Vegetable Garden

We planted a small veggie garden in the back yard. We have tons of space back there, but I've only had the energy/imagination to plant a small corner of it.

Yet we are already getting a bounty!

The first harvest was a pile of fava beans and a couple handfuls of sugar snap peas:

The next day a few zucchini were ready.  Erin got to pick the first one:

Which she then eagerly sliced up.  I cooked it up in some oil and a dash of salt.

You know how they're always saying to encourage kids to try new foods by letting them be a part of it?  Well, Erin planted, watered, harvested, and chopped (with a grown-up knife).  Did she take a taste?  Absolutely not.  Good thing we have all summer.

Robin wanted to show off the one she harvested:

Still coming along: lettuces, tomatoes, peppers, garlic.  I think it's time to plant some more too!

Lands End

A hike! We went on a hike! In San Francisco!

 

It was short and sweet, B was cold, the girls ate tons, and we met native San Franciscians who were kind of sad we were from only about 20 miles away. They were hoping to see "real" tourists. 

Erin loved spying on the scuba class in the inlet.

Tons of fun trees to climb.

Robin used the monocular to find our new home.  We're moving in Sunday after next.  

Burrowing Owl Hike

The Cesar Chavez park near the Berkeley Marina, hosts a few Western Burrowing Owls each winter.  The burrow site is just above the bay, and right next to an off-leash dog park. Sounds a bit, um, incongruous, but nature is funny that way.

We headed out after school to hike out to see if we could see any feathered friends.

Who dressed the wee one????

At the Northeast end of the park was the cordoned off area protecting the owls.  We looked and looked, but apparently there are no owls this season. 

We still had a great time and the girls did fantastic on a 1.25 mile hike. 

Kuna Hike

We took a long, off-trail hike in Yosemite today to a small, 11,000 ft high lake called Kuna. This is a place of beauty. This is a quiet, secret space. This is a space sacred to Mr. B, whose car bears the license plate "KUNA" and whose wishes are for his ashes to be scattered around the lake. I've heard a lot about this place, and today was the day to go there.


Many thanks to Grandma and Grandpa who watched the girls the entire day and gave Brian and I our longest date since.... since... well, since Erin came into our lives.

 As pictures are worth at least 1000 words each, we'll tell the story that way. Let me just say what is not pictured. We had a lunch of mashed potatoes, SPAM and beer. Mr. B caught half a dozen fish in twice as many casts.

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How to Get Kids to Love Nature

Rule 1: Take your kids into Nature.



Rule 2: Stop making rules.

Blackberry Picking

The girls and I went for a walk around the neighborhood today and found a thicket of blackberry bushes with its first berries.  Our tummies are full and our lips are purple!

It is also nearly 100F and we used the hats as berry baskets.  Oh, and we forgot to put on sunscreen.  Oops. 

Big Basin - Camping Trip #2!

This weekend we headed to Big Basin Redwoods State Park.  We went last year so this year we were prepared with even more bug spray.

We had fantastic weather, superb rangers, and did a lovely hike.  The girls spent a lot of time enjoying nature and playing in the creek.  We all donated a lot of blood to the mosquitos.

And there were lots of pictures.

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Some Big Basin Memories

* Erin found a new role model in Ranger Morgan (a girl).
* Both kids are sensitive to mosquito bites.  Erin has sweet, sweet blood.
* The girls saw mosquito and water skipper larvae.
* Erin slept in the latest she's ever slept - 8:35 am.

Sacramento Family Picnic

More picts to come but . . .

Brian's Uncle Mike hosts an annual church/family picnic every Memorial Day weekend at a park in Sacramento.  We made the short trek this year and had a great time.  Amazing food!  Games for every age kid!  Interesting conversations, hiking along the American River, and did I mention really great food?

The really fun thing is the girls have a ton of 2nd cousins that they got a chance to meet/play with.  We've played with some of the cousins before, but this was the first time meeting others.

Grandma sent these pictures, which seem to capture the spirit of the girls.

Wordy Wednesday: Strange Subterranean Grubs

You may wonder where the dirt clods came from.  Well, last week Erin came inside after digging in the dirt screaming she'd seen a yellow jacket (or jaguar in her vernacular) flying into the ground.  We had a yellow jacket problem last year, set traps early this year, and are trying to be pro-active about eradicating the problem before it starts.  So Brian heads out with a shovel and some protective clothing with the intent of digging down and finding the nest.

Instead he finds this:

A pretty large, slowly moving, juicy looking insect nestled about 6-10 inches under the ground.  No wings, but winglets (my own term: perfectly formed but mini wings), 6 legs.  First thought?  Queen.  Quick search revealed nope. Not a yellow jacket, not a bumblebee, not anything we can quickly ID by a google search.  We put it to rest.

A week goes by and the dirt clods resulting from the excavation are perfect for throwing.  Erin asks for more dirt to throw, I pick up the shovel and dig further into the pit already started.  And another big, juicy bug emerges. It really looks like a bug that's not quite done with development.  Puny, squirmy lets.  Itty bitty wings plastered to its body.  Eyes pasty and the same greenish-yellow as its body.

Out comes the iPhone, a quick picture, a Facebook post, and lots of minds on the question of "what in tarnation is this bug?!?!?!"

Hats off to Jenna Mc for finding this.  Reading through this blog post, the ID process went much as the FB discussion did.  It is a cicada nymph. I had no idea these insects lived here.  I remember hearing that they spent decades underground.  And now I feel really bad about killing two of them.  And I will feel even worse this summer when we tear apart the back yard dirt patch to put in a shed and veggie garden.

Thanks to everyone on FB who helped solve the mystery!

Baby birds

Yesterday, Robin and I were waiting outside a store for it to open.  We noticed, in the dirt next to a bush by the front door, three teeny baby birdies wriggling quietly.

They were teeny.  One was not moving a ton. The sun on their little bodies was already hot, and it was only 9:30.  I looked up into the shrubs above the birdies and spied their nest.  If I stood on my tiptoes, I could reach it.  I turned to the ladies around me, told them what we were looking at.  One quipped, "I heard if you touch the babies the mama won't feed them anymore."  I thought, "So I should just let them die right here and now?"

I said I had to do something.  I scooped them up, one by one, and carefully put them back in their nest.  The other ladies around looked relieved.  I was too.

When we got out of the store a little while later, I saw a mama or daddy bird leaving the nest.  Hopefully the babies are being cared for again.

WW: Poppy

This reminds me of something

Shortly after we bought this house, we received a 3 page letter from one of the previous owners, detailing the contents of the terraced back garden.  This was her prize.  Her baby.  Nearly as precious as her real baby, now age 25 or so.  One of the prized plants is a flowering dogwood, and takes center stage this time of year in the garden. 

I can't remember now the significance for her - was it the present from her father on her 50th birthday?  The prize for her first published book of poetry?  Unknown.  For me it breathes of when we were firmly settled here, Erin at 2.5, Robin at 2 months, and we were finally starting to find our groove as a family of four. 

To me, it stands as a beautiful reminder of how our lives blossom, grow, and wilt, each thing having a season.  We no longer have babies, we have kids.  The previous owners no longer have little kids, nor a life together.  But we have all grown into something different, something unexpected, something just as beautiful, but maybe not as imagined.  Little things we plant here and there can grow into unexpected beauty that will be, by us or unanticipated others, appreciated and adored. 

'Shrooms

One side effect of the extensive front yard landscaping we did last winter was the proliferation of mushrooms emerging from the mulch after all the recent rain.

Friday's bedtime walk

We've been taking the girls out in the stroller on "chicken walks" in the evening the past few clear nights to go see some chickens up the hill from us. They love being out and they'll fall asleep while we're walking.

Friday night we went to go see the horse barn near us. I think it went well.

A tree cutting story, part 1

We had two Monterrey pines in on our property listing to the side, threatening to topple our neighbor's house.  Apparently, in the 50's, people planted these trees in Orinda, at a cost of about $0.19 apiece, to make it more scenic.  What they didn't think about was the soil here was poor for these type of trees. So, 60 years later, and about 1,200x the cost, these trees must be taken down.

We hired a local crew who said it could be done in two days without cranes.

Indeed, the men on this crew were acrobats and could easily climb up, chainsaw dragging behind them, and use only ropes and a pulley to fell even the largest of branches.  Many of these "branches" could be classified as trees in their own rights. 

Here you see the observation crew.  Grandpa couldn't pass up a chance to see this kind of arborist engineering at play. 

The results of 1 days work.  Astonishing.

Wordless Wednesday: Flower and fly

Garden miscellany

We planted a few veggie starts late this spring.  So far, the crop has been pathetic.  Erin's showing our first (and only so far) squash. 

I think she's singing to it.  We made a small batch of squash pancakes which were delicious.  We also harvested 3 barely ripe cherry tomatoes.  Slim pickings here, folks.  Good thing there's an awesome farmers market here. 

We also set the girls digging in the back yard.  Never too early to start on chores, right? I have this idea we'll plant some fruit trees back there - one apple, one pear, one cherry, one orange.  Then the birds will have plenty to eat. 

Of course, there are always work breaks for silliness. 

Owls

The owls are back after a three-month absence.  There's two out back right now, maybe fifty feet up in separate trees, loudly calling our their hoo-hoos in the dark.