Dreams

Hand in hand we lay
Otters drifting off to sleep
On a sea of dreams

Strength

Those branches, broken
At New Year's still have courage
To push out blossoms

Self-employed

Red hat, cardboard sign
Peddling pies in the rain
She must love her job

— with Harvey II

Edible Art?

Or an urban wildlife feeding station? You decide:

Seen at 8th and F streets in Eureka, Calif., on Sept. 16, 2014.

Transformations

Even though it has been some time since my last garden update, we have been making progress however slowly.

The North Garden, 2012

Formerly known as "That Ridiculous 8-Foot-Wide Shaded Wind Tunnel Between the House and the Fence." The previous landscaping used mulch over weed-barrier on the paths, but as the mulch decomposed I spent more time weeding it than anything else. Gravel isn't perhaps the greenest option, but it sure is a time saver once in place. Planted here are several azaleas, two camellias, hakonechloa "Aureola" (Japanese forest grass), Virginia sweetspire and spirea "Goldflame," along with bulbs and other ornamentals.

July 2012

July 2012

Sept. 2012

April 2015

The West Garden, 2013-2015

This is what became of about half the lawn on the western-most edge of the yard. Beginning in June 2013, this section was turned into one big compost pile and covered with cardboard and tarps. In the early spring of 2014, any surviving grass and weeds were pulled out and the soil was amended. After installing the original plantings, a combination of straw, cardboard and mulch was put in place to suppress weeds or grass. These plantings are fairly well established now and it is quite low-maintenance. The centerpiece is a Yoshino cherry tree and a beautiful rock from Florence, Oregon.

June 2013

June 2013

March 2014

March 2014

April 2014

April 2015

The Blueberry Bed, 2015

A path was excavated from the lawn between this bed and the "West Garden" bed, and the remains were composted here. Amended and planted this spring, it features a small rock wall, blueberries and a mix of edibles and ornamentals.

April 2015

Autumn

A dew drop clings as
morning sun lifts the fog —
Last morning glory

Eskimo Song

Cleaning out some old papers, I found part of an old letter containing this poem, attributed as an Eskimo Song. Still seems appropriate as we near midsummer.

What anguish
To feel the winter
Entering the wide world,
To see the moon
Once half moon, once full moon
Following its course of old.

What joy
To feel the summer 
Entering the wide world
To see the sun
Once the sun of day, once the sun of night
Following its course of old.
Ijaija-ja-ja.

Everything Leads to Poetry

Research on typography and layout

http://issuu.com/inpublisher/docs/green_thumb_issue/1

led to a similar publication

http://issuu.com/upstategardenersjournal/docs/ugj_march__14

which led to an article on hard pruning

http://issuu.com/upstategardenersjournal/docs/ugj_march__14/20

then to a website by a rose specialist in upstate New York

http://www.derrosenmeister.com/

and to his blog

http://derrosenmeister.blogspot.com/

then to this post about chickens in his garden

http://derrosenmeister.blogspot.com/2011/02/chickens-in-rose-garden.html

and this poem by William Carlos Williams

so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens

Summer License Plate Game, Final Results

Not too bad! 

It was such a fun distraction that we started a new game, going from Autumn Equinox 2013 through Spring Equinox 2014.

The State License Plate Game: Collect Them All!

"Vermont!" I called out. We were driving down E Street.

"Missed it. I'll drive around the block."

We cruised to the next intersection, then rolled around to the right. Two more right turns and we were back on E Street again, looking for the parked car with the Vermont plates. I pulled out the map and the highlighter.

"Vermont: The Green Mountain State. Got it." And another state got highlighted on the map.
   

Last summer our summer Driving Distraction Game was "Box Car." (Remember "Punch Buggy" or "Slug Bug"?) Each time we saw a Scion XB we'd call "Scion!" and "box" the other person. We decided it was potentially fatal to punch the driver, so we changed that rule to only poking or tapping the other party. This summer we decided to collect sightings of state license plates.

Here are the rules to our Summer Driving Distraction State License Plate Game:

1. Game period is from Summer Solstice (June 20) through Autumn Equinox (Sept. 20). Or thereabouts.

2. Both of us need to be present in the car and see the license plate at the same time.

That's it, although we've begun to take note of handicapped plates and possibly might keep a tally of vanity plates. It could get out of hand.

We keep a map of the U.S. and a highlighter in the car. As we see new state license plates we highlight them on the map. A little less dangerous that hitting the driver, and a lot more exercise for our geography-related gray matter.

Chestnut Wagashi for the New Year

Wagashi is (are?) my new food obsession. (Check out my Pinterest board!) After false starts, failure and years of dreaming, it's time to start making them.This is as close as I'm going to get to a New Year's resolution, but I think that making wagashi at least once a month is a reasonable goal.

I followed this lovely and detailed recipe for basic shiro-an (white bean paste) posted here on the blog of Marjorie Yap's Issoan Tea School blog: http://issoantea.com/?p=1311. (Also here.)

 A little food coloring, chopped chestnuts, some sculpting and shaping and a dusting of cocoa powder resulted in a slightly-oversized confection that was nonetheless delicious.

A bit of a mess at first, and lots of experimenting with food color.
Chopped chestnuts were mixed with shiro-an inside.

Finally, a color that's acceptable! (First results were, um, undesirable.)
Now to shape them up.

Shaping with plastic wrap was sort of like
shaping kinton with chakin, only less messy.

A final dusting with cocoa powder. Ready to eat.

Cat Ladder

Nikko used me for a ladder to see what was in the upper cupboards…

… then posed for pictures.

Return

"Old Sam Peabody!"'
Calls the white-throated sparrow
Brisk autumn morning

Peep

Dark October sky
Far away, a distant call —
Night-migrating birds

Kimchi, Circa 1963

Spring Kim-chee (Pom Keem-chee)

3 cups celery cabbage
3 Tbsp salt
3 green garlic onions
1 clove garlic
1-1/2 cups water
1-1/2 tsp chopped red chili pepper
1 tsp chopped candied ginger

Wash the cabbage and cut into pieces 1 inch long and 1 inch wide. Sprinkle with 2 Tbsp salt, mix well and let stand 15 minutes

Cut the onions (including tops) into 1-1/2 inch lengths and shred lengthwise.

Chop the garlic, red pepper and ginger in fine pieces. After the cabbage has stood 15 minutes, wash it twice in cold water. Mix the prepared vegetables with the cabbage, add 1 Tbsp salt and put into a stone or glass jar. Add enough water to cover the cabbage and let stand for sever several days. In warm weather one day is sufficient, but in cold weather, five days are needed. Kim-chee can be kept several weeks in the refrigerator.

Six (6) servings.

From Hawaiian Cuisine, A Collection of Recipes from Members of the Society Featuring Hawaiian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, Portuguese and Cosmopolitan Dishes. Published for the Hawaii State Society of Washington, D.C. by the Charles E. Tuttle Co., Rutland, Vermont, and Tokyo, Japan, 1963.

My notes and variations

I transcribed this recipe faithfully, but made corrections to editing and typographical errors (shown by strike-throughs). Note the publication date, only a few years after Hawaii's statehood (1959).

This recipe seems to be simplified for Western kitchens. I've found what are probably more authentic recipes online which are more complicated, include ingredients like fish sauce, dried shrimp, sugar, vinegar and chili paste, and require a longer fermentation. This recipe is more of a quick pickle, with the kimchi being ready in a few days. Also note, I'm not making this in spring but in late, late summer.

Celery cabbage? Never heard of it, but it seems descriptive of the Napa cabbage typically used in traditional kimchi recipes. I used good ol' regular cabbage. I also used fresh ginger instead of candied, fresh chile peppers instead of dry, and adjusted the heat with powdered cayenne pepper. Other vegetables could be added to kimchi, such as turnips, daikon (as in photo, above), celery or carrots.

UPDATE Oct. 15, 2012: "Quick Spicy Kimchee" recipe on the Food Network: 
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/quick-spicy-kimchee-recipe/index.html

Fresh Gravel, Part 2

Rip out weeds.

Lay down weed barrier cloth
(I'm on my third 100-foot roll).

Shovel.
Haul.
Dump.
Rake.

Repeat.

"Phase 2" on the north side is nearly done. Later this autumn
or winter I'll clean, weed and replant the border along the fence.

Along the south side of the house.

 
Looking better all the time!

I'm Not a Slacker

Really, I'm not.

But you wouldn't know it, based on the lack of recent posts. Fear not: Updates are in the offing. Cross my heart.

In the meantime, here's a little self-portrait-with-photo-bombing-cat illustration project I began last night:

I haven't done an illustration project or a self-portrait in a while, so it's a good challenge. Nikko, our cat, looks pretty good and just needs a few more details, but didn't quite succeed at my attempt to make my expression look more surprised.

Fresh Gravel for the Garden Paths

"What do you want for your birthday?" asked my mother and dad.

"Three yards of gravel," I replied.

The gravel company truck delivered it to the back gate on Saturday morning. The driver was amazing -- he angled the truck toward the entrance, coming within a couple inches of the fence, and hit the bulls-eye on the tarp. I gleefully handed him a check, and started shoveling right away.

Dad also got me a sweet little garden cart. Originally I didn't think I wanted one, but father know best! It turned out to be the perfect thing for shuttling around loads of gravel.  

That's what three yards of pea gravel looks like. Pretty intimidating.
Time to start moving it, one shovel-full at a time.

I'd been at it for an hour or so when Laura arrived, and the two of us pecked away at it for the rest of the afternoon. Tiring work, but entirely gratifying. (Whenever she has a ton of gravel to move, I'll be there in a jiff!)

Before...

... and after!

Before ...

... and after!

It looks a little deep, doesn't it?
That's because this is the gravel stockpile for Phase Two.

Phase Two: Down the north side of the house to the fence.
There's a lot more work to do.

The World Is Too Much With Us

The Poetry Muse has been on vacation -- it is summer, after all. She suggests a sonnet by Wordsworth instead:

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;

It moves us not. --Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

— William Wordsworth

Poetry Corner

Haiku is in the news today.

NPR's Morning Edition and AZCentral.com report that the Arizona Department of Transportation is tapping Twitter poets to compose haiku about sand storm safety.

To publicize the dangers of driving during the storms, sometimes called haboobs, the agency issued a challenge this week to its more than 14,000 Twitter followers: Write a haiku about safe driving amid blowing dust. http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2012/06/14/20120614arizona-dust-storm-safety-17-syllables-haiku-haboob.html#ixzz1xsWofZ3w

Visit AZCentral.com or Morning Edition to read selected poems, then tweet your own with #haboobhaikus.

:: :: ::

More Twitter-related poetry

Following tweet by Annette Makino @Ant99, my browser turned to Pune Juice, a quarterly online journal of senryu, kyoka and haiga. Submission deadlines and past publications are at http://prunejuice.wordpress.com/ or follow them at @prunejuicemag

Cross posted from horaizons.blogspot.com