Weekend musings.

Currently loving:


1. roasted veggies. made them for the week's lunch- so yum!


2. my garden carrots!
   
   
   

   
   

3. this blog: "IF YOU DO NOT LOVE CILANTRO WITH ALL YOUR HEART I WILL FIGHT YOU."


4. this:



5. am totally making this for 4th of July.


6. wontons. so genius! I fried up some stuffed with goats cheese, carmelized onions and jalapenos. For a second appetizer, I fried some more up, to use as a "nacho" for some shrimp ceviche:

There and back again.

A lovely weekend so far, and it isn't over yet. I spent Friday and Saturday in Ramona, with a very dear, old friend. The views from her home were spectacular:

After relaxing around the house all evening and morning, we went into the "town" to take in the tourist attractions. Of course we hit up the antique shop, where I managed to score this killer ashtray, which I think will be my new spoon rest:

This very cute little soap dish, which husband immediately placed in the bathroom:

And this beautiful scallop pottery vase:

Next stop was the tack and feed shops. I was hoping to find a reasonably-sized galvanized steel bucket that could be re purposed as a beer pail, but their feed troughs were enormous! Instead, I evaluated whether or not I could seriously keep chickens in my backyard:

So cute! And they had baby turkeys too!

Next we made our way over to an awesome nursery with some great deals. I picked up an avocado tree to replace the one that the puppy destroyed. Avocado tree 2.0 is twice as big, and the same price!! I would have picked up a Meyer lemon too, but they were currently sold out. I also managed to pick up some eggplant starters for only .99 cents!!! With my car loaded up, I headed back home to the city!! Thank you Sheryl for a fun weekend!

Busy in the Backyard

Plantings for the backyard.









Planted: Corn, sweet peppers, grape vines, basil, chives, and cilantro

I needed these

Just because.

Springtime in the garden

Although it rained a bit last week and was kinda cold, it has been a beautiful spring weekend. Yesterday was spent finishing up the summer plantings and making progress in the ongoing weed battle.




On a whim, I spent the morning checking out the Long Beach City College Horticultural Club Annual Plant Sale. First of all, I had no idea our City college had such a wonderful horticultural program. They have their own special area tucked away on the campus which they use for growing plants and teaching.




In addition to hundreds of lovely ornamentals, they had a nice selection of tomatoes, peppers and herbs. I picked up a San Marzano and a Brandywine tomato plant, as well as a pepporccini and a ancho gigante pepper plant.




Since my garden basil is still very small and I am so impatient for fresh basil, I picked up one of their very lovely starter plants. Of course I had to get that thing planted immediately!




And since Husband came along for the trip, he picked up a very healthy looking rosebush for his rose garden.



Once we were stocked up with plants, we headed home for some good food.

Prettying up

Now that the tax refund has come in and the weather is warming up, we have been thinking a lot about doing some home improvements. One of the first areas we want to do some work is to the exterior of the house.

Our little pink casa fiesta, as she now sits.

When we lived in west LA, I often marveled at how contemporary and cool all the homes by the beach were. I'm not talking about the multi-bazillion dollar ocean-view homes; I'm referring to the simple square-box, post-war tract homes that were scattered throughout Venice, Mar Vista and Santa Monica. It was totally inspiring to see how Angelinos could reinvent entire neighborhoods of ticky-tacky little boxes into very cool modern residences. It is amazing how cosmetic improvements, such as replacing windows and doors, landscaping and a new paint job can truly make a difference. One night while making a shortcut through one neighborhood, I came across this house:

I made Husband come back a few days later so I could take some photographs. I loved the water-conscious landscaping, horizontal slatted wood fence and the concrete patio they added to the front. The cool grey-blue exterior paint also added to the overall look of the home.

While explaining my discovery to a co-worker, she recommended that I take a look at the homes in her Santa Monica neighborhood, as they all featured similar designs and some very cool xeriscaped front yards. Not surprisingly, I was totally inspired. We spent an entire Sunday afternoon driving around photographing homes.

We found some more really cool wood fences.

And amazing water-friendly landscapes.

I love this pergola on the front patio.

I definitely think we can do some of these things to our place.

And just when I thought I couldn't be more inspired- I came across this over the weekend, via Beyond the Lawn.

Check out their website- I am totally going to this!!!

Weekend update

I know its a bit late, but it was a great weekend and I must share:



The garden is doing great. Nearly all the winter crops have been pulled out and replaced with tasty summer veggies. Unfortunately all my seedlings bit the dust, thanks to the flip-floppy weather we have been experiencing. I ended up cheating and paying a trip to my favorite local nursery, H & H. The place was packed, with tons of other people that were happly to see the beginnings of spring. I ended up going crazy and buying tons of summer veggies, and I actually managed to get most of them in the ground this weekend.



I have 7 tomato plants in the ground so far, and I'm going to probably add another three. Included in the mix are Cherokee Purple, Better Boy, Roma, and Earl Girl. I planted a bunch of peppers too, including Anaheim, Serrano, Jalapeno, Red Bells and banana varieties.

I also managed to get in a few squash plants, cucumbers, a tomatillo plant and some spinach seeds in the ground!

Things were happening in the kitchen too...

From the top, shrimp ceviche, steak tacos, breakfast chilaquiles and an egg muffin.

At the garden

Everybody was busy at the garden today, including the smaller inhabitants....









Gotta go, there is work to be done.