Everyday's a Hilladay

I Want to Fly!

2009-07-16T19:40:00.005-04:00

The eggs have hatched, a couple of weeks have passed, and now it's time for baby bluebirds to leave the nest. I watched them getting the courage up to fledge. The mama kept them in for one more day. Once they're out of the nest, they don't come back to it. They will still need her to feed them. It will take the babies a while before they figure out how to feed themselves, but they will be up in the trees and flying around like grown up birds.

The day after this video was shot, they left the nest. I didn't get to see it. They must have gone first light, before anyone is awake. I didn't see them for a couple days, but I could hear bluebird sounds out in the back woods. Then today, the mama came looking for worms on the feeding station. It's a lot of work feeding all these babies and I guess she could use some help.

Bluebirds Fly from Jen Hill on Vimeo.

I highly recommend viewing the HD version. If you would like to see it in HD click here.

Say Hello to My Little Blue Friend

2009-06-29T16:10:00.005-04:00

I had kind of given up on the bluebirds, since they didn't nest here last summer and I had only seen one or two stop by on a visit this summer. I figured they must not see this as a good place to raise their young. Sure I had a visit on Thanksgiving of all days from a few male bluebirds passing through. They landed on the nesting box for a few minutes and went on their way.

So a few weeks ago, a male and female bluebird with three babies in tow decided to come live in our yard. They showed up one day and we quickly got some meal worms at the local pet shop to feed them. They liked that treatment I guess, and decided to stay. After a few days the female, I call her Mama, started making a nest in the box.

So they've been hanging out here and I got some up close video of Daddy blue. There's a short clip of Daddy and Mama together but she soon busied herself with other things.

I uploaded a new HD video to vimeo today. You can press the play button to watch it from within this window.

Bluebirds Close Up from Jen Hill on Vimeo.

You can also click the enlarge icon on the lower right hand corner to make it full screen.

I highly recommend viewing the HD version. If you would like to see it in HD click here.

Year of the Toad

2009-06-13T15:55:00.006-04:00

Right after I posted about Mr. Toad, I met up with Toad Jr. on the back patio. He was doing well to camouflage himself amongst the plants and bluestone, but Clarence cat cannot be fooled. I notice him noticing the toad and that's what alerted me to him. He's about a third of the size of the window well toad. At the time, I was potting up some plants there on the patio and he kept moving to get away from me as I moved about. He ended up feeling safe on a plastic tray I use to move my seedlings around. He hid among my pepper plants which had not yet been planted.

Later that evening, I went out to move my pepper and eggplants to a safe (read deer free) spot for the night. As I placed my fingers around the edges of the tray, I felt toad. Yes, I touched toad, in the dark, where I could barely make him out, but I knew what it was that I was touching. They're very delicate creatures. They kind of feel like the soft flesh and bone on the back of your hand. So I moved my plants and went inside and told hubby, "Hon! I touched toad!"

Since meeting up with Toad Jr. I've met up with small toads three more times, today being the most recent. Two of them were on the outside of my vegetable garden. One was hopping against the hardware cloth at the bottom. I helped him get inside and placed him in the garden near a tomato plant and a toad house I set up for him (a rock piled on top of some bricks). I could use his help with the insects, which I pretty much feel helpless against, since I don't want to use anything that would hurt a bee.

Toads are indeed delicate creatures. They're greatly affected by the air and water quality. They absorb moisture readily through their skin (as do we by the way). A toxic environment would not suit a toad at all. So I'm taking it as a good sign that I have so many visible toads this year. Soon the plants in the garden will be big and beefy and packed with great hiding places for my toad friends. I'll enjoy them while I can.

Mr. Toad

2009-05-29T14:45:00.009-04:00

Every spring when I go out to the vegetable garden and start tilling the soil for planting, inevitably, I find a toad. Usually, it is hopping for it's life trying to get away from me. Of course I feel bad for frightening the poor thing. I'd like for him to stay and eat all the bugs he can handle, but alas I never really see him again after that. I guess garden toads just don't like people.

House toads, however, don't mind people. In the window well of one of my basement windows we have a toad tenant. He's been there for a few years now. I usually only see him when it rains and he comes out from hiding under the leaves that have collected down in the well. I've left the leaves there so as to not disturb his little home. Often I see only the tip of his snout (nose? what do toads have?) sticking out of the leaves. A sapling has started to grow in there too and I think it's just the cutest thing. He has the perfect toad set up.

This past week, we started painting the exterior of the house. I took extra caution to cover Mr. Toad's window well with a big thick tarp so he wouldn't get any paint on him or the leaves. Then I recalled in one of my gardening books, some advice about toads. It said to leave a dish of clean water. They like to sit in it and absorb the water through their skin. So I got a small toad sized cup, filled it with clean water, and reached down into the window well, put it on the windowsill for Mr. Toad and went about my business. I noticed later that he was sitting by it, facing it. Perhaps he was pondering if he would fit inside, or just how he would get in there.

Yesterday was a rainy day and hubby and I decided to do some woodworking in our shop in the basement. We have a sink under the window of Mr. Toad's home. I looked up to see him in the dish of water outside the window. For some reason, it struck me as adorable, so I had to go outside and get his picture. He fits perfectly in the cup of water. He stayed there all day. His toes must have gotten pruney as he finally decided to get out late in the afternoon and sit on the windowsill next to the cup of water. Ah, the life of a toad...

More Richter Park Photos

2008-11-09T15:48:00.005-05:00

I thought I'd share some more of my Richter Park Golf Course photos. These are some of my favorites. You'll notice, it's doesn't look very golf course-ish in these photos. These photos exclude the greens for the most part, although I did photograph the greens as well. I'm lucky to live in such a pretty neighborhood.

This is the very right edge of the putting green on the 3rd hole.

A view of the West Lake Reservoir through the trees along the edge of the 7th Hole.

Boggs Pond behind the 13th Tee Box.

Swans on West Lake Reservoir by the 7th Hole Red Tees.

Looking towards Middle River Road.

Trees along 2nd Hole.

Lit up trees along 2nd Hole.

New Banner

2008-11-09T15:10:00.006-05:00

Today I decided that it was time for a new blog banner. This summer and fall, I've been working on a little photography project for the local golf course, Richter Park. I decided to make my new banner one of my panoramas that I shot at Richter. It was the peak of the fall season and a beautiful day when I shot this back in October.

Click here to see an enlarged version.

Bee & Artichoke

2008-08-14T11:58:00.005-04:00

Bumble Bee on an Artichoke flower.

I sort of lost track of my artichokes and missed my opportunity for harvesting a few of them. They went to flower. No matter though, the bees love a nice big artichoke flower. I spent a few minutes watching a bumble bee explore this artichoke flower in the morning sunshine.

A few other visitors came by while he was at it. Another smaller bee, a long horn bee, was sort of bothering the bumble bee. He kept landing on the bumble bee. Not sure why he was doing that.

A long horn bee pestering a bumble bee on an artichoke flower.

I uploaded a new HD video to vimeo today. You can press the play button to watch it from within this window.

Bee & Artichoke from Jen Hill on Vimeo.

You can also click the enlarge icon on the lower right hand corner to make it full screen.

If you would like to see the video in HD, click here. I highly recommend viewing the HD version.

Rainbows

2008-07-13T17:04:00.005-04:00

Raise your hand if you've ever seen a rainbow. I haven't seen many. To tell you the truth I don't really remember seeing them until recent years. Seems since I met my hubby, I've seen a lot more rainbows. I mean the real kind, that are up there in the sky. Sure, I can make my own rainbow any sunny day with a garden hose. But I'm talking about the magical visions that conjure fairy tales. Maybe the reason I see them more now, is that I believe I'll see a rainbow... if I look for it. Whenever there's a sun shower, I go out and look for the sun, turn my back to it and scan the sky for a rainbow.

July 1, I think I saw the best rainbow ever. It was early evening and there was a thunderstorm. We've been having a lot of those around here lately. Hubby and I went out to pick up some take out for dinner. Then, there it was a rainbow. Hungry as I was, I wanted that picture more than dinner. I said aloud, "I wish I had my camera. I want to go up to the golf course and photograph that rainbow." With that, Hubby turned the car around, brought me home, where I ran into the house and grabbed my camera. We rushed up to the course. I hopped out of the car and started shooting away. Below is the resulting shot. If you look carefully, there is a faint second rainbow to the left of the predominant one.

July 1 a late day thunderstorm brought us a rainbow.

This bowl of veggies is colorful, even if not quite a rainbow. Things have been a bit delayed this year. We had a cold May and too much rain (and clouds that go with it) in June. Finally, finally July is giving us some sunny weather. Maybe that July 1st rainbow was a omen of good things to come.

Today I picked a couple handfuls of Dragon Tongue snap beans, Red Swan snap beans, a yellow zucchini, 2 Sungold tomatoes (2nd & 3rd to ripen so far!), and one baby Fooled You Jalapeno pepper.

A couple days ago I picked this pair of Cue Ball zucchinis. Aren't they cute? They look like little mint green pumpkins to me.

Peas and carrots on July 8th. These went into a salad and it was delicious.

A baby eggplant forming. It won't be long now. All we need is some tomatoes!

Great Garlic Scapes

2008-07-08T09:27:00.006-04:00

Garlic Scapes are pretty and unique.

One of my favorite things to grow is garlic. You plant the cloves in the fall and then there they are in the spring. Green leaves poking through the soil. Doesn't get much easier than that. After the leaves grow big and tall, a stalk emerges from the center of the leaves. This is the garlic scape. It curls around in a loop. If you leave it alone, it will eventually straighten out and a flower will open atop the stalk.

Garlic Scape Harvest. This is half of my garlic scapes.

Since I grow garlic for the bulb that grows beneath the soil, not the flowers, I cut the scape off. Conventional wisdom says the plant will direct it's energy to increasing the bulb size if you cut the scape off. And guess what? They're edible! Yup, and they taste like garlic. So what does one do with garlic scapes? Some people make pesto, some make soup, and some like to stir fry them with other veggies.

Freshly pureed Garlic Scape Pesto. What can we do with this?

I made a garlic scape pesto. Extremely easy to do. Versatile too. Here's the recipe:

Garlic Scape Pesto

1 Cup grated Parmesan Cheese
3 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. lemon zest
1/4 lb. garlic scapes
1/2 Cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt to taste

Cut the garlic scapes into 2-3 inch pieces. Puree in the food processor. Add Parmesan cheese, lemon juice and zest and pulse a few times. Add the olive oil while the food processor runs and continue to let it run until the oil is thoroughly combined. Add salt to taste.

This can be stored in an air tight container in the refrigerator.

It's very garlicy, as in raw garlic, and very green. You can use it as is tossed with pasta. The raw pesto tastes a little bit too raw for me, so I experimented with a few uses I could think of for the pesto. First night was on spaghetti in the raw state.

After the spaghetti, Hubby went away for a few days on a business trip, so I only had myself to experiment on. I made garlic scape pesto grilled chicken. I slathered the chicken breast heavily with the pesto, then cooked it on the grill. With that, I made garlic scape pesto twice baked potatoes. Bake a potato, slice in half, scoop out the insides, mix with sour cream, garlic scape pesto, and stuff it back in the potato skin. Top with parmesan cheese and heat on the grill till it looks toasty.

Garlic Scape Pesto Grilled Chicken & Twice Baked Potato

Still had a lot of garlic scapes left. Next I made garlic scape soup. Here's the recipe:

Garlic Scape Soup

3 Cups Garlic Scapes cut into 2-3 inch pieces
1 medium onion chopped
1 Tbsp. Olive Oil
1 tsp. dried ground thyme
3 Cups chicken broth (vegetable stock can be substituted)
1 Cup Light Cream
Salt and Pepper to taste

Saute the garlic scapes and onion in olive oil over medium heat until vegetables are soft. This takes a while and your onion will get nicely caramelized. Add thyme and cook one minute more, stirring to coat all the vegetables. Let cool. Puree vegetables in food processor, with about a cup of the chicken stock, until smooth. Put it back in the soup pot, add the remaining chicken broth and heat up. Warm up the cream and stir in to the mixture. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Garlic Scape Soup.

Time Traveling

2008-06-24T12:21:00.006-04:00

Maybe you've been wondering where I've been. I haven't posted in a while. Did I get swallowed up by a black hole? Did I fall off the face of the earth? Nope. Just time traveling. See I've been to the future. I didn't even realize that was what happened. But it's obvious that it's tomorrow for me. Look at the newspaper's date.

I couldn't believe it myself at first. It started out as an ordinary day. Breakfast, shower, etc. Went out to check the garden. Wandered over to the mailbox and grabbed today's paper. Wednesday, June 25... Wednesday, June 25??? How could this be? I got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. "Today is Tuesday," I told myself. "It has to be because yesterday was Monday. Yes it was." But how could I dispute, there it was in black and white! Everyone knows newspapers don't lie, right?

My evidence! I'm a time traveler!

June Flowers

2008-06-06T18:05:00.013-04:00

I'll always post still pictures, but sometimes it's fun to do video. I'm tired of the poor quality of youtube. I guess I can't complain since it's free. But I decided to try something new. I uploaded an HD video to vimeo today. You can press the play button to watch it from within this window, but you can also click the enlarge icon on the lower right hand corner to make it full screen.

If you would like to see the video in HD, click here. I highly recommend viewing the HD version.

In this video you will see peonies, irises, columbine, and alliums. Here is the video! Hope you enjoy it. June is a great time for flowers.

Hilladay's Flowers June 2008 from Jen on Vimeo.

Bird & Bee

2008-05-23T16:51:00.010-04:00

I like bees. We do have a variety of bees around here. I think this one is a carpenter bee. Funny thing, I was googling carpenter bee and almost every site that came up had to do with getting rid of them. Pretty much everything I skimmed over said to use pesticides. I don't want to get rid of my bees. I just wanted some information. What I found out is that carpenter bees, as I would have guessed, excavate hollows in wood to nest. They do not consume the wood. Carpenter bees feed on pollen and nectar, as evidenced in the photos below. They are important pollinators. Here are two photos of a bee enjoying my strawberry patch. We've got a bumper crop of strawberry flowers this year. I can hardly wait for those berries. It won't be long now.

People, please don't use pesticides indiscriminately. We need our bees. They pollinate our food crops. It would be hard for us to eat without them.

We can also thank our hummingbird friends for pollinating things. Like the bee, they feed on nectar too. They also eat many insects. I don't think I'd ever get tired of watching these tiny, amazing birds hover around the garden sticking their needle shaped bills into flowers. These tiny guys are only about 3 inches tall and about 3 grams in weight. They consume twice their body weight each day. It takes a lot of energy to buzz around the garden like that. During one of those rainy days this week, I got some video of a hummer taking a rest on the garden fence. It was raining, but it didn't seem to bother her.

Press the arrow icon in the image below to start the video.

Dogwood Time

2008-05-23T14:25:00.003-04:00

Okay, so I'm just a tiny bit behind with my dogwood pictures, but they're so pretty, I wanted to share some pictures late as they may be. Every spring, I take pictures of our two dogwood trees. Even though they have "dog" in the name, they are Henry cat's favorite climbing trees. Their trunks are just the right circumference for wrapping his paws around and propelling himself up.

CSI: My Eggy

2008-05-18T14:56:00.006-04:00

Everything seemed to be going fine with the Chickadees. The mama was spending her days in the nesting box. The daddy watched from nearby and brought mama food when she needed it. He would fly over and land on the front of the box. She would stick her head out and take the food from his beak.

Before we thought mama was sitting on her eggs, we took a peek inside of the nesting box. She had added lots of soft fur. Some of it may even have been Clarence's fur that we set out after brushing him one day. There was also an egg. Only one that I could see. But there could have been more. Chickadees will sometimes cover over the eggs before leaving the nest and they're very tiny eggs at that.

April 26, we opened the box to find an egg in the nest.

I did happen to see a tussle of birds around the nest box on May 10. It was over very quickly and the participants few away quickly. It was hard to tell what happened.

A few days passed and I hadn't seen the chickadees around. They're much less conspicuous than the bluebirds were, but I did usually see them at least once during the day. Then I heard first and then saw a wren. They have a very distinctive song. The wren went into the chickadee box. I ran outside and the wren flew away yelling at me as he went. I went over to the the nesting box and listened. I didn't hear anything. I scratched at the box lightly... nothing. I knocked a little louder... not a peep. I went inside and tried to go back to work. But I just couldn't get it out of my head that something was wrong. I got my dentist mirror and went back out to the box. Poked the mirror inside and all I saw was an empty nest. No mama. No eggs. No babies either. Disappointment.

When Hubby came home, we went out, opened the nesting box together, and investigated the crime scene. We confirmed what I already knew. The wren's had tossed out the chickadees. I found egg shells on the ground. One was mostly still intact, with the wren's peck mark still apparent.

May 13, egg shells on the ground, with the telltale wren peck hole.

Wren's are aggressive, territorial birds. They are native birds and it is illegal to hurt them. Click here to read more about wrens. They are extremely prolific birds. They do not peck the other birds eggs out of necessity. More likely is that they have a nest somewhere in the vicinity and it is their way to claim all nesting sites for themselves whether or not they use it. Many times, they build "dummy nests", piles of sticks that fill a nesting cavity so as to keep out other would be occupants.

I opened the nesting box door and left it open. Since no one is nesting there now, I will leave the door open for a while. This will keep the wrens from using the box or filling it with a dummy nest.

Days like this make me wonder, why does nature have to be this way? It's not easy being a bird, that's for sure.

Happy Mother's Day

2008-05-11T18:01:00.003-04:00

To the mothers out there, Happy Mother's Day. Here is a bouquet that I cut this morning. It consists of some of the last daffodils, the first Irises, and some newly emerged ferns, not fully ferned out yet.

The bouquet probably could have used a few more flowers, but I somehow feel bad to cut too many. I think they may just last longer if I don't cut them and leave them outside. That's my unscientific thinking. For all I know, the opposite may be true.

Lovely Spring

2008-04-30T14:20:00.004-04:00

You really can't beat a beautiful spring day. There's nothing like a couple of rainy days to make you appreciate it even more. Here are some pictures from yesterday, after the rain stopped.

As I was in the kitchen yesterday, something caught my eye out the window. Bleeding hearts! I had forgotten all about them. Three years ago, I planted some of these in my side yard. They bloomed and then immediately got eaten by deer. I gave up on them after that. I figured they wouldn't return because they had been defoliated so early in their young lives. Well, they're back. I plan to transplant them to my little side garden near the house soon, for better protection.

Love the Bleeding hearts, their blossoms look just like little dangling hearts. What's not to like? They also come in pink, red and with variations in blossom form.

Clarence likes them too. He wanted me to get his picture in front of the bleeding hearts. I mean, why else would he sit right in front of them while I'm taking a picture, right?

Daffodils! I love daffodils! They are so pretty, so happy, they come up early in spring, and bonus, one of the few things the deer won't eat! Hooray for daffodils! The Latin or botanical name for daffodils is Narcissus. Whichever you choose to call them, they are synonyms, either is correct, although the common name is Daffodil.

The funny thing about these two daffodils is that they were somewhat forgotten. I purchased them in the fall and put them on a shelf in my garage. I just never got around to planting them. During our mild winter, on a balmy day in January, I decided to plant them in the unfrozen ground. Well, better late than never, they flowered for me beautifully come spring. Daffodils store energy for flowering the previous growing season. They do need a chill time to signal to flower when it warms in the spring. Since they were stored in my cold, unheated garage, they got the chill they needed anyway. I'm not recommending planting your bulbs this way, but if you forget this fall, there's still a chance for them if you get them in the ground during the winter.

I sure do love a nice juicy peach. That's what I have on my mind when I look at my peach tree. It's so hard to get a good peach at the grocery store. Sometimes I buy a few and one will be good and the rest, not so good. I planted this Elberta peach a couple years ago. It's sure does want to produce for me. It's got blossoms all over it. However, the last two years, when it came time for the peaches to ripen, I was out of town! Not fair. It's so sad to find your peaches on the ground upon returning home. I have high hopes this year.

My Elberta Peach is looking better than ever.

April Asparagus

2008-04-30T11:20:00.006-04:00

Purple Passion Asparagus

Do not adjust your monitor. That's purple asparagus your looking at. Isn't it pretty? When I started my asparagus patch in the spring of 2006, I was delighted to find out that there was a purple asparagus! I had never seen purple asparagus before and didn't really know what to expect. Like most purple vegetables, it does turn green when cooked. Of course there's nothing that says you can't eat your asparagus raw, especially when it's freshly harvested from your own garden. It's so tender, if you do opt to cook it, it only needs a minute of cooking... seriously.

The first spears emerge in my garden the third week of April. We'll be harvesting into May. This is the first vegetable I get to eat from my garden in the spring. As I harvest the first few spears, we will only get a few here and there. So I cut them up and add them to a salad. That way we each get a taste of asparagus.

Most people have not seen what asparagus looks like as it grows in the garden. So I thought I'd share some pictures. The asparagus spears we eat are tender new shoots that emerge from the crowns below the surface.

Asparagus has a permanent home in my raised bed garden.

Asparagus is a hardy perennial. My favorite kind of veggie. I planted it once and it grows back each year. A well cared for asparagus patch can live for 25 to 30 years, or so I'm told. I'll have to wait a while to find out for myself. Most people plant one year old crowns purchased from a nursery, as I did (here's a good source for crowns, Nourse Farms). You can also start your own asparagus seeds, but you'll have to wait a couple years longer to harvest any spears. Conventional wisdom says you do not harvest any the first year after planting. All you get to do is look at them. This allows the plants to get established.

I'll admit, it was pretty hard not harvesting any spears the first year. I let all of the spears, fern out and grow to maturity the first year. Henry found it to be a nice place to take a shady nap. He would curl up under the ferns as I would work in the garden. He's looking pretty sleepy here. It's just about time to lay down for a nap.

Asparagus is not just for eating. Henry likes it as a cool summer spot.

The second spring, you may harvest 2 or 3 spears per plant (third spring if you're starting from seed). I think I harvested even less than that, cautious of over harvesting. I wanted my plants to get well established. The third spring, is the best because you can harvest any spears that have a diameter greater than 3/8 of an inch and let all the skinnier ones fern out. The purple passion asparagus does turn green as it ferns out. Only the newly emerged spears are purple. I also have green asparagus in my patch, Jersey Giant. Ironically, my Jersey Giant asparagus is smaller than the purple passion. This one pictured below was too small to harvest. You can see the tip of the spear is beginning to loosen. Soon it will grow taller and fern out.

Jersey (not so) Giant asparagus.

Asparagus likes a neutral pH soil. That would be a pH of 7. If your soil is naturally on the acidic side, you'll need to add lime to the soil to make the asparagus grow happily. A pH lower than 6 and you'll have hard time growing it.

Earth Day!

2008-04-22T09:01:00.005-04:00

Happy Earth Day! Does one say "Happy" on Earth Day? Well, I like it, so Happy Earth Day to you. I might even start saying Happy Tuesday to you too. Why not. Undoubtedly, everywhere you go today, people (?), well probably not people, but media, tv, newspapers, etc. will be telling you how and why you should be more green. I know, it's true what Kermit said, "It's not easy being green."

One of the easiest things you can do to be more earth friendly is to grow your own food, as in fruits and vegetables, and why not, throw in some herbs while you're at it. You really don't have to have big garden in order to grow some veggies of your own. Many things can be container grown. I'll give you a hint, some of the easiest things to grow are lettuce, snap beans, and zucchini. It really is just about as easy as putting a seed in the soil or potting mix. Food you grow in your backyard doesn't have to be trucked in from across the country, or flown in from another country. Not only does that make it more earth friendly (no fuel is spent bringing to you), but an added benefit is that it tastes better. You'll be so proud of something you grew yourself.

Now you might be thinking, "Where do I get seeds? I don't want to mail order and pay shipping and have to wait." Well, next time you're at the supermarket, or hardware store, or even one of those big box "mart" stores, you can pick up a packet or two of seeds real cheap. Think about the potential in a pack of seeds, how much food you can grow from one pack of seeds. Another option is to buy starts at a nursery (small plants). That works too. But there's something about growing from seed that's really cool. Think of the speck of tomato seed. In that tiny seed, is the potential to grow into a big plant, that will produce many fruits. Inside each fruit is a more seeds! Think of the potential!

If you really want to be green while growing your greens, you can reuse a container you already have laying around. Cut the top off a gallon container (only for something small like herbs or lettuce), use and old bucket (5 gallon works for tomatoes), or that planter where you once had flowers and now sits unused. I guarantee, you'll get more compliments, and interest from something edible, than that dead annual from two years ago. Make sure to poke or drill some drainage holes in the bottom. Make sure you use a nice fluffy, light potting mix. Anything marked top soil is not going to work, too heavy. And forget about scraping some soil out of the yard and plopping it into a container.

You're going to need full sun. That means the spot where you put your container will have sun on it most, if not all of the day. If all you have is partial sun, give it a shot. You may get something out of it, it's better than nothing.

The back of the seed pack (and sometimes the front) will tell you how deep to plant the seed, how many days to maturity (that's when you can pick the fruit/veg!), and maybe some tips on care.

Vegetables not your bag? Well, you can grow a small fruit tree right in a container. Put it on your patio (full sun of course!) or deck, or where ever you want. Check out these cool apple trees from Miller Nurseries.

Well, I better get going. I've got some earth day celebrating of my own to do. With that, I'll leave you with these words from Kermit:

"But green's the color of Spring.
And green can be cool and friendly-like.
And green can be big like an ocean, or important like a mountain, or tall like a tree."

They're Baaack

2008-04-20T11:11:00.014-04:00

Imperial Star Artichoke, 2007 growing season.

I must admit, I am a bit fascinated by artichokes. It's not quite to the point of obsession, like I am with tomatoes, but I find them more interesting than many of the other vegetables I grow. I think that stems from the fact that they are not really widely grown in this part of the country. So it's a bit of a challenge.

Last spring/summer I grew my first artichokes, Imperial Star Artichokes. They produced flowers (that's the part we eat) their first year, which is a plus, since artichokes are a perennial that produce (most of the time) in it's second year. However, it was questionable if they would survive the winter here. Actually, they are only supposed to be hardy down to USDA zone 8 (even more detailed maps here) and we are in zone 6 here. What does all this zone business mean? Well, it's just a way for gardeners to gauge how well a given plant will survive the extreme cold of winter in a given geographical region. In theory, you'd want perennial plants (plants the come back year after year) that are rated to survive your zone or colder if you live in a cold area. The lower your zone number the colder it gets in the winter. It doesn't take into account how hot it gets in the summer, how long a growing season you have, or all the many other variables that go into growing plants. Many people get confused by the zone thing and think that if one lives in a higher zoned area, you must have a longer growing season, and vice versa. This is not so. Your growing season is determined by the number of frost free days you have and also how hot it gets in the hottest part of your summer. For example Dallas, TX is zone 8, as is Seattle, WA. Obviously the two have different weather and completely different growing seasons. If you lived in Texas, you might have a spring garden and a fall garden, because the heat of summer would kill your crops. While in Washington, it might be mild all through the spring and summer. To add to the confusion there are micro-climates within zones that can throw you for a loop. If you lived on top of a mountain, it might be much colder than down in the valley. So it would seem the zone system is flawed. But, if you use it simply as a way to determine how cold a temperature a give perennial plant can take, it should work for you.

Last summer I let some of the buds go to flower.

So back to artichokes. Once the artichoke foliage died back from the fall frost, I took measures to protect it from our cold winter. I cut back the plant and piled about a foot of shredded fall leaves on top of the plants and then covered the entire raised bed with a plastic tarp to keep too much moisture from rotting the plants. I weighted down the plastic tarp around the edges with large rocks and bricks. It stayed that way all through the winter. Rain came down, snow piled up, ice formed, the whole works. Then in spring it started to warm up. My other perennial plants started popping up. I figured it was time to uncover the artichokes. So the first week of April, I pulled back the tarp and pushed away the leaves. The leaves smelled earthy, a nice scent. The bottom few inches of shredded leaves had already turned into compost, a nice black crumbly layer. I removed most of the pile of leaves and left a few inches to feed the plants, and hopefully act as a mulch and prevent weeds from sprouting. There was just the tiniest bit of growth on three of the plants. Slowly, they are waking up from a long winter sleep. I have a good feeling we'll have quite the crop of artichokes this year. They are said to produce in abundance the second year.

By April 20 new growth appears on the old stump and increases each day.

It looks as though only three of the six plants have growth so far. I'm not sure if the other three are just slower to wake up, or they may be dead. I'll give them until May to do something. During the winter, I sometimes get carried away while looking at seed catalogs and websites. I bought some new artichoke seeds of Violetto Artichoke. The description says, "Beautiful purple heads of artichokes look like flowers (because they are) on these plants. Fruit is more elongated than the green globe type. There is some variation in the seed and the Italian supplier recommends removing any weedy looking seedlings before setting out. Start indoors for a mid-summer crop even in Maine." To me that sounds like the seed is not pure and may have come from cross pollinated stock. I guess I'll take my chances. These seedlings look quite happy and robust. Although I did start them kind of late. My first batch did not germinate. I don't know why, sometimes that just happens to even the most experienced of seed starters. I tried again and most of the seeds germinated. Now that I know my old plants survived, I will have to find a spot for these or give them away. I'm thinking about putting a couple in an Earth Box (I have 3) and then in the winter, storing it in the garage for protection.

Violetto artichoke seedlings. No weedy looking seedlings here! What are they talking about?

Now some call them weeds and some call them volunteers, but if you let a plant go to seed, you may have some seedlings that pop up unexpectedly. Such is the case in the artichoke bed. I found this volunteer yesterday. Funny thing is, it popped up next to one of the plants that hasn't started growing yet (possibly dead). Isn't nature a wonderful thing?

Look familiar? A volunteer artichoke a few weeks behind the ones started inside.

No Vacancy

2008-04-18T10:58:00.009-04:00

We had a few fleeting visits from a bluebird couple in March. They landed on the nesting box and went inside. They showed no signs of shyness. I thought maybe they might be the bluebirds we had here last year since they were already paired up and seemed very comfortable with the nesting box. After they left, I looked inside to make sure no other birds had started nesting in there and they hadn't. Earlier that same day, a small woodpecker had been in the nesting box checking it out as well. Over the winter, we had several birds show interest in the box while the bluebirds were away. The downy woodpeckers and black capped chickadees visited the nesting box on a regular basis.

Well, March 25 is the last time I have seen the bluebirds. We've put out meal worms occasionally, to try to attract them. The titmice and chickadees sure do appreciate it. They ate up the worms without hesitation.

The bluebirds are taking their time coming back. I imagine they are enjoying their spring foot loose and baby free. It is after all, a lot of work raising those babies all summer. I picture them flying all around the area surveying their choices of nesting sites. I'm sure they are having a good time. Maybe they are sleeping in late or taking naps during the day. As it turns out, that old saying, you snooze, you lose, is true. Our year round friends, the chickadees have decided that this will make a nice spot to nest.

This Black Capped Chickadee says, "No Vacancy!"

They're much smaller than the bluebirds, but they like this box just the same. Yesterday, they started building their nest. You can see in the pictures below, she is bringing dried grass and moss into the nesting box. I wonder how much longer till we have eggs.

The chickadees have never been shy around me. They seem friendly in fact. They sure are cute little birds. I watched them build their nest for a while. They chirped happily as they made trips back and forth. They gathered moss from the rock wall between the house and the yard, as well as grass. I was curious about their nest and took a quick peek inside the box yesterday evening. The nest looked only about halfway done and was made of soft moss and grass. It looked like a soft spot for a baby bird to hatch and spend it's first days of life. As I write this, I just glanced out my office window and caught site of a chickadee with a beak full of grass on her way back to the nesting box. We may not have bluebirds this year, but I like the chickadees so much, I find it hard to be disappointed.

Tomato Seedling: The Movie

2008-04-10T11:20:00.004-04:00

I made a short little movie that shows the first 11 days of this tomato seedling's life. Take a look, it's only a minute long.

Press the play button arrow on the image below to view the video.

Orchid Show Part 2

2008-04-08T14:30:00.004-04:00

Here's some more favorites from the orchid show. It's amazing the colors and forms these blooms take. It's a thing of beauty and wonder.

Orchid Show

2008-04-07T10:31:00.006-04:00

I always seem to find out about these things at the last minute. Yesterday was the last day of the Orchid Show at the New York Botanical Garden. If you live in the area and didn't go, well, I suppose there's always next year. Until then, you can see a few of the blooms here. Too many photos to post in a day, I'll post more tomorrow.

As usual, Sundays at the Gardens are a mad house. I think also being the last day of the show, hordes of late comers like myself were there. All the murmurings in the air were "excuse me," "oops, sorry," in between, "ooh, that's a pretty one," and "wow, look at that."

I admittedly know nothing about orchids. It was just a little too crazy to note the names of each flower. So just take them for what they're worth. Some pretty pictures on a gray day.

I think this may be my favorite one

Amazing color!

Love those blotches!

Soft yellow on the outside, and pow, hot stuff in the middle!

Pinky!

This one reminds me of the leis you get upon arrival in Hawaii.

Tomato Starting Day!

2008-04-02T15:20:00.000-04:00

Here's a picture for a little bit of motivation. This is the harvest from September 3, 2007

Well, I've put it off long enough. It's time to start some tomato seeds. Last year, I started my seeds on March 28. That seemed to work out perfectly. The plants looked nice and healthy and ready to take off. Starting tomato seeds too early will result in bigger transplants, but that's not always what you want. Conventional wisdom says to remove any flowers that have formed before you transplant seedlings to their permanent location. The thinking is that the plant will put it's energy into spreading roots and not put it's energy into forming fruits at that early stage. Is it true? I dunno. I just go along with that method and so far, it's worked for me. Since I planted out only 6 weeks after starting seeds, those 6 week old seedlings were just on the verge of forming flowers, and did soon after plant out.

I know just what you're thinking now, what types of tomatoes are you going to grow this year? Am I right? I am aren't I. Well, I don't have an endless supply of room for growing tomatoes, so I must limit what I grow, unfortunately for me. I have a dream of having as much room as I want to grow whatever I want someday, but that day, is not today. And I have a feeling that, if I did have hundreds of plants, well, that would be more work than I really want to do. But who knows, I may just surprise us all and run off to become a tomato farmer some day.

Some of my seeds* came from a farmer in Napa, CA, Brad Gates at Wild Boar Farms. He has actually introduced quite a few naturally crossed tomato varieties he's discovered in his fields. I had heard of Brad, his farm, and his tomato breeding a while back. He's the breeder of the Berkeley Tie Dye tomato, which I think is the most wide spread of his tomatoes. This tomato is red, gold, and green striped with green flesh with pink blush. Now if that isn't a wild tomato, then I don't know what is. While hubby and I were in Napa we ate dinner at a restaurant called Celadon and hubby ordered the heirloom tomato salad. Well, turns out Brad is one of the suppliers to the restaurant. So I'm thinking we've already sampled some of his own grown tomatoes. What a small world.

Okay, so here is my tomato list. Seems this year, is the year of the striped tomato.

Large/Beefsteak:
Berkeley Tie Dye*- green-yellow with orange-red stripes 8-12 oz average
Pink Berkeley Tie Dye*-heavy producer dark pink purple with green stripes that turn silver metallic (that I'd like to see)
Beauty King*-Large yellow beefsteak with deep red stripes. Fruit over 1 lb.
Pruden's Purple-dark pink, delicious flavor similar to brandywine, but earlier. 10-16 oz fruit.
Aunt Gertie's Gold-1-2 lb rich gold fruit. One of the best tasting yellows.
Kellogg's Breakfast-1 lb. orange beefsteak tomatoes (like orange juice), that are thin-skinned, meaty, have few seeds and a fantastic sweet, tangy flavor.

Small Fruited:
Red Zebra-huge amounts of 2 inch red fruit with yellow stripes.
Sungold-very sweet orange cherry tomatoes, fruity taste. Our favorite.
Yellow Submarine- a better tasting yellow pear.
Green Grape-3/4- 1 inch fruit, yellow green when ripe. Full of flavor, sweet and juicy.
Sprite-red grape tomatoes, in a smaller plant.

Paste:
Banana Legs-yellow paste type 4" long x 1 1/2".
Purple Russian-long plum shaped purple/red 6 oz. Good fresh, in sauce or canned.
Roma-the old stand by for paste. 3 inch red plum tomatoes.
Viva Italia- paste type tomato, red plum shaped, perfect for sauce.

Now I know, I really don't need five different small fruited (cherry/grape/silver dollar sized) type tomatoes. One sungold plant would probably provide more than enough fruit for the entire season. However, I just can't help it. I like seeing all the different colors in a basket together. So what's a girl to do? I just can't bring myself to cut anyone from the list.

When I opened my pack of Beauty King Seeds for the first time on seed starting day, it was completely empty. Oops! I was so bummed that I might not get to grow that one this year. It's striped and productive (so I've read) so I was really looking forward to that one. I emailed Brad and he sent me a new pack of seeds right away. They're coming from California, so I know it will be a while before they showed up. I hadn't planned to grow Kellogg's Breakfast this year, but since I didn't have any Beauty King seeds to start, I started some Kellogg's Breakfast instead. Now I'm thinking, that when those Beauty King seeds show up, I will want to start them as well. I guess I'll just have to make some room somewhere. Most of these varieties are new to me this year. Some I had at least tasted at the tomatofest, so I know that I should like the flavor. I just can't wait until the day I am harvesting once again. This time of year, I have visions of baskets and baskets of tomatoes lined up in the garden as I harvest.

I was a little delayed in posting this. So I already have a progress report. Sungold was the first to sprout only 3 days after sowing the seed! Sprite showed up the next day too. In the past, I've had many tomato seedlings show up in 4 days, but 3 is a new record for me. The funny thing is, last year, I had a hard time getting my Sungold seeds to germinate and these are from the same pack. Just the luck of the draw I guess.

Rain Drops Keep Falling

2008-04-01T14:55:00.004-04:00

on my head. The past couple of days have been rainy. Today however, we have a bit of warmth along with the rain. We can only hope the winter is behind us. These first harbingers of spring give us a glimpse of what's soon to come. Warm, sun filled days are not far off.

I love to go out and shoot in the rain or right after a rain. Everything is so fresh, the colors saturated.

As I'm writing this, I have the feeling these crocuses will not be there much longer. I can see four hungry deer from my office window. They're munching on what little bits of green they can find growing in the woods. It won't be long before they make their way around to the front of the house and find those crocuses. I'm amazed they've made it this long. They're the first to come and also the first to go.

Sunshine in a Jar

2008-03-09T11:20:00.012-04:00

Sunshine in a jar. Delicately yellow Meyer Lemon Jelly shines with happiness.

What did you do Saturday night?

I made jelly.

Seriously, what did you do?

I made jelly.

If you don't want to tell me, just say so.

I did, there's my proof, up there in the picture.

Wow, Saturday was some dreary day around here. The heavens opened up and dumped rain on us all day long and into the night, with some serious winds too. One of those days, where you knock around the house, because it's the weekend and you can, and who wants to go out in that weather? After awhile, I'm bored. There's still 9 lemons hanging on the lemon tree plant and I know that they need to be used pretty soon. They're nice and ripe, turning a golden yellow, as Meyer's are supposed to do.

I got my ingredients together, washed out some jars, and got my top lemon juicer (hubby) to juicin'. I'll share the recipe below. It's very easy and quick. There's a lot of sugar. That's all jelly really is, fruit juice and sugar. I used liquid pectin and I think that may be all I use from now on. It doesn't require further dissolving and cooking because it comes already dissolved. This leaves my lemon juice tasting like yummy fresh lemons and not like cooked, scorched lemons.

Meyer Lemon Jelly

15 oz lemon juice (6 lemons)
3 ½ C sugar
1 pouch liquid pectin (3 oz)

Yield: 5 @ 8oz jars

Juice enough lemons to make 15 ounces. In a non-reactive pan (like stainless steel) combine the lemon juice with sugar and bring to a boil for 1 minute. When mixture begins to boil, it can quickly foam up, you will want to turn down the heat and be ready to move the pot if it gets out of hand. Use a rubber spatula to remove the foam on the top of the mixture and stir in the pectin. No further cooking is required with the liquid pectin. Pour the jelly into sterilized jars and lids.

Tips:
Pour juice through a fine mesh strainer before adding to the pan, to exclude any small seeds or lemon pulp. I have my pectin pouch already cut open and propped up in a glass, so I don't have to fumble once the mixture is boiling. Have all your jars, lids, and bands at the ready. I also use a canning funnel and a ladle to fill the jars.

This sweet lemony jelly came out just the right consistency, just the right taste, a happy pick me up to a long rainy day. I awoke to a bright sunny day this morning. The wind blew all the storm clouds away. I had some of this yellow sweet lemon jelly on my wheat toast this morning. The flavor was just right to stand up to the bread. Can't wait to try it on top of some sugar cookies.

Show Off

2008-02-04T10:20:00.000-05:00

Left to right: Peas forming in pods late June, Mystery Tomato (we don't know what variety), Artichoke bud.

Well, I never really thought it would turn out this way, but it seems I won a contest. It's the Kitchen Gardeners International Grow Off Show Off. So I entered my blog back in October, and I won second place! I'm surprised and delighted. My prize is a brand new Mantis Garden Tiller. It's a bit of a tease seeing as how the ground is frozen solid around these parts right now. But seeing that tiller just makes me beam. And soon enough when the ground thaws and it's time to plant again, I'll be tilling up a storm. So thank you KGI. Thank you Mother Earth News. Thank You Mantis.

Since we're in the dead of winter, there's not a ton of garden stuff going on right now on the blog. So if you're curious, here are links to the postings mentioned in my entry:

June: I Spy With My Own Little Eye, Make Your Tomatoes Grow
July: Say Peas, Dig It, Snappy Beans, Harvest A Rainbow, Take the Bad with the Good, Crudités For Two, ANTICIPATION, You Say Toe-mah-to
August: Eat What You Grow, Cool As A Cucumber, Picky Picker Pickin' Pretty Produce, Three Ears A Nose and a Catface, Fingers Digging For Fingerlings
September: How Do Ya Like Dem 'Maters!

For the record, I'm no expert, far from it. I make lots of mistakes, sometimes funny, sometimes painful. I wouldn't dare dole out advice. I'll just share with you some of what I do. I'm just a girl with a garden, a sweet hubby, and couple of cats, who likes to show it off.

Question of the Week

2008-02-04T08:43:00.000-05:00

I thought it might be fun to do a question of the week. Let's face it, so far this is been a very one sided conversation. So now I want to hear from you. I will leave this post at the top of the blog for a week. Please do join in. Don't be shy now!

Here is this week's question of the week:

What do you miss about spring? Please share you answer by clicking on the comments link below.

Okay, I'll go first. I miss color! I feel like I'm living in a black and white movie during the winter. Black, white, and shades of gray and brown. Here's some pictures of some spring flowers. I think one of the reasons I plant so many spring flowers is that desire for color.

Really early spring, right after crocuses, Daffodils are the ticket. This is the one thing, I find the deer just won't eat.

Peony. Love that yellow center!

Sage.

Rhododendrons. They're like little pink balls of cheer!

Now it's your turn. I'm waiting....

Golden Boy

2008-01-27T13:10:00.000-05:00

In the winter, I get to see far more birds than I do in the summer. The leaves are gone from the trees, exposing the feathered inhabitants. I put out seeds in a squirrel proof (so far at least) feeder where I can see it from my desk. When the birds start flying to and from the feeder, I see them from the corner of my eye. If you're a lover of squirrels, you'll be happy to know that they aren't starving. They wait on the ground under the feeder for whatever the birds drop down to them. We also have non-squirrel proof bird feeders, which I like to call, squirrel feeders. After I fill them with seed, the squirrels quickly discover it and park themselves on there all day.

We also have a suet feeder. Suet attracts insect eating birds. We get to see our most colorful birds at the suet feeder. Suet is beef kidney fat and can be purchased at the meat counter at the grocery store, or you can buy processed cakes with seeds embedded within them. I use the processed kind with seeds. It fits inside a little cage and I find the seeds attract even more birds. The ground feeders will also hang out under it and wait for some to be dropped. It's a bird party.

Today I thought I'd share some photos from my seed feeder. Most days, I see Tufted Titmice and Chickadees, with Junco's (and squirrels, of course) down below on the ground. Lately, I've been seeing Goldfinches as well. A few weeks ago, I saw my first real up close Goldfinch while I was filling the suet feeder. It was quite the snow white moment (although I think she had bluebird friends). A Goldfinch flew up and landed on a branch inches away from my face, right at eye level. I guess he wanted to see what I was up to. Then he took off.

Since then, they have started to visit my seed feeder. I set up a camera aimed at the feeder and eventually, I got some shots.

Goldfinch: "Who are you?"
Titmouse: "No, I think the question is, who are you?"

Goldfinch: "I thought you were a ground feeder."
Junco: "If you'd drop me some seeds, I wouldn't have to be up here!"

Mr. Goldfinch: "Ah, alone at last."
Mrs. Goldfinch: "I hear clicking. What's that clicking?"

When Life Hands You Lemons

2008-01-27T11:40:00.000-05:00

Lemon Squares! At long last!

Let's face it, life does not always happen the way you want it to. Sometimes things happen that are not within one's control. When that happens I say, make Lemon Squares (or as some like to say, Lemon Bars). Okay, okay, I don't really say that, because believe it or not, this lemon lover has only made lemon squares twice. But a sweet treat always makes you feel better, doesn't it? Now, I'd love to give you this recipe, however, it's not mine to give. If you're interested in making these lemon bars, you can find the recipe in the book, Luscious Lemon Desserts by Lori Longbotham. Of course a google search will provide you with enough lemon square recipes to last you the rest of your life, all of them claiming to be the best. I can't tell you if this is the best because this is only the second time I've ever made lemon squares. The first time was back in my youth. Those did not turn out well. They tasted like eggs with some lemon. Yuck. I don't want eggy lemon squares. So this time, after I baked my crust with lemon zest baked right in, mixed my egg/lemon juice/sugar topping and put it back in the oven, the memory of those lemon squares came back to me. I looked up that recipe in an old cook book and sure enough it only called for 3 tablespoons of lemon juice. This new recipe called for 1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons of lemon juice. Now that packs some lemon power!

We liked these lemon squares. The crust is very buttery, a little crisp, even after storing in the refrigerator. The lemon filling is smooth, tart, and oh so lemony. Yum.

If you're my husband, when wife hands you lemons you squeeze them. That's his job whenever I make lemon chicken for dinner, one of our favs. But the lemons, from the afore mentioned Miss Lemontree, are so easy to juice. I've never had such a juicy lemon. Two lemons, not even very large lemons at that, easily yielded well over 1/2 cup of juice.

Some lemon recipes do not require squeezing, such as Shaker Lemon Pie. This was my first attempt at this unique pie. This recipe is from early shakers who did not want to waste any part of a fruit they had to purchase rather than grow. Isn't it funny, that is basically opposite of why I wanted to make this recipe. I wanted to utilize the entire fruit for which I patiently waited so long to grow and ripen. I used my food processor to slice two lemons into thin slices (as thin as possible). My food processor only goes down to 2mm. For the interior of the lemon, that seemed very thin. You could see through the slices. For the pith and skin, I don't think it was thin enough. I picked out the seeds, now sliced as well, and put the lemon slices in a bowl with 1 3/4 cups sugar. I let it macerate for a full day, although the recipe calls for 8 hours. I had heard that others thought it better to let it macerate longer. Plus, this worked well with my schedule. I started the pie one day after work and finished it the next day after work.

The next day, I added 4 large eggs and a pinch of salt to the lemon and sugar and filled my pie crust. Doesn't that look pretty?

Love that yellow. Of course, this yellow is due to the egg yolks, but still bright and cheery to me.

You use a double crust for this recipe. So I added another crust to the top, sealed it, and then into the oven it goes.

I usually flute my pie crust edges, but this pie seemed like it needed an old fashioned treatment.

The result looks great. The crust is delicious. The filling's taste is lemony, just great. But the consistency... it's just not for me. The skin and pith just never soften and I really can't get past the consistency. It's sort of the same as I feel about shredded coconut. Too chewy or something. Hubby didn't like the consistency either, sadly. That is not to say that you wouldn't like it. Some may not mind that texture. Who knows. But for us, I think this ends the shaker lemon pie chapter.

Before & After

2008-01-21T15:52:00.000-05:00

I can't help but notice that this time of year, there's a lot of talk about resolutions and a lot of inspirational before and after pictures floating around. I don't have any resolutions, well okay, I do have a few (but they're not official or anything like that. It's not like I told anyone or announced it. I mean then if I don't stick to it, then what?). Just the usual, weed the garden more this summer (possible), start fewer seedlings this winter so I don't have to find homes for them come spring (not likely), and of course as always, eat fewer cookies (yeah, right!).

The before shot. The bumble bees like these blossoms as well.

If you've been following along since the summer, you may recall Miss Lemontree had some cute little fruits starting back in June and July. It's been a long wait, but winter is the time for citrus after all. Here's Miss Lemontree back on December 3. See her fruits are starting to turn yellow at long last! Well, I got all excited about the possibility of celebrating the new year with some fresh homegrown lemons. Didn't exactly happen that way.

December 3, lemons are starting to ripen!

It took a little longer than that to get ripe, but it did finally happen. This is very exciting in the dead of winter. There may be snow outside, but inside it's a balmy 70 degrees and Miss Lemontree is in her winter home in the sunniest window of the house, in our dining room.

Janary 14, we awoke to a snowy winter wonderland outside. Miss Lemontree watched the snow fall from the comfort of the indoors.

The final count? Eighteen lemons from this little tree. So far only two have been harvested. The fruit should hold better on the tree. Although, I must admit, my inner photographer wants to pluck them all off at one time and make a really pretty composition with the lemons. I am restraining myself, so far.

I've always loved lemons. I always keep a couple on hand to squeeze into a drink. The lemons I get at the grocery store however are common lemons, the egg shaped Eurekas and Lisbons. Miss Lemontree is actually a sweet lemon, not really sweet, just a classification, for this less acidic type. She is a Meyer lemon. Her fruits are smaller, rounder, with smoother thinner skin. A sniff of the lemon's skin reveals hints of the blossoms they emerged from, very floral, and reminiscent of honey. The taste is not just less sour/acidic than common lemons. It has another quality to it. As I get to know these lemons better, I'll try to describe them better.

Another before and after I had planned to show you, is not something you'd want to eat, but still notable. Ferna is a beautiful Boston Fern once belonging to my neighbor across the street. A couple years ago, she stayed on my front porch while my neighbors were away. She was a huge beautiful plant. I remarked that I would like to get one for myself as she fit so well into the landscape. Well, my neighbor came back, and Ferna went back to her rightful home. Next time my neighbor went away, she asked her son to watch Ferna, and Ferna was a bit neglected unfortunately. My neighbor showed up one day with her and asked me to try to help her. I said I would, but I was doubtful.

Below you will see a before picture of Ferna. To the left is the pot she came to me in, to the right, the pot she moved into shortly after. You can see some little green fronds down below the surface, that were waiting to emerge. That was my first clue that Ferna could come back to her once glorious condition.

Ferna on May 26.

In July, she showed up on the blog as an extra, in this picture of Henry. She's starting to come back, but I cropped most of the bald parts out of the photo.

This is Ferna today. She's come inside for the winter. Getting some morning rays.

Each day Ferna gets a nice misting. Each week she gets a good drink of water. Now, I never had planned to keep Ferna. I thought she was only visiting. I asked my neighbor numerous times to take her back. But she just replied, that she meant for me to keep her. After awhile, I stopped asking because I didn't want Ferna to think she wasn't wanted. I must admit, I do like Ferna. She's got personality for sure. My niece who had taken care of Ferna while we were on vacation, along with all our other plants and critters, included Ferna on the Christmas card she sent to us. There's just something special about this plant.

Well, now I really know there is something special about Ferna. It turns out, she was named after my neighbor's grandma (click here to read more about it). Maybe I knew that and forgot, but now that I know that for sure, I'm not sure I should keep Ferna. I think she should go back to her rightful family and chalk this visit up to a little stint of rehab.

Tea Anyone?

2008-01-13T15:34:00.001-05:00

My first tea chest. This one is oak.

One of my goals as a woodworker is to be able to make perfect little boxes. I have for a while now, had a project in mind to make a tea chest. I've seen them for sale in stores but they are always way too big and lined with bright red satin or some such thing. I can see how a large tea chest would be appealing since you can fit more tea, but where do I fit the chest? So I wanted to make something that would be small enough as to fit easily into the landscape of one's home, but also big enough to put a few varieties.

This is my first attempt. Made of oak, it's 9 3/4" x 4". I put six different teas inside and gave it away. Maybe I'll keep the next one. It's fun making boxes. This is just the beginning of my box making project.

Three compartments inside hold six varieties of tea.

New Year, New Calendar

2008-01-12T11:16:00.001-05:00

Last Christmas I had made a calendar for my hubby as a gift. I didn't find the time to do it again in time for Christmas, but better late than never, I always say. An email from shutterfly.com, got me searching for images. Last year's calendar was all cat pictures. This time around, 2008 is all garden images. Some veggies, some flowers, some veggie blossoms. Here's what we'll be looking at in the coming year. All of these pictures were photographed by me in my garden.

January, Asparagus on Walnut Wood

February, Green Onion (or scallion as some call them) seed heads.

March, Green Arrow Peas.

April, Blackbeard Iris.

May, a Peony with rain drops.

In June life is just a bowl of Strawberries.

July, hot weather = Hot Peppers (Aurora)

August, Richmond Green Apple Cucumbers with Borage

September, Tahiti Sunrise Iris

October, Bee in Sebring Squash Blossom

November, cucumber tendril

December, Nasturtiums

Hibernation

2007-12-30T13:08:00.000-05:00

It's a cold gray day here. I'm sitting in my favorite blue chair in my home office with a cat on my lap. It's almost the new year. Happy New Year! That means a new garden to plan. The seed catalogs starting pouring in during the fall. I piled them in a stack on my bookshelf next to my blue chair. I'm not quite ready to start the planning process, not quite. I'm still recuperating from the fall clean up.

Of course there's always time to stop and take a picture of a pretty fall scene.

What happened to fall? There's practically no blog entries for fall, nothing for November (why am I pointing this out?) and certainly this will be the only one for December. Well, it's not that I didn't have anything to say, that's for sure. I even took pictures. I had pages written in my mind, but I couldn't get into the mood. When I started this blog, I told myself I'd only do it if I felt like it. I don't ever want it to become a chore or something I feel I have to do. Fall is probably the busiest season for me. There's the garden that must be ripped out and prepped for next year, there's tons of leaves to clean up, there's seeds to save, and on top of that, it's my busiest season for work (but I won't talk about that here). So fall is a blur for me. I just try to get through it as best as I can. I did take time to get some pictures here and there. I went apple picking too. If you've never gone apple picking, I highly recommend it. You just haven't eaten a really great apple till you've picked it yourself and stand next the the tree as you take a bite. I planted an apple tree of my own in my yard a couple years ago, but she hasn't produced fruit yet. Fingers crossed, maybe 2008 will be her year! I need to get one of the signs below for my garden, maybe change it to I Pick My Own. Don't want random people wandering in off the street.

"Pick Your Own," says the sign at Blue Jay Orchards. Thanks I think I will. Abundant apple trees don't disappoint, apple picking is a great fall activity.

One good thing about winter, I start to miss the garden. Why is that a good thing? Because by the end of summer and fall, I'm ready for a break. Especially after putting the garden to sleep for the year, one of the less fun tasks. Now I have to rely on other means of getting my daily intake of veggies. I can't just go out and pluck a tomato when I want it or a few handfuls of green beans for dinner. Although I do some canning, I don't do enough to feed us full time. It's mostly spaghetti sauce, salsa, and pickles on my shelves.

All that remains from the 2007 garden.

It really gives me a feeling of pride to see my bountiful shelves stocked with the fruits of my labor. Within those jars, a tasty meal or snack, that started out as just a seed less than a year ago. Many steps and much time went into making those jars of food. To me, plucking one from the shelf is much more satisfying than one from a supermarket shelf.

So, what does a gardener do during the winter, beside look at seed and plant catalogs? Why wood working of course! Don't see the connection? Well, me neither. To be honest, wood working was not a hobby I chose for myself. Hubby was interested and so I sort of went along for the ride. Just as hubby helps me with my hobby, I help him with his. I do like to design the things we build. But something changed for me this winter. I got tired of being the helper. It's really sort of boring holding this board, move that board. See? Boring. So I decided that I wanted to become a wood worker in my own right. Learn the tools myself from top to bottom. My goal is to be able to use any and all of our tools without explanation. I've given myself projects to do. Not big giant ones like our first project of a king sized bed. But smaller ones like these cutting boards. Not terribly hard to make on the difficulty scale, but still a good exercise in using the tools. The result, something useful and beautiful (to me at least). These maple butcher block cutting boards will last for years.

I made 4 cutting boards and kept the smallest for myself.

The other 3 were gifted to others, such as my neighbor (click here to see her blog).

Iris Eyes Are Smiling

2007-10-10T15:55:00.000-04:00

It's not a typo. I'm not talking about Irish eyes. And, I'm not talking about the iris in your eye. This weather today reminded me of Ireland. This is basically how it was the entire time I was there, rainy, misty, cool. I can't very well complain about the weather today. We haven't had any appreciable amount of rain in weeks. Hubby has been watching the weather each day, just waiting for some rain to come and water our grassy lawn. It's been dry and there's only so much we can do for our lawn. It's just a little too much to water with our well. I like the grass okay, the cats play on it, and it makes a good backdrop for my pictures, but it's really hubby's bailiwick. So I'm happy it's raining today, we needed the rain.

One area I don't really have to worry too much about in dry conditions is my iris garden. What? Didn't you know I had an iris garden? As it turns out, this is my first year growing irises. Well, technically, I did plant the rhizomes last summer, but they bloom in the spring of the following year. By the time I started writing this blog, the irises stopped their blooming. I was on to strawberries, and veggies, and... well you remember. As I see it, it's never too late to take a look back. And see, they do make you smile, just cast your eyes on these babies.

Tahiti Sunrise

One thing you may have figured out by now, gardeners of all kinds are very generous people. We like to share our bounty with others, and doubtless it's because some other gardener has done the same for us at one time or another. Did you know, that I did not buy one rhizome for this garden as of yet? Two lovely gardening friends contributed the rhizomes that make up this garden. Most of them, over 20, came from one friend in Philadelphia (thanks Mit!). Irises must be dug up and divided every few years or they become overcrowded. This is a good time to share or trade rhizomes with friends. I look forward to sharing my irises when the time comes to renovate this iris bed.

Black Beard

There are countless varieties of irises, with new introductions every year. You can find them in just about every color of the rainbow (just about) and even black. The irises I grow are Tall Bearded Irises, but there are other types, really too many to list here. But you can read more about it if you click this link.

I can see how gardeners get addicted to irises. There are so many to choose from, the variety is endless. To me, they are some of the most beautiful flowers you can grow. They look so exotic, almost tropical. But you don't have to live in the tropics to have this perennial in your garden.

This iris below produced lots of blooms during the spring. They look so fancy. One would think they are hard to care for. On the contrary, irises are an easy plant to care for. That's probably the reason you may see them in a city park or planter.

Edith Wolford

Double Your Fun and Bonus Mama didn't bloom for me until September. They're still blooming now. I've read that they're rebloomers. So I'm anticipating blooms in spring and fall next year. Bonus Mama was the only one of my irises that grew a curvy stem. The rest were very straight.

Double Your Fun

Bonus Mama

Man About Town was known as "Mystery Iris" in my garden until a few days ago. My Philadelphia friend identified it for me. Handsome whatever you call him, still it's nice to know his name. I dig the stripes.

Man About Town

Returning Rose sounded to me like it was going to be a rebloomer, but she didn't bloom this fall. I think she gets her name from the fact that she just kept producing blooms over a long stretch in the spring. I photographed this one many times. I really like her. I'm sure we will be seeing more photos of her next year.

Returning Rose

Tomatofest

2007-10-05T10:46:00.001-04:00

The tomatofest offered a pre-mixed collection of tomatoes. One could buy tomatoes and
have them shipped home, or take them "to go".

This seems like the longest trip ever, doesn't it? Are you bored yet? I promise this is the last entry about our trip. Last but not least, we headed to Carmel, CA for a Tomatofest. This is a charity event that is put on by a seed company at a golf and spa resort. They emailed me back in June to say that we should come early and wait on the line. That the waiting line is an event in and of itself with food and entertainment. One thing, you might not know about me, I don't like getting places early and waiting (except when it's for work, getting there early makes me feel better, but that's different!). I just never see the point in standing in line. I have my ticket, I know I'm getting in, so what's the rush? Not ever having been to this event, I didn't want to take a chance that I would miss something. Then I might feel bad. So we dutifully went early as instructed. I have to say, the event was handled smoothly. Everything was very orderly and calm. But did we need to get there early? No! The "entertainment," some guys singing, was only in one spot, where we couldn't see/hear them. The food was popcorn and fried green tomatoes. I declined the popcorn. Who wants to fill up on that? I'm here for the tomatoes! This was my first time trying fried green tomatoes, and I gotta say, they aint bad! I always imagined that the tomato part would be bland having not ripened, but no, they were tangy. I like it. I'm not crazy about the greasiness of fried food in general and this was no exception.

Once the gates opened, we were let loose on tables of food (with tomatoes of course) prepared by chefs, a tasting table with 350 varieties of tomatoes, and wine tasting of many, many wineries. I headed straight for the tomato tasting tables. They were set up with a whole tomato in the middle, so you can see what it looks like, and then the cut up samples down below. I photographed the ones that we liked, so that we could remember for future reference. They had preprinted check lists available to mark seed purchases. Some of my favorites, however, were suspiciously missing from the checklist. Several ladies I met while circling the tomato table were surreptitiously saving seeds from the samples. I thought that silly at the time. I mean, who has time for that? This event is only four hours and there's a lot to see, eat, drink, taste in that time. Once I got my seed checklist and learned that some of my picks were not on there, or sold out, I was bummed. But since I have limited space and liked almost two dozen, there was no way I was going to get seeds and grow out that many any time soon.

We met a lot of nice people at the event. We were some of the last to leave, mostly because I was going over my tomato list. Sticking around, we were given tomatoes by different people we met. I didn't feel I could decline the tomatoes. That would be rude. But, let's face it, at the end of a four hour tomato tasting event, you're a bit tomatoed out. Plus, we were leaving the next day to fly home. I didn't think the airline would allow me to carry on tomatoes with the new regulations. I didn't want to eat anymore tomatoes that day either. So I gave all my tomatoes to the shuttle bus driver that took us back to the hotel. She seemed happy to have them. When it comes to tomatoes, it never hurts to pay it forward.

Toothpicks were available for picking up a taste of each neatly labeled variety.
I did find some mislabeled and misspelled. My reward? More tomatoes! Thanks.

We only had one day in Carmel, unfortunately. After the tomatofest, we got the car and went for a drive. We drove down to the cute town area, parked and went to the beach. We walked along it for a bit. It was surprisingly busy for an overcast early evening. We could see the pebble beach golf course and decided to get back into the car and go for a drive.

To enter this scenic drive along the coast, with mansions and look out points along the way, one has to pay admission. If I remember correctly, it was $9. I found this a bit humorous for some reason. We wanted to see it, so we paid the price. I think the views were worth the price of admission. The overcast clouds cleared out and left behind just the right amout of clouds to make it interesting. The light was beautiful. We happened to be there at just the perfect time of day for picture taking. For the rest, well there's not much to say. So I'll let the pictures do the talking. Have a good one!

San Francisco Here We Come

2007-10-02T12:34:00.001-04:00

Street corners have the names stamped into the pavement (right). You don't have to look up confused at the signs to know where you are.

This trip was my first time in San Francisco. It's a nice city. It's funny, the things that make it unique, are also the same things people label as touristy. I don't mind seeing touristy things, after all, I AM a tourist. People will say, you have to see the real city, like a local. Well, I'm not about to get up at 6:00 a.m. shower, shave, blow dry, iron an outfit and go out on my merry way to work. Isn't that what I'd do if I were a local? I'd much rather be a tourist. Roll out of bed when I feel like it and meander around wherever the mood takes me, and of course, take pictures (okay, that is my job, to take pictures, don't get all technical with me).

Before we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, into San Francisco, we had to stop and take a picture. It was early evening and the light had a golden quality to it. A very pretty time of day. Across the bay, San Francisco looks foggy. The Golden Gate Bridge has a team of full time painters keeping it that bright orange color. When they get to the end, they start all over again. I wonder if they have a hard time keeping employees.

One of the days we were there, we took a boat ride around the bay. These sail boats were heading out all in a line. In the background, you can see Alcatraz.

We cruised by The Rock and that was enough for me to see it from the outside. The boat tour featured an audio recording with interviews from past inmates of Alcatraz. One man spoke of seeing the federal penitentiary in the bay as he grew up in San Francisco. How it was a looming presence. He never imagined he'd end up there. Another man said he only ever looked out the window once while incarcerated there. He couldn't bare to see the teasing bright lights of the city. The sight of people living their lives in the distance was too much to think about.

Something I never knew about that I found intriguing. Americans Indians (I was taught to say Native Americans, but that is now out. So indigenous peoples of the Americas...), occupied Alcatraz Island 1969-1971. It was supposed to be a symbolic occupation carried out by urban college students, but turned into a full scale occupation that lasted 18 months. This sign below was on the side of a building on Alcatraz Island. Read more about it here, click this link.

Back on land, we saw some cable cars. I like looking at them. Especially the ones that look like this. Sort of like an airstream trailer with 1950's diner paint job. Most of them just look like regular city buses attached to cables.

Down at Fisherman's Wharf, on Pier 39, you can see all the Sea Lions you want. They like to hang out on the rafts here and started doing so in 1990. The Sea Lions alone make it worth the trip down to Fisherman's Wharf. Their barking is quite loud and boisterous. They fight with each other, sun themselves, groom themselves, and just sit around looking cute posing for pictures. I think they like the attention.

See that Sea Lion (Lioness?) and her (I think it's a her) three babies? She chased away any other Sea Lions that got too close to her little ones. They're trying to take a nap and they don't need some barker waking them up.

They remind me of cats when they sun themselves and squeeze their eyes shut tight. Hmm, this is the life.

Scenic California

2007-09-27T17:35:00.000-04:00

Ocean view at a State Beach near Bodega Bay. Hear the waves crashing. Feel the wind blowing.

Leaving for a trip is always the hardest part. So many things to do. Last minute work to be done, packing, line up a catsitter, and on and on the list goes. Getting out of the house, is the biggest step. The next hurdle is getting ourselves to the airport. We don't "travel light" as they say. We travel heavy. Very heavy. Camera, golf clubs, clothing X 2 people adds up. Well, we both need our cameras don't we? Believe me, one camera is one too few when you have two photographers traveling to a scenic place such as California. So we don't fight it. We've given in to the reality that we are not capable of traveling light and that is okay. Hubby is a good packer. He has a list, a plan and a spot for each thing. Each of us is assigned a carry-on item and we check the golf bags and suitcases. We've discovered the easiest, most economical way to get ourselves and our stuff to the airport, is to drive there and then park at a nearby hotel. The hotel shuttle takes you to the airport. The shuttle driver helps load and unload the stuff, and the car is safe at the hotel's parking lot. While waiting for the shuttle in front of the hotel the day of our outbound flight, a car pulls up and parks with one wheel on the curb, just feet away from me and my bags. An older man gets out. I couldn't help but notice him considering the way he parked. The license plate on his car read California.

"Long drive." I say to him.
"Oh, yeah, I hate driving in this city [New York]. People drive crazy!"
"Oh, yes. It's not easy," I say, "I'm on my way to California now." I nod my head toward his license plate.
"What part?"
"Napa, San Francisco, Carmel"
He kind of snarls, "You should go to Bodega Bay! My father was born there! Beautiful place! The Birds was filmed there! You see it?"
"Oh really, yes, I've seen The Birds. I'll have to check it out."

Well, really didn't think I would. But for some reason, that cantankerous old guy got stuck in my head. I guess I've always had a soft spot for cranky old guys. I told hubby about the conversation he missed while he was inside. I tucked that pieced of info away in my mind for later.

After Napa, our plan was to head over to San Francisco and stop at Muir Woods along the way to see the redwood trees. I'm not sure how it came to be, but we weren't in any particular hurry and figured this was our day to drive around some. So we took the scenic route and headed over to Bodega Bay. The GPS took us on a long country road, past farms, open fields, and mountains. Not much civilization as I see it. Thank goodness we found a convenience store, some might call it a bodega (and yes they had wine), with a port-a-potty out back at a critical moment. Then it was on to Bodega Bay.

We found a visitor information center upon entering town. We stopped and told the lady we wanted to see redwoods after Bodega Bay, and then end up in San Francisco. She suggested a route for us and told us to go to Guerneville to see the redwood trees. Gave us a map with a highlighted route and we were set to go. The first stop was an ocean view at Sonoma Coast State Beach at the end of a road that winds around the edge of Bodega harbor. On our way, along the winding road, we stopped at a store (they have bodegas in Bodega Bay!) and got picnic fixin's. We ate our lunch atop a peak with beautiful views of the ocean. The only birds around were the seagulls, who wanted a taste of my lunch. They were polite enough about it. I told them I wasn't willing to share and they found some other gullible person to feed them.

View from our picnic spot.

After that we drove North on Route 1 and saw beautiful wide open spaces like this one. That red horse was curious about me as I stepped from the car to get his photo. I hopped over a ditch to get close enough to point my lens over the fence and had to sidestep a raccoon skeleton laying there.

Further North on Route 1 we came to Gleason Beach. I love how those rocks poke out of the water. This looks like it would be a romantic spot for holding hands or maybe a picnic.

After some driving, we finally arrived at the redwoods in Guerneville. They are quite beautiful. One might even say majestic. If you look closely in this photo, you'll see hubby in the bottom right corner. He's wearing a blue shirt and red hat. See my tiny husband? I could probably fit him in my pocket at this scale.

The sun streams through the trees. It's pretty dark in the woods, except for the occasional ray of sunshine. The wind blew and the giant trees swayed. Standing still and looking up, you feel as though you are the one moving.

Copia

2007-09-26T10:52:00.000-04:00

Left, a Copia tomato still ripening on the vine, named after Copia the place. It's red with gold stripes. Right, an heirloom, Yoder's German Yellow Tomato. A beauty of a tomato, freshly picked by Copia's head gardener.

We spent a morning at Copia in the town of Napa, California. Copia calls itself, the American Center for Wine, Food, and the Arts. There's a building that resembles a museum that houses a restaurant Julia's Kitchen (named after Julia Child), and Galleries with exhibitions. You really could spend an entire day or maybe two at Copia. So we were only able to sample a taste of it, instead of a feast.

Outside is a garden of edibles that are used in the food prepared at Julia's Kitchen. This place was right up my alley. Many, if not most, of the plantings are clearly labeled, although not always specific. The gardens are open for visitors to explore with wide grass lined paths. We had the opportunity to see many things that we are not able to grow in our region. Each garden bed is intensively planted with a variety of plants. I felt right at home.

A good time to practice restraint. I imagine it would be fun to harvest my own pomegranates, but I will have to just imagine as they are only hardy to zone 7. A great source of antioxidants whether you eat the fruit or drink the juice. If you haven't ever eaten a pomegranate, I highly recommend you try this delicious fruit. Inside are beautiful jewel like arils, juicy flesh covered seeds. That's the part you eat. Leave the pith and skin for the compost heap.

Pomegranates still on the tree.

Another tree I've never seen in person before, Pistachio. The fruits are quite beautiful at this stage. Inside is the seed, the part we eat. Copia must be a great place to live if you're a squirrel, although I did not see any. I did see some birds.

Pistachio fruit still on the tree.

I must have been fascinated with olive trees, as I photographed them over and over again. I think they would make a lovely ornamental tree, if only they would live through the winter. Alas, they will only survive in very warm climates.

A close up view of olives still on the tree.

After the olive trees, you come to a fence. Beyond the fence is a public street. We exit the gate and cross the street to see the rest of the gardens. That's where most of the food crops for the restaurant are grown. I met the head gardener and an intern gardener who were busy harvesting, while I poked around their tomato plantings. Harvesting is done on Wednesdays and Fridays, I am told. I had been wondering about that, as I saw some ripe fruits and vegetables on the other side of the garden before we crossed the street. The gardeners are pleasant and seem happy to entertain our questions. They use shallow cardboard boxes to contain the tomatoes they harvest. Hey, I do that too! Except their boxes are loaded onto a golf cart. Oh, that's too cool.

At the back of this garden is a children's garden. It's set up to teach about different aspects of gardening. There are compost bins, a spinning chart diagramming what vegetables are grown for each season, and a few other activities. It was in this area that I found a passionflower plant. I've seen these many places we've visited over the years, but I never get tired of them. This bee feels similarly I think.

Bee passionate!

Back inside the building, we saw an exhibition, Hungry Planet: What the World Eats. The show features large photographs of 30 families, in their kitchens, from around the world with a weeks worth of food displayed before them (in the photograph). Beside each photograph is a list of what's pictured, where they are from, and how much it costs. I found it fascinating. Most of the photographs had an abundance of food in them. More than I would think a family would eat in a week. A book of the same title, was published in 2005.

In the lobby, wine stations lined a wall. (You'll have to click that link to see the photo. Blogger only allows five images per entry, although they are hosted on my website, go figure.) They're sort of wine tasting vending machines. Visitors can purchase a card with a spending amount, and then select the wine of your choosing from the vending machines by inserting the card. A taste, half or full portion is poured from a spout into your waiting glass. It was early in the day and we didn't feel like trying it. No one else was either. They thought of everything, down to a spit bucket supplied next to each machine for pouring out whatever you choose not to finish. I noticed at the tastings we had been to, most people drink most of what they are given to taste. I did not see one person actually spit wine from their mouth after tasting, although books on the subject insist this is how it's done. I imagine it would get pretty unhygienic pretty fast, so I'm glad people just swallowed their wine. Everywhere we went in Central California, we found wine tasting. I found this a bit amusing. Not surprising that wineries would have wine tasting, but I saw tastings set up even in little roadside delicatessens. I imagine it would go something like this, "Yeah, I'll take a pint of potato salad, a ham and cheese sandwich, and uh, set me up a flight of wine, will ya?"

Napa, CA

2007-09-23T10:14:00.001-04:00

Recently, hubby and I took a trip out to California. We'd never been there together and never been to this part of the big state. We saw a lot of sites on this trip. It wasn't so much a relaxing vacation, as it was a drive around and see things vacation. A change of scenery is good every once in a while. Makes you come home with fresh eyes.

I'm only going to show just a few pictures of the different areas we visited. Just to give a sense of what it was like. They are not in chronological order or anything like that. Below we have a picture from an early morning. We decided to get up early and go take pictures. That's more my kind of lighting than the sharp, hot afternoon sun of Napa. This was actually, our last day there. I had briefly considered getting up at 5:00 a.m. to go on a hot air balloon ride, and then let that idea drift right on out of my head. Guess it wasn't meant to be. I took this picture as they were landing in an open area of a vineyard. We watched them deflate the balloon. Something neither one of us had ever seen before. It's quite beautiful. It's so cool and quiet out there. They just simply stop giving the balloon hot air and then give the fabric a tug. The balloon cascades down to the ground like a waterfall with a sound akin to rain.

This view is from the observation deck at Sterling Vineyard. We were told we had to go there by a few different sources. You take a tram up a hill from the parking area to the building. Then you go on a self-guided tour, stopping along the way to watch flat panel video screens with talking heads. Every so often, a human appears at a station where you get a taste of wine in your glass, which you've been carrying around with you. The observation deck is but one stop along the way, where you get a taste of Rosé. A beautiful view, I will admit. At the end, you're funneled into a less scenic deck and wine shop where you taste a few more wines and if you wish, purchase some. I found Sterling to be a bit cold and impersonal, such as it's name implies. Well, we did our prerequisite stop there, so we were allowed to leave Napa unscathed.

Some cows grazing in a pasture. Behind me, were workers picking grapes. Morning is the best time for harvesting grapes as it is still cool. We drew some curious looks from humans and beast alike, as we were on a back road away from the noise and crazed morning drivers heading off to work. Somethings are the same where ever you go.

What would a trip to Napa be without a picture of grapes. They're here, there, and everywhere. Even in the front yards of people's homes. FYI, these were in a vineyard.

An olive grove at Rutterford Hill Winery. The olives produced on these trees are sent out and processed into their own olive oil. I found the olive trees quite pretty with their small leaves and fruits. The leaves fall to the ground creating their own mulch, which is pretty and useful. The staff of this Winery were warm and welcoming. They gave us a (human) guided tour and tastes of many of their delicious wines. Another unique feature of this winery is the man-made wine caves cut into the hillside. These caves keep the temperature at an even sixty degrees, regardless of the outdoor weather. No air conditioning required.

Duck, Duck, Geese!

2007-09-21T21:11:00.000-04:00

Okay, it's catch up time. I have lots to tell you and show you. Where have I been? California. But lets not put the cart before the horse, right. First, I have some more photos from the fair to show you... other than my last post of winnings.

First since I mentioned them, the ducks. Aren't they cute with their little head puffs? I wish I could have fowl, but alas, it is not allowed in our zoning. Yes, I learned that the day of our closing on our house. Funny as it may seem, that is actually stipulated in the rules for our subdivision. At the time, that was a bit a joke to me. I even made a joke about it. Our lawyer, ever the serious one, informed me what fowl was, as if I didn't know. Anyway, on to the ducks.

Isn't that funny how they positioned themselves? Just ducky.

Can't have ducks without geese can we? These aren't your average geese, not your golf course poopin' variety. I just want to reach out and smooth those neck feathers.

A pretty cow, if I ever saw one. She even has long eyelashes. What's your secret Miss?

Look at this precious little lamb. Doesn't he look cold without his wool?
I just want to give him a hug.

I love this Llama. So contemplative. Or maybe he's just hamming it up for the camera.
Something tells me he's the life of the party. He's lookin a mighty wistful.

I love farm animals.

How Do Ya Like Dem 'Maters!

2007-09-09T08:54:00.000-04:00

I know I haven't posted in a while. I've just been non-stop busy. No time for blogging. Not much time even for replying to emails no less. It's that time of year, the time when tomatoes are just about ready to take over my house. They even show up in my dreams. It's the avalanche of tomatoes. I've been busy preserving the harvest. I've made sauce, salsa, V8 juice (note to self, count the number of "V's" may really be V7 juice), canned tomatoes, pickles and dilly beans. Oh and I made a small batch of strawberry jam back in June, which I’m hording for the winter. I have some more ideas about ways to use my tomatoes, but time will tell if I get around to it.

A few years ago, Molly had asked me to enter some vegetables in the fair. I sort of brushed off the idea. I doubted my stuff was fair material. Then with prodding from other family members too, I decided that I’d do it this year. I’ve never been a competitive person. I really don’t compare myself to others usually. Only trying do to better than I had before. Only in competition with myself. But also, I open to change as the years go on. Just because I never did something before, doesn’t mean that I can’t do it now and vice versa.

Thursday night was the time to bring my entries to the fair. The tough part is knowing what is going to be looking good by then. The timing is just a week or two later than my peak for veggies and flowers. Everything was looking picture perfect not long ago. The entry form has to be submitted ahead of time, and then they mail back to you tags to attach to your entries. So I signed up for things that were looking good at the time, not knowing if they’d make it or not.

So Thursday night, I was having a hard time getting myself together. Just one of those days. All the tasks that had to get done looming over me, made me feel as though I was stuck in molasses or something. I started to think about throwing in the towel and forget about entering anything. Hubby rallied me and after some coaxing, I snapped out of the molasses and kicked it into high gear. These were my entires:

Sungold tomatoes in the Tomatoes – cherry – orange category, 10 to a plate.

Black Cherry tomatoes in the Tomatoes – other category, they didn’t specify how many, but I figured it should be 10 like the cherry categories.

Viva Italia in the Tomatoes – Red Plum category, 5 to a plate.

Aurora Peppers in the Peppers – other category, 5 to a plate.

Annual flowers- Nasturtiums – 2-5 stems

Baking – Sugar Cookies – 6 to a plate.

Baking – Banana-bran muffins in the muffins other category.

Canning – Spaghetti Sauce

Canning – Salsa

I had signed up for some other things, but really didn’t feel they were perfect enough to enter that day. So they stayed home. Here are the results. Of the nine categories I entered, only two did not result in ribbons. Not bad for a first try.

My first year making Salsa for canning purposes. Third place is not bad. The volunteer working the canning section, told me Spaghetti Sauce was their biggest category with the most entries. Said first place was impressive.

My first place plum tomatoes. They sure are pretty. We ate these folded within some chicken cutlets for dinner Sunday night. They finally fulfilled their destiny. They were some tasty prize winning tomatoes.

My first place Sugar Cookies. I make a mean sugar cookie.

Black Cherry tomatoes took second place in the "Tomatoes Other" class. First place went to some tiny current tomatoes.

My favorites, Sungolds took second place to only a slightly larger, less orange entry.

Aurora Peppers took first place in their class.

Sunday, I got to take my entries back and pick up my ribbons attached to them. According to the premium book, I have some money coming to me too. It’s not much, a few dollars for each prize. I think that just may cover my seed purchases that will resume this winter. Well, SOME of my seed purchases at least. Hey, it’s seed money!

We harvested a lot of tomatoes this weekend as I mentioned. I forgot to weigh them, but the dining room table was covered with all types, large beefsteak, medium, paste (plum), and cherry. I fretted about what to do with this wealth of lycopene enriched goodness. I ate one for lunch, not much of a dent in the pile, but every bit helps. I sent some over to various neighbors, but still had quite a bit left after that. Already exhausted from making sauce and pickles this weekend, I couldn’t face doing anymore this week.

I put the tomatoes gently in a box and set them by my mailbox in front of my house. “Free Tomatoes” a sign read. Went about my business of going to the fair to pick up, returned home and it did not look as though anyone had helped themselves. Sad, but Sunday is a quiet day around the neighborhood. I really couldn’t stand to think of them going to waste. I thought, maybe some of the staff would be around at the town golf course up the road. It never hurts to butter them up. Drove my box of ‘maters up to the golf course and it was pretty desolate with a sign on the door “Course Closed”. Huh? Turns out it was a tournament.

The restaurant, Café on the Green (a nice place with pretty views of the greens) and snack bar were both open with golfers hanging around. Hubby thought maybe they might take some tomatoes home. He brought the box in to the snack bar and spotted the restaurant owner sitting there eating his dinner. Tracy is his name. Hubby had played golf with him a few times, being paired up as singles. He asked him if it would be okay for us to give away these tomatoes. Tracy popped a few cherry tomatoes in his mouth and said, “Don’t give them away. I’ll pay you.” He gave us $20 for the box of tomatoes. Considering we were going to give them away for free, that was pretty good. More seed money! I was quite tickled by the exchange. Tracy told me to bring up any extra I cared to sell him in the future. Voila! I’m now officially a farmer.

Fingers Digging For Fingerlings

2007-08-26T16:38:00.000-04:00

13 pounds of LaRatte Fingerling Potatoes harvested and washed off.

Some people dig their potatoes with a hoe, a broadfork, or shovel. In fact pretty much every gardening book I've read, says to do so... carefully. My first ever harvested potato (last year) was impaled by a hand trowel. I was extremely excited to find that potato on the end of my trowel however. It wasn't very easy to find. I kept digging and digging. I thought that maybe I wasn't a successful potato grower. Maybe nothing had happened under the soil. My spirits were starting to falter. But, I told myself, "My vines had grown, they had died back, and there are supposed to be potatoes down there dag nabbit!" I had to know for sure. I couldn't leave it to chance that there might be potatoes lurking under the soil. So I dug down deep, deeper than I thought they'd be, and I came up with a potato stuck to my trowel. Hubby was in the backyard doing something to the grass or whatever. I called over to him, "John! I found a potato." No response. I shouted even louder, "I found a POTATO!" That did the trick and he joined me in the garden to help with the potato harvest.

At that point, I sort of lost my aspirations, at least for that season, as a potato harvester since I ruined that first one. I was happy to have company to share my happy potato luck anyway. Hubby took over as the digger of spuds. He gently dug around dislodging each potato from the earth by hand. To me, it's sort of like an easter egg hunt or digging for buried treasure. You never know how much you will find.

The thing is, my garden is situated in the sunniest location we have. That location happens to be on our sloping backyard. The first summer, I just planted my veggies (no potatoes that year) right in the ground with rows going up and down the hill. It was difficult to weed and just generally do anything that way. I don't think the plants minded, but I knew there was a better way. I had always wanted raised beds, before we even had a garden. I thought they looked neater and more orderly and, just easier to maintain. Then when I finally got my garden spot, it was clear that raised beds were definitely the way to go. It's much easier when gardening on a slope.

But... potatoes in a raised bed? Sure, why not. It seems to be working. The only difference, as far as I can see, is in the harvesting. There's not a lot of room for coming in at an angle with a gardening implement to pry the spuds from the ground. So we do it by hand. Your hands are probably the best garden tools around. Can't get any gentler than that for harvesting potatoes. Well, maybe if we used little brushes as the archaeologists do, that could be gentler, but it sure would slow us down. That would be a bit silly I guess, but I like the mental image of us out there brushing the dirt away from our potatoes one at a time. It is fun to dig in with our hands and feel around for them. This is not a task for those that are squeamish about bugs, worms, and other crawly things. Chances are, if you have a garden, you’ll get over that squeamishness quickly because who has time for that when you have work to do?

This weekend we dug some of the potatoes. There are still more plants out there. I’ll probably dig those in a couple more weeks. Here’s a quick video (about 2 minutes) of some of our potato digging day. I did dive in and dig out potatoes with my hands as well. That is after I put the camera away. And yes, we did have potatoes for dinner last night, because we eat what we grow.

To view this video, click the play button (arrow) in the image below. To view additional times, click the refresh button of your web browser, and then click the play button.

Three Ears, A Nose, and A Catface

2007-08-20T11:21:00.000-04:00

Hubby snapped this picture while I was preparing the rest of our dinner. Corn shucking is one of his unofficial, but appreciated duties.

Friday night was corn night. I picked my first three ears. Now I know I was a little early, so I'll give them some more time before picking anymore. The two bigger ears were nicely filled out, but the tips still seemed immature, so I think they could have gone longer. The third ear, was small and I knew that, but picked it anyway. What can I say, I couldn't wait anymore. The corn was delicious, tender. It was picked and minutes later, slipped into the boiling water.

Corn really doesn't need much cooking. The more you cook it, the tougher it gets. Not to toot my own horn, but I've often been complimented on my corn cooking. The secret, I cook it for six minutes. That's all you need. I dare say, you could even do less! But I've been doing it for six minutes for so long and getting good results, that I'm going to stick with it.

Since this was our first serving of corn from the garden, I cooked it simply, only boiling it and eating it off the cob with butter and a little salt. I think my favorite method for cooking corn is on the grill. Grilling seems to enhance the flavor. Try squeezing some lime on your corn before eating, it's really tasty.

Here's a funny little tomato I've been watching in the garden. He's got a nose! I had one with a nose like this last year too. Unfortunately, he got tomato-napped by a critter before he ripened. I decided not to take a chance this time and photographed him while at the blushing point.

This nosy little tomato is from my mystery plant. At least I can get some entertainment out of this wrong plant.

Catface? This doesn't look like my cat's faces. They're cute and this is... well... not pretty. I don't know who coined the term catfacing, must not have been someone owned by cats, but that is what they call it when tomatoes (or other fruit) turns out deformed like this. It's due to environmental factors like low temperatures during pollination or self pollenization (tomatoes). Some varieties are more prone to it. It's not something you can control. So don't worry about it. The tomato is still edible and still tasty. You just have to do some fancy cutting. You don't really want to eat the leathery brown parts. Use these tomatoes for your salsa or bruschetta, where you'll be dicing them anyway.

Catfacing can look even more contorted than this Paul Robeson tomato. Thankfully, not all of the tomatoes on this plant are catfaced.

Picky Picker Pickin' Pretty Produce

2007-08-16T09:34:00.000-04:00

Monday, paste tomatoes start ripening in quantity.

Yes, that would be me, the picky one. That's what certain family members call me, and I admit it, I am picky. It's not a bad thing, I think. My hubby says that's a good thing that I'm picky because I picked him. I agree. Being picky also drives me seek out the best and also do my best. It's a good thing.

Once you start growing your own veggies, you get even pickier. Yes, it's true, sorry to say it. Subpar just won't do. How can you go back once you taste the crispiest of cucumbers, a truly vine ripened tomato, or crunchy snap beans fresh from your own garden?

It's August, time for picking. Lots of picking. Time to start doing something with all these tomatoes. Last year, I made sauce, lots of sauce, my own homemade roasted tomato sauce. I then canned and processed it. Canned sounds like I put it in tin cans or something. Canning is just the term for preserving food. The sauce was sealed in glass jars and then processed in a steam canner to ensure that it would not spoil. It's really not as hard as it may sound. Is it time consuming? Sure, but then in the winter when we want a quick dinner, I can just pop open a jar and there we have a homemade meal. My my, I sound so domestic. Make no mistake, I see myself as a career girl... who also likes to grow things... and eat them.

This time around, I plan to make sauce again, but also a few other things. Maybe can a few tomatoes straight up, and try my hand at Salsa. I'll let you know what I decide. I'll have to start processing tomatoes this weekend. I've been picking about 15 pounds of tomatoes a day.

Tuesday, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, artichokes and cucumbers.

Wednesday, I decided I was in the mood for some fresh fingerling potatoes. I dug up some Rose Apple Finn potatoes. As the vines were starting to dry up and die back, I knew they wouldn't produce anymore. Potatoes can be harvested at anytime, but for maximum output, wait for the vines to dry up. I dug these myself, but prefer to do it with hubby. He's more thorough about finding them all. I'll have to wait for him on the next ones. Since fingerlings don't store very well, I've become less shy about harvesting some as the mood strikes. Saturday, we ate a healthy amount roasted on the grill, for dinner. Last night we ate some of these, pan cooked with garlic and thyme. Very tasty and the texture is wonderful.

My snappy beans are producing again. I picked a good amount. I have a second planting of beans that I haven't started harvesting yet. Soon though.

Wednesday, potatoes and a second crop of beans from those first plants.

More tomatoes and the first of my gold zucchini. I planted those zucchini seeds July 7. Three seeds planted and three plants grew. Five weeks later, we have fruits to pick.

Thursday, more tomatoes, a Pickling Cucumber, and two Gold Zucchini.

Well, well, well, what do we have here? I found this nice ripe tomato hanging on the vine with a bite taken from it. It was the only one, so I have to rule out nocturnal critters. If a critter got in there at night, when we are indoors asleep, he would have gone down the line taking bites out of all of the tomatoes. How do I know this? Because that is exactly what happened last year. It was a mess. I don't know how many tomatoes I lost to that critter, but it was a lot. Since there was only one tomato in this condition, I have to think it was a squirrel. They sneak into the garden occasionally. Being diurnal, they have to be quick, strike and get out before someone sees them.

Uh oh, a critter took a bite out of this tomato!

Finding this tomato, makes me more vigilant. I have to pick those tomatoes fast before I lose them to critters. If they are not completely, utterly ripe, I put them on the counter for a few days before using them. Now a home grown tomato is a bit different when it's ripe. I mean deep color and soft flesh, that kind of ripe tomato. Some ask, how do I know when a non-red tomato is ripe? This is a good question because a ripe tomato in my garden may not match the pictures of the seed catalog. Most seed growers are located in warm and sunny places like Florida for example. So called black tomatoes will have a much deeper color in hot climate than it would in Connecticut.

I've learned to feel my tomatoes. When they start to soften, I take them from the vine. Usually, a few days on the counter does the trick and they get even more flavorful with that last bit of ripening. One could leave it on the vine for those extra days, but then you take a chance that your tomato might get tomato-napped by a critter, or a heavy rain could cause it to split, or insect could decide to make it their lunch. So a few days early is okay. As long as it has colored up most of the way, and is starting to soften. Some folks who have really bad insect or critter or cracking problems, will pick their tomatoes as soon as they start to blush. That's too early for my taste. In my opinion, that will never get to be as flavorful as a fully ripened on the vine tomato. However, if it's pick at blush, or lose the tomato completely, I'd just pick it early and call it a day. What you will get is much more vine ripened than what the grocery store labels as vine ripened... trust me.

Now, I've mentioned several times about setting tomatoes on the counter. You will never, ever find a tomato in the refrigerator at my house. Why? Because they don't belong there. The only reason to put a tomato in the refrigerator is if you want it to lose all it's flavor. But then, why would you want that? Exactly my point. No refrigerator! No!

A closer look at Sebring Gold Zucchini. Pretty yellow.

Home Is Where the Cats Are

2007-08-13T10:31:00.000-04:00

Had a busy weekend. The kind where we are just going and going and there's no relaxation to speak of. And by relaxation, I mean sitting around doing nothing. You know, real relaxation, where you're home on the couch like a lump. Didn't get much sleep because of just staying up late and then not being able to sleep, otherwise known as insomnia, Saturday night. Had a family party to go to Sunday too. Before leaving the house, we got the cats inside, safe and sound. Upon returning home that night, we are greeted with sleepy, blinking eyes, welcoming us at the door.

Henry and Clarence, our two cats, were very lovey last night. Hubby and I each get a cat to snuggle and settled in on the couch for a while before going to bed. As I held Clarence, I thought, yup, home is where the cat is, there's no doubt about that. We don't have many pictures of that because of a thing called cat priority©. Cat priority dictates, if you have a cat on your lap, you do not have to get up to do anything. The person without a cat, has to get up and do whatever you ask, reach the remote, get a drink, whatever. In the case where both people have cat priority, they basically cancel each other out and no one has to do anything.

My favorite picture of Henry of late, is this one I shot last week. I was leaving the house to do some errands and there he was in the window box. I had to go back inside and get my camera and take a few pictures. He was a bit sleepy. Cute nonetheless. Some scratches convinced him to wake up for a quick photo.

A few flowers got mushed, but who could blame him for liking that spot?

It's hard for me to get pictures of the cats doing cute things. They always walk to me when they see me. Leaving whatever picturesque spot they are in, breaking whatever cute pose, to come say hi and get a petting. I have to be quick and also persistent and carrying around a camera doesn't hurt either.

Clarence has a way of hanging his paws off the back porch in a cute fashion.

Here are some video clips of our purring, furry babies. One of the perks of cat ownership, and by that I mean being owned by a cat, is the lullaby of the purr and the soft fur and then the next thing you know you're drifting off to sleee..... Oops! You gotta watch out, they'll sleepify© you!

Cool As A Cucumber

2007-08-10T16:37:00.000-04:00

How long did I sleep anyway? It feels like fall today. It's cool, in the mid 50's and very wet. I awoke to rain and it hasn't stopped raining all day it seems. My rain gauge so far has registered 1.5 inches. That's a lot of rain. It makes me sleepy. I've been trying to cut down on the caffeine and only have a cup of coffee in the morning. Today, I may have to give in and have a coke and a smile.

Another thing that is cool and wet, like this day, is the cucumber. You really haven't had a cucumber till you've eaten one that was cut from the vine that very day. No waxy film on the skin. Just a good crisp juicy cucumber. We eat them just about every evening as an after work snack. Cut into sticks and dipped in ranch dressing, is my favorite way, or sometimes with just a sprinkle of salt.

My cucumber bed is overflowing. I can't seem to keep up with the production. I way over planted this year thinking that nature (insects) would thin the seedlings for me, as they did last year. But, guess what? They all lived. I'm not very good with the thinning. I hate to pull out perfectly good seedlings. Especially when anything can happen along the way and then I might have to start from the beginning all over again. So, lets just say we have extra cukes and that's better than no cukes in my book.

Each year, I like to try something I haven't before. So I picked out this cool looking cucumber. I really didn't know exactly what it would look like when I planted the seed, but it sure does look like it's name, Richmond Green Apple. This variety comes from Australia. Doesn't it look like a perfect little apple? Half apple, half cucumber, but only in looks. Very cute. It fits neatly in the palm of my hand, so not too big. It tastes like a regular cucumber. Not the most productive however. This is the first I've harvested. That's okay with me, because, well, you know why.

Richmond Green Apple Cucumber sitting on a log.

I thought it might be neat to see what a pickle looks like before it gets picked and then pickled. See those prickly black things? Those are the spines. Some cucumber spines are black and some are white. They do stick you when you grab a cucumber, but they don't hurt much and don't make me itch or anything. They are easily removed from the cuke while I wash them off. I just rub vigorously under running water. If you don't remove the spines before storing in the refrigerator, they get kind of mushy and stick to the cucumber. Not a big deal, but I like to remove them. Another thing you'll notice in this picture is the dried up flower on the tip.

Burpee Pickler Cucumber. I use these to make pickles, but they taste great straight from the garden too.

Wanna see another neat cucumber? I thought so. Here is a Mexican Sour Gherkin. It's not really technically a cucumber, but more classified as a melon, a very tiny melon. Cucumber, melon, they're all in the same family anyway. This little guy is very small, even by cucumber standards. They are eaten whole with the skin on. I've heard reports that they are a bit sour and also a bit bitter. I guess taste is in the tongue of the taster. I haven't tasted any yet. Reason being that they are said to be ripe and ready for harvest, when they fall off the vine. I'm not exactly sure how this is going to work. I keep checking every day and I keep thinking they're going to get lost down there on the ground. I'm tempted to just pluck one and eat it and see. If it weren't raining, I just get up and go out and do it right now... maybe tomorrow.

Mexican Sour Gherkin. Now that's a cute one.

The birds and the bees, the flowers and the trees... How do we get cucumbers anyway? Well, there's the female flower and that looks like a baby cucumber with a bright yellow flower on the end. She sits there and waits.

Then there's a male flower. He just looks like a regular flower on a regular stem attached to the vine. He just sits there and waits. Then Mr. Bee comes along and transfers the pollen from the male flower to the female flower.

The bees are constantly buzzing around my cucumber bed. It's a cool place to hang out if you're a bee.

Missteps & Mix Ups

2007-08-09T08:59:00.000-04:00

Silver Queen Corn not far from time for picking, my favorite Sungold tomatoes, Artichokes snipped for dinner.

Things have been moving along rapidly in the garden lately. We have a bountiful supply of tomatoes and cucumbers. Corn is filling out it's cobs. Artichokes are budding out. Squashes are flowering. Things are happening! There's a lot I could be writing about. I have blog topics aplenty in my head, waiting to be unleashed through my fingers, to the keyboard, and out to the world. Are you there world? Are you reading this? Who knows. Maybe my ramblings are just drifting off out there in the cyber ether. I haven't made the time to blog lately. Part of that has to do with losing half a day this week to a benadryl induced snooze.

Tuesday, seemed like a good day to do my spraying. The gardens were way overdue for fungicide and fruit tree spray. I did my fungicide spray in the veggie garden first. It was pretty uneventful and I got the job done with relative ease. Then as my routine dictates, I leave the veggie garden and go spray the roses next. I walked through my side garden where my flowers reside. My rubber boots crunched on the gravel path as I attempted to walk quickly on it. The faster I try to walk, the harder it is to get going, and I remember that this path was not meant for walking fast. It was put there so that I could slow down and listen to the pleasing sound of the crunching gravel and take a look at my plantings. So I deliberately slow down my pace a notch. I continue down the path spraying any roses along the way, and out onto the grassy front lawn, spray/walk, spray/walk, spray/walk. I hear a buzz in my ear and shake my pony tail at it, giving it no more thought. Spray/walk/buzz, spray/walk/buzz, spray/walk/buzz.

Next up, is the fruit tree spray. I go to the garage, put away the fungicide sprayer and get out the hose end fruit tree spray applicator, a measuring cup, and the jug of home orchard spray. Measure out the appropriate amount, mix in the right amount of water, twist on top, and walk through the side garden again, this time to get to the front yard to the apple and peach tree. I hear a buzz again in my ear. Disregard it. Unroll the hose, drag it out to the trees, attach hose end sprayer, and spray trees liberally. It's a pretty quick job and I'm finished speedily. Walk back through the side garden toward the crabappple tree. Buzz, buzz, buzz. I turn my head to look at it and think, "Hmm, a wasp. Nothing unusual there. Good thing he didn't sting me on my face when I swung my ponytail at him."

I always do the crabapple tree last because I use up the remaining spray on the tree. It's a large tree with two trunks. Just the night before, I noticed a big crack in the left trunk. We're going to have to cut that off. I thought that the tree will probably look funny missing half of it's width. Maybe we should just take the whole thing down. It's a bother to take care of, I have to spray it so it doesn't get devoured by insects. But... hubby and I both feel bad to take down a tree at all. When the arborist was here talking to me about my trees, when we moved in a couple years ago, he completely glossed over the crabapple tree, "Oh that thing?" But that thing, makes pretty flowers in the spring. It's a big source of food for the squirrels and deer. It gives them something to eat other than my beautiful plantings and my prized tomato crops. So I've been taking care of it. This year it produced it's biggest, nicest looking crop of crabapples yet. Taking care of it is paying off in apples. Those lucky squirrels.

Crabapples aplenty weighing down this poor tree.

I do my routine quickly as I've gotten it down by now. Unroll hose, attach sprayer, commence spraying. See? It's not hard. I already have the fruit tree spray out and mixed up, might as well spray the crabapple tree. How much more work is that? First I do the left side, the side that's hanging on, but would reach the ground the next day. Then as I look up at the tree examining where I have sprayed and where I need to spray next, it happens. I stepped into an in-ground wasp nest. I didn't notice at first what I had done, but then I felt a pinch/prick on my... ahem derriere. What the...? I turn my head and look. Ack! There's wasps on me! Many wasps! I have chills now just thinking about it. I did exactly what you're not supposed to do. I screamed, dropped my hose, and ran. I ran toward the house. Looked again, "They're still there! What to do? What do I do?" Pinch/prick, pinch/prick, pinch/prick. I wanted them off of me and fast. Clarence was on the back patio and ran away. I don't blame him. So I did the only thing I could think of to do. I quickly pulled my pants off, got in the house, and kicked my boots and pants outside with wasps wrapped inside, shut the door. Safe now.

Gosh that was scary. I took some benadryl to ward off the allergic reaction of the venom, took a shower to calm down, and got some ice packs. I had three areas to tend to, back of my calf, front of my thigh, and the afore mentioned other area. Each with multiple wounds. Soon I was in a stupor half way between sleep and wake. Then unable to keep my eyes open, I drift off to sleep.

I awoke later, calmed down, and now growing angry at those... those... things! How dare they! So hubby did his spousal duty, he destroyed the wasp nest and it's inhabitants. They didn't go easily. It took two tries and two days, but now, they are no more. Sure we still have stray wasps flying around, but not en masse, swarming by a hole in the ground. Turns out, the nest is next to a rotting tree trunk, left there by the previous owner. The roots underground rotted and left a cavity under the grassy edge of our back woods, that was perfect for a wasp home.

Gardening is not all pretty pictures, that's for sure. It's filled with gaffs, and mistakes, and missteps. But sometimes, most of the time, it's really a joy. That's coming from me just two days after being attacked by wasps. I want to reiterate, these were wasps not bees. My big fuzzy bee friends would not do that to me. We coexist peacefully. I plant extra flowers to make them happy. They pollinate my veggies. Everyone's happy.

A fruit of my labor, but what exactly is this tomato?

And while I'm at it. While I'm exposing the sad tale of my fruit tree maintenance, I might as well share another tragedy. Well, not really a tragedy. Just a mix up. Seems what I thought was Cherokee Purple tomato seed was not in fact, Cherokee Purple tomato seed. I had a suspicion as it grew that something just wasn't right. The growth habit of the overall plant seemed too short. Much shorter than the other indeterminate plants, at only 3 feet. Then it's tomatoes, they were round and small, at about 3.5 ounces. Cherokee purple is supposed to be oblate, a bit ruffled, and much larger. I waited for them to grow bigger. Then they started a ripening, uh, red tomatoes? No. Nope. This is not Cherokee Purple. Can't be. I started researching and sure enough, others had gotten this same seed from this seed source, with the same results. So it wasn't just one rogue crossed seed that made it into the packet. Oh boo hoo. I really was looking forward to Cherokee Purple. It's so disappointing when you believe you are going to get a certain variety. You buy the seeds. You plant them indoors at the dead of winter. You nurture them for months, four months and then some, with anticipation and visions of purple tomatoes dancing in your head and... and... and then let down. Not the right thing. It is not to be. Maybe next year. Better luck next year.

Not Cherokee Purple and not going to be in my garden next year.

Eat What You Grow!

2007-08-06T14:58:00.000-04:00

Within a few days, I expect to have a few more different tomato varieties to show. In the meantime, we've been eating the Super Bush and Azoychka tomatoes as they ripen. So far, we've been able to keep up with production.

Here we have dinner ingredients from a dinner last week. This is my first artichoke picked from my own plant! Of my six plants, all now have buds on them. Also included is a Super Bush tomato, six fingerling potatoes, and a bulb of garlic all from my garden.

Dinner ingredients scrubbed clean and looking pretty.

Gardening isn't all pretty pictures. Sometimes you have to get your hands dirty before you can taste the fruits of your labor. I had extra seed potatoes left over after I had filled my designated areas for planting potatoes this spring. I decided to put them in a container that I drilled drainage holes into and filled with soil. After the plants started growing, I filled the container further with straw. These containers are much easier for finding "new" potatoes when the urge strikes.

Those aren't my dirty fingers! Although they do resemble them, they are fingerling potatoes, aptly named.

Here is the dinner I made with those ingredients! Chicken stuffed with tomato and garlic, pan cooked potatoes with lemon and olives, and a steamed artichoke for sharing.

More ingredients than not are from my garden. Satisfying in more ways than one.

Here we have our tomato salad for dinner last night. This is my new favorite! For this I used Azoychka and Super Bush tomatoes, basil, Italian flat leaf parsley, and garlic from my garden. It's a concoction made with balsamic vinegar that is reduced down to a syrupy consistency. The reduction produces a thick sweet sauce. While that cools, mix olive oil, garlic, green and black olives, basil, parsley, black pepper and capers. Spoon the olive mixture over sliced tomatoes. Then pour the balsamic reduction over the whole thing. I let this sit at room temperature after assembling it before serving. It's sweet, it's salty, it's tomato heaven.

Tomato Salad... delicious!

With 1.5 pounds of Viva Italia Tomatoes, I was able to make Roasted Tomato Soup. A family favorite, we rarely have leftovers. The only soup I eat in summer! We don't have a picture since my anxious dining companions were awaiting it's completion.

Viva Italia are paste tomatoes. A designation given to meaty, less juicy, less seedy tomatoes that are good for use in cooking.

Okay, I admit it, I'm an over grower. My eyes are bigger than my garden and I grow way more than we can consume. These tomatoes are easy to share with friends and neighbors. I picked another batch of cherry tomatoes the same size two days later. These extra tomatoes will get added to the pot when I start making sauce soon. There's no such thing as extra tomatoes around here.

At all hours of the day, we snack on the ever abundant cherry tomatoes.

You Say Toe-mah-to

2007-07-31T10:23:00.000-04:00

I say Tomato! Tomato! Tomato! I finally picked my first three tomatoes. Well, first full sized tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes have been ripening for a couple weeks. Wanna see them? Okay great!

Azoychka Tomato, bottom and top.

This ripe tomato snuck up on me. I thought that Super Bush would be the first, but it was a tie. Picked at day 69 from setting the plants out in the garden. This tomato is right on schedule with the estimated days to maturity (DTM) of their seed packet. See that cracking? No biggy, just cut it away. The tomato is still just fine to eat. Tomatoes often have scarring on the top or shoulders. For that reason, I store tomatoes upside down, shoulders down, so that if any bruising occurs, it's on the part that most likely will be cut away.

Azoychka sliced

Bright yellow inside, this is one happy tomato. I forgot to weigh it. I was a little bit excited about eating my first tomato and stopping to get a picture was about as much thought as I put into it. But based on experience, I'd say it was about 7 ounces. It was just the right amount for piling on a sandwich.

Azoychka sandwich with bacon. Only half left because I had already eaten the first half
when I thought to take this picture.

I said I was going to have a BLT, but I left off the L. I like it better this way anyway. It has been said in descriptions, that Azoychka has a hint of citrus. I would agree with that. It is just a hint. A nice contrast to the saltiness of the other ingredients of the sandwich. And the color... you just can't get a prettier yellow than that. Try this heirloom from Russia.

Super Bush tomato. These are the ones we've been watching. They weigh 13 oz and 6 oz.

Here is the 6 oz tomato sliced, one small slice missing, due to being tasted.

Well, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised at the flavor in this tomato. Somehow, I got a prejudice in my head about container or "patio" tomatoes. But the description did say this would be a good tomato and it is indeed! Meaty, juicy, a little sweet. Good tomato. Definitely worth growing. A great find for anyone growing in containers. This plant is compact and very sturdy. A minimal amount of staking is required to keep the top heavy plant from flopping over. I did not prune it at all. Lots more tomatoes to come on this plant as well.

Cherry tomato line-up. Left to right, Tumbling Tom (red), Tumbling Tom Yellow,
Black Cherry, Sungold, Ildi, and Grape

Okay, cherry tomatoes, don't feel left out. We love you too. Hubby and I snack on these all the time. He really gets a kick out of picking and eating them right in the garden, while I point out everything I'm growing. I like to pick a bowl full and set them on the table for passersby to pluck as needed (wanted).

My absolute favorite is the sungold. These are little orange nuggets of goodness. They are very sweet, very fruity, very abundant and early with the first ripe fruits coming in at 45 days from planting out. My second favorite, I got to try for the first time last night, and that is black cherry. Very good, sweet little tomato. I've only eaten one so far, so I'll have to eat more before I can give a thorough review.

Sunshine Makes Me Happy

2007-07-30T12:54:00.000-04:00

Every morning when I wake up, the first thing I do when I get out of bed is look out the window. Seeing the sun splash across my lawn starts the day off well. Then, I think of just one line of a John Denver song, “Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy,” because it does! It probably makes me corny, but that's okay.

John Denver was at the height of his career when I was a kid. His songs are part of the sound track of my childhood. They are ingrained in my brain. He appeared on favorite shows like "The Muppets" and the movie “Oh God!” opposite George Burns. He was a gentle soul too, and had a love of nature. I think that may be part of the reason he was appealing to the little kid Jen.

Little Me with Sunshine On My Shoulders.
My hair was puffy, even then.

Later, the grown up Jen, met and fell in love with, and married a gentle soul named John, and he was born in Denver (Colorado that is). This is what he looked like in 1974. Yup, he had a John Denver album to boot. Maybe that influenced the haircut, or maybe it was that just about every boy his age had that look. My John, didn’t have that haircut anymore, all those years later when I met him.

Hubby in 1974.
A future photographer, that intent gaze means he's watching the school photographer.

Since I've got that song in my head now, I can't get it out. Maybe the song can get stuck in someone else's head and it can leave mine. Here's the lyrics, you can sing along next time you're driving in the car on a sunny day.

Sunshine On My Shoulders by John Denver

Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy 
Sunshine in my eyes can make me cry 
Sunshine on the water looks so lovely 
Sunshine almost always makes me high
  
If I had a day that I could give you 
I'd give to you the day just like today 
If I had a song that I could sing for you 
I'd sing a song to make you feel this way

Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy
Sunshine in my eyes can make me cry
Sunshine on the water looks so lovely
Sunshine almost always makes me high

If I had a tale that I could tell you
I'd tell a tale sure to make you smile
If I had a wish that I could wish for you
I'd make a wish for sunshine for all the while

Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy
Sunshine in my eyes can make me cry
Sunshine on the water looks so lovely
Sunshine almost all the time makes me high

John Denver, Conservationist and Musician

Sneak Peeks

2007-07-30T10:19:00.000-04:00

Henry is curious as cats are known to be, but he is especially interested in any work requiring tools. He's a man's cat. Not fond of the noise, he watches from outside, on the patio step.

We've been working on a renovation of my home studio space. We raised the ceiling to a vaulted ceiling, giving me much more room for lights and other equipment. While I'm not quite ready for the big reveal, a few sneak peeks couldn't hurt. We still have a bit to do... trim work, finish tiling around the fireplace, install some lights, etc. But the last really big project for the room, the wood floor, was our job for the weekend. We used pre-finished, solid hardwood, Birdseye Maple 2 1/4" strip flooring. It was a family endeavor. Molly and I laid out the wood planks in a random arrangement, and placed each piece in place. John, the muscles of the team, operated the floor nailer.

Clarence gave his approval this morning, while soaking up some rays. This is a much nicer place to lounge while mom works, than the old floor.

Travertine tile for the fireplace surround. Local code dictates, 20" of non-combustible material on the floor and 12" on the wall.

Wall color, "Wheat Bread", a soft gray with a hint of warmth.

"Did you sneak a peek?"

"Yeah, I snuck a peek, didn't you?"
-From Seinfeld

Garden Buddies

2007-07-27T12:07:00.000-04:00

I keep getting emailed this article that's been in the news the last few days. It's about a cat that can predict when residents of the hospice where he lives are about to expire. My neighbor pointed out that "people must think you're a cat person!" Yes, I am. I do love my furry little guys. Why should I be the only one to witness their cuteness?

As I mentioned before, they do keep me company when I'm out in the garden or yard. They are my garden buddies. Sounds like some kind of gadget or something. I do love my gadgets, like my weed hound for pulling out those pesky dandelions in the spring. I thought they were flowers when I was a kid and am probably responsible for the proliferation of millions of those fluffy seeds I used to make wishes on. But my garden buddies are not tools. They're soft, cuddly, happy little cats.

"Hi mama, I'm checking that the soaker hoses are working properly in the artichoke bed."

"You look better this way mom. I can see up your nose too."

Sometimes, they have a cute competition. That is where one cat does something cute first and then the other then copies.

"Follow the leader!"

But it's not all fun and games. They have their serious sides too.

"Strike a pose! Vogue, vogue..."

"I know there are rodents in this wall and I'm not going to stand for it!"

ANTICIPATION [an-tis-uh-pay-shuhn]

2007-07-26T11:32:00.000-04:00

Whatever happened to Miss Lemon Tree, you ask? Well, those blossoms did get pollinated and a cluster of 8 lemons is forming. They sort of look like limes now, but I'm pretty sure this is a lemon tree, and lemons turn yellow when they ripen. I counted up all the baby lemons on her and there are 24. At this point, can't say if they will all stay put until ripening, but I have a good feeling at least a few will. I'll be ecstatic if even one grows to maturity and I get to eat it. I want to make a Shaker Lemon Pie. Having to be purchased and not grown, lemons were somewhat of a luxury for early Shakers. Not wanting to waste even the skin, the entire lemon is used to make this pie. Something about that thrifty sentiment appeals to me as a grower of a highly anticipated fruit.

Left to Right: Lemon Blossoms June 8th, 5/8" fruit forming July 11th, 1 1/4" fruit July 26th.

Speaking of highly anticipated. Guess what I discovered yesterday? The Super Bush Tomato plant finally has blushing fruit! Yup, it's from that cluster I've been watching from the start. I think I should be able to pick it within a week's time. I've already planned what I want to do with it... a BLT sandwich. I've been eating cherry tomatoes regularly now, but it's not quite the same, is it? Actually, I like the big meaty beefsteaks for my BLT's, but these will do just fine.

There was a third fruit blushing further up the plant. It had blossom end rot, also known as BER. BER is a physiological problem and can occur for a variety of reasons, due to environmental conditions that affect the uptake of water and calcium. It cannot be controlled by fungicides or insecticides. Keeping the plant adequately and consistently watered, and having the soil at the proper pH is the best you can do for it. Some tomato varieties are predisposed to it and there's really not much you can do to prevent it, other than growing something else next year. I removed the fruit with BER because it will be inedible and I don't want the plant putting anymore energy into it. I threw it in the woods without thinking. After it left my hand, I realized I could have photographed it to show what BER looks like, but oh well. If it happens again, and I really don't want it to, I will take a photo. But lets just say, it looks like a black mushy spot on the bottom of the tomato. Bacteria and fungus quickly get into the compromised skin and rot the fruit. You'll know it when you see it. Don't fret about it though, it usually only presents itself in the first, and unfortunately most anticipated, fruits. It should clear up on it's own. It cannot spread to other fruits or plants. Just remove those affected fruits and think about it no more.

Super Bush Tomatoes finally turning red. The bottom fruit is that first tomato we looked at back in June.

Remember I showed you that bright purple Aurora pepper? Well, the plants are covered with peppers now. There are a few orange peppers showing. Nothing quite red yet, but soon. I'm going to let this one ripen to red before I try it. The first purple pepper I tried wasn't very hot at all, sort of like a radish. The second one I tried, was much hotter. Hot peppers are supposed to get more flavorful as they ripen, so I'm interested to see how this pepper develops.

Aurora Pepper plant. A prolific producer of small pretty peppers.

Crudités For Two

2007-07-24T11:51:00.001-04:00

This weekend, was sort of a busy one. We made good progress on the studio renovation project. Painted the walls and now it's looking more like a room and less like a construction zone. Next up is the floor installation, this coming weekend. So needless to say, but I'll say it anyway, I was busy. What to do with all those veggies I picked? I quickly threw together this crudité platter for the two of us and we munched on it with some ranch dressing for dip.

Pretty, and tasty too.

In between things, I always have time to check on my garden. I discovered that this artichoke plant is growing it's first bud! That makes three out of six artichoke plants that have buds. I think my experiment might be a success! But I won't really know for sure until I taste the results. Still waiting for that first artichoke to get a little bigger before I pick it. I was surprised that this one was the next to flower as there is another plant that is bigger than it. I guess you never know about these things.

This tiny bud first appeared on Saturday, but the photo was taken today.

This has been one wet July. Another 1.75 inches of rain registered in my rain gauge yesterday. The corn is still standing! Still looks good too. I have to wonder if the wet weather is helping the artichokes. I've noticed that they really don't like to be dry. Some plants will tolerate a little drying out, but not these. I learned early on, when the 'chokes were still seedlings in 20 ounce cups, that they did not appreciate being dry whatsoever, as they would shrivel at the drop of a hat. So I paid extra attention to keep them watered ever since, but not as much as this rain has been giving them, mind you.

Most US artichokes are grown in Monterey County California. The central California climate is an ideal growing condition for artichokes. The summers are cool, moist and foggy. A quick check of weather.com indicates that the next ten days will be 69-70 degrees and partly cloudy in the artichoke capital. Hmm... That may be why we're seeing some artichoke growth here during these wet days. Okay, I confess, I had this hunch and that's why I thought to try artichokes this year. I read about where most of them are grown and recalled how wet and cool our summer was here last year. Thought I'd give it a shot.

Another surprise this weekend, my peas are flowering again. Peas usually flower once and then that's it. The heat of the summer usually kills them and it's best to just pull them out and plant something else. This time last year, my pea plants were long gone having yellowed and dried out on their own. Well, I have been wanting to cut off a few tendrils and do some photos. Hoping I'd have my studio space ready soon to set up some lights and do it right, I never pulled the plants. I think, maybe this rainy, not so hot weather has spurred them on to produce another small crop. Lucky me!

Take the Bad with the Good

2007-07-20T17:21:00.000-04:00

Rain is a good thing. It makes things grow, the garden gets a good watering without my intervention, and the wild animals get a fresh water supply. The bad part, for me anyway, is that when it comes down as hard and as fast as it did yesterday, plants get flattened. Two and half inches registered in my rain gauge from yesterday alone. Some lettuce got knocked down, but not all. My hardy hibiscus got droopy and made a U turn once the sun came out, so it looks a little funky, but still quite healthy.

Now, I'll admit, the majority of my garden got through it unscathed, so it's not all that bad. That's what I told myself when I looked at my beautiful little stand of corn, absolutely horizontal last evening. A bee buzzed around, trying to figure out how he was going to get at these tassels. The bees love the corn pollen. Flat corn wasn't exactly a new experience for me. Last year, my corn got droopy from a hard rain, although not completely flattened to the ground as it was this time. Those stalks from last year managed to perk back up when the sunshine came back. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case this time. The sun came out today, things started to dry out, but that corn stayed flat.

Flat corn, will it bounce back?

Once I had free time, I went out to see what I could do to help the corn. It kind of had a domino effect, each row flopped over on the one next to it. I gingerly picked up a stalk, it made a terrible ripping crunchy sound and rain water spilled out of all it's crevasses all over my arm. I tried several methods to hold the corn up, but these stalks were heavy. The only option was to stake each stalk individually. One by one, I placed a stake by each stalk and tied it up. Sometimes I used one stake for two stalks if they were smaller ones. Henry and Clarence stopped by to say hi and give me a nuzzle. They know how to cheer me up. After a while, I went inside and got my iPod shuffle so I wouldn't have to listen to the crunchy sound of standing the stalks back up. The music lifted my spirits and I whistled while I finished my staking. The corn is finally back to a vertical state, although looking a bit rag tag now. I don't know if it will be okay and continue to grow. I'm sure if I were a farmer, I'd have to just let it go. But for my little patch of garden, I don't mind at least making an effort to save the corn.

Resurrected corn stalks.

One good thing about all that rain, the artichokes seem to love it. They're happy to get a good deep watering. I have six artichoke plants that I started from seed in my basement in February. Artichokes are a perennial and usually flower in their second year. I attempted to trick the plant into thinking it had gone through a winter in California, by exposing it to cold, but not freezing weather outdoors in early spring. Today, I discovered that one of my artichoke plants has three flower buds on it. Another has one bud. The flower bud, is the part we eat. If you leave it alone and let it mature, it will open to a big magenta flower, though I doubt we'll ever see one in my garden. We love artichokes.

Can you spot the third and smallest bud on the lower right?

An artichoke plant that has not flowered yet. Will it flower this year?

I picked some other veggies for tonight's dinner, as the artichokes still have some growing to do. Harvesting always makes me happy. So do these cute little guys. Whenever I'm in the garden, they come in and see what I'm doing. Clarence likes to stick his head into whatever garden bed I'm working on and see things up close. Sometimes, friskiness ensues when his brother shows up too. I have a strict no wrestling policy in the garden beds, but a little lax about it in the aisles.

Henry and Clarence always take time for a bit of wrestling, despite my no wrestling policy in the garden.

A Speckled Spectacle

2007-07-18T09:12:00.001-04:00

The evening before last, we had a spectacular visit from the bluebird family. I was able to get photos of all five baby bluebirds. Mr. Blue was not around, which is highly unusual. I've never seen the babies without Mr. Blue close behind. So I hope he is okay. He was my first bluebird and I've grown very fond of him.

The bluebirds are not coming on a daily basis anymore. I think Mrs. Blue is keeping them busy learning the rounds of the neighborhood, teaching them how and where to get food on their own. This would be one of their stops.

The first baby lands on the feeding station and helps himself to a worm. He is joined by Mrs. Blue (left) and another baby. Pretty soon, a third baby joins the fun. (image can be clicked for a larger view)

Three babies on the feeding station now, a fourth joins. The fifth baby was a bit timid and stayed on the ash tree trunk. Mrs. Blue flies over and talks to him a bit, but he never did join the others at the feeding station.
(image can be clicked for a larger view)

Harvest a Rainbow

2007-07-16T09:50:00.000-04:00

Hard work pays off. 2 lbs of beans (4 kinds), 6 Sungold Cherry tomatoes, 4 Tumbling Tom Red Cherry Tomatoes,
3 Mini Red Bell Peppers, 1 Sweeter Yet Cucumber, & some Blueberries.

If it hasn't been made clear yet, I like color. I like to plant veggies in many colors and enjoy looking at them, as much as eating them. Variety is the spice of life, so whenever possible, I grow more than one type of each vegetable I grow. Who says a tomato has to be red? Certainly not me!

I like to see the veggies as they grow on the plant. As consumers, we are removed from our food and how it grows. All we see is the finished product neatly displayed in masses on supermarket shelves. We forget the work it takes for the farmer to produce it, and the wonder of the workings of nature.

Tumbling Tom Red Cherry Tomato, can be grown by anyone with a hanging basket and a spot of full sun.

Thanks to the advances of modern civilization, we can get any type of produce, any time of year, flown in from around the globe. We lose touch with the natural rhythm of the seasons. The anticipation of a ripe tomato, warmed by the sun, is replaced by the instant gratification of the perfectly red round tomatoes available in the winter, but how do they taste?

Sungold Cherry Tomatoes ripe for picking.

Above you see a picture of Sungold Cherry Tomato. This hybrid tomato is grown by a lot of folks, including people who consider themselves to be heirloom growers (who otherwise don't grow hybrids). It is a well loved tomato. Now I could have cropped this picture differently, showing more of the right and leaving out the not so pretty vinyl garden tape wrapped around the stem. But I wanted to illustrate something really cool about tomatoes. They are very, very resilient. Early in the season, I accidentally broke this branch, about half way through. It was still attached, but hanging by a thread. I wrapped the tape around the wound and the tomato healed itself. I've even known gardeners to use bandaids. I just use the stretchy vinyl tape that I usually have with me to tie things up around the garden and it works for me. This tomato went on to grow beyond that break and seems no worse for wear.

Miniature Red Bell Peppers are ripening before the normal size peppers in my garden.

Miniature Red Bell Peppers are so cute! They don't have as much growing to do as the full sized bell peppers, and have started to ripen earlier. They're my appetizer peppers. My seed source says these are good for stuffing, and using as an hors d'vour. I'll just take their word for it. The largest one in the photo is only about the size of a ping pong ball.

Purple Beauty Pepper turning from green to purple.

Sorry to say, this guy is not ripening. Not even close, but I thought I'd add him to this post because he is changing color. The purple beauty pepper starts out green, then changes to a deep purple, before ripening to red. You can pick it at any time, but for a sweet flavor, wait for the red color to appear. Patience pays off.

Finally, I am issuing a challenge today to anyone who's reading this and not growing anything edible. My challenge is for you to grow something, and eat it. That is all. It's not too late in the season, you can still grow many crops. Just look on the seed packet info for "days to maturity". The fewer days to maturity, the more time you'll have to enjoy it before the frost. We are approximately 90 days away from the anticipated first frost for my area. Don't have enough room? Even lettuce or some herbs can be grown in a pot on a window ledge or patio. What about seeds? They sell them in many grocery stores, garden centers, or discount stores. You get the most for your money growing from seed. For a really easy start, buy seedlings and stick them in a pot with some potting mix. Grow something. I know you want to.

Gotcha!

2007-07-13T20:50:00.001-04:00

Ha! I finally got some good (if I do say so myself) baby bluebird photos! Came home tonight and Mr. Blue and a baby were sitting on the feeding station. I had to do a double take, because I thought I saw Mr. Blue tapping his foot impatiently waiting, as if to say, "Where have you been? The babies are starving and they're driving me crazy."

Hubby, quick went and got the worms and headed outside, while I got the window open and my camera set. The birds all flew up into the oak tree. The whole family was there, mama, daddy, and the bunch of babies. After the mealworms were deposited in the dish, the parents and one baby flew back down. The funny part is, that every time the mama or daddy scooped up some worms, he would open up his mouth for them. He got the first few servings, but then mama and daddy flew up into the trees to feed the other babies. That didn't stop him from begging for more.

"Feed me mama!" (baby is on left, Mrs. Blue on right) Image can be clicked for a larger view.

"I'm hungry daddy!" (baby is on left, Mr. Blue on right) Image can be clicked for a larger view.

Doesn't every family have an attention hound?

Early Bird Special

2007-07-13T10:23:00.001-04:00

A fleeting moment of opportunity. I barely had time to aim, focus and shoot.
A baby bluebird with his daddy, and almost as big.

One shot and they were gone. A blur of blue feathers.

I’ve been really wanting to get a good look at the baby bluebirds and also get a picture. The parents have been secretive as to their whereabouts, keeping them in trees with dense leaves. Last night was cool and not humid, and so we slept with the window open for fresh air. I awoke this morning at 6 a.m. to the sound of baby bluebirds chirping. I quietly crept out of bed so as not to wake up Henry cat at my feet and Hubby at my side. I was rewarded with a view of the bluebirds feeding the babies. Two babies were perched on a bare branch of the mostly dead ash tree in our side yard. With no leaves to cover them, I had a good view at eye level. I was excited to see them, so I woke up Hubby to tell him. He was happy too.

We went downstairs for coffee and I went to my usual morning spot by the dining room window to watch for bluebirds. We didn’t need to feed them today since a good amount of worms accidentally fell on the ground yesterday and were unrecoverable. Although we were unable to get them untangled from the grass, the bluebirds have no problem plucking them out. They discovered the worms this morning, and the babies decided to take this opportunity to start plucking worms themselves.

While Mrs. Blue was fetching a worm from the ground, a baby landed on the rock wall. Mrs. Blue went to him and fed him a worm. Then it was his turn. Mama sat on the rock wall watching, standing guard is more like it, while the baby flew down to the ground to find a worm. A blue jay got nosy and a bit too close. The parents sprung into action and chased it away. Eventually, the baby flew up into the dogwood tree on the corner of the house. I was able to get a good up close look at him from the living room window, so cute, with his speckles.

Next another baby wanted to join the one in the dogwood tree. She flew over, but not an expert flier yet, she had trouble with the landing and grasping a branch at the same time part of it. Her parents flew over, as if to help, maybe just as protection from an attack, maybe for moral support. She flew back to the ash tree trunk for a rest, and then made an attempt to land on the copper pipe that holds the feeding station up. That didn’t work. She landed on the ground. “Hmm, there are worms down here. Think I’ll have some.” All this time on the ground, makes me nervous. I think wistfully back to the days when they were safe in their nest box.

Back up on the second floor a bit later, I looked out the window and heard first, then saw three babies in the dogwood tree. They’re a bit spastic and hopping around, chirping. Daddy brings a worm to them and is practically attacked for the food. They are very eager to have those worms. In the flash of blue feathers, I assume one of them got the worm, and Mr. Blue flies away to the oak tree. The three babies (I think boys) fly after him hot on his tail feathers, asking for food. I think it may be time, soon at least, for them to start getting their own. Mama and Daddy must be exhausted.

While waiting for Bluebirds to come back, I get another photo op. My friend the chipmunk comes by for a visit.
He says hi to me each day and helps himself to Alpine Strawberries in my garden.

Snappy Beans

2007-07-12T10:08:00.001-04:00

Check out my beans. These are the first of the season, picked just 47 days from sowing the seeds. That's pretty fast! Someone once said of my purple beans, Royalty Purple Pod (which I grew last year as well), "oh those must be hybrid". On the contrary, they are heirlooms, as are the other two types pictured above. When cooked they turn green and you can't tell that they were ever that deep dark purple.

The ones all the way on the left are called Red Swan and I think they are gorgeous. I love the look of them. They're kind of a green base with a dusty rose shimmer. Sounds like lip gloss, dusty rose shimmer. If I googled "dusty rose shimmer lip gloss", I wonder what would come up. These also turn green when cooked. A really great bright green.

The yellow ones are wax beans. A pretty yellow that reminds me of bananas, especially since they curve the way they do. They taste pretty much the same as the other beans. They stay yellow when cooked.

Speaking of heirlooms, what exactly does that mean in terms of vegetables? I mean I planted it 47 days ago, how can it be an heirloom? Recently, the term heirloom has become a buzz word, and heirlooms have gained popularity. I think that is a good thing, the popularity that is, especially with the whole genetically modified food controversy. If you're growing something that is the same seed that your grandma's grandma handed down, you know it's safe. So in gardening, an heirloom is defined as an open pollinated (that means non-hybrid) variety, introduced 50 years ago or more, that has been passed down from generation to generation, by people who have kept the seeds pure. Many, not all, but most of what I am growing this year in the veggie garden are heirloom varieties and all from reputable sources. Some less ethical seed sources have been known to "create" an heirloom, calling something an heirloom that isn't, and that just aint right.

Beans, beans, beans... I've started calling them just beans since I started growing them. Growing up, I always called these things string beans. In the grocery store, they were marked green beans. Then when I started growing them and looked at seeds and reading stuff, it turns out they are now called snap beans. They used to be string beans, but that was when there was a fibrous string that ran the length of the bean. Now through selective breeding, you don't have to have the string in the bean anymore. In my mind, they had been string beans because they are long and stringy, but that's not the real reason. I still think of them as string beans. Don't really want to call them green beans because they aren't exactly green to start (although I am growing some plain old green ones too). So, I'll have to gradually convert to calling them snap beans. I think I like snappy beans better.

Dig It

2007-07-10T15:07:00.000-04:00

Root veggies are delicious and good for you too.

I really get a kick out of root crops, or veggies grown underground, I should say. There's just something about digging down and coming up with something that you can actually eat. You never know exactly what you're going to get either. Okay, so when I pull on a carrot top, I know it will be a carrot on the other end, but how big will it be? Sometimes I pull on a bushy looking top thinking it will be a biggun' and end up with a skinny little root.

Now, you'll notice in the picture that there's more than one type of carrot shown. The somewhat regular orange one is a Sugarsnax. A nice enough carrot. But the one that really gets me, is the purple one. I've shown a few of these before. No, you don't need your monitor calibrated, it really is purple, at least on the outside. Some of them are a deep, deep purple and some more of a reddish color. I've noticed that the smaller more immature ones tend to be less purple, although not evident in this bunch. Most of the earlier ones I picked were of the lighter color and Hubby was calling them, "striped carrots". If you were to slice the carrot, you'd see a few millimeters of purple and then an orange core. I suppose if I peeled it with one of my more aggressive peelers, I'd be back to orange carrots again. I like to leave that purple part on and give it a good scrub under the water and a light scraping with a knife. After cooking, they remain purple.

A closer look at Purple Haze Carrots freshly pulled from the garden.

Potatoes are a total mystery. The plant can be big or small and that's no indication of what's growing below. I have to dig down deep to find my potatoes and I never know how many or how big they will be. These few pictured at the top of the page would be considered "new" potatoes. They aren't fully grown. The red is "French Fingerling" sometimes called Roseval or Nosebag. An heirloom variety, the story goes that these potatoes made it here in a horse's feed bag. To harvest new potatoes, I try to leave the plant undisturbed and gently dig down below into the soil and sneak a few potatoes out. This leaves the plant intact and able to bring the rest of the crop to maturity.

Beets seem to be a less favored veggie it seems (by others, not me!) and I can't figure out why. They taste good, a sweet veggie, and good for you too. They're high in folic acid, potassium, calcium, and antioxidants. The tops are edible too, full of vitamins, and can be used like any other green. Although, I must admit, I haven't tried them...yet. I also recently came across a recipe for a raw beet salad. Beets are pretty hard when raw, so I bet it would be crisp. I may give it a try some time soon. As for my beets, I've grown golden beets, which are orange on the outside and strikingly yellow on the inside. Also the more well known dark red beets, which are a deep fuschia that I think is beautiful. The juice of which can be used as a dye.

Hello Again!

2007-07-10T08:53:00.000-04:00

I spoke/wrote too soon. The bluebird family must read my blog. They came back this morning. I’m guessing that they had to relocate because of a predator, such as a hawk. I know we have at least one around here, as I used to see it flying through the trees during the winter. A family of crows was sounding the alarm, I mean really going crazy, all day Saturday. It amazed me that they could keep up that racket for so long. So I hope their move was only temporary. I understand that they must do, whatever they must do, to keep their babies safe. They are smart birds.

This morning, awake but still in bed, with the window shade up, I could see out the window. I must admit, I was looking for birds, the blue kind. In the hickory tree beyond the rock wall a cardinal landed and then swooped down and out of sight, probably to the seed feeder beside that tree. Then in the maple tree, right outside my bedroom window, I saw a bluebird, Mrs. Blue actually. She stayed there just a minute, as we looked at each other. I called to Hubby, "There's a bluebird outside our window!" Then she flew off in the direction of the feeding station in the side yard. I threw on some outside clothes (going outside in pajamas is reserved for cat emergencies) and ran downstairs. Grabbing the tub ‘o worms, I shoved on my boots and was out the door. As I rounded the corner, Mrs. Blue flew off of the feeding station and went towards the maple tree. I heard the urgent chirping of the hungry babies. I scooped a generous serving of worms, poured them into the dish, and whistled for the bluebirds. Mrs. Blue came to the oak tree beside me. Happy now, I slogged off in my boots, to watch from inside.

Mr. and Mrs. Blue did their usual routine, alternating turns. Fly to the oak tree, fly down to the feeder, scoop worms in beak, fly to babies. Repeat. On one of the trips, Mrs. Blue on the feeder, a third bird followed Mr. Blue into the oak tree. A baby! One extra hungry, brave, little guy decided he could probably get more worms if he followed daddy. I got my binoculars in time to see Mrs. Blue shove a worm or two into his gaping mouth. He swallows it quickly and opens up again, "More please." His mouth is still yellow, as it was when he was one day old. She gives him more worms and then back to the feeder. The baby, almost as big as his parents, is much bigger than those days of being a nestling. He has a few blue feathers, but not nearly as ornate as his father. His chest is brown with white speckles. I hope to get a picture soon, as I’ve been planning to do for weeks. It was good to see the bluebird family again. I hope they are here to stay.

Bye Bye Bluebirdie?

2007-07-09T19:33:00.000-04:00

One of my favorite pictures of Mr. Blue taken shortly after he started visiting us.
I was able to get very close to him.

I don't know if this is goodbye forever or just a while. But I haven't seen or heard the bluebirds in a day and a half. No phone call, no note, not even an email! I look for them and listen for them whenever I'm outside. Nope, no bluebirds. I had visions of mama and daddy bringing the babies over for dinner, some evening this summer. Maybe we'd toss some worms on the BBQ, have some lemonade, and laugh about old times.

Hubby and I played golf at the town golf course, Richter Park, this weekend and on the 16th and 17th greens, we heard bluebirds. Then on the 18th green, I was on the tee box preparing to swing and saw a family of bluebirds getting bugs to eat. They fly down to the ground, scoop up their prize, and fly back up, all very quickly. It made me a little lonesome for my blue friends. Hopefully, they're just on a summer vacation, and will return again sometime soon.

Say Peas!

2007-07-06T10:49:00.001-04:00

It certainly has been a weird weather year, hasn't it? I mean, we had a relatively warm winter, and then spring was touch and go and took forever to warm up, and now July 4th was cool and rainy. Weird weather. But, that's the thing about Mother Nature, she's unpredictable. I'm sure there have been years past like this as well, but we just choose to remember Christmas as snowy, spring as rainy, and summer as hot and sunny. Funny thing is, in the garden, it all seems to even out.

99 Pea Pods Yielded 1 Cup of Peas

Spring of 2006 I planted peas on April 12 & 13. The peas matured and reached peak on the week of July 4th. We were away that week and so missed it. We missed the whole pea harvest. One look when we got back home and I knew, they were too big, starchy, and well, flatulent. We tried to eat them, but they tasted bitter and starchy. Not good eatin' and a big disappointment. This year, I was delayed in planting my peas, and with the cool weather, I doubt they would have germinated any earlier anyway. I planted them April 22 & 24, and guess what? They reached peak the week of July 4th again! This time we were home. We got to eat them. Not all are ready on the exact same day. I pick a few that look ready each day or two and add them to whatever we're eating. Last night, was my biggest harvest yet.

Last night's dinner fixin's.
Green Arrow Peas, three kinds of baby carrots, and mixed lettuce.

Peas add a touch of sweetness and contrast to savory foods. I like adding raw fresh garden peas to a salad. I also added them to angel hair pasta with fresh from the garden sautéed garlic, Parmesan cheese, and my homemade tomato sauce earlier this week. I think that was our favorite. Since I got a good amount yesterday, I decided to cook them and eat them with cut up baby carrots, cooked for only a minute and tossed with one pat of butter. Yum.

While photographing my harvest last night, with my head bent down over the camera and tripod, I heard a hum overhead. Looked up and a hummingbird zipped away. Too fast for me. Bent down again and heard that buzzing again, too loud to be an insect. Looked up, again, the hummer zips away. I shouldn't be surprised since I was on the back patio beside his feeder. Earlier in the evening, from inside the house, I spotted three at the feeder in succession. But I am always delighted when they come right up to me. Curious creatures and a bit playful, maybe he was just teasing me. "There you are photographer person, with your camera at the ready, but you won't capture me!" Maybe not tonight, but I don't give up easily.

Here is a hummingbird taking a drink from my 'Humzinger' feeder.
They are tiny birds only a few inches tall, resembling an insect more than a bird, when in flight.

Oh, and the bluebird family is now living in my front yard trees. The parents eagerly come to the feeding station and gather food for the babies still hiding in the tall trees. I know they are close by, because the trips are many and quickly accomplished.

Empty Nest

2007-07-03T08:52:00.001-04:00

Well, it's finally happened. The nest is empty. I had a suspicion yesterday. Hubby fed the birds before I got up and I missed watching them feed. I've been observing their behavior each day, watching for a change. Haven't looked in the box since the last update. Close to fledgling time, opening the box could cause premature fledging, so we stopped at day 13. Yesterday was day 19 and it appears that they have left the nest. I noticed that Mr. and Mrs. Blue where not around much, even saw Mr. Blue in my vegetable garden, and that is very different behavior. The days leading up to that, they were attacking every stray squirrel that got close to the nest. I went to CVS and bought a dentist mirror on a stick tool. This one was extra nifty since it has a built-in light. I stuck the mirror in the front door hole and looked inside expecting to see a little face looking back, but all I saw was straw. Opened the side of the box, a little nervous, but I had to confirm, and they were gone. I suddenly felt very sad. No more baby birds to marvel at as they grow.

All this time, we were watching the bluebirds choose the nesting box, lay eggs, feed their babies, I knew that some day the babies would grow up and fly away. That was the goal, right? To have healthy, birds grow up and then that means the whole thing was a success. But somehow, I couldn't help but feel sad.

We decided to feed the bluebirds and watch where they take the worms. They loaded up their beaks with the wiggling things and then flew up, up, up into the tall maple tree that the nestbox faces. I went up to the second story of the house and watched from the spare bedroom window. No screen on that one, so I could lean out. Mrs. Blue got some food and then flew up and landed on a branch eye level with the window, just for a quick break. Then she went up to the tip top of the tree, within the dense leaves, and I could no longer see her. Mr. and Mrs. Blue alternated flying up and down from the feeding station to the top of the maple tree. Watching them plunge down from that tall height was unnerving, yet awesome. Like watching riders on a roller coaster as you wait in line. The babies are safe way up in the big tall maple tree, with mama and daddy to feed them. Suddenly, I felt a little less sad. I can't see them, but I know they are there. Some day, perhaps in a few weeks, we'll see them again following their parents around as they learn where to go to get food and learn the ropes. Of course since I'm their sugar mama, or should I say, their wormy godmother, I know they'll be back.

Nest box after being disinfected and cleaned out. Ready for the next brood.
Will Mrs. Blue lay more eggs?

Make Your Tomatoes Grow!

2007-06-29T11:09:00.001-04:00

Stare at them! They can feel it and it makes them happy. Check them several times a day! So they don't get lonely. If you don't have time in the morning before work, that's okay. Just look at them when you get home and then again a little later. Tomatoes don't have a very good sense of time. Keep positive thoughts about your tomatoes. No negative thinking allowed. Take pictures! And then compare. See, they are growing. Here's the proof right here.

Super Bush. You remember him, right? Remember that new little tomato that was pushing it's way out not too long ago (21 days to be exact)? Well, he's about 3 inches across now and there's lots more smaller ones right behind him. I counted 22. Then I realize from outside of the garden fence, that there were other ones that I didn't see. So lets just call it, more than 22. Wonder how long it will be till ripe ones. I think that first one, has a little bit more growing to go before ripening.

Now, now, don't be jealous. If you have one of these plants and you're wondering why you don't have a three inch tomato on there yet, maybe it's because I started this one just a wee bit earlier this year. Just for fun. I thought I could put it in a container and put it out early and get a few early tomatoes. Next year, I'm going to start one tomato early again, but even earlier! Also, the staring and checking and photographing helps too. So if you haven't been doing that, you better start! If you do have a three inch tomato, bravo!

Here's an update of Tumbling Tom Red. Don't know which tomato was the one I showed you before. The plant is covered with tomatoes and still cranking out flowers. Being cherry tomatoes, many are about full grown now. Time to ripen! Tumbling Tom Yellow is also covered with tomatoes, but not quite as many and not quite as big a plant. I'll give him a break since that seed was started later. Don't you love cherry tomatoes? They grow so quickly. They give you a constant supply through the summer. They don't quit till frost. What more could you ask for?

I guess it would be hard to make a nice juicy sandwich with cherry tomatoes. So we must also grow some biggies. Beefsteaks are starting to do their thing now too. Here's Cherokee Purple. If it's not quite clear yet, I really like growing purple veggies (there will be more coming soon!). Although, Chereokee Purple (Oops! Typo! Wonder if there is a Chereokee tomato, perhaps it sings poorly in a bar on Tuesday nights! Or goes well with that ringed cereal!) has purple in it's name, in tomato lingo, purple doesn't really mean purple. It's more like a dark pink/red. Well, I'll show you when they ripen. These are still small, bigger than a cherry, but smaller than a ping pong ball, they will get much bigger. The word Cherokee in the name, comes from the belief that these heirloom tomatoes were grown by the Cherokee Indians. Isn't that a neat thought? That these seeds were passed down from generation to generation and we are eating the same food?

Small But Wise

2007-06-27T10:58:00.001-04:00

Somehow, these baby birds have a wise look to them. As if they were born with some knowledge, that we humans do not have. To say they have to grow up fast is an understatement. Can you believe they are only 13 days old? When I open the box, this little girl gives me a look that says, I have my eye on you. I think she is the big sister. The leader of the clutch. I imagine that she was the first to hatch. The hunkered down babies look like a pile of feathers. It's amazing how they've changed just since Friday.

Getting a little higher on my ladder, I can look down on them. The ones that already have bright blue feathers are boys. Hard to say if there's three or four boys, as one of the birds is covered by the others around his/her wings. At this point, I think it's two girls and three boys.

I haven't been shooting any video of the babies since they don't move when I look at them now. Only the occasional flinch when the flash goes off. Maybe this generation of bluebirds will grow up to not be afraid of my flash.

Mr. and Mrs. Blue must be of the new school of bluebirds. They are very brave when it comes to protecting their babies. While outside gardening a couple days ago, I witnessed them attack a bluejay (a very mean bird) by flying at him criss-crossing back and forth. They won't even give him a chance to get close to the nest. Just yesterday, I saw a squirrel who did somehow slip past their security and was dangerously close to the nest box. The squirrel was oblivious to the nest box, as he was foraging on the ground for wild berries that grow nearby. Mr. Blue dive bombed him and actually hit the squirrel repeatedly. The confused squirrel turned this way and that, not knowing which way to go. He finally ran off into the woods and was left alone by Mr. Blue. Without the parent's vigilance, those predators would eat the baby birds. This type of aggressiveness is a good trait to find in a bluebird, as they are known to be the wimps of the bird world. The reason why there aren't as many as there should be. Maybe it's not courage, so much as they too were born wise.

City on a Lake

2007-06-26T11:21:00.000-04:00

So, hubby had to go to a suburb of Chicago for training for work, which he's had to do from time to time. I decided to tag along and check out Chicago. I'd never been there before and figured what the heck. I blended in with the locals taking the Metra commuter train into the city each day, $3.45 and 40 minutes later, you're in Chicago. Their trains are basically the same, except that they are double decker. There's a top level with single file seats. After his first trip on the train, my hubby informed me that I ought to sit up there or expect people to see down my top. I did happen to notice that it was almost exclusively men sitting up there! I'm sure they keep their eyes straight ahead.

During the day, I wandered around the city visiting tourist attractions by myself. In the evening, I'd meet up with John and we'd go for cocktails and dinner. One of those nights, we went to the Signature Lounge in the Hancock Tower, known for great views, especially from the (smudged) ladies room windows. There are parks all along the water. You can see in this photo a patch of sand that is a beach where you can swim in the lake, that's Olive Park.

This picture was taken looking at the city from the South, at the Shedd Aquarium (more on that later). The lake water is a pretty blue color that reminds me of Caribbean waters. It's so vast, it looks like you are looking out onto the ocean.

There are water taxis, which I'm sure only tourists take, but hey, I'm a tourist. I found the water taxi a good way to get from the remote Shedd Aquarium, back to where I could catch a bus or regular taxi. Along the way, I got a great view looking back at Chicago from the water.

I found it pretty easy to get around and also find my way around the city. I noticed a few differences though. People tend to wait for the walk signal before crossing the street, instead of jaywalking and they walk much slower.

The pictures above and below are the Chicago River. It leads from the depths of the city, out to Lake Michigan.

Before leaving home, I did investigate about Oprah tickets, but you have to plan ahead more than a week. However, now that I've been to Chicago, I feel much closer to Oprah.

Where Have You Been?

2007-06-25T19:17:00.001-04:00

Well, I know where I've been. Gone to Chicago for a few days (more on that later). A few days away, turns into a week or more with preparation before and then, a few days of catching up with things once I'm back. Don't worry, the babies, tomatoes, and kitties were carefully watched after while I was away. The baby birds are starting to get feathers!

This picture was taken on Friday, day 8 for them. The babies don't bother to wake up for me anymore. They now know the difference between the sounds I make and bluebird sounds.

The mama and daddy birds feed the babies quite often. At first, it was only a worm or two for each baby per feeding. Here is Mrs. Blue four days after the babies hatched.

Now they load up as many worms as they can fit into their beaks for each trip to the nest box. Here is Mr. Blue eight days after the babies hatched. He feeds the babies just as often, if not more than the mama. The food we provide is only a supplement to what they catch on their own. The parent birds are constantly feeding the babies throughout the day.

I was worried at first when the babies didn't react to me when I opened the nest box and whistled for them. Then I watched from inside the house as the parents fed them. With the window open, I was able to hear their frantic peeping each time Mama or Daddy entered the box with food. Each baby has to compete for the attention and food from the parent birds. The loudest peep, gets the worm. I think I know some humans like that too.

Five Fuzzy Fresh Friends

2007-06-14T19:14:00.000-04:00

Look at my new friends! Aren't they adorable? They have cute little fluffy Afros. I have to restrain myself and limit my visits to once a day. The parents tolerate me, but I don't want to push my luck.

It's sleepy work being a baby.

All that sleeping makes them hungry!

Five beaks now. All the eggs hatched!

Time for another nap.

It is a very happy day here at the Hilladay Inn. All the eggs have hatched. It's the most we could have hoped for. Our Mr. & Mrs. Blue are doing a great job. They fly back and forth feeding the babies. I wonder if they have 2 a.m. feedings like human babies do? I shot another short video. This time, we brought a light out with us for better viewing. Press the play button arrow on the image below to view the video.

Bird Announcement

2007-06-13T19:05:00.001-04:00

Hooray! We've got babies! So far only two have hatched. There were a total of five eggs, but it's not unusual for the eggs to not hatch all at the same time. Hopefully, tomorrow we'll have more. They look so fragile at this stage. So tiny you feel sorry for them. Here you can only see one in this picture.

I whistled and they open their mouths for me. This is a good way to get a beak count.

2 beaks = 2 babies.

I shot a few seconds of video. It's kind of hard to see because it's dark in the birdhouse. Towards the end, you get a good view, so watch the entire 30 seconds. Mrs. Blue was nearby in the oak tree off to the side during all of this. She is used to me and doesn't mind if I look at her babies. I was able to guess that there was some hatching going on today because of Mr. and especially Mrs. Blue's behavior. They feed the baby birds twice per hour. So when I saw them flying to and from, in and out of the birdhouse, I knew what they were doing. Today is 14 days since she started incubation. Press the play button arrow on the image below to view the video.

Rescue Me!

2007-06-12T17:38:00.000-04:00

Sitting on my porch right now, it's both sunny and raining, and this is the perfect spot to watch the rain fall. As I opened the door to come out, my little orange kitty, Clarence, was crouched under one of the chairs. Must have been some thunder. He hates thunder. He's happy to go on inside and let Henry protect the border. But it was Henry who wanted rescuing this morning. I was in my home office and I heard a faint meow, definitely Henry's meow, coming from outside. I look out the patio door and all I see is Clarence sitting on the back patio. Then out of the corner of my eye, I catch sight of Henry peering at me over the gutter from the roof. Ra-ow! He says, in a way that reminds me of Azrael, the cat on the smurfs, if Azrael was a nice cat that is. I shove my sneakers on, knowing what he is saying... rescue me from the big bad roof. He forgets that I know how he got there. That he climbed up the dogwood tree on the corner of the house and hopped on from a nearby branch. He didn't get scooped up by aliens, who then missed the mark when returning him to earth. No, I know better. His meowing, ra-owing gets more insistent as I grab my camera, and quickly get a shot of him. He hates when I do that. But hey, that's the price you pay for getting your mom outside in her pajamas and sneakers, and up on the ladder early in the morning. He knows how to get down. My neighbor got photos of him climbing back down the dogwood tree that she took from her house. Evidence! But sometimes a kitty wants to be rescued from the big bad roof. And it's fun to play fire person every so often and climb down a ladder with a cat slung over your shoulder.

Before the rain started, I heard some thunder rumblings off in the distance. I figured I better get out to the garden to pick some lettuce before the rain starts, if I wanted a salad for dinner.

So I pick my lettuce and being a bit hungry as it's almost dinner time, I start to look around. Anything else around here that needs pickin'? Then I remember, the strawberries. Yes, a girl can't live on lettuce alone (although some have tried). It's going to take some strawberries too. There's a few things I have learned about eating your own strawberries. Here's a short list:

-the strawberry must be completely red all the way around before you pick it for full flavor.
-smell the berry's aroma first. That's some strawberry goodness! Soak it up.
-your taste buds really aren't ready for the flavor burst that comes from a home grown strawberry. So prepare your taste buds and try not to drool.
-strawberries taste better if you stand there in the garden and eat them.
-taste better yet if you put them in a bowl and wait for your husband (or other loved one) and share.

There's A Fungus Among Us

2007-06-11T09:29:00.000-04:00

Lots of 'em in fact. At least on our little piece of earth here. Our little micro climate with all the big beautiful trees that surround us, makes for a moist environment and the fungi love it. What do the trees have to do with it? Well, it's not just shade they provide, but they also emit water vapor. This makes for a cooler spot in the summer, yes, and less drying out of plants in drought, yes, but also, lots of fungi, yes. I'm not just talking about those cute little mushrooms that the smurfs live in either, although we do have quite a smurf village going.

Fungi comes in all different forms, and most plants, don't like it. Their leaves wither up and die. No leaves=no plant eventually. And, it just looks ugly. To prevent this, I faithfully spray fungicide every 7-10 days. It works. Not all plants are attacked by fungus, however, my roses and tomatoes are the unfortunate ones that do. Those happen to be the plants I like the most (shhh, don't tell the others, although they probably suspect). So this morning was a fungicide spraying kind of morning. Tomatoes first as they do the most vigorous growing and all the new growth needs spraying. As I'm attending to my tomato plants, I start to think about, my roses which will need to be sprayed next. And I think, "Why did I plant roses? They take so much care." Then I answer myself, "Because I love them. They're beautiful and smell wonderful, it's worth the effort." Satisfied with that and done with tomato spraying, I clomped off in my rubber rain boots, through the dewy wet morning grass, to go see my rose bushes. I use the term "bushes" loosely as many of them are still very small having only been planted this year. I come to the first one, Angel Face, this one's from a couple years ago. The beautiful blooms and buds, at least a half dozen that were there yesterday...gone! Just two petals lay on the ground to one side of the bush, and two hoof prints in the mulch on the other side. Yup, deer hoofs left those indentations.

I quickly move to the next plant, this one only had buds... gone! The neighboring plant, Chicago Peace, had a big beautiful rose, it's gone along with all the little buds.

And on it went down the line. All my buds were gone. I had been so excited yesterday at the new growth on my roses, since the buds had been eaten once before earlier in the season, and now it's all gone. Just like I spray for fungus, I also spray for deer. There are many deer repellent sprays on the market. They seem to work. The only problem is, you must be vigilant. Any new growth that hasn't been sprayed is vulnerable. I should have known better and I should have sprayed last night. That is all part of gardening. Early in the season, last year's lessons have been forgotten, until a giant stomach with four legs wanders by, eats your prize and reminds you of what you already knew.

It's easy to resent the deer when you've just come upon your half eaten plants, but then you see one face to face and it's hard to stay mad. They give you the sad eyes and they look a little fearful. I'll just have to take a page from Morticia Addams book and see the beauty in the headless thorny stems left behind.

I Spy With My Own Little Eye...

2007-06-08T10:42:00.001-04:00

something that rhymes with type paw cherry. For those of you who aren't good at that game, it's a ripe strawberry! Shhh, don't say it too loudly. They're hiding, and it's a good thing too, because the bluejays (not to be confused with bluebirds) have been eyeing them for weeks, just waiting, waiting for that berry, and all her brothers and sisters, to ripen. Much the way I do as well. They dive bomb me when I'm working in the garden too. They want me to go away and leave all the booty to them. The nerve! Don't they know these are my berries? Probably not. I think bluejays subscribe to the finders keepers train of thought. That's why I put mesh netting over my berries. I'm hoping it keeps them out. I may have to electrify them to keep the humans out as well. Just kidding... or am I??? I wouldn't chance it if I were you. Just sayin.

Next up is my first teeny, tiny tomato from my Tumbling Tom Red (not to confused with Tumbling Tom Yellow) tomato plant. This one is a few days old, so you can see it better than the others in the background. It was only the size of a BB a couple days ago. Now it's the size of a... slightly bigger BB.

This guy is my Super Bush tomato plant. Look how sturdy. Look how masculine. Definitely a boy, at least to me. When I was giving away seedlings, everyone wanted these. They got all excited by the thick stem and sturdy appearance. Well, looks aren't everything you know. Show me the tomatoes, say I!

Well, it's a start at least. See that dried up blossom on the left? Pushing it out is a tiny tomato fruit ready to start growing. I would have pulled the blossom off to show you, but I don't want to tempt fate. I mean one slip of the finger and oops! No more baby tomato. So for now, hands off!

Here we have an Aurora Pepper. To give you an idea of it's size, the widest part is about the width of my index finger. My first time growing it, I'm not completely sure how big the peppers will get, as they are supposed to be small, but I think it has a little bit more growing to do. Just a bit. No one really wanted these seedlings when I was giving them away. Yes, it's a hot pepper, but not very, I don't think. It's a number 3 on a scale of 0 to 5 according to my seed source. Zero being a sweet pepper, like the bell peppers you get at the super market, no heat at all. I was happy to keep my extras anyway. The plants don't get very large and it's said that it's fruit ripens from purple to orange to red and you end up with all colors on the plant at once. I think it will be pretty. Can't wait to see.

Lemon tree very pretty and the flower so sweet... okay, she's not looking very pretty in this photo, but look! On the bottom there, that nubbin, the green thing, is that a lemon forming?! I hope so. Over the winter, while Miss Lemontree was inside the house, I tried to play bee and pollinate her flowers. She got a few of these forming, but they all fell off eventually. Not the right time I guess. She wasn't ready, not enough sun. But now, it could be the right time. Could be. No pressure Miss Lemontree

There's always the hope of these little pretties. My little tree is covered with buds. Oh and the flowers DO indeed smell sweet.

Everyday's a Hilladay Around Here

2007-06-07T10:30:00.000-04:00

While every day is not a holiday around here, it is in fact, a Hilladay. I should note that this word was not invented by me, but came from a typo in an email from a friend of mine. So I'm stealing it. I'm a big copier. I admit it. But it does after all come from my last name, so there.

If you're reading this, most likely you know who I am, what I do, etc, etc. But sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words...

I am:
a commercial photographer
a wife to John
a step-mom to Molly (that's them in the photo below)
a "mom" to two cats Henry & Clarence (handsome aren't they?)
a gardener (the pickings one day from last year's garden)
Is that it? But wait there's more! I know there is! All in due time, all in due time. I'll get to all of that.

Every day seems so busy and packed with things to do. I never run out of things to do around here. It's like living on a farm. (E-I-E-I-O) Right now, it's late spring. After a long winter of boredom, the veggie garden is getting going, the flowers are blooming, the grass is green on my side and the other side too, the birds are sitting on eggs, bees are buzzing... it's my favorite time of year. I wait all year for this time of year.

So I mentioned that there are birds sitting on eggs. It all started last March. While driving out of our street, I saw my first ever bluebird. Coincidentally, I had been reading about bluebirds over the winter. I had read about how they are in trouble because there aren't enough natural nesting sites for them with development of suburban areas. Add to that, there are other birds, such as house sparrows and house wrens, that take their nesting spots and/or kill their eggs by pecking holes in the shells and tossing them out of the nest. Friends of bluebirds (the human kind) will put up nesting boxes for them to use. And that is what I did. I built a birdhouse to bluebird specifications and put it up in our mostly unused side yard. Bluebirds recognize these boxes, as a good nesting spot as many of them have, in fact, been born in a similar box. Soon after erecting the box, we had a male bluebird visitor to our yard. We call him Mr. Blue. We made friends by feeding him and eventually he brought his girl around to inspect the house. Mrs. Blue.
After her approval, she built a nest, laid some eggs and that brings us to present day, where she is incubating the eggs.
We've grown attached to our little blue friends. They steal the show around here lately. We've been busy keeping the mean old Mr. Wren away, in between things. I've hardly had any time to obsess about my tomatoes.