a gift to myself

Turning sixty took me aback a little. I spent the day fairly gloomy until my kids called to tell me I was still cool, even if I was OLD!!! I still don't know how I got this far so fast - it does fly by, even if you live by "time is a thief and life is so brief, when you're undecided..." I do try not to be undecided, at least for the last 10 years or so. I had been struggling with sore feet for about a year - the dreaded plantar fasciitis - anyone who has had it knows what I am talking about. It was miserable. I had lost my graduate school weight about 6 or 7 years ago and had kept it off pretty well...when my feet went bad (due to pounding the pavement on race walks with a former boss) I quickly gained 10 lbs which were very reluctant to leave. I finally put myself in a Kaiser weight loss class last summer and really attacked the foot problem at the same time - my podiatrist finally gave me cortisone shots in my heels (really, not as bad as it sounds) which finally cured the problem. I also got back down to a reasonable weight and could zip my pants again. (One of the deals I made with myself the last time I lost the weight was that I would NEVER buy a larger size again... that was one of the things that drove me this time.)

Once I was feeling better, I decided to finally get back going to the gym - County employees get a good deal - and this time I decided to get a trainer. Not cheap, but worth it since I am a total klutz and totally unfamiliar with all the equipment. My trainer turned out to be a nice kid, Johnny, who really knew what he was doing, training-wise. I told him about all my weak parts, of which there are many, especially my left shoulder and knees that sound like they have crinkly cellophane in them. He made sure I didn't over do it, but he gradually cranked up the weight and made sure I tried a lot of different things. After 10 sessions, I really do feel better. The best thing is that I am not afraid of the gym anymore. I can do 15 minutes on the elliptical machine, I know, not much for most people, but that's a biigggg deal for me!

Now the big challenge is to keep going. Before, I had an appointment, so I went. Now I have to start going on my own. This is where the proverbial sneakers hit the treadmill. Wish me determination!

I have a fan!

A dear friend of many years told me last week that she checks my blog all the time to see if I have posted recently. Well. I haven't, so I guess I had better!

August was hot and we spent quite a bit of time getting ready for a gathering for Matt and Danielle who were home for a long weekend visit - it was good to see them and several of their friends came over on Sunday afternoon. Pictures on facebook.

September we started cleaning out the garden and planting. I took a two day trip to Sacramento for work, not very exciting.

October was a trip to Oregon to see Aunt Florence, Uncle Wilbur and Aunt Loyal - our "elders". Our father's "younger" siblings - Wilbur is 95, Florence is 93 and Loyal is 90. They are all super sharp if a little (or a lot) creaky in the hinges. Florence just learned to use the computer this year and loves Keith Olberman on MSNBC. She is an Obama fanatic. She's more liberal than I am...She loves to email Joan and I as she is a little deaf and doesn't do too well on the phone.

After we got back I planted some lettuce, chard and spinach from six-pack, got a late start. After that I put in some seed and it is now up. The yard is a several November weekend clean up project, doing pretty well now. I hope to put in my ranunculus and stock this weekend. It was too hot last weekend (the big fire weekend in SoCal).

Not much else along those lines. Just needed to catch up a little. Lots has happened but I don't feel like talking about it much. I'll go on from here I guess.

Next post I'll talk about my "personal trainer" experience....hah! What a hoot.

Down and OUT in August - Highgrove Happenings

The heat is getting to us. Now I know why they call it the “dog days of August.” It really has to do with the “Dog Star” (Sirius) but I think it’s because all the dogs in this show are pooped out with the heat, including our three and the three humans in the house too. The dogs have all learned the joys of lying in front of the fans.

As you all know, I am a self-admitted plant addict, and to show the depth of my “problem” I am already planning my fall vegetable garden! Crazy, I know, but even though it seems outlandish, August is actually a great time to start planting the seeds for many of the things we like to eat from our winter garden – which in southern California is actually less work than the summer garden and just as rewarding. From now until the end of September and into October is a good time to get those seeds and seedlings into the ground and something to think about as you pull up your spent summer vegetables. The remaining warm days will get your plants off to a good start. Here are a few general timelines:

• August – plant your first crop of beets and carrots toward the middle of the month. We have a raised bed that will be in shade during the winter, but should be able to hold the beets and carrots that should be big enough to eat by the time the sun goes too far south. Also, even though I always put my sweet peas (flowers) in on Labor Day weekend, this year I will be planting them even sooner in the hope of having sweet peas for Christmas! If you want to try cabbage, broccoli or any other cole crop, this is the time to plant seeds in six packs.
• September – Plant garlic and onion seeds. They will mature in late spring of next year. You can also start lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, bush peas, and fennel. Every two or three weeks, sow a row or two of beets, carrots, lettuce and spinach, so you will have an on-going crop.
• October and beyond – Keep up your succession planting. By not over planting at any one time, you will continue to have a steady (but not overwhelming) supply of fresh vegetables.

It’s also important to be extra careful about renewing your garden beds. Add as much compost as you can find and turn the soil over well. Also add some bone or fish meal, or if you are not 100% organic, some slow release fertilizer such as Osmocote. The colder temperatures in the soil as the fall progresses make the nitrogen less accessible to the plants so it is important to have plenty available.

In our garden this month we have finished the plum and peach crops which were very successful this year. We were able to freeze peaches and make both plum and peach jam. A friend gave us part of his bumper crop of pickling cukes, so we made a ton of bread and butter pickles (about 20 jars!). The tomatoes are becoming more enthusiastic (a little slow this year due to the heat – too warm at night and nobody wanted to set fruit) and we have had masses of the most delicious summer squash ever. The winter squash is rambling everywhere in the orchard and we will have lots of squash to store. We have also planted a second round of squash and cucumbers (we’ll see if it’s too late or not) and a bed of late corn. These last are experiments but you never know unless you try, and we’re only out the cost of some seeds and a little water.

We had one disaster this year (well, actually two, no, wait a minute, three). First, the cucumbers died practically overnight due to a mass infestation of ants and aphids. Within a week, I had lost the yellow crookneck to the same invaders. I was despairing and thought that I might lose the patty pan too, but I started to use a strong jet of water on any of the leaves with aphids and also my neighborhood legions of lady bugs flew in to the rescue. Between my hose and the lady bugs, we have been able to keep the zucchini and the patty pan alive, although we may lose the battle here pretty soon. Finally, my beefsteak tomato was stomped flat by my Great Pyrenees Maggie in a showdown with the neighbor dogs. 105 lbs. of big white dog versus a tomato plant – you KNOW who’s going to win!

Things to do in your August garden:

• Pull out spent vegetable plants and keep produce picked to encourage continued production
• Water deeply, don’t sprinkle – sprinkling encourages shallow roots which are much more susceptible to drying out
• Prune back bloomed out perennials and shrubs
• Keep flowers picked off zinnias, asters, petunias and other annuals to keep them blooming, fertilize sometime during the month
• Cover any late fruit crops with bird nets until they are ready to pick
• Run in the sprinkler or jump in the pool if you have one, or at the very least, squirt yourself with a hose
• Take a nap in your hammock or lounge chair
• Read a book
• Sit out in the evening and watch the sunset and the bats and/or owls come out

Life is good.

Bill's back

Bill's back. He left for parts unknown yesterday but this time it was a short trip. Bill's MS sometimes does strange things to his cognitive abilities and anytime he has a fever or an infection, takes too much of one of his meds, gets dehydrated or too hot, his symptoms get a lot worse for a period of time. He can't transfer or follow instructions, loses control of his arms, can't reply to questions and in general is impossible to deal with. It's very scary. Sometimes, like yesterday, it is only for a few hours. I was able to get him to the hospital before he was not able to get in and out of the car (sometimes we find him on the floor, then we have to call the paramedics).
This time all they did was test him for infections and watch him. He was not so far out of it that he needed a sedative. Other times, he has needed a heavy dose of Ativan so he won't fall out of the bed or hurt himself. He took a long HARD nap mid-afternoon and when he woke up, for some reason he was much better. By the time my sister Joan showed up with hamburgers from In n Out, he was making sense again, and the hamburger and strawberry milk shake (his favorite) brought him completely back to earth again. We went home about 9, after stopping for a burrito. For some reason he was still really hungry.
Kudos to Kaiser this time. Even though we were there for hours, the nurses and ER doctor were
very nice and very kind. Dr. Yi, who was the internist who came to see him about 8:30, was amazingly nice and explained all the lab results to me. I had never had that happen before. Someone brought me one of those lovely warm blankets at one point - I was freezing in there.
Sometimes I really appreciate new technology. While I was waiting, I kept Matt, Danielle and Laura up to date by text message and called Joan on my cell. All without leaving Bill. They are not worrying so much about cell phones in the hospital any more (at least not in the ER), just as long as you don't bother anyone else.
They never did figure out what was wrong this time. Maybe it was because it was Saturday.
Today he's just fine and has been perking around the house all day. I am always grateful when he comes back to us. I hope we never have to see the day when he doesn't.

Why I'm like my mother

This past week was the 10th anniversary of my mother Esther's death. She died on July 1, 1998, while I was in the middle of graduate school. We never found out what was wrong with her for sure, because she was "done" with tests and other invasive treatments by that time (she was 86, and had had at least six major surgeries in her life - she wanted no part of any more). I think she died of a broken heart. The last year of her life, my dad was becoming more and more confused and "demented" - it was the year of the huge "El Nino" and they spent nearly the entire winter in the house. Dad wouldn't go anywhere, and he would barely let me take her anywhere. She had lost her sister Carrie and sister-in-law Winnie during the previous two years and was losing her friends right and left. Every time I talked to her, she had been to another funeral. It was as if everything that had given her a reason to live was leaving her. We were the only thing left.

At Mother's Day that year, I remember thinking, "this is the last year I will have my mom on this day." She wasn't eating much and she just started to fade away. She died a month and a half later.

The night she died, we were all at the nursing home, waiting. She was out of pain, they had given her morphine, and I sat holding her hand and listening to her struggling ragged breathing, telling her it was ok to go. She finally took her last breath about 8 p.m. and nearly at the same time, a small bell rang in the hall.

At the time, I didn't want to be like her. She had picked a difficult man to marry, my father, and I felt that she often let him walk all over her. She didn't know how to cope with his rages and made excuses for him and didn't know how to protect us from him. She should have left him years ago, but wouldn't go. It was a source of frustration to my siblings and me. There was nothing we could do about it except forgive her, which I eventually was able to do. It was a different generation and she just couldn't bring herself to leave or kick him out.

Now I can think of my mother with joy and fondness for my memories of her life and a new appreciation for her accomplishments in spite of the limitations she had. From the vantage point of ten years after her death, I can see the gifts she gave me by what I have also accomplished in spite of my OWN limitations and I see that many of my own areas of interest had their beginnings in something that she exposed me to in one way or another or encouraged me to do.

Just a few...

• I love birds, being outside - all our trips to the Sierras (the bluebird above was hers)
  
• I am a farmer at heart - growing things gives me an enormous satisfaction - I used to follow her around in the orange grove and help with the irrigation. I started pulling weeds at age 4.
  
• I love to help people - we have a long streak of "social worker" types in our family - my mother was always helping someone, including the hobos that came to the back door in the early 50s.
  
• I love books - Mom took me to the library weekly in the summer and made reading a perfectly good alternative and reward to doing chores
• I went to college with no support from her and Dad (he was retired by that time and didn't have any extra money) - she made it clear to me that I was absolutely capable of it and shouldn't think I couldn't. I managed it somehow.
  
• I love God - while she couldn't go to church for most of my childhood (my father wouldn't let her) - she encouraged me to go with my grandmother and aunt. This is a foundation of my life.
  
• I love to cook - she let me try weird things when I was taking cooking in 4-H and ate my concoctions even if she didn't like them (I remember one shrimp curry that was particularly nasty...). She was also not a slave to recipes and taught me the basics of canning.
  

I DIDN'T get her drawing and painting ability and though I can sew, it's hard for me to take time to do it right now. Maybe later. My daughter got the artistic genes and the pie-making genes - I am hopeless in that category. And I am definitely not the fisherman she was!

Today I told my daughter that I was canning and she said "you are totally turning into Gramma!" That's what started all this...

Mom, I miss you.

Incoming! Garden Explosions

Published in Highgrove Happenings - July 2008 edition

Between the yellow squash, the patty pan squash and the cucumbers, with a few peppers and onions thrown in and a side order of tomatoes and cucumbers, the garden is starting to explode! I have probably already harvested 20 lbs of summer squash since the beginning of June – we ate a LOT of it but I gave some away too. My Sunday School class is always good to eat up my garden surplus or someone at work will put their hand up if I say “anybody want some ____ (fill in the blank)?” If you’re like us, half the fun of a vegetable garden is sharing what you have extra. Some other ideas when your garden produces TOO bountifully – look around your neighborhood. Is there an older person who loves fresh vegetables but maybe can’t afford to buy them as often as they would like, or is no longer physically able to plant a garden? What about that family with five kids? Anything will help these days with the soaring price of everything. Local Food Banks often will accept home grown produce as well. Get creative and share your harvest!

This month I wanted to mention all the specialty garden clubs that are out there in our region. You can find a group to match nearly any particular garden fancy you have. The Riverside and San Bernardino area has two rose clubs, a succulent and cactus club, an African Violet club, a rare fruit growers club, an orchid club – you get the picture. To find the meeting times of these groups, check the Saturday “Local Plus” section of the Riverside Press. It also lists plant sales and shows and is a good resource for anything special you are looking for. The Sunset Magazine website is also a good resource for listings of specialty nurseries – that perfect camellia, for example, or a special cymbidium orchid. You may have to drive a little, but believe me, it can definitely be worth it. However, don’t fall into the trap of trying to grow something that is not suited to our hot dry inland climate. I have pined for years for a fuchsia, but every time I think I am going to try one, Joan reminds me that they really are not meant to live in Riverside unless you happen to have a cool damp microclimate in your yard (we don’t). My friend Eula can grow maidenhair ferns in her yard in Riverside for this very reason – they turn crisp out here in Highgrove! I am writing this during that hot spell in mid-June, and am having trouble keeping ANYTHING alive!

But back to the garden. We have not had good squash or cucumbers for several years because I tried to grow transplants from local nurseries. After the second try and failure of this system last year, I said that was enough, and vowed to plant my own seeds this summer. So far, it has been a resounding success. I planted bush cukes and pickling cukes from seed and they are much more resistant to the heat than the Japanese cucumbers I had planted last year, not to mention much more compact and less expensive. The squash I planted has also been very successful. The last couple of years all I had was scrawny little yellow crookneck which never got big and a small handful of patty pan, and zucchini that simply dried up on the vine and never developed. Eggplant is one of the most faithful and successful of summer crops (in addition to tomatoes) and planting from a small transplant has not proved to be problematical for either one of these crops. We also have a burgeoning crop of butternut and buttercup squash (both winter squash types) which we are looking forward to for storage this fall. Joan is growing Roma tomatoes to dry as we are big dried tomato fans but hate to pay $3.00 for a small package! After the tomato salmonella scare in early June, I am just as glad we planted so many!

Fruit-wise, the peaches are doing well. We thinned them mercilessly this year and it made a BIG difference. This is very hard to do but has a very good effect on the size and quality of the fruit. We did the same with the plums. Both are larger and looking excellent. We have Thompson seedless and Red Flame grapes coming too. Apricots are a battle – we ended up with about 25 marble sized apricots for the whole tree. They did taste good though. Down the street on Center, there is a tree with apricots dropping – I may just go by to ask if I can have some! Our Texas blackberries were a little seedy, but very tasty and we harvested a pretty good crop.

Here’s my recipe for Grilled Vegetables – this couldn’t be easier or more delicious.

Cut up a variety of fresh vegetables. Cut summer squash lengthwise, cut thick slices of peeled eggplant, wedges of peppers, thick slices of sweet onion. Heat your grill to medium, and brush the veggies with the following baste:

½ cup Newman’s Own Light Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing

Fresh ground pepper and a little more salt

A little more oil (maybe a ¼ cup)

Trader Joe’s Pasta Seasoning or other Italian seasoning – 1 or 2 tsp to suit your taste

Grill the vegetables with the lid down, turning and brushing with the marinade every few minutes until done to your taste. I don’t like to overcook them but a few char marks are good. Grilling vegetables is like oven roasting them – the flavors seem to intensify. Serve alone or sprinkled with parmesan cheese, or use as a filling for a veggie sandwich with good bread.

What to do in your garden in July:

• Keep everything watered, especially your pots, which can dry out daily in 100+ weather. Don’t water at mid-day, morning and evening are best, so you will have less evaporation
• Fertilize everything monthly as heavy watering leaches out nutrients
• Keep your fruit trees well watered as the fruit is ripening and cover with a bird net so the birdies don’t have dessert at your expense! Distract the birds with a feeder in another part of your garden.
• Keep dead flowers picked off your plants and keep your veggies picked and they will produce longer
• Keep up with the weeds, don’t let them go to seed and you will eventually have fewer weeds
• Plant crepe myrtles. There are beautiful varieties blooming in the nurseries now and they are one of our most reliable shrubs and trees for summer color
• It’s not too late to plant tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and so on if you haven’t done it yet – you should have something to eat by sometime in August and they should bear into the fall
• Mulch! Superior Compost is great for this and may be found at the Farm Supply store on Third St. in Riverside. We also use a thick layer of straw on the ground in the vegetable garden and orchard. Lovely on the tootsies if you like to go barefoot in the garden – not very fancy but very practical

Joke of the Month:

Cat's motto:

No matter what you've done wrong, always try to make it look like the dog did it.

Baseball Bats and Flying Saucers

(Originally published in "Highgrove Happenings" in July 2007) - Note the difference between the yard now and then -- see the next entry).

Well, I’m back. I had a great trip to Kenya, absolutely amazing and completely impossible to write about in a short column. I have completed my blog which I ended up writing after I came home, took me most of the month of May. I took sixty pages of notes in my journal, filled a small pocket notebook with other notes and took over 500 pictures. I have written it up on my blog – I would suggest that if you want to read it, that you start on April 21, 2007 and read forward from that date. I met wonderful people (Kenyans are remarkably warm and friendly – they actually like Americans there), beautiful children, gorgeous countryside and the highlight of the trip -- my photo safari to the Maasai Mara National Wildlife Preserve, where we saw all the large African mammals, many birds and made friends with two Maasai warriors (the guys in red who jump on the Wild Animal Park ad). The blog has all my stories, and lots of pictures – here’s the web address, the letters must be entered exactly as you see them here (no spaces, all lower case):

http://caljeanie-kenyainapril.blogspot.com/

But back to the garden. If you’re like me, and work all week, the weekend is the time to putter in the yard, clean up and fool around with your plants. This weekend was no different but I discovered in my vegetable garden that sometime during the week we had been invaded by a baseball team and aliens from outer space!! Under my zucchini plant I found three baseball bats! And under the patty pan squash plant I found a flying saucer about 8 inches in diameter! My goodness… whatever shall we do…I would like to find the cute baseball players who left their bats, however….

Last fall I threw a lot of sweet alyssum seed around the garden and was delighted that even without too much rain (actually, NO rain) it came up quite enthusiastically with just the sprinkler going once in a while. It had died off with the first warm weather but I sheared it back to about six inches high with some hand clippers, watered it good and was rewarded three weeks later with another beautiful bloom. It looks great right now. Other plants you can do this with are campanula, candytuft, carnations, cosmos, lobelia, nasturtiums, snapdragons and statice. (Keep moist after blooming and cut back by a third and most of these will re-bloom). Alyssum will self sow too, and you will have more next year – just shake the dead plants around the yard. Other plants that are notorious self sowers are African daisies, cosmos, calendula and California poppy. Many of the plants I put in last fall and during the winter are blooming as well – new lavenders, the roses, pale yellow daylilies and so on. Things are very pleasant right now. To my joy, the new patio cover seems to have given the back yard just enough shade in the afternoon to keep things from frying when it gets hot. We’ll see how things are in the middle of July.

Our tomatoes are enjoying the lovely compost I got for them and I have tons of green tomatoes but no red yet (mid-June) – we usually have our first tomato right around the end of June, first of July. I planted a few cherry tomatoes a couple of weeks ago and the little plants already have fruit on them. The first tomato is an event in our house and I always take a cell phone picture of it and send it to my niece in Arizona and my daughter in Texas!

Things will slow down a little now. I have most of my summer flowers in (some vinca and zinnias in pots to brighten things up). Some other flowers that do well in the heat are petunias of all kinds, marigolds, coreopsis, portulaca, celosia, salvia, dahlias, verbena and ageratum. Most of these you can still find in six-packs at the local garden stores and nurseries. My main concern will be keeping things watered and fertilized and clean up the mess in my potting shed. We are finally to the point in our garden where we have to really think before we buy a plant. We are actually running out of room. I don’t know what I am going to do.

This is also a good time to mulch your garden if you haven’t already done it. Two to four inches of shredded bark or other mulch works well to keep roots cool and slows down evaporation – saves water. Leave a space around the trunk of the plant to avoid disease. We have our entire “orchard” area covered with a nice layer of straw. Easy on the feet and keeps the weeds down too.

Here’s something to do with your zucchini “baseball bats” – maybe you can lure the baseball players back with this recipe…I made it for Bill on Father’s Day. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with the patty pan “flying saucer.” Kudos to my sister Joan for this idea.

Fried Zucchini

Take your huge zucchini (2 ½ - 3 inches around and 12 - 14 inches long) and slice it into 1/4 inch slices. Lay it out on paper towels and salt it to draw out some of the juice. Leave for 30 minutes, blot, turn over and salt again. After the water forms again, blot well. Prepare two beaten eggs and seasoned bread crumbs. Dip in egg, then bread crumbs and then fry in olive oil until brown on both sides and tender to the fork. Blot well and eat with ranch dressing. This is almost as good as Zorba’s fried zucchini…a lot cheaper too.

Joke of the Month:

A duck walks into a bar wearing a hard-hat, safety vest, and tool belt. He sits down at the bar and says to the bartender, "I'll have a beer." Flabbergasted, the bartender pours a beer and hands it to the duck. He tosses it back and orders another. The bartender can't believe what he's witnessing but pours another and watches as the duck downs it in one gulp. "Where're you from?" asks the barkeep. "Construction site across the street. One more please, and I'll be on my way." Pouring a third, he asks the duck, "Do you know how much money you could make with the circus?" "Circus?" the duck asks and slams his last beer. "What would the circus want with a brick layer?”

(Thanks to Prairie Home Companion)

Stay cool!

6-20-07

the squash is taking over

We're cooking in 107 degree heat here! It has been brutal for several days. My garden is pretty much going a little nuts. It's been great to be able to share and eats lots of fresh veggies. We should have our first eggplant later this week. Everyday I come home and water. Everything complains and tries to die if you don't.

We are getting ready for a small reception for a couple of our friends who just got married. Our friend Doris from our Bible Study wanted to give a party for this couple but she's 83 and couldn't do it all herself, so Joan and I will be assisting (Joan has done most of it, I am just going to do some shopping and help with the set up). That's going to be Sunday afternoon for a few hours - hopefully it will have cooled off a little by then. Joan made some nice silk flower arrangements and the punch base (which we have already tried out - very tasty) and ordered a carrot cake from Costco. We'll have sandwiches and some salads. Should be simple and a pleasant afternoon.

Saturday was Bill's 70th birthday. I can hardly believe it. He's doing ok, but doesn't want to do much when it's so hot (none of us do). I was going to take him to a Peruvian restaurant, but we skipped it and went to the movies instead - and stayed cool! We ended up going to see the new Indiana Jones movie - preposterous plot but enjoyable. Joan bought him spumoni ice cream - his favorite. Matt and Laura called - he doesn't care about anything else if he hears from the kids.

Wally's moved to Beaumont - CA not TX

Krista and her family met us at Trader Joe's in Redlands to make the switch. Wally took his bag of food and a half a bag of kitty litter plus his vitamins with him. We gave him a bath with a wash cloth before he went. Turns out that it was the dad of the family who had really wanted a new cat. He works from home, and really missed the other family cat they had that had died. Several days ago, he told his wife that what he really wanted for Father's Day was a new cat - two days later I was talking to his mother-in-law (my friend Kathy) and voila! the connection was made. It was meant to be. He was very pleased you could see - big smile and the whole family took to Wally immediately. What's not to like? Krista promised pictures and updates, so I hope to hear how he is faring.

Needless to say, we are relieved. I was starting to get worried as it was becoming more and more difficult to keep him away from the dogs. He could get out of his box in the computer room and could climb the baby gate I was keeping him in the bedroom with. WHEW!!

Other wise we are having a vegetable explosion in the garden. I cooked squash, peppers and onions on the grill last night with marinated chicken - it was delicious. My next post will probably my column for "Highgrove Happenings" so I will tell all about my garden there.

Wally has a home!

The daughter of my friend will be taking Mr. Wallace T. Cat home Sunday afternoon after she returns from Palm Springs. He will have a boy to play with and a schnauzer-poodle mix with nurturing qualities who loves kittens in his family. He lost his mom at a tender age and hasn't been messed with enough, although we have done our best. I am so happy he finally has a "forever family"! The first thing they need to buy him is a scratching post! He climbed my leg the other day and I am still nursing the scratches!

Wally has a lead on a home - cuter than ever!

Here's the little dude, looking positively charming in a (very brief) moment of repose during his evening workout in my bedroom (I turn him loose with the baby gate up to keep the woofs out, and he takes off, careening from one side of the room to the next. )

After a meeting this afternoon, I was talking pets with a friend from another office and I tried to foist him off on Mike, who says he also has dogs who eat cats (like our otherwise dear Athena) and another friend passed by who just got a cat. However, her daughter needs one, so we will be making contact. I am hopeful. He needs to go home and be free to be playful all day. He has to spend part of the day cooped up at my house.

I've mentioned Maggie (Great Pyrenees), Athena (Weimaraner) and Wiley (little yellow dawg) so many times I decided to add their pictures here too. They're on my facebook page too, but here they are. They are all good dogs, but the cat thing really is a problem...

more Wally news

Wally is definitely a boy - Joan took him to the vet and he is very healthy and doing just fine thank you very much. Weighs two pounds. As you can see, he's still with us and we're still protecting him from the dogs. Athena is still VERY interested. The vet says he needed worming and kitten shots, but otherwise he's doing well. This past week I called all around to no-kill shelters - the Riverside Humane Society has 70 kittens in foster care. I don't know how we are possibly going to find this little guy a home. Anybody in Riverside who wants him and will keep him safe, let me know!

This week was hectic at work - about a hundred emails to clean up when I got back from Monterey (business trip to a conference last week - how bad could that be? - Monterey was gorgeous - see my facebook page for some pictures). What I love about my job is the variety - I get to do a lot of different things. All the regular manager stuff - stats, personnel issues, regional things - but I also get to participate in policy making and implementation committees and go to conferences once in a while. Big whoop, I know, for most people, but for me - I love it!

The garden is suffering from a squash explosion and the sparrow hawks are back! I saw a brown towhee today - first one this spring. The birds also found the first good plum, so out came the bird nets. I hope nobody gets caught, but I am not willing to give up my crop. Today was beautiful - 80ish and clear. Keep that great Cali June weather coming!

Everything is blooming

This is a column from last year -- I publish my columns in the "Highgrove Happenings" monthly newspaper.

May 2007

Everything is blooming.

The ranunculus (ranunculi?) are up, lovely purples, pinks and variegated combinations, the penstemon is starting in. Mission Bells California poppies are lovely in shades of cream, orange, pink and a color which can only be described in sunset terms. Sweet alyssum covers the empty ground with mounds and drifts of white and wild purple verbena left over from my mother’s garden still puts in a beautiful appearance every year, even if I pull it up. This is the time I just sit outside and watch the hummingbirds hit every tubular flower there is in the garden (the sages and honeysuckle are their favorites but they even enjoy the tiny blue flowers on the rosemary) and enjoy the crowds of LBJ’s (little brown jobs in birder parlance) finding seed on the ground. The mockingbirds wait until I put on the oscillating sprinkler and then sit in the pepper trees to wait for a shower (one day we had SEVEN mockingbirds taking baths in the sprinkler at the same time – what a kick). I am hoping to see my barn owls back this year, Flo and Beau, as the gophers are making a comeback and I need help.

I decided that this is the month that I would tell my faithful readers why I have a garden. I have a stressful, sedentary job in front of a computer and in meetings all week and gardening gets me up and outside...I love being outside, with the plants, weeds, seeds, lizards, bugs and birds. I love dirt under my fingernails and mud squishing between my toes. I also love being able to share my flowers and vegetables with my co-workers. I bring in armloads of sweet peas or zinnias (depending on the season) or a load of tomatoes or eggplant, depending on what the bumper crop du jour is.

Puttering in the garden is my "Sabbath rest" and has the effect of completely de-stressing me and connecting me with creation. My yard is far from perfect and a constant work-in-progress (it would never make one of those fancy gardening magazines), but it's MY place and MY part of creation. It is full of birds, feeders, bird baths and bird friendly flowers (seeds and nectar producers) and some goofy garden art like my grandfather’s “Grim Reaper” type scythe which is wired to the fence. We see hummingbirds constantly along with all the resident birdies and passers-by on their way to the mountains.

I don't know what I would do if I couldn't dig in the dirt and play with my flowers. Garden therapy works for me!

Also going on in my garden this month:

We just picked up a huge load of well rotted horse compost from my friend June this past weekend – oh joy! (Only a gardener would get excited about a pile of horse p***!). On the way home from Gavilan Hills, my sister and I stopped in at Louie’s Nursery in Woodcrest (Parkview and Louie’s are my favorites around here) to see what they had and lo and behold they had the beautiful new Burgundy Iceberg roses. As you all know, I really should not be allowed to go to nurseries alone. Well, this time I wasn’t alone but it didn’t even help as both of us fell in love immediately with these roses. Those of you who live around Grand Terrace and Highgrove will recognize the Iceberg as the profusely blooming white roses on Barton Road. Well, the burgundy variety is STUNNING – we went home with two and another one in pink and cream, also an Iceberg cultivar. I am looking forward to roses in my garden all summer long. They also have a lovely fragrance. They will blend nicely with the flowering plum, purple fountain grass and the flax I am planning to get.

Also blooming are my white Lady Banks roses on the Villa fence. They have gone berserk for some reason this year and every time I walk by I inhale the beautiful rose smell. My honeysuckle and pink jasmine vines are also blooming – more great things to sniff! One of these times I will write about all the wonderful vines we can grow in Highgrove. My idea of paradise is walking through my yard and catching a whiff of something heavenly at every corner or sticking my head in a wall of sweet peas and inhaling deeply.

Which takes me back to a story from old Highgrove times. While I was growing up, I spent a lot of time with my grandma Alice Haight, who was a fabulous and wonderful person and who lived on the other side of the block from us. One of my best childhood memories is staying overnight with her and going to sleep by an open window in her room, after saying our prayers --“Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, if I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take…” and listening to the quiet sounds of the night and enjoying the smells coming through the lace-curtained window. This time of year, if it was warm, and the window was open, it would be orange blossoms. Later in the summer, it would be the geraniums. I would hear a mockingbird singing in the pepper tree out front in the middle of the night and the little birds twittering in the morning. What a wonderful sense of peace, calm and security. I was blessed.

That story calls for a recipe from my grandmother – Fudge Pudding Cake

This was a favorite of mine as a child and I could never figure out how the pudding got on the bottom of the cake!

1 c. flour
¾ c. sugar
6 T. powdered cocoa
2 t. baking powder
¼ t. salt
½ c. milk
2 T. shortening, melted
1 c. finely chopped pecans or walnuts
1 c. packed brown sugar

Combine flour, sugar, 2 T. cocoa, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Mix in milk and shortening. Stir in nuts. Pour into 9 inch square baking dish. Sprinkle with a mixture of brown sugar and ¼ c. cocoa. Pour 1 ¾ cups hot water over the top. Do not stir! Bake at 350 for 45 minutes until set. Cut into squares and spoon some of the fudge sauce over the top while hot – serve with whipped cream or ice cream. Yum.

Things to do in your garden in May

• Plant your cukes, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, corn and anything else you want for the summer garden if you haven’t already done so. They will still get a good start while the weather is pleasant.
• Make up your flowering baskets
• Enjoy the spring flowers while you can
• Start to look for summer annuals in six packs
• Plant zinnias from seed – bait for snails. I learned this the hard way last year when every last zinnia seedling was chomped off at the root.
• Mulch everything to retain water and head off weeds

Joke of the month

Two good old boys go bear hunting. They are riding in their pickup truck down the road to the woods. They go around a curve and see a sign that says “Bear Left.” So they go home.

more kitty news

The kitten is known as "Junior" even though we can't tell just yet if he/she is a boy/girl. (The outdoor plumbing is a little indistinct at 5 weeks). He (for now) is doing great, very cute, spunky and vocal. He is so noisy now that we think it's time for solid food and we'll be starting him on something this week. I bought turkey baby food and we'll see how that goes. He still needs a home - we are currently protecting him from the dogs. His chances of growing up are fairly slim if we keep him, so he needs a home pretty soon!

Other news - I was humiliated in front of my peers at work this week. My region had its annual "Staff Appreciation Day" which consists of nice gifts and a good lunch for the workers, and a chance to watch their managers do something silly while everyone cheers. The theme this year was sports, and of course there was sports trivia (which I actually did pretty well on - all those years of being exposed to Matt and Bill and their sports talk actually served for something - I won a Baby Ruth candy bar!). The managers - Randy, our Deputy Director, Jim, the other CWSM, and myself - had a sports obstacle course to complete: bounce a basketball 15x with each hand, bounce a tennis ball on a racket 15x without dropping it, make a putt into a cup and throw a football into an inner tube hung from a basketball backboard. I never thought I could compete with those two as they are both "jocks", but I finished a respectable third (minor detail - there were only three of us in the competition) with Randy's help (he caught the football and threw it in for me on my third attempt!) I did make the putt on the first attempt - not bad. Even Randy the golfer had to try twice!

It's very hot here in SoCal this weekend, everyone is laying low and/or running through sprinklers, which is my favorite hot weather coping method. I spent a lot of time watering this weekend. There is something about running water that relaxes me. Back to work tomorrow.

Drama in Highgrove

My DH was in the hospital last week for a few days and Sunday afternoon before I went to pick him up I heard, much to my chagrin, a tiny “meow, meow” IN THE WALL OF MY KITCHEN. We have a gang of feral cats in our neighborhood which I mostly tolerate. Our dogs keep them out of the yard – one of our dogs will try to catch them if she can – she mostly can’t – so they can’t eat our birds. They do work on the gopher population, along with the owls and sparrow hawks. One of the things I do try to discourage is the mama cats having their babies in my attic. We have stuffed most of the holes with chicken wire to keep them out. Well, we must have missed a hole – apparently one of the latest batch of kittens was either dropped by mom, got kicked out of the nest by a bigger brother, or was wandering around in the attic and fell down into the wall. But however it happened, there he was, stuck in a big way.

At first there seemed like no way to get him out, and I thought he probably wouldn’t make it through the night. Well, the next morning he’s still carrying on and by evening, that was it, we had to figure out something or go absolutely nuts listening to his crying. My sister had called all possible authorities, and no one would come out. So out came the power tools. The first hole was a bust, there was a wall stud between us and the cat. The only other possible way in was through a cupboard that was too small for me to get a good attack on the board. We finally recruited our neighbor Bob, who was able to drill a hole big enough for the little guy to get out – I enticed him with tuna (the cat, not Bob)…. So we now have a very spunky little kittie who is looking for a home. Anybody that tough deserves a good life. He’s about a month old, black and white and not scared at all. We’re bottle feeding him and getting him used to people. Let me know if you want him – he’s up for adoption!

But this is a garden column after all – I was originally going to talk about herbs. This is a great time of year to grow herbs. I have a few that I keep all the time in pots – oregano, thyme, sage and several kinds of mint and I replant basil and parsley every year. I also have huge plantings of rosemary which I use for all kinds of things, including my last batch of chicken soup. Dill and lavender are also useful. I don’t usually bother to grow cilantro as it goes to seed too fast and is so easily available in stores. Having fresh herbs in the garden is wonderful as it is a real pleasure to be able to walk out and pick whatever you feel like adding to your meal or salad or whatever else you have in mind. Another item which I also like to have is green onions, not strictly an herb, but nice to have around. I usually just buy plants from the nurseries of most things, but dill and basil are especially easy to grow and may be planted anytime now in well drained planting soil, either in a pot or in the ground. Try drying herbs in the microwave. Just spread them out on a paper plate and nuke about 15-20 seconds at a time, they will turn out nice and crispy and easy to save. I also like making my own pesto to freeze – here’s my Italian mother-in-law’s recipe:

Pesto

2 – 4 cups packed basil leaves, no stems

Olive oil

Pine nuts or walnuts, about ¼ - ½ cup

Garlic cloves – 3 or 4 chopped up

Parmesan cheese – about a cup

Pack the basil leaves into your blender or food processor; add the nuts and garlic and process by pulsing while you gradually add a thin stream of olive oil. Use enough oil so that the leaves chop well, this is NOT low calorie. Once you have processed it up well and have a slightly runny paste, turn it out into a bowl and stir in the cheese. Taste for seasoning, add salt and pepper if you need to. This can be frozen and will keep for months – just cover with a thin layer of oil to keep out the air and freeze. Thaw to use and mix half and half with hot pasta water, then mix with the pasta, about a cup or so for a pound of pasta. Delicious, serve with more cheese!

Our summer garden is in and we are waiting anxiously for the first signs of ripe tomatoes and squash. The butternut squash I planted this year is doing well. At $1.29/pound, a good butternut squash crop will pay for my garden, just like my organic chard did this winter. I just pulled almost the end of my winter carrot crop and they were superior, much sweeter and more delicious than anything you find in the store. I STILL HAVE CHARD. It just won’t die this year. I also planted zinnias in six packs and hope that I can outwit the snails. Joan has been handpicking snails every night with a flash light and a cool whip carton to stow them in.

Finally, we pulled up our garlic crop tonight. Last fall, I literally threw the cloves from a head of garlic in the ground and forgot about them. They were up in a couple of weeks, I watered them sporadically and this week the tops finally died and I dug them up. We ended up with a dozen HUGE heads of garlic, 2 to 3 inches across. I shook off the dirt and we’ll dry them and they should keep just fine until I use them up. I cook with a lot of garlic, so maybe next year I’ll plant TWO heads. Talk about easy crops.

What to do in your garden in June

• You can still plant summer vegetables and flowers (it’s a little late for flowers in the ground, but you can plant baskets if you keep them watered)
• Keep the snails picked up and out of your hair
• Keep your vegetables watered well and fertilize with a soluble fertilizer such as fish emulsion, manure tea or Miracle Gro if you don’t care too much about being completely organic
• Keep your flowers dead headed and they will bloom longer
• Station your lounge chair and/or your hammock in a nice cool spot in your yard
• Get out the sprinkle and the wading pool, the heat’s coming!

Quote of the month

If you pick up a dog that is starving and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. That is the principal difference between a dog and a man.
- Mark Twain

Let me know if you want the cat!

Jean

where to start

Last year I wrote a blog after a trip to Africa (see Kenya in April - also on blogspot) but quit after I was done. In the meantime, I continue to write a lot, finally decided to put it somewhere. I am a social worker, child welfare to be exact, CPS to be specific. A hard job, a sad job, but one that is noble and a very high calling. Children are the most vulnerable members of our society and the most disenfranchised - they deserve champions. I am a manager for a local CPS office and I work with some of the most selfless people in the world - I am proud to support them.

I am also devoted to my garden - it keeps me (literally) grounded. I have the worst fingernails in the world because I forget to put on gloves and by the time I realize that I forgot, my hands are black.

The characters in my blog:

• Me - Jean - 50-something, biology major, social work master's degree; prior careers -- peace corps volunteer, proofreader, lady of leisure, 4-H youth assistant, child support officer, employment specialist, line social worker, graduate student; current roles - long time member of my dear church family, mom to three grownups, alpha female to three sweet family dogs, sister, wife, niece, not a grandma yet, boss, professor, columnist, friend to many, caregiver, traveler (when I get a chance), gardener, reader, birder
  
• Bill - DH (dear husband) of nearly 39 years. Retired teacher and researcher, long term case of MS, partially disabled. "Advanced" sense of humor. The only person in the world who really understands me. Loves to read. Current obsession -- San Antonio Spurs basketball and baseball games, especially if it involves the Red Sox
• Sister Joan - Retired attorney and former teacher, my partner in gardening crime and exploits and junkets to nurseries and Oregon, spoiler of family dogs (but they love and deserve it)
• Daughter Laura - Social worker in Austin, TX, supervisor of CASA (court appointed special advocates) volunteers who advocate for foster children - petmom to Louis, the most handsome black and white cat in Austin. UT graduate, MSW. Guitar Hero Rock Star
  
• Son Matt - Financial analyst for Chevron in Houston, TX, married to Danielle - two very sweet dogs, Karma and Kizzie, of undefined heritage. Guitar Hero and Rock Band Star, cutthroat Scrabble player. UT graduate, MBA
  
• DIL Danielle - Institutional researcher for Rice University, Master Ed., the other (but not less than) half of the Guitar Hero, Rock Band and Scrabble Houston superstar team. Petmom to Kizzie and Karma.
  
• Our family pets
  
• Maggie -- 7 yr old Great Pyrenees. Big furry white amazing dog. She's the best. She has a career.
  
• Athena - 7 yr old Weim. A silly lala, with a few weird habits. We love her. Her job is world class companion dog.
  
• Wiley - 2 yrs old - a little yellow dawg. We call him the imitation coyote. Excellent flycatcher.
  

• Many friends - June, Mary, Kristin, Laurie, Wana, Katie, Janice, Laureen, Elia, etc etc etc