Monday, January 25, 2010

Winter Garden Update

A few people have asked how the winter garden is going so I thought I'd post an update.

As you may recall this is our first real attempt at winter gardening so it's all a grand experiment.

During the second week of December we got a little nervous.


Temperatures dropped below freezing for five days in a row.



That never rarely happens here.
Luckily this one was about ready eat cause it got the bad end of the deal.



Everything sort of sprawled out and keeled over.


We were thinking maybe we gambled and lost.













But then the sun came out and a little rain warmed things up and almost everything perked back up.
That cauliflower above got eaten.
It was the right thing to do.
Problem solved.


We've actually been really happy with how it's working out

This lettuce is an heirloom type called Marvel of Four Seasons. It's been really interesting because we have some outside and some in the greenhouse as well.

The outside plants are a little more red in color and the leaf is a little thicker.

And as you can see I don't get to the weeding as much in the winter.

Sometimes you have one day to get out there.

And if I have to choose between  weeding and harvesting....well that one's no contest.

Our older kale plants have been masquerading as palm trees.






The cabbages have been great.

We've been loving it for fish tacos and asian cabage salads.

You can never, ever have too many fish tacos.

Trust me on that.

We planted about 5 different varieties that have different days to readiness numbers in hopes that we would have some all thru the winter and spring.

So far so good.


The little brussels sprouts are still hangin in there.

I didn't plan to have any of these during the winter but I found out last year that these take a reeeeally long time to get ready so we're just trying to a jump on early summer.

We did put some covers over a few of these during the freeze cause they look so tenuous.








We've had carrots every week all winter so far.

We all take them for lunch every day so we go thru lots.

We planted the heck out of them all thru the summer.

We've had a little bit of broccoli as well.

The broccoli's not doing as much as I thought and the recent prospects are looking a little puny.

The jury's still out on that.



We also really made use of the greenhouse, figuring that if the stuff outside didn't work out we'd at least have some stuff.

So we have a lettuce and spinach bed....



A mostly carrot bed with lettuce and radishes mixed in on the edge...



And a cabbage/caulifliower/broccoli bed as a safety net in case the outside stuff didn't work out and in hopes of an earlier taste of a few things.

Everything in the greenhouse seems to be doing well and it sure is a nice place to go when it's raining now that I have the big glass window mentioned in this post there.

It's like a sunroom.

Only you have to weed.




I'll have to think about that.


After three weeks of neglect during the holidays I got out there and picked lettuce, chard, kale, spinach, cauliflower, cabbage, and carrots.  Not bad for January I'd say.

Rich got all the fruit trees and blueberries pruned.

I'm thinking about pushing the planting envelope this year and planting sweet pea flowers, potatoes and edible pod peas soon.

This season seems to be behaving like a warm and wet El Nino year so I'm thinking the gamble might pan out.

I'll keep ya posted.

Cath

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Stormy Weather


I stopped by the Port of Brookings Harbor yesterday before work.



It's been a week of storm systems pounding the entire west coast.



We've had 60mph or so winds and over 5 inches of rain.

We lost power on Sunday for seven or eight hours.

And again on Monday night for an hour or so.




The mouth of our local port gets a little rowdy at times like this.

And I'm sure I didn't capture anywhere near the peak of it.


There's a good reason for that.


The reason is that I'm really wimpy.

I stay within close proximity to my woodstove at times like this and spend as little time as possible out in the rain with my camera.

Gotta go find my Sorel blizzard boots,

Cath

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Mom & Dad's 50th. There Is Love

Mom & Dad celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last weeked.

Their actual anniversary is later this month but in an attempt to have as many granchildren in attendance as possible they chose to celebrate while some of the college kids were on break and in town.

It was a great time and as usual the trip passed all too quickly.

The guys got in some surf time and I got a little sun.


I brought along the camera and managed to remember to shoot a bit in between trying to talk to as many people as possible.


I can't pass up an opportunity to dote on several of my adorable neices and nephews all in one post.
For those who couldn't make it and haven't seen some of these kids in a while, I'll try to make family links for ya.

Connie (Mike & Sheila's) has become quite the pianist.  She played a few songs and they were really wonderful.




Therese (Cheryl & Dave's), humoring Aunt Cathy




Donald (Mike & Sheila's). I don't think I ever seen him quite this clean before.


Paul (Cheryl & Dave's) & Tim (Mike & Sheila's) - "Hey Paul, Check it out this is my 58th one!"  

Those shrimp were awesome by the way.  I had 62 of them myself.

Brittany, Kyle (Mike & Sheila's), Donald, & Sean (our's)




Aunt Geri - One of my photographic partners in crime.


Everyone was really glad that Oma was feeling good and was able to make Mass and the party for a bit.


My seeester, Cheryl, I didn't get nearly enough time with her this time...sigh.


My beautimous neice Alison (Cheryl & Dave's)



A gaggle of boy cousins...no telling what might happen in a situation like this.
Left to Right -
Luke (Cheryl & Dave's), Zach (Dave & Jennifer's), Chandler (Dave & Jennifer's), Tim ..hiding(Mike & Sheila's), Paul ( Cheryl & Dave's),... in the back Joel (Mike & Sheila's), Dylan (Ours), Sean (Ours), & Kevin (Mike& Sheila's)

These two knew just how to strike a pose for the camera.  Anne (Cheryl & Dave's) & Mary (Mike & Sheila's)



I give huge amounts of credit to my brothers for pulling the vast majority of this shindig together.

About 20 years ago I would never in a million years have believed it could happen.

Wonders never cease.

Hehe sorry guys but that's the truth!

But holey moly they pulled this one off in spades.

Mike found Omar the caterer.

Let me tell ya.  I have never in my life had food like this at an event.

We were all still talking about how good it was in the truck on the way back.

It was that good.

Grilled veggies, swordfish skewers, wonderful potatoes, ravioli, a really good caesar salad...and I'm super picky about caesar salads... all the appetizers were amazing.




Abigail (Mike & Sheila's) was our very own Vanna White for the evening.

The guys came up with a sort of Jeopardy like game that called upon the guests to guess that memory.


My much younger brother (13 mos... he introduced me to a friend that way), Mike, always has more fun that anyone.

He and I had a hard time locating one of Mom's paintings for one of the questions but we finally came up with one.



Hopefully you can read the board here and get the idea of the game.


My brother, Dave,  played a big part in putting this all together as well.



My Mom & Dad.  The guests of honor.

They were so gracious and genuinely thankful to everyone who could be there.

Cheryl and I did have to give Dad the "Sup with that??" speech though when we both met people who had no idea that there even were any girls in the Meziere family.  We're thinkin' life size cardboard cutouts of us by the entrance to Meziere Enterprises might do the trick.



My youngest brother, Don, and his friends provided the musical entertainment for the evening.





My sister-in-law, Sheila and Anne and Mary get thier groove on.


How cute are these girlies??


I wish I could have gotten time to talk with everyone there.

It was a room full of love.

Love of family.

Love of God from whom all blessings come.

Love of Friends.

The very best gifts of all.


Thanks for the memories guys,

Cath