Vegetable Garden

This year, I dug a new veggie garden in our backyard. There was an old raised bed that my grandmother put in probably 25 years ago which I tore out (which, I might add, took me 4 days in itself to get out! There was about 15 square feet of chicken wire and tarp under the ground that was intended to keep out gophers/moles, but I don't think it ever worked.) then I doubled the size. Then, I dug compost into the whole thing (the compost was black and crumbly and had been preparing to nourish my garden for probably 20 years!).

After the soil was dug and fluffy and picked clean of weeds and roots (there's a huge redwood not 5 feet away which may cause problems with its roots invading the area), I created 3 long, wide raised rows. In these rows, I planted beans (thanks to Shelley for the organic heirloom beans!), lettuce, zucchini, broccoli, carrots, beets, radishes, cucumbers, cilantro, peas, chard and arugula. Wow, that sounds like a lot of stuff written down on paper.

There's also an herb garden where I've planted a bunch of yummy herbs, including basil, parsley, oregano and chives. The cats are ecstatic that I've also planted catnip for them. Although, as I've learned in previous years, I haven't let them at the plant yet because last time a catnip plant was left unprotected it was crushed in the first 20 minutes of life. Around the plant are a few bamboo sticks trying to protect the plant from an overly affectionate kitty. We'll see if it works.



Here's how it looks now! Everything is very small and barely poking their little heads out of the soil, but I have high hopes... Soon, I hope to show baskets of fresh, tender produce!

Just Going for a Stroll

Please let me know if you can't see this video. I'm doing some experiments with this.

Outdoors in the Sunshine

At the beach....Elliot loved having bare legs and bare feet to dig in the sand.



In the garden... Our favorite thing is to get as muddy as possible and this garbage can lid filled with water really did the trick.

My Life Every Five Years

Last month, Molly offered her "five year meme" on her blog and encouraged others to do the same. Memories from one's life every five years counting back from 2007. Here is mine.

1977
I was two years old. I don't remember much except for the scent of lilacs, the rays of the sun warming my face as I dangled my toes in the ice cold creek. We lived on the homestead in Clearwater where I ate the rhubarb pie and zucchini bread my mom would make from her plentiful garden.

1982
I was seven. My best friend Codie and I were at Lake Eleanor every day in the summer, "tiger-tiger" ice cream dripping down our hands as we walked the short walk to the beach. I remember picking these little furry red and orange flowers along the side of the road and bringing them home to my mom. For my Brownie troop, we had to sell cookies door to door and I remember running around town trying to convince old ladies to buy the vanilla and chocolate sandwich cookies.

1987
Now I'm 12. I'm very self concious but feel best in my favorite pink and white striped shirt. The best day is when we square dance in gym and I get to be partners with the heart-throb of our grade 7 class. My class and I went on a trip to Vancouver to stay at the UBC campus for a night. Amber and I giggled through the entire night, so giddy to spend a night alone in the dorm. In the morning, we showered in the communal locker room and as I stood under the running water, I thought life could not get any better than this.

1992
17. One more year of highschool. My boyfriend Mike was probably the worst student body president Esquimalt High had ever seen. I sang in the school vocal jazz group and did terribly in a competition in Vancouver. I painted a fantastic wooden chair with bright red and yellow flowers in art class that I still use to this day. I had a lot of laughs and went night swimming in the Lake Thetis.

1997
I was 22. I had just returned from an archaeological dig in Jordan and had decided to move to Seattle to go to art school. Immediately I met Siah who was a sparkly beautiful girl who's first observation of me was "Oh, so you're Aspen! The guidance councellor kept calling me your name so I think we were meant to meet." We never left each others' side. With her I learned to wear glitter on my cheeks during the day, beat the boys off with large sticks and dance long through the night and into the wee hours of the morning. I remember the day Princess Diana died as we were driving home at 7am from my first rave when we heard it on the radio. We had a moment of silence before drifting off into a blissful much needed sleep in the back seat of the car.

2002

I was 27. Jeremy and I had just recently bought our first house and we were starting to populate the place...with animals! And birds. That spring we bought 8 cute, fuzzy yellow chicks. They lived in a cardboard box topped with a heat lamp and lined with wood shavings until their little pin feathers came in. We built them a cozy coop out back where they each layed one egg everyday (that's 8 eggs a day!). They were allowed to run free in the yard when we were home and at night we had to chase them back into the coop. They are fast and furious little things and not easy to corral. A few of them would let us pick them up and "snuggle" and pet them once in a while.

2007

Now I'm 31. My lovely little boy just turned one and we live in a stunning coastal Californian town. Today Elliot and I dug in the dirt in order to prepare the soil for a vegetable garden. We love to sit in the cool freshly dug soil and wiggle our fingers and toes, not caring about the dirt in our pants (and ears and eyes and shoes). Elliot only ate one mouthful of dirt and no worms. It's a record!

As those before me have said, I now tag any and all of you to do your own. I would love to read them all!!

Easter Bunnies and Chocolate Eggs

Easter this year was at grandma and grandpa's house in Victoria. It was Elliot's first (ok, well, technically second but he doesn't remember the first and frankly, nor do I) Easter! In E's basket was a bunny (seen in background cast aside in favor of the more intriguing...), a top and a pound the ball into the hole thingy-ma-bob. That one was the biggest hit, as our little fella is turning out to be quite the noise maker. Anything that makes sound (and loud) is great. And what spring celebration would be complete without some baby goats? Well, none really. Beacon Hill Park petting zoo was chock full of goats, some as young as 1 day old! This little gaffer gave Elliot a kiss.

Also this week, I finally finished Elliot's sweater that I'd been working away at quite some time. Here he is modelling the finished product. Do you believe that it fit him absolutely perfectly?

Good Day for an Outdoor Concert

Elliot and Jeremy decided that on this beautiful sunny day they would go outside, play in the sorrel and the dirt and Elliot would treat the neighbourhood to a glorious outdoor piano concert.

March 20, 2007

One year ago today, we were all in the hospital; I was looking out the window at the Hollywood Hills, Jeremy was making sure I had enough "lemon ice", Carol (our doula) was trying to get me to get into the shower ("it'll make you feel refreshed!"). That's not to mention the guest of honor, Mr Elliot who had his head lodged well in my pelvis and wasn't budging.

Fast forward exactly one year. Elliot is now much more of an actual "human" than he was when he first came squirming out, blue and screeching. The changes astound me if I sit down to consider it all. He's almost walking, talking and interacting. He knows Sadie and the kitties and gets really excited whenever any of them come around.

The day in question, we woke up and had a special breakfast of shredded apples, oranges and bananas (eaten with the fingers of course). Then came PRESENTS!

What could it be?!

Hmm... This looks very iteresting...Wow!! My very own piano!! Yahoo!After we got dressed, we went to the ocean and hiked out to the Point Cabrillo Light House and crawled around in the grass. It was extremely windy, so we didn't stay outside long.

Elliot's favorite place to be is crawling around on the sand, so, in keeping with the theme of the day (Elliot's favorite things to do day) we found a deserted beach to play on. The shells and rocks were very tasty. Next stop was the park. Jeremy and Elliot had lots of fun with the swings and Elliot loves to watch the "big" kids play on the jungle gym.Once we got home and wound down a bit from all the excitment of the day, we had a special dinner and for the first time ever--CAKE! It was a vegan, eggless carrot cake with tofu cream cheese frosting, but he didn't know the difference! And, truth be told, neither did we. Man, I'm a good cook.

Auntie Megan! Auntie Megan!

Last week Auntie Megan came to visit from Kansas City. She went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium for a few days before driving up the coast to see us. Since she'd never been to this area, there was so much to show her. We had some great food and even better outings.

At low tide we went to the beach and explored the tide pools.

We checked out the native plants at the Botanical Garden.

And basically enjoyed the unusual springtime sunlight.

Should've been cranberry

Here is my first ever fired, glazed and ready to use MUG! It's a beautiful red sandy clay glazed black and red. What's that you say? Doesn't look red on the top? Well, that's because the piece was in a cool spot in the kiln and didn't get the right amount of heat to turn red. There are small traces of pink in the bottom, but basically, it looks like a clear glaze. Oh the science of glazing... fascinating stuff!

Confusion Hill

Sunday was a glorious sunny day, so we piled the baby, dog and ourselves into the car and motored up the coast. We went north to Legget which is a mere 45 miles away, but takes well over an hour to reach. The road winds along the ocean for a while, then takes a sharp Eastern turn and heads into the redwoods. Here, we wound around enourmous old trees for a while before heading back.

There were three highlights to our journey.

One was by far the most curious....Confusion Hill!! The pictures speak for themselves, but I've gotta say, we were all extremely motion sick after exiting the Gravity House. Who knew your mind could play such tricks!

Then there was the drive through tree. For anyone who has ever driven down through Northern Cal, they undoubtably know of this famous monument. Our car just barely fit and it's a tacky tourist trap, but how cool is it that you can drive through a 2500 yr old tree??!

The next was the beach. We seem to have a knack for catching the tide at its low point in the day and once again found a virtually empty, long sandy beach to comb. We're coming back to eat the huge mussels (after some research on things like red tide).

Grandma visits!

Elliot's (other) favorite person came to visit last weekend! Oh the merriment ensued. Sydney came too, which was such a treat, as she hadn't seen the Fort Bragg house since the '70s! We had a very lovely dinner in Albion, did some window shopping in Mendocino and gabbed a lot about knitting and the Oscars.

There were lots of tickles...

...and toys! Elliot has had the strength to walk now for quite some time, but hasn't the confidence to really go on his own; only walking when encouraged and offered a helping hand. He needed something to help him along, so, instead of pushing the laundry basket around (which scares Mommy as it is anything but stable), Grandma bought a Radio Flyer walker! Now he can carry around his remote controls (he has 6 of them that are all his own) as he pushes the cart, trying to ram the cats.

Our House

Tonight had a magical glow about it. The weather was much warmer than normal today which made the fog roll in as the sunset, casting a warm pink glow over the world. In the rosey air, the spring flowers stood out against the electric green grass...the eucalyptus looked like it was on fire! Ahh, the beautiful coastal evenings.

Last night, I started my first (and looong overdue) knitting class! We're knitting a beautiful little roll neck with a cable down the middle. It's great to have someone teach me how to really read a pattern.. I realised quickly that I really don't know what I'm doing. Haha.

Coastal Living

The passed months have been filled with exploring our new coastal town. I've bought an Almanac Calendar that has all the important information on tides, moons, weather, animal and bird habits and local flora growth. We have made many trips to the beach, but the best was at extreme low tide last month. The calendar marked it as 1.3 feet below normal which is very extreme. It's usually about .6 or .7. So, we loaded up the car with baby and dog and went exploring.

First we went to Ten Mile beach (you guessed it), 10 miles north of town and had to walk at least a mile (ok, it felt like a mile) to the water from the road when normally it's a short 100 yd jaunt. Sadie was confused why it took her 5 mins to go swimming!

The birds were having a great time playing in the shallow skiff that covered the beach out another few hundred feet.

Next, we went to Jughandle State Beach down the highway and found the most amazing tide pools we've ever seen. It was a little bit of a trek to get down to the tide pools, but it was worth it! We found areas that were near never touched by humans, being covered in water most days. There were abalone shells galore and sea anemones the size of Jeremy's hand!

It has been some time since the last post here. Things have been busy! A recount:




October brought a whirl-wind of packing (Nino helps out left), visiting and soaking in as much So Cal sunlight as possible before our move. It was a bitter sweet month as there were many people, sunny skies and creepy crawlies to leave behind (boo hoo!!!). We were focusing on a better life: clean air, ocean and all the things small town life has to offer.
















November brought the move. With a small group of our closest friends receiding in the rear view mirror, we set out on our journey to a new life. Leaving behind full time desk jobs in cramped cubicles, bumper to bumper freeways, unbreathable air and undrinkable water, we looked forward. Soon, we could smell the salty air and hear the eucalyptus bows blowing in the breeze...

It has now been 3 months since our arrival. Small town life seems to be suiting us so far. Jeremy is taking a painting class at the local college and I have enrolled in a ceramics class. We've found yoga classes and zendos to attend and are slowly building a new social network and weaving ourselves into the fabric of the tight knit community. Sadie loves frolicking in the ocean and chasing the sea gulls down the beach as well as greeting every passer by on our street.

Elliot is nearly walking now and practices by pushing the laundry basket around the house. He has 6 teeth with 2 more close behind (which is no fun for him). Sweet potatoes are his favorite food and if he doesn't eat them at least once a day he gets cranky!