The Inedible Pieces in Berkeley's Gourmet Ghetto

It's not to eat, but an art installation to view at the Berkeley Art Center (BAC) which is situated within Berkeley's Gourmet Ghetto. 

Created by artist Cathy Lu, well, I could blah-blah along, but instead, let's just use the words from the Art Center's description:

For the most ambitious iteration of her ongoing installation project to date, CATHY LU strings together nearly 2,000 pieces of slipcast ceramic fruit into an elaborate net suspended over the bridge outside BAC. Lu has long been interested in various fruits as evocative reminders of distant homelands. As an artist of Taiwanese descent who grew up in Miami, her work unpacks how experiences of immigration, cultural hybridity, and cultural assimilation become part of the larger American identity.

Glazed in dark greens, golds, and blacks, the piece is ripe with papayas, pineapples, plantains, jackfruit, durians, bitter melons, ginger, and more. Members of the community were invited to participate by sharing their fruit stories via voice message. Selected recordings play as part of the piece during gallery hours.

It's definitely worth the bother to go see this installation, even if you can't eat it. But no worries, there are plenty of other food options nearby. 

Cathy Lu: Customs Declaration continues through the end of September, 2021.

Party Time!

Fostering kittens can be a load of work and worry because they are so very tiny and fragile. But once they settle in, it's pretty wonderful. 

A Trip East

 I wasn't eager to travel across the country, especially since it involved flying on a commercial airline, but it was my mom's 91st birthday, so you do what you have to do. 

And in the beginning, she wasn't too sure about hosting me, either. 

But we worked it out. Mostly.

I cooked, washed dishes, did the laundry, chauffeured her about and then cooked some more. I would have done some much-needed yard work (I even brought along my own gardening gloves), but the tick situation seemed so dicey, that it just wasn't worth the risk of contracting Lyme disease.

Besides, it was icky-sticky hot and humid (total yuck!), with hazy gray skies and rain (yay!) most every day. 

To ensure my welcome, when cooking wasn't quite sufficient, I made a pair of glass garden towers. She had already collected the glass pieces, I simply had to arrange and glue them together. They were supposed to be shared with other family members, but she thought that the looked really nice in her front window with the light shining through. I have a hunch that these two are going to be staying at Mom's house for a while. I also think that she will appreciate them more than those other would-be recipients.

And then we did puzzles. Puzzles and more puzzles. Big and little, small pieces and even missing pieces, we did puzzles each day. I have never been much of a puzzle-maker(?) doer(?) puzzler(?) but my spatial reasoning skills certainly improved during that visit. I'm sure that my mosaic making abilities will also benefit from these puzzle exercises. 

And when the puzzle looks like the French Riviera, what else can you do but open a bottle of rosé and pour a glass?

The Talk of the Town

 Not really, just my little 27' wide block. And only the talk of the many pedestrians, bicyclists, baby stroller pushers and dog walkers who use my street:

Yes, those lilies. My, oh, my, but the regal lilies (Lilium regale) truly outdid themselves this year. 

Good-bye "Follow by Email." Welcome in "Follow."

Blogger strikes again and is eliminating the function of following my, and everyone else's blog, by email. And after quite a number of hours trying to make it right, I have now formally decided to simply give up, stop wasting electricity and turn off the computer, and pour a glass of wine. 

Soooooooo,

If you have been following my blog by email and wish to continue to receive brief, occasional messages from me, you're going to have to sign up. And if you don't want to do that, I completely understand and hope that you continue to enjoy your life with my best wishes. 

As for signing up, it seems pretty easy-peasy, although with Blogger, who  knows?

Scroll down the page and you will see in the right hand column something that looks just like this image on the left. Click the little blue "follow" sign and you should be able to sign up. 

I have a hunch that since Blogger is part of the Google empire, it will want you to sign up with a Gmail account. But I'm hoping that it accepts a broader range of people and their non-Google email addresses. I mean, a bit of acceptance and diversity goes a long way. Especially for this of us (me!) who seem to be complete computer idiots.

The High Country

Got our reservation last month in order to visit  Yosemite this month. We skipped Yosemite Valley entirely and aimed for the John Muir Trail out of Tuolumne Meadows. 

On the way up the Tioga Road, we stopped at the Tuolumne Grove. Containing around two dozen mature giant sequoias and a steep climb back to the road, it was a perfect break from driving. Yes, Bay Area traffic is miserable again. And yes, the Yosemite reservation system can make entering the park very, very, very sloooow. Getting out of the car was vital.

The next morning, with masks in pockets for those just-in-case situations, we headed out through Lyell Canyon on the mostly deserted trail. Could not have been more beautiful!

 

The third day we hiked a section of the Glen Aulin Trail before heading back home. Reservations are only valid for three days, so you have to pack in all the adventures that you can in a short amount of time. 

Click here for information about Yosemite reservations.

Winter's Bounty into Spring

Somehow, the pepper plants decided that this past winter really wasn't so bad, so they kept producing little peppers all winter long. Yes, they were tiny, but mighty - intensely flavored, crisp and sweet. It took a large handful to make a serving, but as a garnish, chopped into a salad or added to a stew, they were a bright reminder of summer. 

The Last of the Peppers from Last Summer

Two weeks ago they had to make way for new plantings. We can only hope that the new generation will be so prolific and tenacious. 

Springtime on the Southside of North Oakland

Lessons from the Winter Garden

Daikon Fries

In many places, a winter garden is planted from mid-July to early September, so that the harvest is ready before the cold weather arrives. Thankfully, we don't have to worry about that. I've gotten away with planting seedlings into October and November with no penalty, simply because summer doesn't usually arrive until September anyway. 

Case in point - daikon radishes. Now I'm not the biggest fan of radishes. In fact, I'm not a fan of radishes at all, but our new Saturday covid ritual of picking up banh mi sandwiches, loaded with pickled daikon and carrots has made me change my mind (the errand has gotten a bit harder, now that traffic is almost back to its horrendous "normal").

Daikon is easy to grow, the tops and the bottoms are all edible, in this area they can be planted anywhere from August to November, and they last a long time in the ground if you are too lazy to pull them. So a new lesson - grow daikon radishes.

Don't grow cabbage, unless you have plans for kimchi or sauerkraut or something large and important. I grew three, and the one that weighed 6 1/2 lbs. took up a lot of space in the refrigerator. We never did quite finish it all. Pretty little lettuces are probably a much smarter choice.

You can grow some of your spring crops in your winter garden. I planted snow and snap peas in mid-October. We started eating them in late February (usually it's early March, but climate change is real, folks) and we haven't stopped yet. Luckily, our friends and neighbors have been quite generous about helping eat the excess.

They're BACK!

The gourd was hung in backyard in January, 2016 as a nesting site (it looked a lot fresher back then.). And that spring, and every spring since, it has hosted at least one round of Bewick's wren nestlings. Often two. 

Over the past few weeks, we have observed (from a polite distance, of course) a lot of "birdie-action" at the nest site: Chestnut-backed chickadees, Oak titmice and the wrens, all checking out the property. But until very recently, it wasn't clear who would be claiming the gourd this year. 

Bewick's wren, April 1st, 2021

So how did we know for certain that it was to be the wren's home again? Two days ago, one of the wrens was observed chasing away a Fox squirrel from around the gourd! We wish these fierce little ones all the best this nesting season.