Covid Families

Toasting Marshmallows, Nov. 2020

With the first lockdown in March, we started "Drinks in the Driveway" with a small group of neighbors. No masks back then, although that changed soon enough, but socially-distanced seating was mandated (easy to measure since the driveway is only seven feet wide).

Strictly bring your own, including your own chair, although one set of neighbors started to store their chairs further up our driveway, rather than lug them across the street each time. Just a group of soon-to-become friends gathering in the early evening.

Over the summer, we became the "Porchaholics". We sat on our porch steps and our neighbors would arrange their chairs and drinks in our tiny front yard. People walking past on the sidewalk would pause, chat, wave, or sometimes just shake their heads and move on.

With the cooler weather, we switched back to the driveway for the occasional campfire. For the first one, I stole my neighbor's little Smokey Joe® grill (it had been sitting in her driveway untouched for nearly ten years. Honest, I did tell her that I was going to walk off with it, and she didn't even notice until I was ratted out.), arranged a few sheets of newspaper, an egg carton, a bit of kindling and small branches in the base. Also, since Safety Sam is a member of our household, a large bucket of water was placed nearby, just in case. One match, and the party was on. 

As of this week, these little gatherings are no longer allowed until early January, at the earliest. But I am hopeful that once this current lockdown is over, if it isn't raining (please, please, please rain already!), we'll be able to meet up once again with our new family. 

Thanksgiving for Two

 Unusual. Uncertain. Unsettled. Unpredictable. All these adjectives that have been applied to the pandemic over the past months now apply to this Thanksgiving as well. 

But I am avoiding: Chaotic. Turbulent. Challenging. Troubled. Complicated. And a few other words like that because one meal, no matter how special, just ain't worth that level of bother. In fact, here we're going with "unusual" to such an extent that pork ribs and roasted (homegrown) potatoes are the featured items on the menu. Yumm!

So let's all aim for that other pandemic word - Safe - and have a wonderful time with whomever, be they virtually or really there, is across the table from you.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Feasting on the Fennel

October 21st

Ms. Anise Swallowtail (Papilio zelicaon) showed up one morning and simply started eating. And eating. And eating some more. 

Luckily, she seems to like the fronds far more than the bulbs, so we are able to share quite easily.

Unless she keeps eating. And eating.

At some point (three to four weeks, they say, so it looks like we have a way to go) she will stop eating and form a chrysalis.

Then it's another ten to twenty days before a gorgeous butterfly emerges. The race is on!

October 25th

 

October 30th

The fennel variety is Perfection, and I have had good luck growing it in the fall. It may even be featured on the Thanksgiving menu this year. Unless of course, she eats it all.

It's Going To Be a Very Quiet Winter Around Here

 Princess died on Saturday, October 3rd, 2020. She was not quite eleven years old.

She was loved. 

A "Small Disappointment" Grows Up

My dissatisfaction with the squash crop this year has only grown larger - to the tune of 23 lbs. and 16 lbs., respectively. There would have been even more of these orange "disappointments" if we hadn't eaten the youngsters and sucked down most of the blossoms.

With Halloween on the no-no list at this house, and my lack of appreciation for pumpkin pie, I might have to dig deep into the cookbook shelf for ideas of what to do with these two.

Nonetheless, they are awfully cute, and certainly gave the neighborhood kids a little thrill.

Matchy-Matchy

I bought this fabric for Princess a while ago, to help prevent her from being so successful at wiping out our local feathered residents. And it has worked pretty well.

So when I went looking for some fabric for my own "save-others" outfit, it was obvious that this was the best choice. And besides, it matches just about anything I could find to put on. Every single sweatshirt in the drawer and probably everything in my closet. Not that I've been anywhere near the closet in the last few months - dressing up just doesn't seem to happen much these days...

Don't You Just Love It

In their great wisdom, the all-knowing people at Blogger have decided to roll out a New Blogger. Right now, with no take-backs, and an unreachable tech support team. Excuse me, but aren't things tough enough without having to be the guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus) for someone else's brilliant idea?

So I probably won't be posting much for a while, or at least until some of the more obnoxious shortcomings of the new regime are fixed. 

Happy August!

A Small Disappointment

Tromboncino

There have been many great disappointments and sadnesses this year, and thankfully, this is only a small one. Literally.

I plant tromboncino squash every year, with great results. Enough squash to share with passers-by on the sidewalk (boy, were they caught off guard! Some have even come back to thank me. And one time I received a small pile of heirloom tomatoes in return.).

But this year, well, the package said it was tromboncino, but what came out of the ground wasn't even close. I don't think it's even the same species:

New Squash

Yup, short and round. Hard to tell if it's more short or more round. Hell, even the plant is kinda short and round.

I suspect that someone had a late night encounter with a pumpkin and didn't tell anybody until it was too late. To my relief, they taste just fine, grill up nicely, and as a bonus, produce the largest, brightest gold blossoms I have ever seen. Lots and lots of blossoms each morning.

So this year we're focusing on the blossoms - stuffed with ricotta and basil, gently simmered over shakshuka and last night's new fav, blossom and feta cheese fritters. With zucchini soup, of course.

Surreal

A flower for these times. May I present the White-veined Pipevine (Aristolochia fimbriata), which almost could be classified as a "splurge" if I hadn't grown it from seed. Yeah, not much money, but quite a bit of on-going attention - it took a full year to get them to a reasonable size. And then to bloom.

Even though these little plants are native to Brazil, they can serve as hosts for the Pipevine swallowtail butterfly (Battus philenor). Although you would probably need an entire field of them to satisfy a crowd of hungry caterpillars.

Payoff

Yellow-faced Bumblebee

She's back! For at least 12 years, I haven't seen, smelled or heard a single bumblebee in the yard. Other varieties of bees, yes, but nary a bumbler.

In the past few years though, I've been working my little trowel to the bone, adding pollinator-friendly plants and always hoping that some of my new neighbors would be in the bumblebee family. And credit where credit is due - at the same time that I was adding new and enticing food sources, my neighbor ripped out a "food desert" of juniper bushes and replaced them with California natives. Her choices have also certainly helped in this effort.

Now I am very aware that there are other, seemingly bigger health and social issues at play right now. I am simply trying to find a small bit of solace where I can, even if she only weighs less than a tenth of a gram. As Thor Hanson points out in his book, Buzz: the Nature and Necessity of Bees, the world can live without humans; unfortunately, it will have a very hard time without bees.