Hart 2 Heart

Spring is springing!

Thank you all who commented here and on my facebook page about the Faberge cookies. I found out that they were to be given as favors for a special event at the Russian Embassy, to honor a philanthropist who gives generously to the Russian-American community. I'm hoping to get some photos. . . we shall see! It took me a few days to recover from their production, and while taking a moment off, I was able to stop and smell the roses.

This bush is always my favorite. It is the most prolific bloomer and the flowers burst open like flames.

This one's a bit more subtle, but very purdy. I also have yellow, red and purple roses in my garden. I always like the look of a monochromatic flower garden, but I could never do it myself. There are just too many beautiful colors to choose from.

When my dad was visiting in January, we planted these pretty pots. The funny thing is, we did not plant that glorious yellow Ranunculus. It was actually a volunteer, that showed up later. I do enjoy a lovely surprise.

I planted my Calla Lilies when we first moved into our house 12 years ago, and they bring it every year. 

I'm loving succulents more all the time. This basket hangs near my side gate to the backyard. It's been looking good for a couple years now.

And last on my scenic tour is the harbor view we enjoyed for Easter brunch. After baking and decorating cookies non stop for Easter, there was no way I was going to pull off an Easter celebration at home. So I made reservations. The weather was absolutely perfect, as were the mimosas and lobster benedict. yum. 

Hope you're enjoying Spring wherever you are. See you soon!

 

Lanky sez. . .

"Could we PLEASE change the channel?"

"Who is this Anthony Bourdain guy anyway?"

As always, my days are filled with chasing the large puppy around the house. We are running out of high places to put things. Fortunately, he doesn't like tomatoes. Check out these beauties from the garden.

We haven't had a huge crop this year, but they've been delicious! 

Nothing better than a simple summer salad. Hope you're enjoying the fruits of summer, what's left of it.

Harvest time

We're having a tomato fest here in San Pedro. This is what I live for!

Check out this wacky one . . .
 

. . .yes, I bit it's nose right off. Delicious.
 
My personal favorite this year, is the voluptuous "Pink Lady". Very sweet, very juicy, and deep, dark pink--not red. I'm not sure you can really see the color in this photo. I'll be making a bucket load of fresh salsa this weekend, and this yellow tomato gazpacho. Yum. I'll let you know how it turns out! Have a great weekend everyone. 

  

 

Coming to fruition

 Alas the fruits of my labor are paying off!
 

Remember when I planted my summer garden? Well, those tomato plants have gone nuts! Unfortunately we've been having a very cool summer, so the ripening has been slow.. A perfect opportunity to try fried green tomatoes!

I found a good recipe here, and it was pretty simple to make.


And sooo yummy!

 
This gorgeous bell pepper is supposed to turn chocolate brown. We'll see if I can wait long enough to see that happen.
 

We have several variety of tomatoes. These little babies taste like candy!
 

Now these lovely large ladies are mild and delightful.
 

But my favorite thing in the garden, are the magical tomatilloes. Don't they look like little lanterns?  I can't wait to make some sort of salsa with them. I'll need to find a good recipe. Any suggestions? 

  

  

 
 

Spring forth.

Gardening helps to ground me. Ground. That is a good and deep word. Life can be very complicated, but when you make a garden, you get back to the root of it all. Root. There, again, a "deep" word. Oh, too many puns. I'm trying to be serious here. 

 

Sometimes you just have to dig deep to get through it.

 

Fortunately, I had a little help from my friend, the young, strong and optimistic Stephanie.

 

We turned the soil, dug in some magic manure, and planted some favorite summer veggies.

 

About a month later, this is what the garden looks like. Most things are thriving, including the weeds, though the snails seem to be enjoying my basil as a late night snack. Hey, a snail's gotta eat too. 

 

They are, however, staying away from my yellow squash. Mmmm. They'll be ready to saute soon. It is good to enjoy the fruits (and vegetables) of your labor.
 
 
 
 
 

A Surprise Garden

Life has many challenges. It's those challenges that make it interesting, and give you a reason to get up in the morning, even if many days, you'd rather stay under the covers. But get up we must.

 

One morning last week, a week which happened to be particularly challenging, I went outside to discover a lovely little garden circling our palm tree. Nothing but grass was there the day before.

 

Old bricks, which had been stacked by my vegetable garden, were repurposed as the border, and the pretty petunias planted, match our house trim perfectly. No one ever fessed up to this pleasant surprise, but I'm thinking it must've been the nice fellows that mow our lawn. It seems these little acts of kindness happen just at the right time, when I need them most. 

Thank you Mr. (or Ms.) garden fairy.

 
 

My Latest Flower Garden

I love flowers, ALL kinds! This week I was inspired by Bitter Betty and her fantastic flower collar. And of course, I have lots of scraps, and I've had a thing for felt lately. So I made a bunch of fabric flowers (backed with heat-n-bond lite).

 

I layered 'em. . .

 

pressed 'em down . . .

 

stiched 'em on. . .

 

and voila!

 

I'm going to tweak the design a bit, and then put these tees in my Etsy shop. Yeah I know, not much in there at the moment. But I promise there's a big update coming. I've had a little trouble keeping all of my balls in the air lately. That whole, mom/wife/business/life thing. That's 4 balls. I can juggle 3. Really, I can. 
 
 
 

 
 

Tomato Fest!

For me, tomatoes are the best part of summer. Yes I know, food. It's all about the food. But at least tomatoes are healthy AND delicious!

These are the best tomatoes I've ever planted. I believe the variety is "Pink Lady". They are a gorgeous dark pinkish/red, and so shiny. 

And BIG, and some are funny shaped.

And they are perfect for my favorite summer salad. 

Then there are these beauties! My pear tomato bushes (I made the mistake of planting 3!) took over the garden. That's o.k, because the whole neighborhood has been enjoying them. They're like candy. YUM!

Check out this pretty heart shaped one. I won't tell you what the 13 year old boy thought it looked like. Hint: imagine it hanging upside down. 'nuf said.

A summer tale.

Life is getting busy in the garden. I have a few echinacea plants mixed in my vegetable garden for color and whimsy. I've never used the plant for tea or medicinal purposes. I should look into that. In the mien time, the bees surely enjoy themselves. And boy are they healthy. I'm convinced they are why I have such a thriving garden. Problem is, they are nesting in the side of our house. I few years ago, we had some electrical work done, and the electricians didn't seal up the holes they had created in the stucco siding. Within a year, we had an exuberant bee community living inside our wall. I'm pretty sure they are confined to a small area on the second floor, which is just outside our bedroom closet. Every night, especially in the heat of the summer, they sing us to sleep. It's good to be close to nature.

So here's the rub. The department of water and power needs to do some electrical work and they can't do it because of the bees. They've come, they've tried, they're chicken. So now they've sent me a letter threatening to fine me, blah, blah, blah. Get rid of the bees! Frankly, I've been in denial about the whole situation, as I enjoy the fruits of my bees labors. A year ago, I called a bunch of different bee experts/exterminators/relocators, and got several different takes on the matter. The one I liked best was a nice old lady, who'd been rescuing bees for 30 years. She suggested the bees weren't really doing any harm; agreed. They were contributing to our well being; correct. So why not just leave them alone? My kinda gal! 

(Thriving zucchini plant)

Well, the power company doesn't see it our way. So now I have to do something. The thing is, if you just exterminate the bees (the easiest/cheapest solution), the hives inside the walls will not be maintained and the honey will heat up, seep through the walls and make a real expensive mess. Not to mention the fact that I love my bees, and don't feel like mass murdering them. Another option is to have them relocated. There are companies that specialize in this. Problem is, they have to destroy your wall to get to the bees. Some will even take the honey they find and bottle it up for you! That would be fun. Then there are the repair costs. I guess I should get off the computer and make some phone calls. Any suggestions on what I should do? 

Maybe a good zucchini recipe?

Finding Life in the Garden

Not to get too philosophical about gardening, yet again, but here I go. I always find that digging in the dirt, makes me feel good; productive and happy. It is time in southern California to get the vegetable bed ready for summer crops. Yes, I said summer! Certain things will produce in the spring, but the good stuff will really come through with the heat. This is the before picture. 

Notice the old tomato cages, dead plants and weeds. Also the fence kinda wants to fall down. In the foreground though, is my fabulous strawberry patch. I planted them 2 or 3 years ago. They go dormant in the winter, and come back strong each year. 

Since we've been having rain, they're coming back to life! I never took out the old pepper plants, so amazingly, there were a couple peppers still hanging on!

Tucked in there too, is a marjoram plant. My parsley has continued to produce all year too.

So what next? This is when the real garden labor begins. My neighbor Stephanie, mother of the beautiful Adeo and Suvan (my favorite models), has volunteered to co-garden with me. She is an awesome assistant. I didn't get any action shots--next time! After we bravely pulled out the old plants, and dug in a layer of steer manure, the soil was rich and ready for planting.

It's always good to let the soil rest a while before you plant, so that we did. And what happened in the mien time? My neighbor replaced the falling down fence! Perfect timing.

Here's the after shot. It doesn't look that exciting YET, but I'll keep you updated. I love checking out the garden every day. The tomato plants seem to grow over night! I put in 4 varieties of tomatoes, and got new support cages. They are all against the fence. I also planted 4 different peppers. Can't you just taste the fresh salsa!?

We added some basil, rosemary, cilantro, lemon thyme and several little violas for color. We set up the soaker hose too. We ran out of time and energy to get the seeds in. I'll share that with you after we get to it this weekend.