is there not a standard for labeling these things?), I turned and saw that the tiles I wanted for the kitchen backsplash were on clearance, discontinued.

Good news, $3 a square foot cheaper, bad news, not going to be in stock much longer. I stacked the heavy boxes into the cart and headed with the salmon-colored 20-gallon box to check out. We paid -- yes, we still had the wallet -- and went to the car. I loaded the heavy tiles into the back of the UNlocked Volvo and set my purse on top of them while I pulled the girls out of the cart. I shut the hatch and went to return the cart and realized that the Volvo had automatically locked itself. With my handbag inside. With my key inside my handbag. With my key and my phone and my wallet inside my handbag. Embarrassed again, I took the girls' hands and led them back into the HD and asked to use the phone. I was clearly not the first person to ask this -- the woman nodded towards the phone before I got the words "in my car" out of my mouth. I called my home-sick-in-bed husband and explained. Explained that he had to drive over the hill and bring me a key. Yeah. Another car, truck actually, over the hill...

But all this is a preface to the true hypocrisy I wanted to discuss. Alex turned six on Dec 22. You may know that she made a nice "wish list" this year for her birthday and Christmas.

I was impressed with her list and tried to accommodate it. I didn't stop to think long about "bow and arrow" or what that "meant" -- I just thought, "Wow, what an original list!" (I did nix the swan.) And I looked for a bow and arrow. I found a "cool" all wooden one made in France, that used the actual flexing of the bow, rather than an elastic string, to propel the, suction-cup-tipped, arrow.

It came in a simple cardboard box with no extra packaging - -the assembly instructions were even printed right on the inside of the box (in French) and the front and the back of the box were cut-outs of two different targets.

And I think that that's when it hit me -- when I saw the targets. Targets. Things you aim at. Things you SHOOT at. Yeah, uh, duh. It's a bow and arrow! It shoots. It's a "weapon" (okay it's not -- it has suction cup tips). But it is. It's a toy weapon. A shooting toy. I would never (okay I'm thinking maybe I should never say never) buy my kids a toy gun. Not even a water pistol. And yet I didn't pause a second, I never even THOUGHT, about buying the bow and arrow. And I wonder why.

Is it because I think archery is a "reputable" sport (and range shooting with a rifle or pistol is not?). I'm now wondering about things like swords (not the feather sword -- yeah, Wiggles, I know -- they have had for years that I let them use a part of a pirate costume) but more about epees and the like. Would I let them fence? What about karate or tae kwon do or judo? I am a dedicated pacifist. But I'm feeling confused. I am a carnivorous pacifist. One who actually believes that the ultimate free range animal is one living in the wild. And that humans are supposed to eat animals but that they are also supposed to respect them and treat them fairly and not waste them unnecessarily. And I do think that hunting with a bow and arrow is way "fairer" than hunting with a rifle! And maybe that's my answer. Or at least one that will let me sleep tonight.

APAD -- Sick Day

2011-01-10T23:51:00.000-08:00

Today was Alex's first day-home-from-school-sick. We don't do sick often in this house and I'm not ever sure of the protocol -- we just generally find a lot of time to snuggle and sleep, leave routines by the wayside, and focus on the healing power of love.

In their 10.5 collective years of existence the girls have each been to the doc once for something other than a well-child visit: Alex had roseola at 10 months; Gregorie had something non-specific at some point; we took her in, the doc checked her ears, clear; he checked her all over, nothing; he returned to her ears and declared she had an ear infection -- hmm, they were clear a moment ago? He prescribed antibiotics and she never took them and was well within a couple days. Who knows what she had -- something like what they all (Gregg is down too) have now. Gregorie started on Thursday with whatever-this-is -- I'm guessing a virus -- there are no symptoms other than a need to sleep and a fever, no appetite and very little energy. Gregorie has been cooling down, regaining her appetite and her energy. Today she played with her Mobigo and her Monkey Bunny:

And felt well enough to do a photo session in the kitchen. She took this nice fuzzy picture of me:

Then she took some time to re-adjust and re-focus, on her scarf:

And then she chopped my head off. The kitchen looks good though.

Alex was fine until yesterday; then she too got hot and sleepy. Gregorie tried to keep her company.

Gregg took the truck in for repairs and then went for a bike ride and then Whatever hit him too -- not much fever but sleepy and no appetite.

Gregorie doesn't want you to think she feels TOO well.

No, really.

It's just awful, she needs kisses.

And poor, hot Alex. Her fever hit 105 (according to my yogurt thermometer) but she's cooler now. I know her body is healing her.

They both sleep.

And the moon smiles at us.

APAD -- And a year ago today

2011-01-09T21:26:00.000-08:00

I didn't get the camera out today -- busy with bread baking, stock making, stew cooking, garden planning, chicken coop designing, and girl-get-away scheming. So, today's picture is from a Facebook theme I've been doing -- a year ago today. We were on the Rio San Juan, Nicaragua. This was a magical place. Funny, when I was planning the trip, this place called to me but also gave me nightmares -- our balcony DID overhang the very fast moving river! I lectured and lectured the girls and the only things that ever fell in were some Crocs -- one from each girl! Gregg saved them both, in a kayak.

APAD (yeah, I know it's after midnight!)

2011-01-09T00:57:00.000-08:00

And I'm sharing more than one picture, of more than one thing!

First, silly Gregorie

before she and I head out to check out the winter garden happenings. We find:

Parsley:

and strawberry plants:

and carrots:

And pansies in bloom:

Garlic:

and onions:

And lemons:

Please don't pick the lemons!!!

Okay, Ma!

The family in the lane:

Home, sweet home.

APAD (a picture a day): Meet Crystal and Goldie

2011-01-07T17:54:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

2011-01-07T01:13:00.000-08:00

I"m behind on posts -- I have snow pictures and Christmas pictures and funny tales and my resolves and all sorts of good stuff from the last month to share, but tonight I'm starting with this.

This is a Grapevine sky. And it is my picture of the day. My dear friend Jenni made a resolution to post a picture a day on her blog and it seemed a good idea to me. Pictures inspire words and my blog needs more words, more thoughts, more time. More commitment. So, I'm starting here. I'm sure I'll blow this -- but it's not MY resolution!

Anyway, it's cool to see snow on these mountains -- just over an hour from "home".

Home is just where...

I have inspired thoughts on that topic in old journal that I can't find. I should resolve to find it.

For now, good night. And I owe you 6 pictures.

She Ain't Heavy

2010-12-03T13:03:00.001-08:00

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

A new friend

2010-11-13T22:47:00.001-08:00

[to come]

Final Harvest

2010-11-06T21:12:00.000-07:00

O Autumn, laden with fruit, and stained
With the blood of the grape, pass not, but sit
Beneath my shady roof; there thou may'st rest,
And tune thy jolly voice to my fresh pipe;
And all the daughters of the year shall dance!
Sing now the lusty song of fruit and flowers.
- William Blake, To Autumn, 1783

This bowl holds at least 6 quarts of mostly green cherry tomatoes! There are a few ripe ones and maybe a quart of tomatillos buried in there. I'm thinking bite size dill tomatoes..

The rodents left behind a few grapes -- I ate this lovely bunch today -- a refreshing snack while I toiled in the garden beds.

Alex LOVES worms. She helped Gregg turn over the compost heap and found handfuls. She pulled out this unlucky specimen to play with for a while before she returned him to his eating grounds.

"There is an appointed time for everything.
And there is a time for every event under heaven -
A time to give birth, and a time to die;
A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted."
- Ecclesiastes, 3:1-2

Today was the day of uprooting here in the tomato bed and in Bed of Chaos.

Most of the upper beds have been cleared for winter planting.

There are still some potatoes to dig:

I left behind a few pepper plants and eggplant plants -- with hopes fading as fast as the autumn sun.

And the blackberry has spread onto the tipis.

And then, of course, there is a time to plant again.

Gregg turned the soil in the beds over and now we'll add manure and compost to make a clean canvas on which to repaint the glory of a garden!

I can't wait for fresh seedlings and the start of another cycle.

Can't we all just get along?

2010-10-22T23:05:00.000-07:00

There is a blog post that goes with this title/picture -- it will follow -- check back later.

A Fall Garden

2010-10-18T15:11:00.000-07:00

On this rainy, gloomy day, Gregorie and I went out to check the sprouting in the lower beds.

We found peas:

And carrots:

And calendula:

Gregorie checked out the chard and the little lettuce and kale seedlings:

We also found some late planted tomatoes just starting to fruit:

Up above, the old tomato vines are still producing -- we just need some sunshine to ripen things up!

Even the pumpkin is needing some sun.

The tomatillos are still going mad.

All in all, not a bad haul, for a day in Fall:

Keepin' cool!

2010-09-29T21:38:00.000-07:00

My garden is "for the birds"

2010-09-28T22:00:00.000-07:00

As I was typing the title, which seemed somewhat an obvious name, I had the question of "what does that phrase TRULY mean"? I looked into it. The first thing I found disappointed.

Meaning

Trivial; worthless; only of interest to gullible people.

This phrase is of American origin and, while still in use there, has never been commonly used elsewhere. It is US Army slang and originated towards the end of WWII. An early example of its use is this piece from The Lowell Sun, October 1944, in an interview with a Sergt. Buck Erickson, of Camp Ellis, Illinois:

"Don't take too seriously this belief that we have football at Camp Ellis solely for the entertainment of the personnel - that's strictly for the birds. The army is a winner... the army likes to win - that's the most fortunate thing in the world for America."

'Strictly' is frequently used as an intensifier, as in the example above.

'That's for the birds' is a shortened form of the vulgar version 'that's shit for the birds'. That suggests the derivation of the phrase which is the habit of some birds of pecking at horse droppings (a.k.a. road apples) in order to find seeds. Both versions were defined in an edition ofAmerican Speech from 1944:

That's for the birds. It's meaningless
Shit for the birds. Nonsense, drivel, irrelevant matter.

This held no appeal to the poet in me. So I searched some more. And came across this site which offered up this quote from the Bible (now you all know I am not a religious sort, but dang, this is some fine poetry!):

Isaiah 18:4 For this is what the Lord has told me: “I will wait and watch from my place, like scorching heat produced by the sunlight, like a cloud of mist in the heat of harvest.” 18:5 For before the harvest, when the bud has sprouted, and the ripening fruit appears, he will cut off the unproductive shoots with pruning knives; he will prune the tendrils. 18:6 They will all be left for the birds of the hills and the wild animals; the birds will eat them during the summer, and all the wild animals will eat them during the winter.

This makes sense to me, makes sense in my garden. Here are my birds (and my bees and my apples....)

This is only about half the pictures I had to share -- for some reason blogger thinks I don't have a license to load my own photos...

The refrigerator

2010-09-23T21:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday on Facebook, Nourished Kitchen asked her readers to flash a picture of their refrigerators full of nourishing foods.

So I obliged!

I posted links to these old posts:

Today's Farmers Market Bounty

and

What We Eat

I also linked to this post, with a picture of my refrigerator today.

And I added a picture of the pantry, because I am proud of how full it's getting!

Life through their eyes

2010-09-22T21:40:00.000-07:00

The last couple days I have been busy in the kitchen -- canning and baking and generally just cookin'! I have really been enjoying it and will share some pictures of my projects in another post. I have also been enjoying my girls entertaining themselves and freeing my hands for the food (well, Alex is now away more than half the day and during those hours Gregorie tags along but is generally helpful instead of handful). Each of them has taken a turn with the camera. Monday evening it was Alex who got ahold of it -- unfortunately (or fortunately perhaps) she turned the dial to a slow shutter setting.
Here she captures her sister mid-jump and her daddy grilling salmon.

This picture of the sunflowers creates a watercolor effect (at least on my computer - I think it gets lost on blogger).

And here she photographs something she sees me photograph all the time -- the famous tomato bed!

I hope the fuzzy pictures haven't given you all a headache.

Gregorie took her turn yesterday while I was making zucchini muffins and canning chow chow relish.

This is the kitchen skylight reflected in the granite countertop. I love that you can see our oak trees.

The jars of relish filled and awaiting their lids.

The relish, up close and personal!

Water bath is coming to a boil and I'm preparing to grate zucchini.

Gregorie was thrilled with this shot - she loved how it came out red (and I have no idea how it did)!

She took about 100 pictures of the muffin pans -- this one also came out red!

Nice view out the back window here.

A rare shot of ME!

And my hands!

These are some other photos taken by Alex in the last couple weeks.

My friend Holly keeps me company as I can tomatoes. Gregorie wears her princess wig.

The tomatoes boil.

Flowers at the U-pick farm .

I love the world they see - it is full of color and action and happiness. They find it exciting and interesting and brilliant. I like to take time to reflect on their perspective -- both so I can know them better and so that I can experience more of this beautiful life.

Through a child's eyes...

My own garden of Eden

2010-09-20T22:47:00.000-07:00

Today I posted to Facebook the following:

[Mrs. Bubble] has the yogurt culturing in the sun, the milk for the ricotta heating on the stove, the jars for canning sterilizing in the dishwasher, the veggies for pickled peppers and chow chow relish icing in the sink... Think I'll head out to the garden and do some Fall planting while I wait for the jars (oh, better get the milk off the stove first!).

A friend of mine from high school (shhhh, it's been more than 25 years...) commented and asked me this:

[Mrs. Bubble], do you have a full time paying job outside of your home??? How do you do all this cooking, planting, baking, canning????

I love the question. And I love the answer. NOOOOOO Blissfully, happily, fortunately, wonderfully, thankfully, OMG, NO! I have not worked outside the home(stead-to-be) for two full years now. Mr. Bubble has not for almost six years. There was "that time" when I worked in corporate chaos and Mr. Bubble stayed home with the girls. I am ever grateful that we were able to have a full-time parent at home and pay our mortgage (here in LA County) and I try to console myself that my stint doing something-I-so-don't-believe-in doesn't mean I'm morally bankrupt. I did something I was, right or wrong, good at. And there were fruits.

But now, we, or I, have taken a GOOD LONG DEEP BREATH. And I have dedicated myself and my family to finding a sustainable, sustaining path. We are working on becoming self-sufficient. We will probably never quite get there. But we choose as our model the family life that prevailed before WWII. The war era marks the time when men (and lots of women) first left the homestead to find work in factories and offices to buy food they didn't grow, to pay for houses they rarely spent time in, to provide for children that others took care of. I am not being judgmental -- I understand the economics of modern living. And I also understand the insufficiency, the under-appreciated-ness, the Stepford-ness, the what-some-would-call drudgery that can characterize being a stay at home mom. I have been a career woman. A career mom. I get it. But I'm over it. And I march proudly back into the garden. With my naked, un-preschooled "preschooler" in tow!

What we are planting for Fall.

Daddy's strawberry arbutus looks great!

Down in the Bed of Chaos, pumpkins are ripening...

Eggplant are growing

This pumpkin first appeared on the scene last week -- look how fast it has grown!

The tomatillos are producing like mad (can they talk to the tomatoes?????)

My blackberries are few, but LARGE!

Some dang animal got this - the first really big ripe tomato for a while!

Tomatoes are ripening again!!!!

As I walk through the beds, I put little treasures in my pocket!

Oh, this is my NEWEST pumpkin! We'll check on it in a week!

So do you ever, in your garden, just look up and say, "I have never looked at this angle before! Wow! That is good!"? Yeah, this was me today!

Another "ahah" moment today! My onion seeds have sprouted!

My rainbow chard always makes me happy!

And this little yellow zinnia is so cute.

But mostly, these days, with Alex in school, I have "Eve" and her (my) garden!

Mr. Bubble comes home.

The figs grow.

Talk to my tomatoes

2010-09-15T21:37:00.000-07:00

It's mid-September. My pumpkins are orange. My 5-year old is in school. Nights are COLD. Fall could be upon us. But I hope not. Look at my luscious tomato plants. Tell them they CAN make more ripe tomatoes! They can they can they can!

The lower beds are prepped for Fall planting.

I love this photo, even with its foreground overexposed -- it says "peace" to me and is of the area which is planned for my chicken coop and maybe my goat house.

This picture isn't as pretty but might give a better view of the space for those animals!

This is another nice angle to gaze upon from my lower beds.

Chive flowers and oak trees catch the sun.

So does the dawn redwood.

And the geranium bloom.

And the bird of paradise leaf.

And here is one of those orange pumpkins.

Poodle's First Day of School

2010-09-13T21:29:00.000-07:00

Today Bubble #1 went to kindergarten. Forgive the photo quality -- some of the worst pictures I have ever taken -- maybe it was the excitement of the moment!

Speaking of excitement!

I can be serious, really.

Sister lends a hand.

I'm ready!

Down the garden path.

Okay, maybe I'm not SO ready!

We're REALLY doing this?

I'm not sure at all.

Okay, maybe.

I'll try.

Gregorie says, "I am not going to school this year, I am not going to school next year. I am NOT GOING TO SCHOOL EVER!" Sure. Whistling a different tune by the time sister comes home! (BTW, when Greggie saw this picture she said, "I should NOT have worn those boots with those pants. That just did NOT look good." Well, I thought she looked cute.)

Trying...

Ahh! Friends!!!!

But do I really, really have to do this?????

In I go.

It's all good. Mr. Harrell is OKay!

That was a GOOD day!

This school is cool!

old and unshared

2010-09-08T23:34:00.000-07:00

better days' harvests

an artful life

and a constructive life

and thoughtful

and back to artful

pickles

and lacto fermented tomatillo salsa

and escabeche

roasted pepper and tomato salsa

a princess

or two

and back to art

and a heartbreak face

for our whole family tree!

i thought that maybe

2010-09-08T23:07:00.000-07:00

if i opened a new post window and started to type, added some pictures, words would come

i also thought that my 5-year old would be asleep an hour ago.

and the two mis-notions are not even related. or they are.

you can color today's harvest green -- tomatillos, green zebras, and one funky little green melon that I'm sure is ripe because her fragrance has scented my entire kitchen. but this is a measly little harvest for a day in september.

there is still plenty to come

figs

more tomatillos

(hopefully more tomatoes though they seem to be taking a break)

pumpkins

whatever this is (i'm hoping butternut squash, thinking late pumpkin)

more blackberries

and all sorts of fall stuff -- carrots that are finally sprouting, beans that I just put in, lettuce and spinach to come... who knows, the weather is so weird!