Half Dome

My annual trip to Yosemite with my students last week was an enormous success! I'll never cease to feel awe over the treasures of this valley, both the enormous ones and the hidden ones. And yes, I have quite a horde of apples again this year!

Princess Bellerina

The queen perches on her royal chaise. A servant hovers nearby should she desire anything.

Little Apples?

I'm not sure if this is a manzanita or wild pyracanthus.

Manzanita means "little apple" in Spanish, and a close look at the bright red berries confirms that they do, in a way, resemble a highly idealized version of an apple.

I think they look more like tomatoes, myself.

This bush was spotted on another Pulgas Ridge excursion, a place that is rapidly climbing to the head of our list of favorite places to roam.

Edit: I've since confirmed that this is pyracanthus.

Thankful for...

pleasures both simple and extravagant...

Can you believe this bottle of champagne? It was a raffle prize at Mr. Hands' company holiday party some years ago. We did not know then what a treasure we had. Tucked away since then, awaiting a special occasion--that occasion was today, our Thanksiving feast with family and friends.

Mr. Hands' verdict--"I'd rather have a Coke." My verdict--"Can I have yours then?"

Shady characters

Is it just me... or do these two look like they're up to something?

Pulgas Ridge

Katie takes Mr Hands and I for a walk
in the Pugas Ridge Open Space.

This dog-friendly preserve has great trails and an off-leash area where Katie can crash through piles of leaves and go bounding around bushes. Funny how such a resource can be in our very backyards without our knowing about it until now.

Last Harvest

I toppled the tomato plants and pulled the peppers today and here's the final bounty from the garden. I hauled all this inside using my robe as a sling, prancing in my slippers and pajamas between the first raindrops of what turned out to be quite a drizzly day. I'm tickled that I pulled all this from my garden on November 10! But I absolutely do not know what to do with green tomatoes.

Camellia

"Flowers are beautiful hieroglyphics of nature,

with which she indicates how much she loves us."

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I'm the leader here, and I say... it's a little cricket bug."

Fascinated by the cricket-crab bugs she found on the shore, Katie wore herself out on the trail.

Blaze of Autumn

 

Glowing Red Fountain Grass along the Bay Trail in Burlingame.

Fort Funston

In With the New

 

Shane with an iPhone on her hands

Eau de Bell Pepper & Ode to iPhone

 

There are two significant things about this picture. The first is that it is my first grown-from-my-garden bell pepper, and not just of this season, but ever! I think it's lovely. My goodness, did it smell great! The red bells had yet to appear at pepper plucking time, so I purchased one and laid it side-by-side next to my green bell on the counter. Their looks complemented each other, but while the green bell had terrifically fresh and produce-y fragrances, the red store-bought smelled of nothing at all. What a treat, to savor the perfume of my pepper--but my sister-in-law started to look at me funny, so that was enough of that.

The second significant thing about this picture is that it was taken with my just-from-the-shrink-wrap iPhone! It was a treat to savor the sight and feel of my iPhone last night, too, but the funny looks I got were similar.

Welcome, Cort!

Let me introduce to you my new second cousin!

Cort Robert
July 11, 2007

Isn't he gorgeous?!

Sailing

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

Mark Twain

There is not enough time to do all the nothing we want to do.
--Bill Watterson

Bon Voyage to Me...

...Back in Two Weeks!

I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.

--John Masefield

 

This is my garden as it stands today.

Veggie Counts:
Tomatoes: 1
Crookneck squash: 4
Zucchini: 0
Green peppers: 0
Red peppers:0
Eggplant: 0

Did you hear that? It was me sighing. It was the sigh heard 'round the world.

No more papers, no more (text)books,
No more children's dirty looks.
No more meetings, no more assignments,
No more notes home to your parents.
No more red pens, no more grade scales,
No more silly homework tales.
No more boring strategic planning,
No more bus stops that need manning.
No more recess, no more lunch,
No more detention, no more test crunch.
No more electives, no more study hall,
Darn it, I may miss it after all.

First Tomato of the Season

Though perhaps odd to show pictures of a tomato on the vine after I've already published pictures of the same tomato sliced on a plate, I can't resist putting this beauty on display one more time. It's my First Tomato of the Season, so I'm a bit biased. And this is certanly a knee-jerk reation after last summer when my One Tomato looked as if it was all I was going to get for so long!

So this is Stupice, a variety I've never heard of, much less grown. Can one still say it's from Czechoslovakia? Whether one can or no, that's how it's listed by many growers. It's growth is vigorous; in fact, it's already taller than the supports I gave it, so I've just been draping the stalks back and forth over the trellis. The fruit shapes are amazing--most are regular and round, but some are very oblong and strange. It hardly seems fair to pass judgement after sampling only one fruit, but here goes. I need to borrow from Mr. Hands' vocabulary to describe my impression: "Meh."

But I'm willing to over-look a lot if I get to eat a homegrown tomato on June 10!

Ode to Salt

This salt
in the salt cellar
I once saw in the salt mines.
I know
you won't
believe me
but
it sings
salt sings, the skin
of the salt mines
sings
with a mouth smothered
by the earth.
I shivered in those
solitudes
when I heard
the voice
of
the salt
in the desert.
Near Antofagasta
the nitrous
pampa
resounds:
a
broken
voice,
a mournful
song.

In its caves
the salt moans, mountain
of buried light,
translucent cathedral,
crystal of the sea, oblivion
of the waves.
And then on every table
in the world,
salt,
we see your piquant
powder
sprinkling
vital light
upon
our food.
Preserver
of the ancient
holds of ships,
discoverer
on
the high seas,
earliest
sailor
of the unknown, shifting
byways of the foam.
Dust of the sea, in you
the tongue receives a kiss
from ocean night:
taste imparts to every seasoned
dish your ocean essence;
the smallest,
miniature
wave from the saltcellar
reveals to us
more than domestic whiteness;
in it, we taste finitude.

Pablo Neruda

Three Ways to Celebrate Salt:
1. Drink a frosty margarita from a glass edged in salt.
2. Dust the first tomato of the season with salt, then eat it straight from the vine.

3. Enjoy together.

Contented Cat

 

Click on the image to get the full effect of the photo.

My darling mischievous peeping Tom. Wonder what he's eyeing? He's just surveying his domain and enjoying his rare excursion in the backyard jungle.

Root bound

 

It's December in my Garage

I don't spend much time in my garage. It is the disaster area of our house--and nobody is ever invited to see it! Currently, several projects are "resting" there, in various stages of postponment, and in some cases, abandonment. I'm guilty of the abandoment issues. Last winter, when the amaryllis finished, I stuck the pots out there to be "dealt with later." And now it's June. Hey, that's later!

And in any case, my procrastination paid off, because unnoticed, uncoaxed, and unconcerned with the season, this amaryllis bloomed!

 

Though labeled "Red Nymph", I think it is actually "Dancing Queen."

Happy Holidays!

Flowers of Francis Beach, Half Moon Bay

There's lots more to a beach than sand and sea!

Beach Finds

I am mesmerized by this object--is it plant or animal?


Tangled messes look attractively mysterious on a beach.

These last three photos are of the high tide line, where the coarse sand transitions to fine sand and ocean deposits are skattered in lazy arcs. Birds also drop the remains of their sand crab meals, leaving an eerie graveyard amongst the sea grass and driftwood.