Summer Highlights

Though autumn officially begins just shy of a month from now, I am ready-- ready for the cooler weather, fall planting and the fall semester of school (for the kids plus myself). Overall, this has been a satisfying summer... lots of family bonding and fun with friends.

Some lessons learned along the way these past few months:

The messier, the better (when the kids' entertainment is concerned, that is)...

There's always enough time to pull over and enjoy the view (& talk to a goat or two)...

You never know what you may come across on your travels (camels in CA?)...

Firefighters and fireworks are a dangerous combination...

You can never grow out of skinny dipping, pillow fights, or catching frogs, tadpoles & butterflies...

The best meals are improvised (and the more, the merrier!)...

Love knows no boundaries (just ask a preschooler)...

And, no matter how bumpy the road, the beauty's in the details.

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves."

--John Muir

Too Many Tomatoes

Our garden is overflowing with tomatoes... I planted 25 tomato seedlings into our raised beds, and every single one is flourishing. Now, why plant so many tomatoes? Because one teeny tiny tomato seed looks so harmless when it is first sewn. I had no idea just how big and productive those seeds would become!

The varieties growing in our garden this summer are all heirloom: Brandywine, Tigerella, Roma, Black Krim, Peach, and Red Calabash.

Giving the tomatoes away to neighbors only worked for so long, and then it was time to get creative (can't have salad, marinara, and salsa every day!).

This tomato pie turned out delicious:

1 package refrigerated pie crust (not deep dish)
Approx 5 large tomatoes (give or take), sliced thin
Kosher salt (coarse)
1 small-med sized leek
2 TB butter
1/2 C combined grated Parmesan and mozzarella cheese
1/2 C grapeseed oil Veganaise
1 large egg, lightly beaten
fresh ground pepper

Pre-heat oven 375 degrees. Place tomato slices on paper-towel lined wire rack, and sprinkle with kosher salt. Let stand 20 minutes. Pat dry (dab top and bottom surfaces) with paper towels. Remove / discard root end and dark green top of leek. Cut in half lengthwise and rinse under running water to remove grit and sand. Thinly slice leek.
Saute leek in butter until tender (3-5 minutes). Layer leeks/butter on bottom of pie crusts. Layer tomatoes over the leeks, sprinkle with pepper.
Blend cheese, vegenaise and egg in bowl, then pour mixture over top of tomatoes.
Bake 375 degrees for 30 minutes (or until thoroughly heated and top is crusty golden color).
Makes 2 shallow pies.
(recipe adapted from Southern Living magazine)

The Buzz (...on bees)

The latest Sunset magazine issue (August 2009) featured an article called "Hive Minds," and it's worth a trip to the grocery store if you aren't already a subscriber. The article isn't accessible online, but here's "the gist:"

The Great Sunflower Project

"As honeybees around the world vanish, one Bay Area biologist is enlisting an army of backyard gardeners to help figure out why...the concept is simple: free 'Lemon Queen' sunflower seeds [are distributed] for people to plant in their yards. In return, once the flowers bloom, the recipients report back any bee-related activity. 'Sunflowers are easy to grow and wildly attractive to bees...You're basically handing over a thermometer that allows people to measure how their garden is doing.' [The Sunflower project] recently partnered with Cornell University on the Birds & Bees Challenge, which helps young people between the ages of 7 and 17 rediscover nature in their own neighborhoods, becoming amateur scientists, photographers, and artists."

Click here for more info.

Also, for avid gardeners and wannabe farmers, here's a blog worth following (it even includes more info on bees):

Sunset's

One Block Diet

"We're writing about how we've used our garden expertise to grow just about everything we need, in a plot actually much smaller than a block—more like what most of us have at home: a suburban back yard. Then we're using our produce to cook a series of seasonal feasts. Last summer, we had our first dinner. Right now we're working on a winter garden, with feast to follow.
We're not just growing plants, though. To make our dinners more interesting (and tasty), we're raising chickens (for eggs). We've made beer, and wine, and vinegar. We're making cheese (from 'imported' milk, but who knows, maybe a cow is in our future) and olive oil and honey. We've even made salt (from ocean brine), because how can you cook without seasoning? If you're a DIY kind of person, someone who thinks that dinner starts with the earth, the sea, and a few animals, this blog (and our accompanying how-to guides) can you help you put together your own made-from-scratch meals.
To follow the adventures of Teams Garden, Kitchen, Bee, Chicken, Beer, Cheese, Wine, Vinegar, Salt, and Olive, see the links under 'Categories' ... We'll probably be adding more projects as we move into different seasons."

And, for die-hard nature lovers, a "bee books" link for "those charmed by bees" (click here).

Catch the sun in a mason jar!

At first when I came across this product, I thought it was charming idea, (though the reviews on Amazon.com were pretty disappointing). It's basically a genuine mason jar with an inner solar light. It holds a soft, sunny-colored glow at night (and charges in the sun during the day).

These would be great for outdoor summer evenings, so why not try and make them ourselves?

It's pretty easy--just purchase a mason jar with attached lid (ex: Ikea), some glass frosting spray, cheap solar garden light, and some Blue Tak. Click here for the tutorial.

Felt Owl

This was supposed to be an owlet, but it turned out looking a bit like a scrawny chick. No matter-- it's still a baby owl to Izzy, who loves that it's pink and purple. I purchased a rainbow of wool felt yesterday, and hand-stitched this little chicken owl by book-light last night while the kids fell asleep next to me. It took longer than I expected, but it was fun... ironically a lot less stressful than pulling out my sewing machine.

Life-long friendship

Will they outgrow holding eachother's hands? Probably--at least during school years. Yet, I hope that despite their age and differences, Rigel and Izzy will always be there for each other, supporting and loving each other even through adult-hood. Best friends for life.

First Family Garden

This spring the Fox Den will attempt to grow our first garden--complete with fruits, veggies, herbs and... (drum roll, please) a tent. We've got the bamboo stakes, the climbing vines, seed packets, and organic soil. We are planting our seeds in biodegradable egg cartons we've been hoarding over the last few months. Next up: digging up a corner of our lawn (renting a roto-tiller sure sounds tempting) to replace it with compost, manure and whatever else the local nursery advises. I'm also nudging Chief Fox to get a compost container set up (his reluctance on this is due to his fear of attracting roaches... should that be a concern?).

photo credit: Roots, Shoots, Buckets and Boots, copyright 1999 by Sharon Lovejoy

Paper Doll Nostalgia

Paper doll art by Mary Englebreit, published in the Home Companion Magazine

I love going to my grandmother's house for a lot of reasons, but one of them is pretty simple: her magazines. She always has the current issue of at least 7 or 8 home and garden magazines on her living room end tables, which is where I get my fix. One of my favorite magazines to flip through is The Home Companion, the source of the above paper doll inserts.

My grandmother saves each and every paper doll insert and sets it aside for when Izzy gets older (Izzy's my 2 year old daughter). Isn't that sweet?

The simple fun of paper dolls is enticing... definitely an activity I look forward to introducing to the kids (once they are dexterous enough to "cut along the dotted line," and can be trusted not to tear or eat the paper).

The above 6 dolls were drawn by Rae Owings, and were published February 1965 in Jack and Jill magazine (which I think is still in print today).

Tidepooling!

Below: Shanna, Ava, & Maz (lft to rt)

Below: Izzy, Maz, & Rigel (lft to rt)

The tides were low during mid-day hours for the first time in over 3 months, so we headed out to Point Loma with some friends. Lucky for us, Dan was able to join us as well. Armed with buckets, we happened upon sea anemones, hermit crabs, lots of different kinds of sea weed, sea snails, and clusters of goose-necked barnacles. Rigel declared it was time to go home on account of there not being any sea stars, but we stuck it out and picnic'ed on the rocks.

(For info on the tides, go to http://www.tidelinesonline.com/)

Great Job, Rookies!

Rigel's very first round of Tball lessons has recently come to an end. Overall, it was an entertaining experience--imagine trying to orgainize a Tball game for 3 year-olds...it was a wee-bit challenging at times. It didn't take much to stir up some enthusiastic parental support; wild cheering and applause could be heard when one of the kids even made it to the correct base, or hit the ball off the tee without trying to then chase down the ball. Still, it was a fun team and we all learned a lot.

Above photo taken by Tball Mom Kristen

(I had a difficult time downloading the rest of her pics, so I'll update this post with them soon.)

For more Tball pics: Click below (or cut and paste the link below into your browser) for more pictures (taken by Laura, another Tball Mom):

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=scv7b6p.9syq8k7d&x=0&h=1&y=iqndbo&localeid=en_US&cm_mmc=site_email-_-site_share-_-core-_-view_photos_button

Holiday Performance

Izzy is our little performer. To entertain herself, she sings and dances. Some of the songs she sings are familiar, and some are in her own language. The first time she was on stage was at the Del Mar Fair in June of this year, and she blew us away. I recently found a great video of that day from my grandmother's camera (the quality was much better than my original recording) and I played with it a little (see below).

This month is pretty crazy--her dance studio has all the students performing every weekend this month for the holidays! Today she danced her number ("Up on the Housetop") at a local retirement home. The parents were ushered to the back, so we really didn't get a good view of the kids and the audience's response. Nonetheless, it was a worthwhile experience.

Stay tuned for upcoming performances!

Holiday Bulbs

Rigel and Izzy enjoy peering into this bulb jar, and teaching Daddy how "the green part will grow taller and taller, and then there will be flowers...the bobes need water and sunshine...there's their wrooots!" I love this jar--this will be the 3rd year it has been taken out of the garage for display. It has a raised plastic "frog" plate on the bottom, so the growth of a bulb can be observed from the roots to the tips of the flowers...I'm pretty sure these are still available at Costco (fully loaded with flowering blooms).

P.S. It's not too late to get around to planting all spring-flowering bulbs... and amaryllis bulbs can bloom for the holidays if they get in the ground today (or tomorrow or the next day).

...More Butterflies!

Another butterfly "hatched" this morning, and Izzy got a chance to let it rest on her fingers (Rigel got to hold our first butterfly). This fluttery fellow wasn't ready to fly yet, and seemed like he was stretching out his wings and getting rested up for his release. We set him outside on our little butterfly feeder (from Insect Lore) and watched him from the window. This was the first time we noticed how the underside of the wing has an opalescent sheen in the sunlight (the camera doesn't quite do justice). We've got about 5 or 6 more Gulf Fritillary caterpillars left, and it has been fun watching them grow from hairy squirmers to winged wonders.

Cereal Box Office Hit!

Rigel and Izzy had fun with this a while ago: a cereal box puppet theatre. They had just as much fun being behind the scenes as they did being the audience. I have since begun setting aside all our empty cereal boxes rather than tossing them in the recycling bin, and have now accumulated--whoa!-- 10 empty boxes! I think it is time to convince the neighborhood playgroup mamas to have a cereal box puppet theatre workshop, and I'll supply the materials. It's great "recycled art."

Cereal Box Puppet Theatre:

empty cereal box
Popsicle sticks
pictures (magazine cutouts of animals, family photos from your printer, etc.)
glue or paste
construction paper
scissors

Cut back of box and sides off so all that is left is the front and the bottom. Glue a popsicle stick on the bottom flap if needed for added support. Cut a window out of front of box. Set aside all the cardboard scraps. Cut curtains out of construction paper, then glue around the window. Cut out the pictures, then glue onto cardboard scraps (trim off edges). Glue popscicle stick onto each picture for a handle. Ta-dah!

P.S. If you don't have the patience to wait for the glue / paste to dry, use a hot glue gun for the popscicle sticks and to attach the pictures to the cardboard. Just don't let the kiddos help with that part, of course!

Happy H-owl-loween!

Izzy's Owl

Rigel's Owl

We made owls together the day before yesterday. I cut out the bodies and parts ahead of time, supplied the paste, feathers, eyes and beak in a pile to the kids, and then let them create. Notice Izzy's upside down owl... pretty cute! These cut-and-paste projects are fun and simple, and there are a lot of options... jack-o-lantern faces, frankenstein faces, etc. Come Christmas time, I want to be sure to remember to sit down with the kids and make cut-and-paste snowmen, christmas trees, wreaths... We'll have fun.

The Dance Class before Halloween

Top: Lily as Snow White and Izzy the Ladybug;

Bottom, from left to right: Elina (Minnie Mouse), Becky (the dragon), Izzy, Lilly, and Payton (the mermaid princess)

All the girls got to wear their Halloween costumes to dance class, and then enjoy a cookie "picnic" together aftward. It was lots of fun, especially watching how seriously the adorable little dancers took their costumes and post-class picnic.

Our First Butterfly!

(The last two images are the same butterfly, just after we released it. The underside of its wings are completely different from the orange color you see when it is perched on Rigel!)

Our first chrysalis (cocoon) has "hatched!" Izzy was sleeping, but Rigel got to hold the Gulf Fritillary butterfly before releasing it to flutter amongst our perennial hedges. We've got about 4 more cocoons and lots more caterpillars left, so Izzy will definitely get her turn, too (as Izzy would say, "Izzy turn! Izzy turn!").