It's That Time of Year Again

Harvest time, I mean. And at least in this, it has been a lucky year. Let's just not talk about the eggplants, okay?

Amish Paste Tomatoes

Aconcagua Roasting Peppers (banana for scale)

An Old Friend, Rediscovered

Once upon a time, like around 1991, when the animated Disney version of Beauty and the Beast first came out, we had a young friend who worked in a Berkeley movie house. For me, yes, actually for me, he "liberated" parts of the in-house cardboard standee - the portion that contained my best buddy Lumiere. 

Now Lumiere knocked about my studio for a while, and then he moved on. To the attic, to be exact. Where he lived in quiet and peaceful retirement until last week, until someone had the really stupid idea of cleaning out the attic. That someone will remain unnamed, at least here. 

And so was Lumiere awakened again: Nope, it wasn't Prince Charming, and no kissing was involved. Instead, it was Luna and I, armed with a feather duster and determination (in truth, I had the duster and determination; she was sleepy and pretty useless). 

Lumiere has moved on once again, to be with my niece who is an art director for Cold Open, one of those marketing agencies for the entertainment industry. Kinda sounds like we've come full circle, eh?

Who's Your Daddy?

 Same mother sunflower plant, grown from seeds saved from last year. But since the bees are doing the heavy lifting of moving around the male pollen, any sunflower could have been your daddy. 

Yup, the power of genetics...

Tall Trees

Trillium Falls 
Redwood National Park

It's About Thyme

Wooly Thyme (Thymus pseudolanuginosus) in the morning

An Uncommon Visitor

Known as the common green darner (Anax junius), it's not anyone I've ever met up with around here. Blends in pretty well with the fava bean leaves, but somehow it caught my eye. Or its very large eyes met mine? Regardless, s/he hung around the yard for two days, and then, well, we lost touch. 

The End of an Era

It's been the powerhouse, the workhorse of the kitchen here for nearly forty years. Banana smoothies for me - no prob. Mixing massive amounts of basil for pesto for the freezer - easy peasy. More, more, and yet more of velvety smooth squash soup - kids' stuff.

And before that, who knows? It belonged to my best guy's Mom before it came to us, and she passed in 1986. And then, one day (last Sunday, actually), it met up with the sink faucet...

Thankfully, there are replacement units. One is now on order, and we are all hoping that it arrives very soon and in perfect working order. Because those bananas are becoming seriously ripe. 

The Last Squash

Promise. We ate or gave away all the other ones. And most definitely, the last post about squash for a very looong time. Promise.

But you have to admit, it's a beauty at 12.5 lbs. (although other people have said things like, "hilarious" and "gonna be a lot of soup"). All true, but not very nice to say out loud. 

(Banana for scale)

The Beach

It's been raining, and it's supposed to rain again. What better time to head out to Tennessee Valley for a hike. 

Sisters

Back in the days, as in, last year, when the wrens happily nested in their gourd house, life was good. But this year, it became all too obvious that the birdhouse was becoming a rickety tear-down. Something needed to be done.

A packet of seeds, a pile of compost and a long growing season later, we got some new housing stock. Potentially. All related, and all still connected. (Since then, they have been cut off the vine and moved onto the porch for shelter.)

I'm not yet hopeful, perhaps just wishful, that they will cure properly (or at least some small number of them won't rot out completely) and become new homes for the next generations of wrens.