Tea Time

In between doctor's appointments, photo shoots, and feeding the chickens, I get to sit down with this tea, in this particular drinking jar. Life is good.

Morning Moon

Here is a benefit of waking up early (on a Saturday morning) to take part in sporting activities (only to wait around for an hour -- I am a neophyte soccer-Mom-don't-want-to-be) on a cold autumn day: a lingering moon reluctant to say goodbye.

Fleeting

Before I left the house to drop the kids off this morning, I strapped on my camera. Not something I do everyday, just so you know (the camera part, not the kids part).



We walked to school as normal, although we did have to jump around puddles here and there, as a result of some continuous rain the last couple of days.



After the farewell, the pecks on the still chubby cheeks, the daily yes-I-will-pick-you-up-after-school promise, I strode along the quintessential small town American street during the peek of autumn.



A new friend, a new resident in town in fact, walked by with her own child. What's with the camera? She inquired. (Should I tell her about this blog?)



I feel like fall is slipping away, I said. I wanted to remember today.

Falling for fall

THAT was a beautiful weekend!

Eggs and more Eggs!

I like eggs. A lot. I really do.

I like everything about them: their shapes, their functions, their tastes, their versatility, simplicity and practicality. I like photographing eggs, too, apparently. Here are just some of my egg-centric shots just from within this last year.

















There are eggs, and then there are our own eggs, like the first egg that was laid by the chickens that we raised. Now, that elevated the scale of specialness quite a bit! I am sure that when we collect the nth number of eggs from the coop, the excitement will have waned to some degree...



I do have a feeling that eggs will always hold a special place in my heart, my stomach, and my photography portfolio. Why shouldn't they be?

Scarlet Runner Beans

Is it wrong to grow something edible just because they are beautiful, and not because they are edible? These beans are the offspring of the same kind of beans we gathered off a vine, in a sunny garden, behind a dingy little hotel in Oamaru, New Zealand. The night before, we had just made acquaintances with the little blue penguins – some of the cutest creatures we have ever seen.

We brought those beans back with us, and our little gardener kept them in a safe place until we had our own garden. We started growing them in the spring once the ground was no longer frozen. We then carefully and patiently took care of the young bean plants, transplanting them into a sunny spot by the fence. They started to grow, and blossomed, but no beans were to be found for weeks and weeks. Until recently, when the temperature dropped down below 80˚F. Little did we know, these scarlet beauties don't do well in high heat (no wonder they thrived in New Zealand), and will only start to pod in the right temperature zone.

Have we eaten them? No. But we are hoping to keep the seeds for next year's harvest to simply enjoy its beauty and re-live our days from down-under.

Harvest Festival

We felt transported back to some small Northern California town yesterday as the September sun beat down on our still tanned skin. The children wandered around freely, learning how to felt, holding small turtles, petting a woolly sheep, all under the bright blue autumnal sky. In the background, a group of musicians played nature-loving songs in that folky, hippy sort of way. We drank freshly pressed cider, harvested tomatoes and eggplants from the organic vegetable plots. We even won a raffle for a live (Charlie Brown's)Christmas tree. Blissful was the day.

I wrote more about our experience at Stratford Ecological Center in the Cool Columbus blog, so please visit the post there if you would like to get the story in more words. But I have a feeling that these images are almost enough to give you a good idea of what kind of day we had.

Pickled Peppers

We have one serrano pepper plant, that has given us countless fruits (hundreds by now), and it is still going strong.



What to do with all these peppers? After making salsa, and including them in some dishes (they are really rather spicy raw!), given some to neighbors, we decided to preserve and pickle them. The thought of pickled peppers led us all to start reciting the nursery rhyme: Peter Piper picked and peck of pickled peppers... The verse and whatever was supposed to come after that, did help us get excited about pickling, and the peppers. It made us want to taste our own pickled peppers, eventually!



Michael Ruhlman has an easy pickled pepper recipe that we followed (minus one or two ingredients that we didn't have at hand).



It took all of 10 minutes to go through the process from start to finish... Almost not exciting enough to blog about.



Perhaps the end result will be worth a revisit to these pickled peppers. At the moment they are happily sitting in the refrigerator all snuggled and cold. Now we need to think about what to do with all the fruits still left, and growing, on that one serrano pepper plant! Any ideas?

A Walk in the (Ohio) Woods

I live on a hundred acres, in the middle of nowhere. There are dozens of hummingbirds that come to the garden everyday... We can go hunt for mushrooms, salamanders, whatever! You should bring your family out sometime!



It was that easy. An invitation, from a prolific writer (with four NEW books coming out this next month), who I had just met a day before.  Michael is an easy guy to meet. No ego, no agent, no fluff. He means what he says, as we quickly found out when we found ourselves driving up the gravel road, meandering through the wooded hills of south eastern Ohio.



Nor was he making up the mushroom, salamander, and the hummingbird bit. Accompanied by some four legged friends around a small pond, we slowly made our way through the woods, finding fungi, and critters, and a very scary looking tree.



Michael is knowledgeable about mushrooms: which one is good for eating, and which ones will kill you. We found several oyster mushrooms, puff-balls, and chicken-of-the-woods, among others. The host promised a sample of our find during what was turning into quite a late summer's feast.


Thorny Honeylocust



And a feast we had: alfresco, multiple courses, with a few hummingbirds buzzing about.



Thanks again, Michael, for a fabulous time on the hundred acre woods. We didn't see Pooh, or Piglet, or any of their friends. But we did have two very happy children who are already looking forward to their next visit to the enchanted forest full of discoveries.

Chick and Garden Update: Sept 13

Where did time go? When I looked up at the beautiful full Harvest moon rising to the East of Columbus, I was reminded that summer is departing us soon (now that we live in a real four-season place). And wasn't it just yesterday that I was so worried about the baby tomato plants not making it out in the real world?



The garden is doing okay, for the most part. We have had enough tomatoes to store away for winter, and many peppers to spice up things and share with neighbors. We have also had plenty of basil for pesto (for now and later), and one healthy Italian parsley plant seems to be just right for our family.



Then there are carrots. The poor carrots. I am not the only impatient customer around here... I have two other parters in crime. We like to 'check' or sometimes we call in 'thinning'. Next thing I know, half of the (immature) carrots are pulled up and eaten before one can say Mississippi!



The chickens are doing well... clucking away, and loving to explore the territory. They peck on anything they could lay their beaks on...including Cinnamon the bunny. No eggs yet... That, for sure, is testing our patience (and there is not much we can do about it, thankfully!).

Alum Creek

Living in Ohio, there are occasions when the absence of a large body of water nearby is painstakingly palpable. After all, this is the first time that I have lived away from a coast.



It must have been something I took for granted. I would not call myself a 'water' person by any means. Apparently, I don't need to be IN the water, but I valued an access to it. And as I am getting older, the presence of water to me means a lot more than just the water itself.



The coast, whether it's by an ocean, or a big lake, brings with it a certain culture. It draws certain people, certain minds, and aspirations. It provides a narrative that is uniquely coastal. It inspires and touches different senses and values. It gives a sense of freedom.



Water also plays such an unrivaled entertainment for children. Our little boy has been fascinated by it, and what he can find in it, since he was a baby. In fact, his Thai name is water. I would not be surprised if water and the living organisms therein someday become the focus of his life.

Not too far from where we live is a small body of running water called Alum Creek. On a sunny day after the rain, it can be quite a sanctuary, and a wonderful natural playground. We spent sometime there today; he collected crayfish while I read in the peace and quiet of the soft flowing water.

It was just enough to fulfill my craving for now. As they say, little can go a long way.