Friday musings

This past week has been tiring. The weather is crazy - we were headed in to an early Autumn when Summer decided to take a fierce swipe at the Bay Area. Temps have been in the high 90's and have been threatening to leap into the 100's. Plus the fact that we had a lunar eclipse this week (yes, I did get up at 4:30am to see it), I came back to work after a week long vacation, and I had to start evening classes again 3 nights a week. With the weird moon pattern and the heat, I haven't slept much. Plus with the bf's daugher out of the house, their cat thinks it's ok to cry in the middle of the night without good reason. Oh, did I mention that one of my nostrils is ill? Typically you get sinus problems in both nostrils but this time, for at least 3 weeks, only one side of my nose is sick. It truly is the strangest thing.

Garden rememberings....

Things I should remember for next years garden:

Tomatoes: The bamboo stakes and figure-8'ing the twine worked really well but you need to keep twining up the entire season. You also need to use a different stake, perhaps rebar, as the plants get heavy late in the season when loaded with fruit and cause even the most sturdy of bamboo to snap under the weight.
Brainstorm with bf to establish a planting pattern so we can get to the toms at the back and the bottoms of the plants. Don't plant pear tomatoes because none of us will eat them. The Genovese Costoluto's are nice but not producing much. The Amish Paste did well as did the Sausage and the Japanese tomatoes. The Brandywines are doing ok as a plant, but the production on them is quite poor. If you allow them to ripen on the vine, they rot right away.

Squash: Don't plant anywhere that gets shaded in any way, shape, or fashion. They just don't grow well no matter how little shade they get. Also, don't water the leaves at all, unless in the morning when the water can burn off. It's causing mildew this season and that sucks. The zuchinni's were planted out late this season and died after I left one zuke on the vine for seed. Save a zuke late in the season for seed so you get more the rest of the season. Plant only one summer squash because bf gets sick of them quick.

Peas: Same as squash - no water on the leaves at all. These mildewed as well and died shortly after. It was those couple of days in July when we had foggy mornings and sprinkles (who'd have thunk it would rain in California in the summer?)

Luffa: It didn't bloom until this week, very late in the season and quite a small plant. At the time of planting, it was the same size as the cucumber, however the cuke didn't do anything until July and then it sprouted like crazy and now shades the luffa too much.

Sunflower: My beautiful red sunflower did quite well, but it's too bad the seeds I planted around it never sprouted. Start this plant indoors and transplant it out later.

to be continued...

Pictures of the day

Blackberries in the morning sun

One of my last sunflowers

A weeks worth of update

I was on vacation last week so other than take some pictures, I was enjoying my time alone.

Meow, trying to help (not!) in the garden...

Cotton flower about to bloom

Cotton flower blooming

Previously the plants were blooming pink flowers, but the newer flowers are blooming white - same plant.

Once again, my tomato staking method failed. I'm satisfied with it for the most part, but once the plants become heavy, especially top heavy, my wooden stakes snap and the system starts to fail. This year I put in bamboo stakes, one stake every two plants. I then start low on the stake and figure 8 garden twine from one stake to the next, enclosing my plants on both sides in the end. As the plants grow taller, I start a new line of twine across and around and this essentially keeps my plants upright and fairly contained. No problem until the production gets heavy and the stakes start to break. Next year I need more substantial product and I think it will all work. Maybe rebar. Anyhow, I removed the overbearing plants that were on the end that caused the problem to begin with. In my opinion, those tomatoes weren't all that tasty nor worth growing so it wasn't a big lost. I harvested what was ripe and cut the rest of the plant down, pulling the vines out. I then had to re-hammer my stake in, using two at a time instead of one this time, trimming my heavy Sausage Tomato plant (I lost less than 10 tomatoes) and then uprighting the plant and tieing it back up. Click the photos to enlarge.

BF found this siamese Summer squash

My ginger roots are sprouting and my transplant canna (thanks Janet!) has a bloom coming on.

Cotton update...

Today I was cleaning the windows (how I hate dirty windows and these have needed a good scrubbing since we moved here in December) and I noticed that my cotton plant had bloomed. Once again, the green cotton wins out and bloomed first. The brown cotton plant probably won't bloom until next weekend. Oddly, the green cotton bloomed pink flowers. How about that?

Here are pictures of both of my new flowers.

Anna's Hummingbird

Actually, he's MY hummingbird, and my name isn't Anna. But alas, that is the type of hummingbird he is. I finally got some nice shots of him so let me introduce you to BadBoy, my resident Anna's hummingbird. I learned over the weekend that the males find the sweetest flower, with the highest sugar content, and then they defend that flower aggressively. BadBoy has found that in my hummingbird feeder and it's now his, lock, stock and barrel. If others come near his feeder, he dive bombs them. He has a perfect view of the feeder from my apple tree, the neighbors plum tree, or my other neighbors Japanese Maple. If he hears that telltale buzzing of hummer wings, in he dives chirping and cursing in his little hummer voice. It's the same cursing that I hear when the feeder is empty. I shout out the window at him, "I know, I know! I can hear you and your feeder is low. I'll get to it when I'm ready," and he settles down, but only for a bit. Then the cursing continues.

Lately BadBoy has been getting brave. He sits in a low branch on the apple tree and I stood right under him, our faces no more than 6 feet apart. He twitched his head sideways to get a goooood look at me and I eyeballed him and told him how naughty he was to chase the other birds off. He was so comfortable with me that I went inside and grabbed the camera and he posed while I took these shots. Oh, he feigned as if he was frightened and flitted away but he was back within a short 10-15 seconds so I wasn't buying it. We sat and chatted, he turned so I could get a good shot of his green feathers, and then he thought a nice action photo would be nice so he hopped over to the feeder for this last image. Ham, I tell you - he's just a big ham.

Being home all weekend, we usually let the cats roam the backyard if we are out so BadBoy was a little more nervous over the weekend. He'd flit off every time the sliding screen door opened but he'd come right back once he saw the felines were still in the house. I guess underneath, he really is a woosy.

A month ago we had a small female stop by and she wasn't afraid of BadBoy at all. She sat in the flower vines that grow up my patio overhang and hid from him. When the cats came out, she would fly and hover in their faces - I couldn't tell whether she was brave or stupid but she was entertaining, if nothing else. I miss her.

Someday...

Someday I'll get out of here. If not out of California all together, then at least out of the Bay Area. I'm stifled by concrete, bad drivers, inconsiderate members of the human race bombarding me from every direction. The lack of inner peace is overwhelming and at times unbearable causing me to consider decisions I know I will later regret. The amount of restraint it takes for me not to follow through is amazing, tiring, exhausting.

When I eventually get out of here, there are few things I will miss.
* I will miss the cool "autumn is coming" mornings when the fog starts to come back and you roll down your window on the way to work to inhale that powerful scent of fresh garlic that has wafted through the night from Gilroy, 20 miles south.
* I will miss, again in the foggy mornings, seeing the local coyote as they hunt on the hillside. They've been gone since the end of spring, no doubt much more cautious about showing themselves during the hot summer as they raise a small coyote litter. Once the mornings cool and the fog is light, I drive in the hills in the early morning and think, "it's a coyote kind of a day." Sure enough, on the ridge next to the lone oak tree, near the little valley where I see them hunting the most, I catch the shadow of her head, her ears and the very top of her back at the top of the hill. Two days ago, I saw a scrawny young coyote 5 feet from the parking lot of my work, panting, under the pitiful shade of a small tree, in the middle of a fairly warm day. I watched her for nearly 2 minutes before she dashed down the hill and disappeared from my view.
* I will miss the distinct violet-beige color of the grassy hills when the rain stops and the world here changes color.

Quote of the day...

"We're so focused on the wrong things. We're teaching young girls that this is what they should be focusing on: rich and famous girls who are rich and famous for nothing." Ellen Pompeo

I have no idea who this chick is other than what the news article reported but, nuff said.

Tuesday August 7th

Yesterday I came home and knew that I needed to harvest tomatoes again. They are quickly gathering in my freezer and will, maybe this weekend, become s'ghetti sauce and possibly ketchup if I'm feeling very adventurous. I'm hoping we still have enough fresh toms left on the vine come August 19 when the entire family of my bf comes over to the house for a birthday party - fresh salsa! I have these great japanese tomatoes, that is how they were listed when I found them at my local Cosentinos market. A delicious medium pink tomato, I soon found they were called odoriko. For us, they are perfect all around tomatoes - I can slice them for BLT's or hamburgers or I can dice them and add them to the pre-made s'ghetti sauce from the store as a fresh addition. Once we learned how much we loved this tomato, I scooped and saved seeds and they seem to come back true so far, two years now. I'll save seed from these 6 plants and see what I get with them next year. This is a picture of my harvest from those 6 plants plus one cucumber. I will harvest clean the other 12+ tomatoe plants this evening once I get home.

Last night I got to see another episode of Good Eats with Alton Brown. I've been watching him for years and I swear, the man just makes sense. I repeatedly tell my bf, I love Alton Brown. I mean, who else on national television would use a giant box fan and heater filters to dehydrate fruit and then ADMIT it, again on national tv? No one, that's who. He's smart, he's economical, and he's passionate about local food and homecooking/preserving. I was happy to catch his show on dehydrating food.

Hi ho the merry-o, a tilling we will go...

Between my driveway and the neighbors driveway is this undefined strip of.. nothing. When we first moved in it was virtually a dirt plot and we considered what we could put in there. Then the rains came and something that looked like grass grew so we thought it was nice and bf mowed it when he mowed the lawn. Then the seasons changed and so did our cute little grassy plot. The foxtails took over followed by the dandelions and finally, over the summer, some strange weed bombarded the entire lot. Last weekend I started on these strange weeds, pulling each by hand to ensure that I got the entire root system. After two hours in the blistering sun, I had completed a 4 inch strip along the right side. Saturday I began again, determined to complete the weed pulling by the end of the weekend. 45 minutes later, bf came out and said "you can't pull them all by hand - it will take you forever. Why don't we see if Dad still has his buddys rototiller?" Well honey, you have the phone number so start dialing!Within 3 hours the Jeep was at our house, rototiller in the back. It was a little difficult to start but eventually it fired up and his dad showed us how to use it. Next morning there I was, adjusting the idle and the choke and pulling the string. After 5 minutes and nothing, bf put a little carb cleaner in the chamber with the spark plug and she fired right up. 10 minutes later, our little plot was plowed!

So begins the cleanup. I raked the plot, pulling out all the uprooted weeds and pulling a few more by hand. Whatever remained was left up on the topside of the dirt to bake in the sun and dry up. Those determined weeds sure don't last that long that way. We only tilled about 4 inches down. After I cleaned up the lot, it looked pretty nice.

When the sun started to go down I went out and planted 8 lantana plants in a nice violet color. BF tells me he likes these everytime he sees them so I picked them up last weekend to prepare for this project. We laid them out, spacing them where we wanted them and I went out later with a pickax to dig holes (this ground is HARD) and planted out each of the plants, going around the PG&E box at the far end next to the sidewalk. Can you believe that when I was weeding last weekend, the neighbor whose driveway is next to this lot was trying to convince me to just pave it over or lay it with bricks, saying "you can even PARK YOUR CAR on it," like that was a good thing. No thanks! While we were tilling his wife came out and said "You can't plant anything there, too many weeds," and I replied "That's ok, we're taking care of that." Since I don't believe in applying chemicals, I will surround these plants with wetted down cardboard or newspaper, to block the sun and the weeds, and then put some shredded compost or fine bark on top to help feed the land once the cardboard breaks down. This method has worked VERY well in another bed I created at this house.

Horses

Yesterday I had the pleasure of going horseback riding for the first time in about 15 years. I learned to ride long ago, when I was 10 - my friends pony and her fathers big Appy. I consider myself quite a good rider even though my experiences were a while back. It's like riding a bike, I tell you, only now I ride in a saddle as opposed to bareback, or banana seat (haha). So I'm pleased to introduce you to Tony, the big black and white paint, Sahara, the arabian mother, and her son Wildfire who was 1 year old on this day.

My morning walk

The weather below - cool and cloudy. I come up the hill, it turns to windy and foggy, thick as pea soup they say. The fog blows in little patches to let me know it's moving. I cannot see work from the last turn of the road. I came early today to get in a lap around the building, wearing a thin short sleeved top but I brought my giant fleece vest. Not that it will do much good against this morning chill. I hesitate, tempted to forego my exercise but force myself to don the vest, zip it up, bring my arms in and try to hold the armholes closed. I'll make it around even though my hair is still damp from my morning shower. The trees drip heavy with dew from the fog, still thick, but mobile with the wind. Drops of moisture pattern the ground beneath each tree. I make my way around the lot and through the dripping wet gate so I can take the higher dirt trail around. A mere 20 feet from the road but I still feel closer to nature, and I can see down the berm a bit, in search for early morning companions. I step over a trail of ants - not ordinary ants that seem to anxiously run about following each other in each direction - a thick heavy road of big, sturdy, black ants, slow and meandering as if they were in no hurry compared to their smaller counterparts. It's strange, I've never seen such a thing, like everyday ants, pubescent 13 year olds and these are older, bolder, wiser ants twice as long and thrice as thick. 10 feet later, another row of ants - they must have made a trail 4 inches wide. And yet another 25 feet for the third and last trail - I'm baffled but move on. The chill comes through the armholes of my vest and makes a little cold patch on the back of my arm; I pull my outerwear tighter.
A small first year deer comes from the hill next to the building, across the road towards the berm I am on and gets confused by the fence. It tries to escape me; it has plenty of time as I'm still quite far away - it paces the fence, finds a hole and bounds right through the middle of the barbed wire - incredible - it fit! To my left I see a mother and fawn bounding away and I think to myself how fast that fawn found mother and bounced away, but as I watch them I see another mother fawn pair and I realize that was my road crossing, fence bursting friend. They all trot quickly to the next hill before they turn to look at me smiling after them.
My dirt berm comes to an end and I cross through another gate full of water drops. I stick to the dirt trail alongside of the road on the other side of the guardrail. The wind blows my hair, still damp but drying now, and I can barely see. As I shake my head to clear my site I notice movement - rabbit ears. I walk along as the bunny runs away - our black tailed jackrabbits don't do much hopping over here. When he's gone from view, I think he has made his way down the hill to the left, yet he bounds across the road to my right, headed towards the hill my fawn friend was running from. Deer count = 4; bunny count = 1. Now my only companions are sleek cars coming up the hill along the straightaway, surely not silent, but nearly invisible in the fog.