Scenes from a Victorian Festival

held at Rancho Los Cerritos here in Long Beach

Speaking of our CSA

This weekend our CSA hosted a free barbecue for members at their farm.

The event sounded a little dubious from the invite. Basically you would pick your own food, wash it, prepare it, and cook it yourself with tofu. I mean - how was this any different than participating in the program, except now we would have to do even more work by picking the stuff? And BT wondered - where's the beef?

Well, it turned out to be a good time. It was fun to go to the different "stations" and pick your produce - enough for one meal. During the preparation, BT managed to cut himself with a plastic knife - you know, the ones they put out so the kids wouldn't hurt themselves. He isn't normally so hands on with his food...

(Cilantro, spinach, zucchini, Maui onions, wax beans, and carrots)

The veggies were wrapped up in the foil and thrown on the grill. We figured they used tofu to avoid dealing with issues if meat was not cooked well enough by the participants. Very tasty - even better than at home!


(Leafy greens field and Irvine in the background. This is an urban farm - can't imagine how much the land is worth!)

The best part was dessert - strawberries! The strawberries we receive in our weekly box are pretty terrific - very sweet. Store bought ones always have a bleachy after taste to them to me - does anyone else ever notice that? Anyway, turns out organically grown berries are even sweeter right off the vine. It was like eating candy. Heaven!

(Hank thinks he is pretty clever that he picked a leaf when I wasn't watching. The spiky things are large Maui onions. Judging by our community share basket, I think people are getting a little tired of them. But, judging by the number of onions I saw growing today, there are plenty more to enjoy this season...)

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Favorite of the day: The Neiman Marcus Cookie's equivalent recipe for Red Velvet Cake.

Working on: Projects for Hank

Welcome summer

Our CSA boxes are getting more and more interesting as we get closer to summer


Our Memorial Day dinner was tasty, with 6 different types of vegetables.

These purple-hulled green beans, unfortunately, turned green when cooked, but were still a delicious hint of exciting things to come!

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Favorite of the day: Gawd, people do some beautiful things for their wedding nowadays...

Working on: Making soup from all the produce we need to use before it's too late

By the sea

By the sea

By the sea

By the beautiful sea

Oh how happy we'll be

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Favorite of the day: Cute cards (via Bloessem)

Working on: Better earthquake preparedness

I'm really off my game

It was only after I dropped off the muffins for Hank's teachers for Teacher Appreciation Week, having exhausted my brain as to how I could present them



that I remembered I had apple paper, apple and school related stickers, and some funky Japanese paper cutouts in the shape of apples.

The muffins are apple - does that count?

And no, I didn't do the handmade muffin liners from the current Martha Stewart Living. I bought them this way, ok?

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Favorite of the day: This book looks amazing

Working on: Dreaming of a craft challenge for myself if I had a day to myself - 8 crafts in 8 hours.

And if that mockingbird don't sing

I love our neighborhood mockingbirds



(image from U.S Fish and Wildlife Service)

My favorite imitations I have heard over the years are sirens, and a fellow that tried so hard to imitate one of those car alarms that goes through like 10 different sound effects in a row. When he got to one he couldn't replicate, he paused and then continued with the next sound.

Some people (i.e. my husband and most of our neighbors) are sick of hearing the poor mateless songbirds singing their hearts out through the night. I, on the other hand, am up anyway and enjoy the company.

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Favorite of the day: Monkeys Always Look (via Design*Sponge)

Working on: Same ol same ol

Hank @ (almost) 6 months

* Is on the move! Up on all fours, he moves each leg in a crawl motion, than goes down on his belly and hefts himself forward and repeats. He makes it across the room fairly quickly.

* Says ba-ba-ba but on his terms (i.e. don't tell somebody he can do it and expect him to do it)

* Just last night pulled himself into a standing position without help!

* Wants to see/touch/eat everything

* Sits unsupported for about 10 minutes at a time

* Still not sleeping through the night, but hey nobody is perfect

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Favorite of the day: French Bull picnic set (via ohdeedoh)

Working on: Having a relaxing weekend. Happy Mother's Day to all the moms, future moms, and moms at heart out there!

Dirt

Hank's day care is curriculum based, which I think is so cute that they even bother for the infants. He has an individual plan (which included, for this month, "Puppet Peek-A-Boo"), and there is a unifying theme that all of the age levels study.

This month the theme was dirt. I'm sure for the older kids they learned about growing plants and the like. For Hank's group, they did a couple of art projects and had water bottles filled with dirt to explore. It was great fun.

Over the weekend, we had the opportunity to visit the Noah's Ark exhibit at the Skirball Cultural Center with my parents. I've been wanting to do this for quite some time. The animals are made out of everyday items, and are quite impressive.

As a souvenir, Nanna bought Hank a felt story board of Noah's Ark. Looking at the background, I wondered what else I could use the board for. It is mostly water with a rain cloud printed on it. I thought plants might be appropriate, so I made some dirt (see how this ties in?) that has root plants that can be pulled out of the ground. A lake scene would work too.

Hey, here's Farmer Noah

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Favorite of the day: (speaking of dirt) Foam garden via ohdeedoh

Working on: A kitschy craft