What to do on a rainy day?

Christmas break is half over, boo. Yesterday I took Mom to see Little Faukers. It's the first time she's been strong enough to sit that long in years. We enjoyed a bag of popcorn and soda. She enjoyed it but it wiped her out. No energy for lunch so we went straight home.

Yesterday's sunset was another stunner.

Today the Arctic rainstorm hit us around 8am. It was a nice day to light a fire and stay inside. We are expecting an inch of rain and gusts of wind up to 40 mph. Frost is expected the next couple of days.

I've wanted to rearrange my kitchen cabinets since moving in and took today's rainy weather to accomplish this. I packed away 3 boxes of what I call 'excess glassware', mostly coffee cups. I guess I should just donate them. I also packed away excess baking dishes. I can't believe I have 10 baking dishes from loaf pan size (3) up to 13" x 9". Anyone need baking dishes? More stuff to donate!

After reworking the cabinets I got ambitious and tackled removing the paint from another one of the transom windows in the kitchen. It was not a fun job as the razor contraption kept collapsing on me every time I tried to scrape. Made a 45 min job into 2+ hours but one more window is now clean of paint, 3 to go. I can understand why the previous owners painted them, they do face west and when the sun sets it is very bright and very hot in summer. But still, put up drapes! Geeze!

Transom window half scraped.

Transom window now clean of paint!

What a mess I made!

With the rainstorm still in full force, there was no visible sunset tonight...boo. So here's one from earlier this week.

Tomorrow Darlene and I are going to lunch and a movie. Friday and Saturday I hope to get in the garden and finish planting my flowers and fruit trees. Yep New Year's Eve I'm doing the same as usual, staying home and staying safe from all the crazy drunks on the road...



I love the rain!

New records set for rain fall in the county. Ramona had nearly 8" of rain so far.

7 day precipitation records broken or tied for the period December 16
    through December 22...

Location new record(ins.) Old record period of record

Alpine 6.27 3.21 in 1978 since 1951
Campo 5.83 4.32 in 2008 since 1948
Escondido 8.30 7.21 in 1921 since 1900
Palomar Mountain 18.23 9.95 in 1938 since 1940
Ramona 7.99 5.98 in 1945 since 1974Palm Springs 3.47 1.67 in 2008 since 1922
Big Bear Lake 14.29 5.07 in 1978 since 1960

I love the rain!

It's a week before Christmas and all thru the house...

I stopped at Home Depot Thursday night to get a tree. I wanted a big one for my first Christmas in my new home. I found a stunning tree in the 7'-8' bin so I grabbed it...or at least I tried. That sucker was HEAVY! I went to the front to get one of the employees to help me. We muscled it up front to have the trunk trimmed and to pay for it. They loaded it in the car and away I went...now how am I going to get that monster out of the car much less in the house??? Well I struggled for sure. I managed to get it leaning against one of the front columns and into a pan of water. I figured I'd get it in the house on Friday.

Friday came and I couldn't find my tree stand so off to Kmart I went for that and LED lights. Got 4 boxes of 75 lights. The tree stayed outside another night...

Saturday morning I decided to give it the old yankee try and muscle the tree into the house. I first put the stand on...having to shave down some of the branch nubs with a saw first.Then screwed in the 8 tree stand screws as far as I could get them. I did manage to drag it into the house, shedding needles all the way, but could I stand it up? Not a chance. I tried every McGiver trick in the book short of block and tackle...and I did think about that. But I chose to beg the help of my neighbor with a tray of holiday cookies instead. Jeff came over and we hefted that monser upright. Yep even Jeff commented "my, what a LARGE tree you have!". Oh well, next year I will be more sane in my choice. But it sure is pretty!!! I had to go back for more lights. The 4 strings I bought barely covered the top third of the tree...Bought 2 more boxes of LEDs and added a 100-string set I had on hand. It has ~500 lights on it now but it needs more. I will snag a few strings from Mom tomorrow since she's not putting up a tree.

Happy Holidays!

Sue

Geminids Meteor Shower Dec 14

This meteor shower was touted as the best show of the year and they were not exagerating! I stepped outside around 11 pm Monday night and was privy to several meteors within a few minutes. I wasn't going to stay up, happy to have seen a few but the show kept going and so did my interest.

Around midnight there were a few larger fireballs cascading through the sky that were amazing to see. It was getting cold, on its way down to 33 degrees so I went inside. Not wanting to miss the show after seeing those fireballs I pushed my couch up into the corner window, laid on the couch with my kitty on my lap and watched the show from inside. Yes my vision was limited but I still saw quite a few meteors from the comfort of the house. Finally crashed around 2am.

Next celestial show is on Dec 20th with a total lunar eclipse around 12:30 am. Yep, I'll be up!

Weekend doings

Friday, Dec 10, 2010:

I went to Tina and Andy's home to pick up a chair-and-a-half with ottoman they wanted to give me for my home. It's from IKEA and the slip cover is a great foresty green which will fit with my 'green' theme home. We also planned to go to Oceanside to see the Visions exhibit.

We first went to TJs to pick up an excellent Syrah from Austrailia, Henry Drive. It's a reserve lable normally selling for $30-50.00. TJs has it for $9.99. We each bought a case. From there we headed to Oceanside to see the new Visions Quilt Show..oh, Velda! What a stunning quilt of Zinnias you created! I want it but at over $100K, due to the economy, I need to pass. :-(

When we got home we loaded the chair and ottoman into the car and sat down to watch season 2 of Dexter. Needless to say, I spent the night, enjoying some of the Henry Drive purchased earlier, YUM!

Saturday, Dec 11, 2010:

Got home from Tina and Andy's around 11am and unloaded the chair. I thought I was going to need help but it was manageable. It's bigger than I thought or my home isn't as big as I thought! I'll find a good place for it as it's color is perfect and the chair is quite comfy. Maybe in front of the fireplace!

As sunsets go, this one on Dec 11 was exceptional in that it started at dusk by turning the surrounding mountains a beautiful lavender, purple mountains magesty! The clouds to the east were a beautiful glowing pink, the whole sky just glowed with that 'Tuscan light". After the sun set, the underlit clouds glowed all the hot colors in the spectrum...red, orange, pink, gold, yellow...stunning!

After the sunset was no more, the evening show was not over! A beautiful cresent moon set yellow then orange in the evening sky, truly an inspiring site. My camera didn't capture it well but it was a site to watch and enjoy.

Sunday, Dec 12, 2010:

It's not even noon on Dec 12th and it's already 83 degrees outside! I'm off to water my trees then put down more roundup to keep the weeds at bay. Soil is already too hard to dig so I'll have to wait until after the next rain to plant my many perennials. Rain is in the near forecast but...?

This afternoon, I'm going over to Mom's and help her set up her home for Christmas. I'll get a tree for my place next weekend...ran out of time this weekend. Boo...

Soft-serve chocolate dipped ice cream cone

OMG! I haven't had one of these in YEARS. I bought one with lunch today at El Pollo Loco. Of course I ate it first so it wouldn't melt! I forgot how deliciously creamy and decadent this taste treat is.

New plants for the garden!

Well Thanksgiving is over for another year. I was off all week to spend time with family. On Tuesday the 23rd, my sister and I drove to a wholesale nursery in Temecula, Hall's Nursery, that sells to the public. I found them on Craigslist. They have thousands of varieties of perennials as well as trees. The 1-gal pots were $2.00 each so I bought a bunch! I picked up more agapanthus and day lilies. I also got a few red Aust tea trees, lavender, blue salvia or was that sage?, star jasmine, a pink jasmine, some buddleya, statis, and bougainvillea. I also picked up 3 lilacs, an Anna apple, loquat and an olive that was fruiting. I don't know the variety but hope to figure it out amongst the common ones sold in the area.

That night I fixed a yummy ribeye roast with rosemary/peppercorn dry rub for Mom and Dad's 58 Anniversary. Sandy fixed some yummy au gratins. Bob came over and we all had a great dinner.

Sandy and I planned to plant these small treasures the Friday after T-day but we were both exhausted from cooking and cleaning. Come Saturday, the COLD weather and rain set in so nothing has been planted. I was going to get them in the ground this weekend but more rain is forecasted. No biggie, I should round-up the area first and kill off the weeds. Speaking of weeds, I'm going to have to get mulch or something to keep future weeds down over the years...ugg.

I was really depressed when daylight savings time came around when I realized I was no longer going to see nightly sunsets. The sun is setting earlier and earlier and I don't get off work now until it's dark outside. I miss my sunsets! Boo hoo!

More landscaping...

A couple weeks ago (Nov 14) Darlene came over once again to play in the yard with me. In addition to weeding, we planted my Lisbon Lemon and Clementine.

Lisbon Lemon (with flowers!)

Clementine

We planted the Society garlics, more flag iris, a honeysuckle, red and lavender boginveilla, and purple statis amongst others. Everything is small so not much to show. Next Spring though should be quite pretty!

Lavender Boginvillea

Iris and Society Garlic along the curved sidewalk

Taking a break from the garden, Darlene helped me hang the 2 mirrors in the master bath, mini blind in the master bedroom and we hung my Tropical Sundance quilt in the bedrom.

We were both ready for a glass of wine by the end of the day. A glass of wine and another spectacular evening show...



Landscape projects

My friend Darlene came over yesterday to help me in the garden. With the unseasonal rains we had last week it was the perfect time to weed and start planting the new landscape. We weeded for a couple hours took a break then started planting. The first item in the ground was my Reed Avocado that Tina and Andy gave me.

Next we planted the sour orange. We were on a roll!



After that, we put in the agapanthas, salvia, day lilies, scented geraniums, flag iris and heliotrope, all drought tolerant, just outside the corner windows in the dining room. It will make a pretty display when they take hold.



Time for another break...next I dug out 4 bottle brush plants (hate them things!) and a small fan palm. Darlene likes the bottle brush so in her car they went, soil and all. In their stead I'm planting pink and purple flag iris. The bottle brush were near my Panachee fig outside my kitchen so I think it will be pretty in the spring, iris surrounding my favorite fig.

Next we planted the bare-root flag iris rhizomes I had in the garage, maybe 75-100 of them! We dispersed them randomly across the front hill. Again, come Spring, it will be beautiful. After that, we planted a Paradiso fig by the seasonal stream and 3 pomegranates across the top of the hill along the roadside for a little privacy.

Yes, I'm exhausted and can feel every muscle in my body and not in a good way...where's the advil?

By now it's close to 5:00, time to stop, pour a glass of wine and watch the sunset. Yep, another spectacular evening show.

I fixed a nice spaghetti dinner with Italian sausage and parmesian reggiano, warmed some rosemary/olive oil bread and poured a good Sangiovese wine from Orfila winery. Not too bad a way to end a very productive  day!

Cookies

Last night I made chocolate chip cookies with pecans and walnuts for the first time in many, many, many years. I think I was in high school or college the last time I made any.

I was anxious to try out my new mixer and it worked great. The cookies did get a bit over cooked though. The directions were to bake at 375 for 10-12 min. I put them in for 10 min and they looked done so I took them out. I didn't really notice they had started to scorch on the bottom as they looked good on top. The final batch was baking when I tried one that had cooled. They are edible but I sure wouldn't offer them to anyone. So now I need to get a thermometer to check the actual temp of the stove. I'm going to bake a second batch tonight and check them at 8 min. Maybe I should change the temp to 325 and cook for 10 min? This time I'm using butterscotch chips with pecans and walnuts. Yum!

Rainy weekend

This past weekend I was over at my folks to help out as Mom is still not on her feet after surgery. On Saturday I tore down her sewing machine/surger table and reassembled it into the spare bedroom. Whew! That was a job. I also vacuumed and dusted her room, moved the day bed under the far window and generally tidied up.

On Sunday I pulled a few weeds at my place while waiting for a 1/2 cord of oak firewood to be delivered. Wow! I didn't realize how much a 1/2 cord was...I think I'm good for the winter. ;-) In the afternoon I went back to the folks home to tidy up the rest of the house; vacuum, mop and dust. I also made a potato-leek soup for mom for the next few days. I should not have added the oregano. It overwhelmed the leek and thyme flavors. Last week's soup was better without it.

When I got home my neighbor Matt, the cabinet maker, came over with samples of my kitchen cabinetry. The kitchen was never finished off at the base and he mentioned he had the materials to do so. He brought samples of a railing that can be installed under the cabinets to hide under-cabinet lighting and molding across the top of the cabinets as well. The molding were only 1 1/2"-2" and too short for what I want. I'm thinking they need at least a 5" cap due to the height of the ceilings and cabinets.  He's going to bring over his catalog of moldings. He warned me they were EXPENSIVE...how expensive could the be? Stay tuned...I'll post when I find out.

I settled into watching Dexter at 6pm but the sunset was so spectacular I had to go outside to watch and photograph. The second image is a bit later in the evening. Wow! It sure was pretty. :-) I taped Dexter but he's on several times during the week so no biggie.

My new Kitchenaid heavy-duty stand mixer arrived last week. It's RED! I'm anxious to try it out. I'm going to stop at the store tonight and get makings for chocolate chip cookies. I'm adding pecans and walnuts, maybe cranberry too. Mom and Dad will like a little taste treat...I'll leave the cranberries out of Dad's...he's so fussy.

Oct 22, 2010 sunset

An image of last night's sunset was hard to capture on my camera. With the dark and heavy rain clouds just above the horizon the sun had but a few moments of drama before setting. The momentary deep lava-red glow of the sunset was stunning. My camera just didn't capture it in all its glory.

More fruit trees

With the rains we just had, the soil will be ready to till in a couple of days as it starts to dry out. I'm getting the bug to get the soil amended readying it for fall planting. In addition to the citrus I mentioned in my last post, as most know I have an unusually large collection of figs. I have over 90 varieties and multiples of most. Not all of these will go into the ground but I do have a list of 30-35 must have varieties to plant. The hillside I am on will need to be terraced and irrigation installed. I'm hoping my neighbors are willing to help me out with this task as they have the heavy equipment for a job this big.

With the number of figs I have planning a permanent layout is important. Do I plant the figs by color of syconium (fruit's skin), by the country they are from, by height of a mature tree; larger on the north side of the row, dwarf on the south, or how? I’m leaning towards a hybrid of country/height for my plantings. All my Portuguese trees in one row the tallest if known on the north end. I have Italian, French, American hybrids, Spanish and Middle Eastern (combining Syrian, Turkish, Iranian in one row) figs as well. This will be a fun adventure planting my own private germplasm!

Other fruit trees I want to get include a loquat, apricot, anna apple, maybe a peach and another avocado, mexicola, hass or bacon. I also want to get a few unusual plants like an allspice, coffee and kaffer lime.

Then on to the flowers. I've already planted over 100 German iris. I want lots of drought tolerent but flowering plants on the front hill. I'm thinking Pride of Madeira, Day lilies in yellow, agapanthas, honeysuckle, star jasmine,  pink babies breath, Aust tea tree in pink or red, etc. Lots of garden dreams on a drizzly day!

A Sua Casa

It has been raining this week. It is unusual in that this is the season for hot Santa Anna winds to blow in from the desert. Instead we received 3" of much needed rain. Yes the climate is changing due in part to El Nina. It has been predicted by the weather forecasters to be a drier year that last. It's not starting out that way!

I wasn't sure I wanted to get into blogging because I just don't have that much news to pass on. I think I will use this blog to post daily views of the sunset from my home and/or any other interesting happenings around my little hobby farm. Today's image is from a few days ago when we got over 2500+ lightening strikes. This is a rain cloud passing between my home and the view of Mt. Woodsen around 10 miles away. It was a beautiful day.



I was talking to my mom the other day when the subject of finding a good linguica came up. I haven't found one to my liking so I thought to try my hand at making it. Mom mentioned grandma used to make her own and used sour oranges to marinate the pork before stuffing into the casings and smoking. I thought she meant any orange that wasn't quite ripe and therefore would be sour. Nope, there actually are sour orange trees whose fruit never sweetens. This orange is what is used to make marmalade! I never knew that. So the hunt for a sour orange tree was on.

I started my search on the internet finding only descriptions of a sour orange and that the Seville was the most popular variety. I put out a request for help in finding one, since the Net let me down, to the Citrus forum on Gardenweb. One reply did come listing a nursery that had several varieties of dwarf rootstock. I was ready to order one when another post came thru to check Weidman Nursery in Encinitas. I called them, no luck but they said to try Clausen’s in Vista. Again no luck but Clausen's turned me on to Atkins in Fallbrook. Guess what! They had one 5-gal Seville left. I took a long lunch that day and headed to Fallbrook and picked it up. So now, I have my first citrus tree to plant this weekend. I plan on getting 2 more oranges, a Naval and Valencia, 2-3 lemons, Eureka, Meyers and/or a Lisbon, at least 1 lime and maybe a tangerine. No grapefruit for this gal!

One should learn something new every day and I did. Sour oranges do exist. ;-)