Saturday, December 24, 2011


2011





Our best wishes to you for a Happy Holiday and a fantastic New Year!

2011 has been a very good year!   We still love Florida (another summer of no hurricanes…). I think living in the tropics suits us.  The kids moved here in April from
Mexico and it is wonderful having them so close!  Emily is in the 4th grade, a good student and a natural and wonderful dancer. I have the opportunity to volunteer in her science lab once a week at her school and to have lunch with her class.  Arlo will be 2 on New Year’s Eve.  He is grandpa’s boy.  He is so smart and strong.  We were blessed by the birth of Lucy Bella on October 9th, she is adorable and we are so in love.  Beth is a great mother - I am so proud of her.  Cameron came to visit and it was so good to see him, it had been awhile.  Sadie is teaching grade school near Seattle and just bought here first house!  Noah is very successful in advertising in LA. We are so proud of all of them. 
My parent’s and William’s are still hanging in there, early 80’s and 90’s respectively.  
And our garden is growing like crazy!

We wish you and your families love and peace for this holiday season and for 2012.





Saturday, December 17, 2011

very very veggies!



we have bought a "share" in a farm

it's called community supported agriculture (CSA)
we pay up front for the whole growing year and a box of veggies is delivered every week
from Worden Farm, Punta Gorda, Florida
organic, fresh grown, local produce!

this was our second box

it included

bak choy
celery
eggplant
fennel
green beans
kohlrabi
peppers
root mix
swiss chard
tomatoes


an amazing amount of food


it  makes us happy!


that's a lot of fennel....

last week, our first box had

arugula
avocado
beets
broccoli
cilantro
eggplant
kale
lettuce
scallions
tomatoes

they send recipes with the box and hold workshops at the farm to learn
preparation techniques and additional recipes for using a great variety of veggies

Chris and Eva Worden are both Ph.D.'s and committed to growing
healthy organic veggies
we are so grateful they are here!

organic fresh veggies!
wow
hard to believe it's December!





Thursday, December 8, 2011

Happy Birthday Mr. Rivera

here is his google tribute
he was born 125 years ago today


that is a happy thing


today is also the anniversary of a sad tragic senseless thing,
the death of John Lennon



right on John!



here is a great video of John singing Imagine 1971

yeah, imagine, if he was only still alive.....


Saturday, December 3, 2011

I know your wondering what those passion vines look like now


they have so completely taken over the arbor


that you can hardly walk through


hard to believe this was one small plant in the spring

the butterflies have been all over it
all summer


and they laid they eggs
that turned into caterpillars that began to eat the plant

I was not too happy about this and killed them all

then I realized that the caterpillars would turn into the beautiful butterflies
that I saw on the plants


I did some research and they are the Gulf Fritillary
sometimes called the Passion Butterfly
(guess why)


here is a good photo

they are common butterflies in most of the southern states, Mexico
and parts of South America

I decided the plant was healthy enough to nurture a few caterpillars


there seems to be 2 kinds, one with short black hairs
and the one in the front with longer thicker hairs


the fence is where they go to start their metamorphosis
first they look like themselves but they do not move for days


then they attach on one end and the other end curls up
they start to look whiter

finally they look like this for a few days
and then it is empty

I haven't been lucky enough to see a butterfly emerge
and it is really hard for me to let them eat my plant...

so I planted another one, this is the traditional purple one
by next year, this will be covered in vines
(marigolds in front)

there are many kinds of insects that undergo metamorphosis
we have another one under the bird of paradise


this one ate it's way around the plant
and stuck pieces of the leaf over itself
it is very large


see it in there?
it has been there just like that for over a month


here is another plant that has taken over on the side fence
it too started out as a little plant this spring


it has totally bent it's little arbor over
and I am working on a plan to prop it up


I fell for this plant in Mexico
and I have always loved it for it's color
a wonderful periwinkle blue
can anyone tell me it's name?  I can never remember


the only thing is, it is on the south property line
and so the flowers face away from us in the yard

can't have everything


canna and mexican petunias


the hibiscus do really well here
though right now is giant grasshopper time and they love these plants
I have to catch them with my gloves on and carry them way down the street

they are too big to kill
yuck


this is a native hibiscus, the flowers don't open any more than this
we got this plant the first fall we were here, it made a couple flowers
and froze the first winter
(it was like the coldest it had been in 100 years or something)
whatever

the next year it had to come back and then it froze again last winter
this year it took off and has been blooming all fall

we are predicted to have a warmer than normal winter this year
I hope so!


this pot of impatiens has been blooming since early spring!
it is gorgeous when the sun hits it, the leaves are iridescent


last but very important
Willi's veggie garden, we have been eating lots of greens
we are starting to understand how to garden here
it is very different

first the soil - there is none, it's sand
luckily for many reasons we have huge oak trees in the yard
we rake this years leaves into big piles on the back lot
and we mulch with last years leaves - it's perfect

the second reason it is so darn difficult to garden in the tropics - the bugs
they eat anything and everything
I have to constantly move pots to check for ant nests
aphids love hibiscus and eat the flowers off before they open
and something lives in the soil that kills impatiens like right away

I am not big on chemicals so the most I use is soap on the aphids
needless to say I lose a few things

oh but I do poison the fire ants, oh yeah
they do not eat the plants, they eat us!

 and did I tell you that I have a flaming case of poison ivy?
I have it everywhere
I grew up in poison ivy territory and don't remember it being too bad
on the west coast I got introduced to poison oak and I got that bad
I had heard it was down here
and man I got it bad.

someone asked me once what I thought the reason was for plants like this to be on the planet
I think it is to teach us awareness
after my first encounter with poison oak I got so I could recognize it from a great distance
in all it's seasonal dresses

it yells - wake up!
 so poison ivy, I'm on to you now too