Ronda

Mistress Mary, Quite Contrary

When the boy and I were gearing up for our big six week European adventure, we were anxious about leaving our new place behind for that length of time. During our years separate and together, we had amassed a collection of indoor and outdoor plants, that are near and dear to our hearts. One of the great things about our new dwelling, is that it offers us an outdoor garden space. Not too much, but just enough to make the gardening a real workout and to give us square footage to experiment with. That being said, leaving behind our little garden was a little sad - we did not know what to expect upon our return. A good friend came over a couple of times a week, to take care of some indoor and outdoor watering. But we knew that the outdoor plants were less protected and were subject to the great, wild outdoors.

This was what we found when we came back:

The snap peas did grow wild. Weeds were everywhere and the lovely lemon thyme that was planted in the ground was buried underneath more weeks. The bay tree popped off- it was two times bigger than what we had left and insurgent parsleys were sprouting throughout the entire garden.

We spent about four hours weeding, tilling, fertilizing and watering the soil. The end result was extremely satisfying. It was a beautiful, blank slate for us to work with.

We moved the mint- that were suffering with its limited growing space in the pots and planters to the space where the giant parsley had been. Now it can have all the space it wants for its roots.

We completed our garden overhaul with some starter plants and seeds. We bought 4 cherry tomatoes, 12 snap beans from Whole Foods and 3 Italian basils from Hortica. From seeds, we planted a row of Japanese cucumber, red peppers and 2 rows of carrots. The lemon thyme was moved to a nice, private space next to the bay tree and the planter box that used to house the mint, is now filled with cilantro seeds. There is some real estate left in the hanging garden that we need to fill as well.

Arcos

Jerez (the place of sherry)

Sevilla

Holy Toledo!

Madrid Faves

As promised, here are some pics from the big trip. Below are some Madrid favorites...

Back in Business

I've been out of commission (again) for a super long time. The boy and I have just gotten back from a six-week long trip in Europe. We spent three weeks in Spain and three weeks in Italy. Amazing trip and now that I've returned to my world and back at a computer, I look at my blog and see just how much I've missed during the past month and a half and how I even feel somewhat alien to the blog. Yikes!

We took lots of pics and I'll be posting quite a number of mine. I took about 700 pics (the boy took over 2,000!!!) and no, you will not be subjected to all of them.

The trip involved: flying into Madrid through Munich, from San Francisco. From Madrid, we enjoyed a day trip to Toledo. Then we went further south, to the Andalucia region, to Sevilla, Jerez, Arcos (day trip), Ronda and Granada. From Granada, we took an overnight train up to Barcelona, which was our last stop in Spain.

Our Italy leg started in Pisa, which is a puddle-jumper flight from Barcelona. We took a short day trip to Lucca, before heading down to Florence. We continued down a short bit to Siena, then took a train north to the Cinque Terra and then back down again to Orvieto, before going to our last Italian destination - Rome.

Ah! It was both a long and short trip. Exhausting, but memorable - every bit of it. It was a very special trip.

Lovely.

Same Old, Same Old

I'm getting a little tired of looking at the same thing on my blog for the past couple of months. It's been busy and eventful- so that's the excuse I'm using for the lack of updates and postings.

Here are my excuses, in no particular order:

1. Sabbatical: I had my 6 weeks of sabbatical + 1 week of vacation time. Now, you'd think with all that time on my hands, I'd be able to do something more creative with my blog, blah, blah. Obviously, I didn't. = (

2. Moving: we moved, yes, I know it was back in January, but that time off of work was useful in "playing" house and getting things all up and in order.

3. Gardening: now that we have a little plot to call our own, we've been doing some fun things in the space. I DO have some pictures that will be uploaded and shared at some point.

4. Marriage: we got married at San Francisco City Hall! Yay! It was a wonderful, little ceremony with two good friends for witnessing and photo-documenting. I'm glad that we decided to go the simple route- and our families weren't too disappointed after all. We really wanted something super small and private and it turned out to be a wonderful day, followed by a couple of days up in the Carneros Inn up in Napa.

5. Back to work: the weeks flew by and I found myself back in the office in March.

So, that's all I have to say for myself, for now!

Yummo.

Bacon. Whenever you want a bite of it. Yummo. by Skillet.

Simple, But True?

Is it always that easy?

Boring, But True

I've nothing much to post- well, I'd be better off NOT posting much at this point because my head is filled with a hundred little tasks and chores. The big move last Friday was successful- everything got transported safely and in one piece (except for a glass votive holder that I broke when putting it away). My goal is to have everything unpacked from boxes within a week. Sort of there, but not really. Studio in the Mission to be moved next weekend. Craziness. But I LOVE the new place- even though it's still taking quite a bit to get used to. Time to TAME THE HOUSE!

Pictures to come eventually...

'Ear, 'ear!

My friend Linda posted an entry in her blog this morning, that was so truthful and compelling, that I had to follow suit and throw in my own two-cents.

My grandmother grew up in China and Taiwan, with so few resources, that she has been an extreme example of conservation and resourcefulness. Everything is kept, reused or recycled. EVERYTHING.

As I've mentioned, I'm in the process of moving from a small, one-bedroom apartment into a larger, single-family home. The amount of space is now more than doubled and it will be interesting to see how little, the ton of STUFF that my fiance and I have, will be in the new place.

This leads me to think, of how much stuff people accumulate, leading to how much stuff then, at some point, is tossed away without a second thought. Which made me feel queasy with guilt and unease. And instead of doing what many humans are apt to do- I'm going to take small, brave steps away from my usual way of doing things and see how I can undo some of the ecological damage my thirty years on this planet have done.

My goal is to be more conscientious about my choices. For example, instead of grabbing a paper towel for every little task, I'm purchasing cloth tea towels and napkins. I'm going to compost more and recycle more (toilet paper tubes, kleenex boxes, receipts, etc.). I'm going to think twice about buying stuff, too. Is it something I really need, or just something I momentarily want (good for the budget, too!!!)?

Really, one can go on and on about the endless choices and contributions we can make. I'm going to start with a few little things and go from there!

Don't Laugh...

...but I am a major nerd.

It's a new year and every new year, I feel like I ought to purge and clean. There are additional incentives for me to do that this year. This morning as I was driving into work, it randomly occurred to me that this lab protocol manual that I worked with in college, is no longer relevant to my current job and my life, in general. Well, it really was no longer relevant as soon as I graduated, a decade ago. So, for a decade, this thing has travelled with me through two moves and three different offices. Really?

But, it's science. I developed my own experimental protocol from this little book. It has a cool picture of frog and uses big, scientific words. I love it!

Ah, well, now it's sitting in the recycling bin... I think it's a good move...