It is no secret that I am not a farmer sort of person. I have failed at growing zucchini and mint, two plants that are almost weeds. Tomatoes, forgetaboutit. But a previous tenant in my little duplex left a raised planter and I decided to give it one more shot.
I planted radish seeds and carrot seeds in May. Within weeks I harvested radishes! I was quite proud, even knowing that kindergarten teachers have their kids plant radishes because they grow quickly and rarely fail. The carrots did come up eventually but they were.... sub prime, let's say.
In early June I drove past a private school on Mark West Springs Road, burned-out lots all around, and kids were on the side of the road with signs about produce for sale. It seemed a hopeful endeavour so I pulled over and was tricked by enterprising elves into buying a six-pack of mixed lettuce starts. These tiny plants were about three inches tall and very frail. I gently planted them in my raised bed and hoped for the best and expected nothing. For three weeks they languished, not really growing but not dying either. Suddenly, near the end of June they took off like a Roman Candle, sprouting up and growing all sorts of leaves. By July 4th I was picking lettuce every day and I am still picking it! Since I work at a place that has no kitchen, one needs to bring food to eat and salad is what I bring every day.
These tiny, fragile lettuce plants have given me so much lettuce that I have given it to my new neighbor. I cannot eat as much as is produced! And it is delicious! Very tasty and some is crispy enough to be crunchy in a sandwich. This is the first thing I have grown that has been a success and I could not be more pleased.
Yes, I know most of you out there will scoff..... but for me and my black thumb, it's sort of amazing! Food coming out of the dirt! YAY for me.
A picture is below. It's getting a bit rangy right now, the heat makes it want to bolt and go to seed but I am trying to keep it producing as long as I can. Who knows what is next? Perhaps swiss chard? Winter radishes?
That this book is subtitled "Murder, Fraud and the Last Trial of Harper Lee" tells you a lot. It's a fascinating book, part murder mystery, part history of the South, biographical information about Harper Lee and her sometimes pal Truman Capote, and all sorts of other characters including the protagonist in the first quarter of the book, the Reverend Willie Maxwell.
Maxwell was a charismatic character in Alabama who became a preacher of sorts and in early 1970 supposedly murdered his wife. Then he murdered, supposedly, another wife and another family member and someone else and he had taken life insurance policies out on all of these people. It took quite some time for anyone to vocally suspect him and an indictment was hard to come by. Then some other stuff happened and another murder occured ..... it's quite the tale and that he walked away from all these murders is not just puzzling but quite unnerving and bizarre.
Harper Lee was riding rather high on the publication of "To Kill a Mockingbird" but seemed to be doomed to publish nothing else. She had helped Capote research the murders that were the foundation of his book "In Cold Blood" and this case of Willie Maxwell caught her eye. She planned on writing a book about him and his murders, his trial and his strange death.
That book never materialized and it is this construct around which "Furious Hours" is written. It's a good book, engaging, full of interesting people, a good bit about Lee and the demons she faced as a person and as a writer. It is also a very insightful view of the South in the 1960's and 70's. Check it out.
Let's be clear right away, I haven't gone to see "Hamilton" because I honestly can't afford it. But for some random reason I just got the original soundtrack out of the library and am listening to it on CD in my car. It's amazing! Great music and lyrics, of course, but it totally tells the story of Hamilton in quick, smart verses.
Why it took me so long to listen to this music is a puzzle. I like musicals, I really like history, I like rap and I really like all of those things rolled into one. Better late than never is how I think of it. At least I now know the draw and why people are in love with this show. Seeing it would be incredible but for now I am happy that I have been introduced to the production via the music.
I had forgotten all about Bob Ross until a few months ago when Gabe reintroduced me to him via one of Ross's TV shows on PBS. He was a painter for years and his PBS show is still broadcast at various channels across the country.
Then today there was a charming and informative and quite amusing video about Bob Ross and his paintings in the New York Times. I am giving you the link to it here because it is worth watching for many reasons, one being the women at the Bob Ross Incorporated offices. And also for the two shots of Bob Ross and his squirrel.
It is going to be blistering hot this weekend and I anticipate long, sweaty shifts at work. But this video started my work week with a smile and for that I am grateful. Check it out.
https://www.nytimes.com/video/arts/100000005865824/bob-ross-paintings-mystery.html?module=inline
Thanks to the cooperative efforts of my brothers Steve and Joe, there was a mini family gathering at Steve's house yesterday. Me, Steve, Kate, Joe and Donna brought food and wine and Pie and enjoyed a good dinner and outstanding laughter. We were outside on Steve's porch until the heat drove us inside, then back outside after dinner when the heat turned itself down a few notches.
We all know families whose members are estranged from each other. In our family, the six siblings often have squabbles, disagreements and sometimes real arguments. But so far we have been lucky: no one has walked away and severed the connection. As we get older, all in our 60's and one at 70, I think the importance of that connection becomes more tangible. Minor emotional infractions eventually fade away and we come back together.
And yes, as I said yesterday, family is not always about blood relatives but it is nice when those blood relatives can still be counted as family, not as strangers.
Enjoy your weekend.
My six kids took me out to dinner tonight to a very tiny and special place in Petaluma. The restaurant is down an alley, seats about 16 people max (we were a table of 7 and there were 4 others in the restaurant. Very small.) There is one menu with 4 courses and there are three options for each course. You can have your meal without wine or you can opt for the wine pairings. You don't bring in wine. You either have the wine pairings or you don't have wine. Some nights there is live music. Tonight was one of those nights. The food was amazing, the ambience is so intimate and special without being anything but casual and the owners were gracious, charming and generous.
When we left the owner gave me a bottle of 1973 Ridge Lytton Springs Zinfandel. He GAVE me this bottle, no fanfare, no strings, he simply gave me the bottle of wine. As the seven of us were meandering out of the restaurant, onto the street, he followed us out and told us that the entire staff (which was him, his wife the chef, a sous chef and a helper) said that they wanted our group to be there every night, that's how much fun we were.
I cannot express in writing how much love there was at that table. My two kids Jenn and Gabe, my two other kids Annie and Dar and my additional daughter Stacey and her husband Ben, my extra son. (I don't think Ben knows that I think of him that way, but there you have it.)
Everyone of those kids is connected to each other in huge ways, every one of them would do anything for each other and I just got to sit there and revel in that connection and that love and know that they are my real life forever.
Family is exactly that: family is this person and that one and another one here and there. Family is who you can trust, family is who makes you feel like life is worth something. Blood has little to do with it other than sometimes that's where it starts, but that is never where family ends. It never ends, if you are lucky. Tonight I saw how lucky I am.
So, although I know they don't all read this, my giant love to Jenn, Gabe, Annie, Dar, Stacey and Ben, not just for an amazing dinner and wine and music and laughter, but for being my family. And for all that love.
xoxoxoxo long time, big time, all the time.
Not only is the cause a just and noble one, the photography is stunning. Yes, there are gaps in the narrative (like how did they afford all this from those silent few investors) but for a film on natural farming, for a movie with the cutest pigs ever, for a documentary about working the land, it's a really good movie.
A young couple decide to get investors, purchase 200 acres north of Los Angeles and turn a wasted plot of nothing into a thriving and possibly lucrative farm, using no pesticides, no fertilizer other than natural manure. The photography is gorgeous, the film is populated with lovely looking people and cool characters and those aforementioned piglets are almost worth the price of admission. How nature can be in balance and how the good and not-so-good can coexist and even be beneficial to each other is a great lesson in harmony. Harmony is something this country does not currently possess, so the movie is a small slice of hope in the future.
I would encourage you to see this. No, it is not perfect and yes there are some times when I felt a smirk on my face, but I have to say that there were a couple of tears in my eyes at the end, at the beauty of the cycle of life and death and the product that comes from a lot of hard work. (And a lot of money.) Even cynical Julie says "Two thumbs up."
