6.19.11 Pink dawn, summer is finally here. Dreaming of squash, watermelon, corn, peppers, tomatoes, planting.
1.31.11 14 Stories is almost complete and I'm amazed. I love the artwork and handwritten liner notes Theo, my brother, sent. My friend, Danielle Siano has done an amazing job on the graphics.
12.6.10 I'm excited about She Sells Seaweed. The dulse is my favorite so far. I met Kacie Laparto at the recent permaculture course at Quail Springs and she brought yummy sea vegetables! When I heard more about what she's up to I got so excited to give a shout out to everyone I can think of who wants to support sustainable business and eat delicous food....go to her website and check it out. Form a neighborhood or friends cooperative and buy it in bulk to save on shipping.
10.12.10 Becalmed. 2 flash floods last week and haven't gotten my bearings yet. The garden is under clay and sand washed over by the water. There's sun, sky, music, high desert scrub....a hike? a snooze? a pie?
9.27.10 The garden is so full of food! Brocolli, cabbage, kale, turnips, beets, potatoes just harvested, melon, cucumber, lettuce, peppers sweet and spicy, strawberries, artichokes, carrots, sunflowers, bachelor buttons, nasturtians, eggplant, tomatoes, squash, pumpkins, corn, sweet potatoes, sorrel, chicory, horseradish, dill, parsley, basil, comfrey, lemon balm, bee balm, purslane, so many herbs and flowers....hard to come inside in the evening while it's still light. I think the record may be almost ready to send in to pressing. I am happy about that feeling closer!
8.9.10 Cool evening - breeze coming through the open doors - last bit of a sunset on the ridges. My son sent me songs he's written and they are beautiful! Time to turn off irrigation and head home.
2/27/10 Rain in the desert and everything soaking it in and livening up. I made hot chocolate with fresh goat milk, allspice, cayenne, cloves and orange peel. There's a fire, wool to card for felting, this little 2 way television to talk to you with. Right in front of me warm by the wood stove is a baby taking a bath in a big stainless steel cooking pot. She has rubber ducks and a blue and pink pony!
1/7/10 T-SHIRT WEATHER today - sunny.
1/6/10 Happy Birthday, Mariam! Cool night, lemon pie, garden salad, sweet kale, homemade feta, happy goats, fluffy-dready dogs, sunny days - good good
11/25/09 Thanksgiving tomorrow - 30 pound homegrown heritage turkey and chickens to roast in the cob oven, apple pies, pumpkin pies, whipping cream, roasted sunchokes with rosemary, goat cheese, herbed crackers, sunny days, redwinged blackbirds on the pond, 40 people for dinner, my son is coming!
7/14/09 Time to gather greens for the goats. Lazy, long, sunny day.
6/5/09 Rain in the desert and cool days! Transplanting tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, fennel...Potatoes sprouting. Beans, carrots, beets, onions, chard, lettuces, turnips, parsnips, radishes, thyme, zinnias, melons, pumpkins, squash in the garden. Turkeys and chicks growing up - Happy fat goats - cheese making. Missing my son. Butterfly house is getting close to its coat of interior finish earthen plaster. Swallow nests full of eggs.
5/09 Swallows are building their nests in the eves.
Music! My most recent inspiration from Red Handed Jill.
2/7/09 Rain, mist, rainbows, snow, stew, woodstove.
Happy New Year! Leslie Doyle, my niece is awesome and a really talented web designer! Check out Living Craft Project and Edible Garden Design.
12/14/08 Is the first snow coming?
9/6/08 Crickets, frogs, 1/2 moon, goat walks, goat milk, goat babies, new songs from Betsy and Fran! Gourds coming on, blue and red corn almost ready to harvest, tomatoes, tomatillos, peppers, eggplant, squash, melons, marigolds, cosmos, cucumbers, basil, horseradish, tomatoes, toMAtoes, sunflowers, potatoes, horehound, friends, roasted eggplant, fresh bread, pesto, pumpkin pie, mexican brownies, natural plasters and paints.
7/9/08 Cool night, fresh mead, sushi, beet salad from the garden, miso soup, homemade spiced icecream with ginger orange sauce, shooting stars, frogs, friends back home from a long trip, 5 goats (2 mammas, 3 babies!) here day after tomorrow, new little earthen barn, straw, hay, herbs,sunflowers, mint, and the baby chicks are growing up!
5/18/08 It's getting hot. Broody hen sitting on 10 eggs - babies in 10 more days if all goes well. Definitely a jump in the pond day. Full moon tomorrow?
5/11/08 Waxing moon, transplanting tomatoes, peppers, flood irrigating greens, frogs, ladybugs, beez, heat, breeze. Music last night - harmonies, concertina. I've alphabetized my song collection!
5/1/08 potatoes, beets, ladybugs, carrots in the lower garden. We're prepping the beds for planting summer vegetables in mid May - tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, herbs, corn, squash, melons, beans...
4/21/08 Watching the cat leap in and out of the window. Now she's on the roof and looking very satisfied. Now she's disappeared...all very catlike.
4/20/08 Sunday - Sleepy day. Reading and sleeping and reading.
4/7/08 Living at Quail Springs and working on designing and putting in a new garden with acequias (running water filled ditches) for the irrigation system. Pictures from the ridge coming soon. Two redtail hawks this morning, 5 hives of bees now, wildflowers, fruit trees budding.
12-29-07 Happy Winter Time! I'm surrounded by boxes and the packing thang is going on. Holy moley.
8-6-07 Chicken coop is beautiful! Couple more days of mixing mud and we're ready to put on the roof and paint a big chicken head on the lay box.
8-1-07 Rosemary, marjoram, chocolate mint, spearmint, parsely.
7-14-07 Red-throated hummingbird just came through my door.
7-12-07 Plum jam! Pressure canned plums! Beets, carrots, broccoli, squash, tomatoes from Lloyd's garden.
6-23-07 I bought a bale of straw for the cob chicken coop.
First spinning lesson. Made fat yarn with grey sheep's wool on the spinning wheel. Then spun angora! A few moments with the sense of spinning. Also tried the drop spindle.
6-22-07 Solstice weekend. Dan's Taco Palapa Fiesta at Sands Beach (Isla Vista). Edwin's birthday party with mask-making on display at the house (I'm hoping). The sun is shining, Breakfast gardening! Basil, peppers, lettuce, carrots, buckwheat for a cover.
5-22-07 Long day. Spoke to some sweet people today, snuggled with a lab puppy - fat and soft.
5-18-07 Almost 1am. Planting pumpkins and squash later today, beans, clary sage and angelica...more cilantro. Seeding beets! Practicing, writing. Packing for travelling to Quail Springs for the weekend to visit with my sweetheart and find out how the first week of the permaculture course went. Bringing 10 gallons of goat's milk, goat cheese, another bee box, tangle foot, a stand, fertilizer, perlite, worm castings, fig trees, concertina and guitar, walking shoes, sleeping bag, sun hat.
5-17.5-07 Check out my favorite media of the moment. This is my former husband, Joel Arant, and Lucky, the amazing singing dog (I picked her up on highway 1 in Brighton, Iowa when she was just a wee thing) singing together.
5-17-07 Friends over tonight for dinner. Snow Peas with basil, bean stew with cilantro, sourdough bread, goat cheese, artichokes, olives, flatbreads, chocolate ice cream. Mulberries and fava beans for breakfast, pineapple-coconut juice, goat cheese for lunch, goat's milk coffee ice cream, jasmine green tea.