Garden Video

Enjoy some unedited footage of the flower garden, then come help me deadhead and weed!


Please?






Peace.

Mojito Scones?

Okay, not really.

I used my old standby recipe, except instead of ginger & lemon, I used mint & lime. And instead of buttermilk or a yogurt/milk blend, I used coconut milk.

* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/4 cup granulated sugar
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/4 teaspoon salt*
* 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold and cut into pieces*
* 1/2 cup crystallized ginger, chopped into small pieces*
* 1 large lemon, zest of*
* 2/3 cup buttermilk*

For the icing, I just used powdered sugar & lime juice. The girls like a little food coloring with their meals, what can I say?




Enjoy.



*I only had salted butter, so I used that & omitted the salt. I used 1 teaspoon peppermint extract (and cursed myself for not going out to the garden to get fresh mint to make a syrup or perhaps try shredded?). I used the zest of 3 limes. I used nearly 2/3 cup coconut milk & made up the rest with the juice of 1 lime.



Update: I just went to get another and the girls had eaten nearly all of them! They are a hit.


Peace.

Crimes Against Nature

Yesterday early morning we were awoken by a fleet of trucks and tractors surrounding our house. Turns out our new(ish) neighbors were having their old driveway scooped up. Oh how the girls and I hoped they were at least going to give part of it over to green, if not all of it to flowers and such.

Alas. By the end of the hot hot day there was a newer blacker hotter driveway in place of the old one with the yellow tape marking the crime scene.







Peace.

A George Bailey Moment

I went to the tax office today, because I don't have enough cash right now to pay my property taxes. They went up by $583.74 this year -- thank you so much override yes voters. I was a bit teary as I thought about George Bailey, and realized I don't even have life insurance, so I'm worth about the same dead or alive. 0.

The ladies at the tax office were very nice about it. They assured me that I'm not alone and told me to pay a little at a time as the money comes in until it's paid off. They said don't let myself get upset about it.

I wish I could refinance -- my 30 year fixed rate is still the 7.25 it was when I got the mortgage in 2001. The local bank I have my mortgage with told me I don't earn enough money to pay less on my mortgage.

It's a wonderful life.






Peace.

Garden Blogging

Burlington

Just when we hit are-we-there-yet fatigue on the five hour drive up,
we rounded a corner and saw a hot air balloon parade.

Even though we arrived late Friday evening,
we were up by five in the morning.
We wandered down to the waterfront.

The girls were watching ducks, but obliged when I asked them to turn around.

They have these lovely swings upon which to sit while watching the water.

We found North Beach by 7am, and had it all to ourselves.
I suggested we take a quick dunk in our clothes to wash the car night off of us.
It was fun!

As I was meeting my tribe, the atriots, on the steps of City Hall,
the girls made up a game of sliding.

The sign that I started at eleven thirty Thursday night turned out pretty cute.
I didn't quite finish coloring in the letter themes.
Gromit tells NTodd he must wear pants (or shorts).

Back at the beach for the day, we all spent hours in the water.
Then we camped at the campground right there.

We love Burlington.

The Muttis

My brother made three great videos for my dad's birthday today. Of course, this one is my favorite 'cause I'm in it(!), as are both my grandmas, my mom, my dad, my sister, and my daughter from when she was five months old (she'll be ten years old this summer). We both look older now than we did then!

The video opens with my dad and my sister watching my paternal grandma open birthday presents in Florida. Then, there's a beautiful sunlit scene of my dad and mom with my baby daughter. Then, it's scenes of us celebrating my mom's birthday in California, including shots of my maternal grandma. Then, back to Florida for close-ups of birthday flowers and the all-important magarita salt. Cheers.

I have been known to bark about people videoing their lives too much. I have been at more than one birthday party where they roll out the cake, everyone sings, but when they realize they didn't get a good tape of it, they do it over again. When I see something like this, though, I'm so glad someone was taping. Thanks, James!

Happy Birthday, Dad. I would never call myself daddy's little girl, in fact, we fought a lot when I was growing up. Yet through it all, you were always there for me. I love you, Poppy. A la famiglia!






Peace.

Walking through the Garden Yesterday

the back garden
greens of various sorts on the left
beets, carrots, radishes on the right
parsley, cilantro, rhubarb in the way back

lars, the peach tree
transplanted after he tipped over last week
he doesn't look so good

grapes

grapes

the main garden
basil, eggplant, garlic, potatoes
pears, tomatoes, peppers
dill, oregano, rosemary, sage, lavender

the side garden
blueberries, peas, watermelon
a couple potatoes sprouted from last year's crop

clematis on the side garden fence

peas

Now take a stroll along the flower garden...

Peace.

Good Bye, Toad

We kept him/her as a pet probably longer than we should have, but we all enjoyed watching our pet toad hopping around the habitat we made. S/he seemed pretty happy eating fruit flies, too. But today was the day. I made a little toad house in a protected spot in the yard. We even put the moss pad s/he loved from the habitat in the toad house. And some of the rocks and sticks. Then, we set ol' toady free.

At first s/he started to hop away, then turned. In the top picture, the toad had turned around and was heading back to the toad house. Then, toad turned and ran in to the daisy patch.

The bottom picture was shot through the window from inside our house. We have a good view if s/he comes back.

We wish our toad good luck and we hope we see her/him again. We miss her/him already.









Peace.

For Rowena and Her New House

I was downtown early one morning a few weeks ago and I saw these houses in a shop window. I instantly thought of Rowena and her house sculptures. I looked at the shop's website to see if there was any information about the artist or pictures of the houses online, but couldn't find any.

Yesterday when I was downtown early, before the shops were open, there they were again. So I took out my camera and snapped a few through-the-window shots.

I hope your new house makes you smile, Rowena.










Peace.

The Story of Stuff

Getting increasingly discouraged with our corporate government, I felt like watching "The Story of Stuff" again. It does give me hope when Annie Leonard reminds us that this system didn't just happen, that it's not like gravity that we just have to live with, that it was created by people, and we're people, too. It is still overwhelming to acknowledge the amount of work it will take to create a better system, how important it is that we all work together, and how impossible it feels right now.

I am definitely on the low end for middle class Americans in terms of my embrace of the golden arrow of consumption. I still buy a ton of stuff I don't need, though. And even though my girls don't watch TV, so they don't see commercials, I would say the biggest bulk of "plastic crap" (as we call it) that we buy is toys.

For more information, visit The Story of Stuff website.


Update: The weirdest thing just happened as I hit "Publish Post," one of the girls' toys that makes music played its little song from upstairs, even though no one is up there right now. "It's coming from inside the house!"





Peace.