The weather has finally gotten nice, and the garden is so lovely that I find I want to spend all my time out here. I’m blogging from the garden right this very minute. My new fence adds just the right privacy — I no longer feel watched by my neighbor — and I seem to have been out here all the time lately. Of course, spring came so late that I was effectively trapped in the house from October until June. So now, it’s all outside, all the time. I’ve been eating breakfast and dinner using my dining tables Perth…
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When I bought this house there was a ginormous clothesline out in the backyard. The clotheslines of Livingston are somewhat famous with handymen around town — most of them were made of enormous plumbers pipe and set into three or four feet of concrete. With the winds we have here, you need a sturdy clothesline, especially if, in the case of the family I bought this house from, you have 8 children. Needless to say, I had that clothesline cut down when I was renovating. It was in a terrible spot in the backyard and everyone who came over for…
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In the garden that is — it was a long weekend out there — but so much fun. This year, I added containers with flowers to my garden. I bought some pretty Martha Washington geraniums that I didn’t have time to plant right away so I just stuck them out there until I could get around to doing the pots in the front of the house. But they were so pretty, and I’ve been spending so much time out there lately, that I decided to do the pots in the veggie garden itself. See — pretty! I also took the…
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We had an unexpected visitor yesterday — it was early, about seven, and I was making tea when my dogs rushed the back fence, barking. I went out to shush them because it was early, we have neighbors — and who did I see on the far side of my back gate but Jacques! I let him in and looked down the alley, but there wasn’t any sign of the Mighty Hunter. That was weird. So after I got the three of them to stop barking, I got on the phone. Jacques has been known to go on walkabout every…
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Big excitement here in a small town — the bridge to the 9th street Island is collapsing. It’s not a surprise — the surprise is that it hasn’t fallen down before now. The river has been high since just after Mother’s Day, and it really went up these last few days of warm weather. It was Thursday afternoon that the sag became noticeable, and they evacuated some folks, then closed the bridge entirely. Yesterday they took off anyone who wanted to go in a helicopter, and the DOT has arrived with a Bailey Bridge they’re planning to put in, but…
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Here it is — my first basket of greens — this is Senza Testa from Seeds of Italy. I love this strange green — it grows like a weed, is slightly bitter, a little fuzzy, and really nice. I cooked these with some onion, chile, garlic and vermouth. Then I finished it off with some of my Milk Lady’s delicious yellow Jersey cream and ate it over pasta. I also harvested this crate of broccoli rabe — both the Cima di Rapa Quarantina – Broccoli Rabe and the Cima di Rapa Sessantina. I’ve planted both of these at the same…
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Okay, I admit it, it was one of those weekends that make you really a little crazy as a single chick. I finally jumped back in the internet-dating pool at meet and fuck apps and had a Really Fun Date last week. I met him at a bar in town where I know the bartender, and one of my bestest guy friends was at the bar when I walked in (and then came over to introduce himself and sort of loom in a very older-brother kind of way that I found endearing). We had fun. We chatted. We flirted in…
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I said it four years ago, and I’ll say it again today — as a progressive straight person, I’m beyond proud that my former home state of California has led the way and realized that gender shouldn’t have anything to do with the ability to love someone nor with the drive to build a family and a home. In memory of my uncle Jack, who lived with Geoffrey for 25 years, in memory of my friend Michael who died too young of AIDS, in memory of my great-great Aunt Marie, “The Duchess” who lived in a Boston Marriage with her…
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It took a while, but spring has finally arrived in my garden! Look! Green grass, sunshine, and actual vegetables growing in my garden! Here’s a better shot of the vegetables: It was a long weekend of puttering. I planted about a million pepper plants: cayenne, aci sivri, topepo rosso, cieliga, cieliga hot, corno di toro, and I think at least one other variety that I’m forgetting. I also planted some brussels sprouts, fennel, round eggplants, and long eggplants. I still have the tarragon, sage, lavender, and columbines in the cold frame because it got hot, and I lost my transplant…
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Here’s today’s lunch. There was a break in the rain and I ventured out into the garden to see if there was enough for lunch. A yummy salad of arugula, wild arugula, spinach, green onion, radishes, parsley, pickled mushrooms, and some delicious feta cheese that my Milk Lady brought me with today’s delivery. I toasted up a piece of flatbread that I made earlier in the week — I’m on a flatbread kick and tonight I”m going to try this recipe from the LA Times. And a glass of real milk from my milk lady — what can I say.…