Monthly Archives: September 2009

Beach Season

September 7, 2009friends, naturebeach, playGretchenJoanna

It’s beach season here. Other than late summer and fall, the beaches are too cold and/or windy, and in early summer too foggy, to be reliably enjoyable. At no time of year is the water very warm: the ocean current flows from the north, which makes it chillier than on the coast of Norway, its beaches benefiting from water coming the other direction.

When we drove out to the beach for a birthday party the roadways were thick with Queen Anne’s Lace. If I’d been alone I’d have been very late for the party from stopping to take pictures. One guest brought a stem of it.

Of course, flowers love to grow at the beach cottage, too, and the young girls love to make bouquets.

After eating we walked down to the beach.

Years ago our friends released some domestic geese into the lagoon and we think it is their descendants who mingle with the indigenous fowl.

The young folks were playing a game
something like the Dr. Pepper of my grammar school days.

This rascally boy had something to do with his sister getting wet and annoyed.

He was with us and made it a lovely day.

Not Spot or Ocelot

September 5, 2009animals, homeGretchenJoanna

I’ve written about Spot before, here and here. As I was stalling on what to call her, B. decided on Ocelot. A few days later she arrived wearing a collar with the name CASSIE on it, and her address, just a few doors down the street, at a house belonging to a very responsible family I have met. So, she doesn’t need a home! She is like a kid in the neighborhood (maybe an only child?) who likes to roam around and hang out at other people’s houses, eating their food and breaking their rules.

In fact, when we were still feeling more compassion for her, she went into the depths of our abode, on a high shelf in a closet, and knocked boxes and clothes into a heap on the floor. That is definitely a no-no.

But she never cared about or for us; we knew it by her growls. She likes Gus. Now I’m less welcoming to her, but I still like to call her Ocelot. And she is an independent girl; yesterday she arrived without a collar again.

Three New Wildflowers

September 4, 2009mountains, nature, travel, wildflowersSierra Vinegarweed, YosemiteGretchenJoanna

The last decade of my life has been intense with wildflowers. I tried, before that, to learn some of their names, mostly from my husband, and from nature centers in the forests that we camped in with the children. It seemed too expensive to buy wildflower guides, and the only time I would think of it was on vacation.

Then daughter Pippin turned into a naturalist. Then she got a camera, and we had computers, and wowie, Let the Learning Begin! I now have such a collection of (mostly) her pictures on my computer, taken wherever she may go, but mostly in California. Several times I have been where there were many flowers, and when my husband would let me stop and look at them, so I am learning more.

This summer was a treasury of flowers, and I actually did learn the names of more than three, but to keep this post short I will just tell you about the three that stumped Pippin and me. I looked in six wildflower guides, she looked I don’t know where, and we couldn’t figure them out. My friend Di put me in touch with her friends who live near Yosemite, visit there nearly weekly, and are cataloging the flowers in the park. They knew right away what these three were, so I give credit to them, and when they come out with a book I’ll let you know.

My picture doesn’t do justice to this plant that makes a soft lavender haze along the roadway, breaking the monotony of green trees and and grey pavement. Somehow from your car the impression and depth of color are more intense, though pastel. As you may remember, I called it purple haze or lavender mist. I just saw it last week in the more southern Sierras.

I sent this photo to my experts, and they told me it is Lessingia leptoclada. Wife Expert said that if she were naming flowers she would call it Lavender Groundsmoke. See? we think alike! But the common name, I discovered, is actually Sierra Vinegarweed. Not so appealing.

Mr. Glad was the discoverer of this flower on his hike up Clouds Rest in Yosemite. My Experts said it is rare in Yosemite and is Primula suffrutescens or Sierra Primrose. They had just “searched it out” and found it themselves two days before he did, on Polly Dome.

About this bright one they said, “Another favorite of ours…Ipomopsis agregata ssp. bridgesii, Scarlet Gilia (it used to be Gilia aggregata), also called Skyrocket, in the Phlox family. We see it every year along Tioga Road, and it was especially abundant this year.” It’s another one that makes a swath of color along the highway, as in the picture at top.

There you have it, a taste of my beginner’s nature studies.

Tomato Trio Salad

September 4, 2009food and cooking, my gardenbasil, tomatoesGretchenJoanna

Two years ago when it was tomato-planting time, we knew that later in the summer several grandchildren would be in the garden and swimming in the pool. I planted a “Grape” tomato bush thinking that it would be fun for the kids to pluck the 1-2″ fruits for snacks.

It turned out to be quite a resource to have right in the back yard, miniature tomatoes that were nearly all perfect, and all very sweet and flavorful. They appeared in large clusters and ripened quickly. Not only that, they came off their stems with the slightest nudge, and a clean break. Any meal I prepared seemed to benefit from a few of these pretties on the side of the plate or filling a bowl of their own.

The top pic is of the “Grapes” in 2007. The grandchildren didn’t particularly like to eat them. But Grandma ate tons–well, maybe just bushels. And I planted another “Grape” last year with equal success and savor.

This spring there were no Grapes to be found. Oh, there are various cherry-type tomatoes that grow in clusters like grape clusters. But on all the long wooden shelves at the best nursery (I finally made the drive after several nearby were found lacking) no one could help me find the plants with that proper name and the oblong shape of a Thompson Seedless grape. The kind that make the fruits we buy in little cartons at Costco, and again this year they are for sale there.

I found many interesting tiny-tomato plants, but was so disappointed I couldn’t think straight to decide which one would be the sorry substitute. So Ibought three. They are Juliet F1, Sun Gold, and Green Grape.

On the right are some Sun Golds just getting ripe last month. They are tangerine-colored.

It has turned out to be fun indeed to have three colors of little love-apples. Sun Golds are definitely the most flavorful. Juliet F1 is so big, it’s on its way to being a Roma. No great flavor there. The Green Grape has been o.k….it’s just hard to know when it’s ripe! The fruits get a bit yellowish, and then you know.

We also have some large tomato varieties this summer, Early Girl and Mule Team. The mules are a very slow train, just now starting to pink up. And the Early Girl plant is a runt, with few baby girl fruits. Our reputation as awesome tomato farmers has gone down the drain the last couple of years.

This week we got some hot weather! Yay! Down with fog, Up with sunshine! That means plenty of cherry tomatoes, and a hankering for salads. So I made a tomato-basil salad tonight.

Started with the tomatoes, as many as B. and I could eat, because this salad won’t keep. As soon as I cut the green ones in two I began to be fond of them just for their looks.

Early in its growth I just pinch the flowers off the basil every week or so, to make it get bushy. Tonight I pruned it above new buds, and then used scissors to get the leaves off, before chopping. If I were making pesto I wouldn’t be concerned about getting a bit of stem and flower. I didn’t know how much to put in–maybe it ended up being about 3 tablespoons?

Some goat cheese went in, in little gobs or crumbles, whatever form I could manage. They all sort of melted into the tomato juice in the end.

And I toasted some pine nuts to put on top. Didn’t use half of these in the end, so I put most of them away in a jar in the fridge.

The biggest challenge for me posting pictures of food on my blog is finding a place to stage the picture. The kitchen is a complete mess, and the table has the wrong color of placemats on it. The living room is too dark….At least tonight, I could be glad it was salads I was photographing (ah, yes, I made another one I’ll tell you about later) so a hot dinner didn’t get cold while I scurried around trying to set up a nice environment for my creations.