so long summer 2011

Kindred Spirits?

but I wasn't there on Sunday . . . damn.

I was recently in West Seattle for business and found myself in a quaint little area with fantastic shops, food abounding, and a plethora of “really cool” people. My stay lasted three days. In those three days this is what I learned:

1) I very likely will never live in a big city again
2) Although Seattle is the birthplace of Starbucks and the coffee craze, all the really good places served and promoted Stumptown Coffee
3) No matter how nice PACNW people are, if you cram them all into a city with lots of traffic and limited sidewalk space they are all kind of crappy to everyone else around them
4) I have finally come to accept that I like living in a 100 year old house, in a 100 year old town where everyone knows everyone elses name, has an awesome local coffee roaster, great bread baker, really beautiful with tons of places to walk and bike, very little traffic (knock on wood), and good local wine tasting every first Friday.

Basically, as much as I love Seattle and enjoy visiting, it ain’t all that.

the laundry line

I love line-dried laundry. The smell, the texture, the feel of fresh hung clothes. To walk between the lines on a hot afternoon and feel the coolness of sheets against my skin, the memories of running between the lines of sheets at my grandmother’s as a child. I love not using the dryer for months and months each year. I love opening the linen closet in February and happening upon a set of sheets or towels that smell like summer. I encourage anyone to use a clothesline; collapsable models ready to go, take up a 5×5 area and are under $50.

The Berkeley Trip

Berkeley Farmer's Market

I love baseball. A lot. And each year I get to go to a new stadium in celebration of my birthday. This year it was the Oakland A’s but we stayed in Berkeley, and boy oh boy was that a good decision.

UC Berkeley Botanical Gardens

Chez Panisse, gourmet ghetto, Berkeley

Kite flying at the Berkeley Marina, Cesar Chavez Park

Northern California Coast

The Redwoods

New Beginnings

quince

4 new laying hens, a new garden plan (again), hellebores and crocus in bloom, clematis ready to burst, peach tree budded and healthy, forced quince in the house, seeds and transplants ready to go into the ground . . .

All whispered with a please, please, please let this be a better season than last. PLEASE.

Embracing it

Formal French Kitchen Garden

I am a lot of things -
mother, wife, organized, short, lover of fresh tomatoes and goat milk mozzarella, fan of black plants, and contemporary art.

One thing I am not is a cottage gardener. I’ve tried embracing a new path in the garden world with meandering paths, overly-voluptious planting areas, and a big, ununiform planting style. The end has come. I am embracing my inner-stodginess and am restructuring the garden this year. I love formal lines, linear paths, and the crisp clean edge of a formal garden. As I tell friends and clients alike, a garden is a journey, part of who you are at the time you are planting it and it reflects where you are in life at that particular time. So, I am embracing it. Wholely. Here is to an entirely new year full of new opportunities, paths, and weather.

Ready for it

dreaming of summer flowers

july that is. i’m ready for mid-summer and all the wonderful things it brings but i will settle for mid-january and all the wonderful things it brings – seed catalogs, new garden plans, bareroot fruit trees, frost, snow, quietude, art projects, and the like. i do embrace january and february, especially the bitterly cold ones, but my heart is with summer adventures and fresh food from the garden. the freezer and the pantry will do for now, if you have a chance, get a case of asparagus this year. it makes THE BEST frozen asparagus soup that makes the mouth happy during these winter days. i must admit january is the harbinger of what i really look forward to – the beginning of classes. i get excited just thinking about evenings spent sharing with my community the amazing world of backyard vegetable gardening. so here is to it my friends, a great gardening year, a great year of learning, and a better year all around than 2010.