seaside camping

We enjoyed our second two camping weekends down on the Half Moon Beach coast.  While it was definitely blustery, it was beautiful and relaxing, and so fun to be on the beach.  It was my daughter's class trip, and we had nearly 20 families there, having a great time in our temporary outdoor village.  From bike riding to playing in the "booby trap tree" and braving the frigid ocean, from drinking beer on the sand to making bike smoothies and eating s'mores, it was an amazing weekend.

 

sweeping

I have learned to enjoy sweeping from several friends.  Our friend Phuong used to live with us and help us with the kids and with some cleaning up now and then.  She would finish the evening by sweeping the kitchen floor mindfully - she does most things with grace.  Our good friend Craig is more of a rapid sweeper, but you can tell he really enjoys it - his way to create a little order.  And I have learned to enjoy sweeping - whether just before bed or early in the morning quiet before the pitter pat of little feet.  It can be a mindful practice, I now know, particularly when I use my beautiful beloved broom.  When someone walked off (?) with my dust pan several weeks ago, I quickly missed it, and hoped it would return.  But it didn't, or hasn't.  So I decided to use a little of my birthday money to buy myself (and my family) a new broom and dustpan - and it even came with a matching whisk broom.  I think my kids thought I was a little odd when I got excited about using it for the first time.  Perhaps they too will learn to enjoy sweeping!

bunny in the garden

We finally crafted a ramshackle way to block off our courtyard so Butch could have some unsupervised outdoor time yesterday.  He was such a happy rabbit, hopping all about.  He would have eaten all the geranium leaves around the fountain if we had let him.  Then he found some other plants to munch on.  I was happily gardening nearby, and pulled up the bolting lettuce and provided that alternative, which he graciously accepted.  It was a lovely garden afternoon, with Emily playing, Butch romping (and eating........), and me shoveling compost and getting a bed ready for our tomato plants.

spring craft sale

Our winter craft sale was such a success that we are hosting one on Sunday, May 6th.  Lots of fabulous new artisans, including more handcrafted jewelry, will be here.  We are taking over the courtyard as well, so it will be a great time to explore and relax in our spring garden.  Did I mention tasty food?  Join us!

dinner on the go

We were late for the school's art show last Thursday, and hadn't eaten dinner.  I had been working on getting the bike blender set up on my daughter's bike, amongst other things, in preparation for the following day's Earth Day celebration at school.  Pedal powered smoothies were in high demand last year, so we tripled our output with 3 bikes and blenders, in different sizes for all the different size kids.  Hmmmmm, dinner?  And then the solution came to us - we could have smoothies for dinner, and blend them on the way to school.  The kids took turns (using that recently installed quick release lever on the seatpost!) in the highly desirable activity.  It was great to see all the looks from passers-by, and even better to enjoy the delicious liquid dinner.

inspirational farmer

Ever since I read Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma, I have remembered Joel Salatin and his self-definition of being a grass farmer.  Joel is an entertaining character, a wise teacher, and an inspirational farmer.  I had the pleasure of hearing him speak last weekend up at Tara Firma Farm near Petaluma - a great newish CSA farm that is developing its community education program.  Joel was his witty self, and covered topics ranging from health care to chickens to zoning laws, all with a smile.  We were fed a delicious locally-grown meal from the farm, sitting in a barn on haybales.  Afterwards we had a great tour of the farm's fields with rotationally grazed chickens and cattle.  Small scale the way nature intended somehow.

golden gate goodness

Sometimes I forget how much I love the Golden Gate Bridge.  Mostly I enjoy it from the east, but this weekend I got to enjoy it up close and personal from the north and south.  We ended a lovely week of vacation here in the Bay Area returning from Sonoma via the Marin Headlands and Crissy Field in San Francisco (with a fabulous dim sum birthday bash for Pam at Ton Kiang in between).  It was a beautiful clear day, and just what my soul needed - some time relaxing on the beach and along the cliffs with family and friends.

dinner with friends

Another way we enjoyed our past week was eating with friends.  A few impromptu dinners, including the following with my favorite roast chicken and potatoes.  We were using what we had on hand in the fridge and in the garden (my favorite way of cooking).  A little theme of lemon, parsley, and rosemary made for a family of dishes.  A delicious, refreshing salad of fennel, celery root, and parsley - modified by what we had available, worked well with a salad of treviso and butter lettuce.  I am finally moving out of my simple salad rut - which is perfectly timed with the coming of Spring veggies.

We have been digging up the delicious spring potatoes; and this medley of red, yellow, and blue ones was fabulous.  I cooked them loosely based on a recipe from Zuni Cafe.  Cut up and boil them until just tender, then toss with olive oil mixed with garlic, salt, and rosemary mashed in a mortar and pestle.  Put on a baking sheet in a single layer and roast in the oven at 425 or 450 for 20-35 minutes, turning half way through.  Yum.

I haven't roasted a chicken using this, one of my favorite recipes, in a long time.  The recipe (below) is from Michael Bauer in the SF Chronicle cookbook.  It is such a simple, delicious way of making chicken, and the gravy is amazing.

home stay

It turned out to be a good week at home.  We all felt disappointed about not going camping, but we found joy in other ways:  watching the rain (there was plenty), playing music, making hearty breakfasts (including strawberry shortcake one morning - or was that 2?), reading, building models, sitting by the fire, playing with trains, making toys, and baking cookies.  And we had a brief trip up to Santa Rosa to visit with friends and see some amazing hail carpet the ground.

bolinas

We were planning on camping in Big Sur this week, and remained hopefully committed until Sunday night when the forecast showed a 70% chance of rain Tuesday - Friday.  I am a rugged camper (or at least rugged car camper), but 4 days of rain is a little much on the coast.  So we went with plan B - a beach day in Bolinas - on the one dry day.  It was a great day on the beach, in the sand and in the cold waves.  A tasty picnic of various odds and ends (the best kind if you ask me).  We all made a giant round seat and I got to help with a drip fairy castle.  It was invigorating and soothing, and hopefully enough to get me through the week.

easter in the garden

With Easter and Emily's birthday coming our way, we knew it was time to take back over the garden.  We had done some pruning, but there was so much more to be done: weeded, cut, clipped, raked, swept.  And I'm not talking about finely manicured, just a basic level of tidiness - such that you could walk down one of the paths without getting pushed or punctured by roses or lavender, or slip on a gross grapefruit (or 2 or 10).  Thanks to a lot of hard work (and gratitude to some help we got), the garden is looking lovely, with roses, calla lilies, and wisteria blooming, along with the peas and favas.

It was lovely to celebrate Spring's renewal and Easter on Sunday with friends and neighbors.  After a big gathering on Saturday, it was a little much to pull something off on Sunday.  But everyone brought something (warm homemade cinnamon buns, great siphoned coffee, another bunny cake) and I finally got a chance to make an egg strata (inspired some time ago by my sister-in-law; loosely followed a recipe from Smitten Kitchen).  Add a few mimosas and an egg hunt, and everyone was enjoying themselves in the garden.

bouncing bunny birthday

Emily turned 7 on Easter and we celebrated the day before.  Even before Butch the Bunny came into our family, the bunny theme was emerging, and while she was hopping on our mini-trampoline one day, it was clear that a bouncing birthday was in order.  We found and washed off our old hoppy ball (which became an object of great desire thereafter), and rounded up a few more.  I didn't think there was ever a way to get a bouncy house in our backyard, but Em was VERY persistent.  We managed to find a small circular one (with a birthday cake profile!) that just managed to fit in our little circle of grass tucked between the bedroom wing and our garden house (shed of stuff).  You couldn't have found a much happier girl that day when that bouncy house was being blown up.  And a happy birthday girl makes for a happy mama.  Especially once the party was over.  I love the after-party myself.