Just another garden post

love my garden.   Even when everything else is going horribly, I can find solace there.  Perhaps I am like the crazy cat lady, except with plants.  Its spring so everything is starting to pick up- its even rained a couple times so I just come by to visit and magically my plants are watered.  

So I know the internets are just dying to know what I have growing this year so I will tell them!

First exhibit: my one survivor strawberry.  All the rest died from neglect last year.  

Here is the view facing north- things look really great from this direction; a couple small broccoli plants on the left, chard and beets on the right and herbs and flowers in the back.

But then you inevitably have to turn around to find this:

Look at all those weeds!  Those are on my to-do list for the weekend.
While I was picking some flowers I heard a rustling and looky there!

 

Here leezerd leezerd...

  

There you are! Posing so nicely!  He didn't seem to nervous about the crazy lady with the camera.  And then on the way out I spotted some poppies in a fellow garderner's plot.  I love poppies!

This concludes our garden tour, please come again!

San Diego Trip

t some point Southwest was running a special where you could fly 1-way to certain places for $25 in January. Derrick and I checked out the options and decided to get tickets for San Diego. We stayed at the downtown hostel and took the bus around so it ended up being a very cheap trip. Anyway, enough about how cheap frugal we are and on to what we did!

We arrived Thursday night at around 9pm. We had planned to go to this Irish pub to eat but turns out they don't serve food that late. So we ended up going to a french bistro/ice cream place. It was about all that was open, but still pretty tasty. Friday morning we woke up early and took the bus over to Balboa park. Our first stop was the zoo. We spent the morning there looking at all the animals. We even got to see the baby panda! The whole experience was definitely worth the $$ for the tickets. We ate lunch in the zoo and then explored the rest of Balboa park.

Next we went to the Museum of Photographic Arts (MoPA). There was only one exhibit at that time, Beloved Daughters: Photographs by Fazal Sheikh. He took pictures of women in India and recorded their story. The photos were incredible and the stories were heart-wrenching. It was a bit heavy but I'm still glad that we went.

After MoPA, we headed over to the botanical building. This was one of the best parts of the day and it was FREE! We wandered around the rest of Balboa park and ended up at the air and space museum. It was really lame, epecially considering the price of the tickets. I was also pretty exhausted by this time so that may also have had something to do with my disatisfaction. After that we headed back to the hostel where we took a short nap and thought about where to go for dinner. We decided on Chianti - we were a little worried at first since there were only like two other people in the restaurant but it ended up being really good. We considered going back to the pub for a beer but I was really tired and convinced Derrick that it was time for bed.

Saturday morning we packed up our stuff and boarded the bus for Coronado. We checked out the Hotel del Coronado and then sat on the beach for the rest of the morning. It was really nice just to sit after walking all day Friday. After lunch we took the trolley to the San Diego Mission. It is the oldest CA mission and very pretty. After that we headed back to the airport to go home. Overall, a good trip!

See the pictures here:

San Diego 2009

Yo-yo Ma and Neatloaf

ast week Derrick and I went to San Francisco for the day to attend an open rehearsal of the SF Symphony- featuring Yo-yo Ma! Here is a picture of the symphony warming up and Yo-yo Ma playing!




It was pretty awesome. He got so into when he played compared to the other symphony members.

After the show we went to eat at a place down the street called Ananda Fuara

Six loooong years

n January third Derrick and I celebrated 6 years of marriage! We went over to Napa and ate at Bistro Jeanty and then wine tasted at Jessup cellars. Fun!

It really has been a great six years! The first one was a little rough, but even that wasn't really marriage troubles. I just couldn't get a job despite 5000000 interviews (kind of depressing) and got mono. We have been through some trials that have really grown us and I feel pretty confident that we can make it through whatever else comes our way. I love you Derrick!

Another Christmas come and gone

This year we got to spend about a week with Derrick's family at Christmas. We had the big meal on Christmas eve since we wanted to catch the Christmas eve service in Wilmington that night. The spread was very impressive! Derrick and I had a gift certificate to the Honey Baked Ham so gave it to his family to use for Christmas. It took about an hour of discussion to convince his Grandpa (who usually does all the cooking) that they did NOT need to be cooked. In the end everything turned out delicious.
After we ate I volunteered to take a family picture with my new tripod! I think it came out really well. In the back l -> r, Derrick's grandpa, Derrick, Derrick's mom, dad, brother, uncle and aunt. The cousins, grandma and I are in the front.

Christmas in Wilmington was much more low key. We were supposed to have a big dinner with my cousins and everybody who we haven't seen in several years, but my uncle got a crazy case of food poisoning that had him the hospital for about a week over Christmas. Then we were going to have a smaller meal but my mom got a skin infection on her face (what are the odds?!). So that left us with lots of spare time to go to the beach (and no family photos unfortunately- I actually took some but my mom made me swear not to post them on the internet :) )

It went by way too fast and now it is back to reality. sigh.

Something about waiting

Over the last few years, I have been really struggling (learning?) in my faith. Back in NC I had a large circle of Christian acquaintances (I called them friends at the time but looking back, we weren't really that close). I had trouble with some aspects of their faith but I just went along and tried my best to believe because I felt like I should. When we came to CA I felt very lost. Without the support of that circle to convince me I should support certain aspects of the Christian church (or what I thought were aspects- I don't want to get into details though, lest I offend people- I'll save that for another post!) I started to give up. However, despite all of the messed up stuff I associated with the church, I always came back to Jesus. Underneath it all I still love Jesus- He still makes sense to me. Even without all the church-y stuff, He was still there, waiting for me.

I have a tendency to be busy and keep my brain full of new things and push God to the back. Then there are days like today when I am empty of other stuff and it feels REALLY empty. I come back to Jesus and again, he is there waiting to fill me up. Always waiting for me to get my focus off myself and back to Him. I imagine him sitting on a bench in my brain, waving occasionally trying to catch my eye, but I am focused elsewhere. He waits patiently until I am ready. Thats another thing I love about Jesus- He does not force himself on people. He will wait for you to get to a place where you can see him. Anyway, I'm not really sure where I was going with this- something about waiting.

Garden Clean up

This afternoon I spent a couple hours in the garden doing some clean up and weeding.  The mexican sunflowers were falling all over my peppers and looked really ragged so I just ripped them up.  The chamomile has been dead for a while and the yellow pear tomatoes were scraggly so they both got yanked.  My neighbors' cactus broke and there was a big chunk laying on top of several plants.  I'd hoped they would clean it up, but its been over a week so I hacked it up and tossed it in their plot.  I also pulled up a bunch of bermuda grass that has been gradually sneaking in from my other neighbor unattended plot.  I have decided that after this year I am leaving this plot.  We are either moving from Davis and I will leave the garden :(  or I will just change plots.  My current plot has a lot of perimeter compared to area due to it elongated shape and it is just too much path maintenance for me- especially when I also have unattended neighboring plots.  There is no hope for keeping the weeds at bay.   I also don't like being near the cactus.  Its very pretty, but people are always tramping through my beds to get to it.  hmm.. Maybe I should rename this post "Garden Whine."

Emily and Kelly's Excellent Adventure!

Emily and I are starting a spur of the moment road trip up the northern CA coast this weekend! Emily has been awesome and basically planned everything- here is our proposed route.  I am going to take the Amtrak from Davis to Oakland where she will pick me up and we will begin our journey.  We will sleep in Mendocino, Humboldt Redwood SP, Eureka and Redding with stops along the way wherever we see fit.  Maybe Emily has a more thought out plan than that but as far as I know we are playing it by ear. I don't really care, I am just excited to be going somewhere!

I am really excited about taking some pictures! I finally figured out how to load the 120 film into the Argus 75 (had to trim off the edges of the spool) so I am ready to shoot!  There are only 12 pics per roll and I only have one roll so I have to really plan out each shot.  This will be such a different feel than shooting with the digital camera.  With digital I just take as many pictures as I want, get all the different angles, lighting etc., and then pick the best one once I download on to the computer.  I have found that the ones that look the best to me through the viewfinder are not always my favorites once they appear on my screen.  So I will really have to dig deep and find my inner photographer to get some good shots.  Then I will have to figure out how/where the heck I am going to get the film developed.  But that's a whole other post.

Goodnight!

New Argus 75

Yay! My new camera finally came! On the left is a picture of the front- the button with the white dot is the shutter; the knob on the left side is the film winder. That's pretty much all there is to it! The top glass is for the view finder and the bottom is the actual lense.  The red flips away when you take the picture and then you wind the film knob until it reappears.  On the right is a shot of the view finder in its flipped up position.  The image is so clear and nice- the pictures don't do it justice.

I played around with the through the view finder shots.  As you can see my first shot had lots of glare from reflection off the glass.  I remedied this by hiding me and the digital camera under a blanket while I took the shot.

yay! problem solved! Now I just need to find something more interesting than my living room to take a picture of..

Photo Walk

This afternoon I went on a photo walk. I think I might have just made that term up, but its where you walk around somewhere and take pictures- pretty genius if I do say so!  I just went around campus and I never realized how dead everything is on Sunday afternoon.  I like to take pictures when there are not so many people around; it makes me feel less silly.  I don't know why I feel silly.  I think people are looking at me and wondering 'why is that girl taking a picture of *insert random thing here*??'  But they are probably not paying any attention at all.   I also like to take pictures of people but I always think people will get mad- are there laws against taking pictures of people in public without their consent?  I guess not, because then all the tabloids would be breaking the law.  Anyway, I am rambling now- here is a sampling of the pics!

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Walnuts are evil

I have gotten this terrible idea in my head that I want to run a marathon.  I am scared to sign up though because they are expensive and what if I chicken out or don't have time to train or some other unforseen emergency arises that I must attend to?  Then I will have wasted money and I hate wasting money.  So to ease myself into it, I have been trying to get myself in a running schedule of 3-4 times per week to test my schedule and see if I can squeeze in anything else.  So far it has been going OK.  I feel like I am getting faster so that is good.

On Monday I decided I wanted to do a long(er) run - around 4.5 miles.  Compared to a marathon that is like nothing, but you have to start somewhere!  I got to about mile 4.0 and I started getting pretty pooped.  I'm not very good at long runs because I always go too fast.  I have a need for speed- seriously, my knees like to go fast.  So, its hot, I'm tired, just pushing through that last half a mile when all of a sudden it feels like someone is tearing my foot off my body.  I look down and see a walnut rolling away from my throbbing ankle.  Then I start to feel a little woozy and cursing ensues.  I hope there were no children or elderly people around because I probably scarred them for life if they were.  I was not conscious enough to notice- I did notice that there were people going by and surprisingly none of them asked me if I was OK.  Maybe walnut attacks are so common in this area that no one even notices anymore.  Anyway, after I regain my sense of awareness I start the half mile hobble home.  It was a long hobble.  I almost pooed in my pants but I made it.  TMI?

So this is the second time this has happened.  Except last time I was 2 miles away from home.  I think I need to find a path with shade trees that do not produce trip hazards...

New Camera!

I love old stuff and lately I have been wanting to get an old (antique-old) camera to play with.  I wanted to be able to use medium format film and to do some fun through the viewfinder (TTV) shots with my macro lens.  I also think it will be helpful in becoming a better photographer to have a simple film camera to play with. I had been monitoring etsy and ebay and finally came across one that was advertised as 'working' and not just 'as is' on ebay.  Its an Argus 75 twin lens.  It has a fun flip up view finder and takes 620 film, which according to the internet is 120 film rolled onto a different sized spool. And best of all it was only $12!  I am sure it will take me a while to find film and figure out how to get it into the camera but the TTV stuff should be fun in the meantime!

Zucchini Bread

Derrick got a zucchini from one of his coworkers and requested bread so I made some.  I used this recipe.  The only thing I changed was the cooking time- it took around 70-80 minutes, but our oven is always slow.  It is DELICIOUS!  It has a nice crust on the top and the inside is very moist and yummy.  We have already almost finished one of the loaves and I just made it yesterday.

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Watermelon

This weekend we harvested the first watermelon of the season!  The variety we grew was called Desert King.  It has yellow flesh and is drought tolerant.  Derrick picked out the seeds and took charge of caring for them.  He was nice and shared the fruits of his labor with me, though.  Here are the pics![gallery columns="2"]

Duckling

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Last night I dreamed that I was wandering around some neighborhood at night with a bunch of random people that I knew- some from high school, some from college, Derrick, and probably some others.  I do remember that I knew them all.  So we're walking around and then someone says "hey! lets go visit Heather Armstrong!" and I'm like "uhhh guys its the middle of the night and she has a newborn."  Never mind the fact that none of us actually know her and she lives in Utah.   So apparently no one cared about what I thought because it was agreed that we would go visit.  We go up to what is the Armstrong's house in my dream which just happened to be right around the corner.  We go to the side door.  The porch light is on but the house is dark otherwise.  The leader of our fearless group knocks on the door.  We hear bumping and cursing and then someone answers the door.  There is mumbling between our leader and whoever answered the door.  We are invited in!  The house is homey and kinda dark, reminds me of your grandparents house.  Then- Heather and Jon start serving us ice cream! I love ice cream! But then I start to feel guilty.  Because Jon and Heather don't have a dishwasher!!  They are going to have to wash ALL these dishes after we leave!  Derrick is also feeling guilty so we start collecting all the dishes and washing them by hand.  Everyone else is leaving but we just keep washing dishes.  There was like a never ending pile of ice cream dishes.  Then I woke up.

THE END.

Things I Accomplished Today

1. Looked at an excel model I made a long time ago
2. Went to lunch with my lab group
3. Drove to Genentech
4. Went to HoHo
5. Made 2 powerpoint slides
6. Drove home
7. Took a nap

Vacation 2009

We went on vacation a couple weeks ago.  It feels like forever ago since things have been so busy though.  Anyway, I took over 900 pictures but I only posted about 100 for the internet to enjoy.  Since then I have played around in GIMP with a couple of them.  I think they are cool so I will post them here for you too!  I am generous like that.

We went out to the coast- started in Monterey and ended in Marin Headlands with stops in Santa Cruz, Big Basin SP, Half Moon Bay and San Fransisco.  It was our most low key vacation ever and probably the most enjoyable.

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Pictures!

This post is from back in June.. I'm not sure why it never got published.  I must have gotten distracted!.

I'm pretty sure that I promised pictures  month ago so here they are finally!

So I'll start with the flowers/herb section.  On the left are most of the herbs and the flowers are on the right.  Herbs include cilatro (flowering), oregano (front half of the giant bush), lemon balm (other half of the giant bush), peppermint and mojito mint (buried under the the giant bush), sage (can't see it behind the lemon balm) and rosemary (in the very back).  On the right are the flowers- calendula (orange ones in the back), zinnia (can't see it), cosmos, mexican sunflowers (haven't bloomed) and then chammomile (sprawled out on the path).  The macro picture is the zinnia. So pretty!

Here are the peppers, ocra and eggplant.  The peppers are looking sad.. they always do until around August when they suddenly start making tons of peppers.  I will wait..  The ocra is even more pathetic.. it hates this dry heat and clay soil..  The eggplant has lots of holey leaves but has still made several nice sized fruits.

The tomatoes look great! I have not done a perfect job on picking off the suckers but much better than last year.  They are at least climbing the string instead of just sprawling everywhere.

This is the jack and the beanstalk beans.  These plants are HUGE and flowering all over the place but I have only gotten 2 beans!  The flowers keep falling off and I don't know why. Too hot?



yay watermelons!  These are Derrick's babies.   They are yellow fleshed fruit and supposed to taste tangy!  Then there's the corn.. It is freaking huge but making lots of yummy sweet corn so I am not complaining (too much).

Here's a macro shot of the silks and a little visitor (death to the cucumber beatles!!)  And finally the corn tassle.  So pretty!