Here I am in Southern California

Black Tartarian Cherries

We first had these cherries from the market last year, and were despondent when we went back for more the next week and they were gone. We vowed to buy all we could get our hands on this year, and can them so we could savor them over time.

Dan saw the farmer last week, and implored him to bring his cherries to market even though his harvest was very small this year. He offered to buy his whole crop, and even to go to Visalia and pick them off his trees.

Well, the farmer came through this past Saturday, and Dan came home with 15 pounds of these beauties.

After a warm afternoon of canning, I have 10 pints of these little lovelies, plus one and a half that we didn't seal. Shucks, we'll have to eat those in the next week or so.

The canned ones account for about 10 pounds. We've got another 3 pounds soaking in brandy a la Alice Waters, and the rest we ate with ice cream!

Flowers and Veggies Coming Along

Oooh boy. I started this post two weeks ago and forgot to finish it. Now I need to get out and take some more photos since the side garden has been coming along.

Some perennials: salvia chiapensis and a couple of lavenders.

California poppies just starting to come out:

Garlic, Brussels sprouts, and lacinato kale are getting started:

And the side yard from the other side. I've got alyssum along the foot of the raised bed, to keep down the weeds and also for the lovely fragrance:

And finally, the blueberries. Two bushes were planted last year, and two more back in March. I think I will actually get a handful or two of blueberries this year, and the plants are starting to put on some good growth.

Front Yard in Bloom

Dan's Mom had our front yard redone before we moved in. This is the third year it's been in, and it's really coming into it's own. It was designed to use mainly perennial, native or drought-tolerant plants. There are some plants and aspects of the design that don't quite work, but overall it's a nice, low-water, low-maintenance alternative to a traditional lawn.

And at this time of year, it's really pretty spectacular with everything in bloom.

This shot is taken at the foot of the driveway, looking across the main part of the yard. The shrub all the way to the right, with the white flowers is a rockrose (cistus). We have a lot of these in the front yard. They did not bloom at all last spring, but this year they have been covered with lovely white flowers. In front of the rockrose is a lavender (Goodwin Creek, I think) that we put in to replace a failing penstemon. To the left of the rockrose is a mound of Santa Barbara daisies (erigeron).

The second shot is on the other side of the driveway, looking at the narrow strip under the magnolia tree. You can see more of the rockroses and the daisies.

And this last shot is from the other corner of the front yard, looking over the main part of. Eventually, we'll probably take out the two ceanothus (in the let corner) that are too big to be at the front of the yard, and the line of scraggly jade plants right up next to the house. I'd like to add another smallish tree on this side of the yard, maybe a Western redbud or a coffeeberry, to add some balance to the overall effect. But that's a plan for this fall, I think. We'll be focusing on a new deck and the back yard this summer.

 

Front Patio is Coming Together

We've now actually used our front patio several times. We had electricians out a couple of weeks ago for some minor things around the house, and while they were here we had them put a power outlet on the patio. This means we can work out there with our laptops - if this windy weather ever settles down. And yes, that's about the worst thing I can say about the weather here. It's breezy sometimes. Everyone cry for me, OK? :)

I've been working on getting some potted plants out there. We've got a strawberry jar with alpine strawberries growing in it, my birthday bonsai tree (it's still alive! six months later!), some calla lilies in pretty colors, and the nice large hydrangea.

We've been looking for some nice plant stands to put in the corners, but haven't found ones that strike us yet. I'm also keeping an eye out for reasonable priced large planters so I can make a couple of container gardens out here.

Here's a closer shot of the potted flowers. I'm quite relieved that the hydrangea came back as the weather warmed up. This was the first winter we've been here, so I was not at all sure which of my dead-looking plants were just being deciduous and which ones were suffering from my well meaning but poorly informed care. Score one for the hydrangea!

The little one in front is a nice trailing salvia, which I got on a whim at Island Seed & Feed a few weeks back. I may put it into a hanging basket when it gets a little bigger.

(Full of) Magic Beans

Beans are a great confidence booster for a novice gardener. They sprout and grow quickly, providing instant gratification. The scarlet runner beans I planted are also known for their profuse and lovely red and white flowers. They covered the trellis outside the window for the better part of the summer. I've been harvesting the dry pods for a while now, and have them in a little bowl in the kitchen. The beans themselves are also beautiful, either cream- or mocha-colored and speckled with dark brown.

All in all, they seem like magic to me. And now I can see why it was a beanstalk that grew up to the sky in the fairy tale. These guys screamed up the 8' trellis and sent long shoots off the top looking for purchase on something else.

As for being full of beans, that would be Penny the cat. Our ranch-style house has one long hallway that runs from the living room on one end, clear to the other end 0f the house, then takes a turn to the last bedroom. The door to my office and the linen closet share that corner. Since we moved in, Penny has greatly enjoyed launching herself from the living room and down the hall at top speed, claws scrabbling on the wood floor, until she collides with the linen closet with a thud. At this point, she usually regains her balance, shakes herself, then oh-so-casually saunters into my office.

Well, the other day she made a discovery: if she gets enough momentum up, when she hits the linen closet door she releases the earthquake-proof latch and it swings open. Then, she can climb in and snuggle with the folded quilts in there to her heart's delight.

Where's Burton*?

Dan tracked down a copy of this for me:

Mom or Don, do you remember this one? It's been on my mind for months, with some lines popping into my head at odd times. And it's as good as I remember - all 10 pages or so of it.

I've slowly been tracking down and collecting some of the books that really meant something to me as a kid (Mom's been helping). I'm glad to have a copy of this one.

And for those who didn't learn to read with this book, Burton is, as you might expect, the beagle. :)

Unerring Feline Knack

Penny, displaying her uncanny talent for finding a quilt or blanket anywhere in the house. I was hoping to catch her napping on here, but she woke up when I approached - hence the baleful look.

P.S. - Mom, this is, of course, the wedding quilt. All but the last 10" of the binding is stitched down, I just need to do that tricky final splice.

Tea Party

On Sunday, we threw a tea party for our three nieces and their chosen guests. This was a long-overdue Christmas gift from last year, but I think it was worth the wait for them. Here's the table:

(extra bonus: you get to see our new dining room chairs!)

We went all out: antique linens, fancy china, flowers, and place cards:

I spent about 12-15 hours baking, ironing, and making place cards and goody bags with recipe cards for each kid:

I am maybe, perhaps, a little bit of a first-child-overachiever. Good thing we only had six guests. The kids all dressed up; they looked gorgeous and were perfectly delightful to have as guests. I have some nice shots of them all enjoying themselves, but feel a little odd about posting photos of other people's kids.

Here's the gist of the menu:

- Cucumber/dill/cream cheese sandwiches
- Cotswold cheese and butter sandwiches
- Curried cashew and mango chicken salad sandwiches
- Individual quiches with roasted peppers and chard from the garden
- Crumpets with jam and lemon curd
- Shortbread
- Scones with clotted cream, jam, lemon curd
- Frosted brownie cakes (with monograms)
- Lemon tea loaf
- Meringue mushrooms

All the baked goods were homemade, except the crumpets. Dan was a huge help with the savories - thanks, Dan!

And many cups of Pumphrey's Blend tea from Peet's. No dumbing-down of the menu for our nieces!

Exhausting for me, but totally worth it to see how much fun the kids had and how much they enjoyed the food.

Berries: Black and Blue

The blackberry bramble made an impressive recovery after being cut back for fumigation late last summer. Having been told that the fruit only grows on the second-year canes, I had very low expectations for this year's crop.

But evidently nothing can stop a well-established blackberry thicket. I picked about a pint on Wednesday, and they made  a delightful afternoon snack.

And these little guys - now, this *will* be a small crop this year. This is one of the two new blueberries I planted in April. Only this bush flowered at all, which is not surprising, and we have exactly six tiny blueberries growing.

 

 

The Ps Have It

Poppies

I woke up this morning to this out the kitchen window:

The first of the non-California poppies to bloom for me. Since I planted approximately a zillion poppy seeds (they are very tiny, after all) and only three plants survived, I had low hopes for poppy blossoms this summer. But this plant has about 15 buds on it, and the one next to it has about the same. It's going to be spectacular in another week or so.

Peas

The peas are planted very close together, a la the Square Foot Gardening method, and they seem to be thriving! There's great freedom in being a complete beginner at gardening - every bud and blossom is a small victory. I didn't even notice the pods until yesterday, and then just small ones. A closer look revealed a handful that were ready to pick. Crunch and yum!

Peppers

I've got a few varieties of peppers growing, and the two largest plants are some Italian red roasting peppers that I got as seedlings at the market. This is the "Carmen" variety.

And this one didn't have a specific variety name:

We eat a lot of roasted red peppers, and I'm looking forward to home-made ones!