Supercool: Steel Boulders

Steel boulders from wyattellison on Etsy.

Garden Update: End of the Season

We had our first hard freeze last night, so all of the tender veggies are no more.  I'm okay with that, it's kind of nice to be done with the watering season.  This is a photo of what I've been harvesting over the last couple of weeks.  Last night my mom and gathered a big basket of green tomatoes, tomatillos, the last zucchinis and basil.  It was dark when we finished, so no picture.

Now just the hardy winter vegetables will survive.  With a little protection the swiss chard usually makes it through the whole cold season, the same with the kale and beets.  We get a good crop of late wild mustard and dandelion-like greens that I've been known to make into weed salad.

Now we need to process and put aside all of those green, semi-green tomatoes, and tomatillos.  So the garden work isn't quite over yet.  We're planning to can tomatillos, ripen any tomatoes that show any signs of pink, and make this delicious sounding green tomato soup that my friend Deirdre posted recently.

Mid-week Malaise

I'm feeling sleepy today and no amount of caffeine seems to be helping. So far I've had a huge mug of chai, a huge mug of coffee, and a huge mug of strong black tea. I have reached the point where I'm not wanting to go back to bed and nap, but I'm certainly not feeling 100%.  In an attempt to get myself going I've tried both indoor and outdoor tasks on my to-do list. You know how sometimes you just need some fresh air and physical activity to wake up? Yeah, it didn't work.  It did get more mulch spread in the kitchen garden, and another coat of spray paint on those shelves that are taking forever to finish, so at least it wasn't a wasted effort.

Mulch going down in the kitchen garden.

Also, Blogger doesn't want to let me add photos today using the updated editor.  Grr.  After trying and failing to get it to work, even after visiting the help forums this morning, I finally tricked it by reverting to the old editor, adding photos, then switching back to the new editor so that I could add captions and make them as large as I like.  Really annoying Blogger.  I definitely see the appeal of switching to Wordpress.  

Weekend Edition: The Beginning of Fall

I tried to sit outside and read a couple of old Dominos, but the apples that needed picking kept calling my name.

Whew, many of my weekends are so busy that I feel like Mondays should be the real day of rest.  Its slightly overcast today, making me really feel like a nap is in order.  This weekend's big project was weeding and mulching a big area around the kitchen garden, in addition to normal weekend things like irrigating, baking, laundry, etc.  I've got a couple of recipes in line for posts, but writing them up and processing their accompanying photos is going to take a little more energy than I have today.  For now, here are a couple of photos from the early fall garden.

Garlic chives in bloom.

Even though winter is my least favorite season, sometimes I look forward to it for the sole reason that all the work that a big garden entails is over for a few months.  Anyone else feeling summer chore burnout?

Garden Update: Figs

This was my largest single harvest of figs this year.  Ten.  

Not many figs this year, but at least they were tasty.  We ate them fresh with a little goat cheese and balsamic vinegar and a glass of white wine.

Summer Beauty: Night and Day

I meant to post this on Wednesday, but the week just got away from me.

Tuesday night we had amazing pink clouds in the northern sky.

Wednesday morning brought the first cucumbers from the garden.  They promptly became lunch.

Scenes from My Week

Pastries from La Dolce Vita bakery on Lomas.

Last year I made cardoon pizza and this year I'm cutting the flowers.

I need a new camera because my little point and shoot does not represent reds well.  This is an extremely washed out version of the amazing salmon-colored sunset tonight.