View of a Generous World

Stratford-upon-Avon I

2009-07-13T11:00:00.000-07:00

Stratford-upon-Avon--the home of Shakespeare.
Tudor-ish architecture.

Person freeing a pigeon caught in netting.
This took a long time and there was much applause at the end :).

Candy shop---note Shakespeare's visage on the bottles.

I was introduced to Liquorice allsorts this trip. Yum!

Shakespeare's birthplace. Big place--came from a wealthy family. His father, a glove-maker, was mayor at one time.

Stratford-upon-Avon II

2009-07-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

Interior of Shakespeare's birthplace. [Not my photo--this is from the official guide. Photos were not allowed inside.] The bed, in which Shakespeare's parents would have slept, was about the size of a full bed. Shakespeare would have slept in a trundle bed to the side. The canopy would have been to keep the bugs, sticks, etc. falling out of the thatch roof off the bed. The tapestry design--paint on canvas not embroidered--was both lovely and historically correct.

Exterior of Shakespeare's birthplace.

Garden around the cottage. Gardens, gardens, gardens!

Herb borders. The roses would have been used for perfumes and food flavoring [rose water, granitas, rose-hip tea].

Hathaway Cottage II

2009-07-12T14:26:00.000-07:00

Vegetable garden outside the back of the house. Not as extensive as it once probably was. Not as large as the flower portion and assuredly that would no have been the case in the late 1500s. Recognized lettuce, swiss chard, arugula? Some cukes not in this picture. If anyone can identify plants, feel free to weigh in :) Florida can be lush and green--but it always bears witness to the fact that some of the year it's a desert. England has it's own enchantingly lush greeness.

Borage, which I have grown. Beautiful blue flowers. Bees love them. Among other things growing them with your tomatoes are supposed to improve the flavor. You can read more about it here.

Love the huge, blue flowers. The size of humans. Delphiniums, delphiniums, delphiniums. Scattered with some poppies and other things I couldn't identify.

Hathaway Cottage I

2009-07-12T14:07:00.000-07:00

Hathaway Cottage is where Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare's wife grew up. [Note: this is not my picture, this is from the official guide.] Big, 12 room cottage. Family was very well off.

Again, not my photo-they wouldn't let you take pictures inside. But, this one was worth scanning in from the guidebook for two notable things. One, check out the floor timbers. Some of them were easily 20 inches wide. Big trees! Two, does anyone know the origination of the canopy bed? Well, it seems that insects, feces, small animals and various organic matters regularly fell through thatched roofs. Hence, a covering over your bed so that it did not rain down on you at night.

MY NEW FAVORITE THING IN THE WORLD. Some of the paths in the land around Hathaway's cottage were lined with Sweet Peas for sale. Tall as a person. Incredible smell that varied by variety--somewhat like Frangipani. Maybe 20? 30? Varieties in all. Amazing. Must try this winter. No fruit, but what a glorious scent.

A living Willow Arbor. Inside you could listen to sonnets, except when it rains a lot--as it just recently had. So, if you wanted to listen to a recitation of sonnets you had to go inside and inform the staff who would come out and read one for you. Neat!

Kew Gardens

2009-07-11T16:31:00.000-07:00

Clematis! ID from Al :)

Lamb's ear.

My new fave, the Sweet Pea.

Some type of Rattlesnake Master.

Another unidentifed plant loved by bees [there's one center top of this picture].

Kew Gardens

2009-07-11T16:19:00.000-07:00

Hosta [thanks Beth and Moira for the ID]

Huge lily--every bit of 6 feet tall. I think it's some type of Japanese lily.

Temple of Aeolus [God of the wind.]

Someone has left an offering!

As fragrant as a Star Gazer lily, but some other variant.

Some type of salvia. They're common in Florida, but I've not seen any this size or color range. Notice the huge bumblebee. This salvia variant was swarming with them--easily dozens. You can see another in the lower left of this picture.

Kew Gardens

2009-07-11T16:15:00.000-07:00

Kew Gardens! Cephalaria gigantea 'giant scabious.' Odd name, lovely flower.

Some huge plant that I haven't been able to figure out what it is yet. It looks a little like elephant ear but the spikes look a little like a Coontie seed pod.

Late breaking news Moira IDs it : Gunnera tinctoria. Also known as Chilean Rhubarb. According to this post might even be edible.

How big? Moira takes a break.

Male torrent duck and chick. The ducks are native to South America.

A black peony. Gorgeous.

Kenilworth Castle IV

2009-07-07T15:25:00.001-07:00

The Privy [private] Garden was a Tudor-style garden built explicitly for Elizabeth I and her retinue at Kenilworth Castle. Above is the design of the garden. In large part, it was intended to be a scent garden. At the time, it would have been hedged in for privacy.

View from Leicester's Building. On the fence posts--the white Bears with Staffs--were Leicester's heraldic symbol.

Knot 3 of the garden. The front border is Armeria maritima or ‘common thrift.’ [Okay, I'm having trouble with my keyboard and can't make double quotes anymore.] Lower right is dianthus, middle right is 'sweet rocket.' In the middle of the image are beds lined with strawberries. Very fragrant. The building in the back was the Aviary.

Something I thought was a carnation but is actually called Lychnis.

Clove-scented carnations [an array of scented flowers were sometimes referred to as gilly flowers]. This was a poor-man's scent substitute for actual, expensive cloves which nobles chewed to freshen their breath. [Karen Harper features this distinction in one of her Elizabethean murder mysteries.]

The Tudor Rose.

'At the culmination of the 100 year war, later to be known as the Battle of the Roses, Henry, of Lancastrian descent, defeated Richard the III at the Battle of Bosworth field in 1485 and thus gained the throne. Soon after the families reunited when Henry married Elizabeth of York and in respect of this Henry symbolically pasted together the red and white rose, the heraldic emblem we now recognise as the Tudor Rose.'

The Privy Garden plant list.

Kenilworth Castle III

2009-07-07T15:12:00.000-07:00

The Great Hall, built by John of Gaunt between approx 1373 and 1380. This was the second major structure to be built at Kenilworth Castle.

You just don't see anything like this in the States. I should add there were throngs of uniformed school children, all nattering politely about what they were seeing. I felt as if I were in a Harry Potter movie.

What it would have looked like in its heyday. [taken from the official guidebook]

View from the back of The Great Keep, which would be the northernmost part of the compound. Much of this would have been underwater at the time--you can see the low lying areas. Kenilworth was known for it's water defences. I would guess this tower was every bit of 4 stories high.

Kenilworth Castle II

2009-07-07T14:49:00.001-07:00

Leicester's Building, named for Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, and the last major structure built at the Kenilworth Castle Grounds [more on Kenilworth here] . This ENTIRE structure was built to host visits from Elizabeth I, whom Leicester hoped, unsuccessfully, to marry.

What the structure would have looked like upon completion. Taken from the official English Heritage guidebook.

A rendering of the Kenilworth compound from about 1575 [again from the official Guidebook]. Note the X. Most of the photos you will see following are from this part of the compound, to the east of the compound.

From the Privy Garden's [private gardens constructed for Elizabeth.] The would have had a privacy wall around originally.

The following are all more views of the eastern part of the compound.

To the right of the picture, looking upon the Great Hall.

Kenilworth Castle I

2009-06-25T12:26:00.001-07:00

First stop, Kenilworth Castle. Anna and Rob try to sneak in the back way. Kidding, kidding. [Shown is Lunn's Tower, part of the outer fortifications.] Kenilworth is one of the largest ruined castles in the UK, and was a royal castle for most of it's history. It's considered one of the great historical sites of the UK.

Another view of Lunn's Tower. Love the textures.

View of the ruins from the main entrance. The castle--actually composed of three buildings--sits atop a sandstone hill. This allowed King John in the 13th century to build a dam creating a great lake that became part of the castle's defenses [good enough to withstand a major seige in 1266]. The low lying area to the left was all once water. In the fore right is part of Mortimer's Tower, one of the gatehouses and part of the stone defenses of the castle. Orignally, it would have stood two stories tall.

A painting of the castle as it would have appeared in 1620 [from a copy of a 17th century painting.] Notice the large lake, which was called a mere.

The main approach to the castle across the dam. Which was widened in the 1500s some time to become a 'tiltyard' or where they would have held jousting tournaments.

Close up of Mortimer's Tower.

Anna and Rob ponder adding a new stone feature to their garden.

The main castle grounds. On the left is the first building--The Keep--built in the 1120s [although the hill had long been used as a fortified high ground] by Geoffrey de Clinton. In the center back is The Great Hall built around 1373 by John of Guant. On the right is the most recent structure Leicester's Building, biult in 1571 for Elizabeth I and her servants to use as accommodations on her visits.

Rob & Anna & Tamworth

2009-06-25T11:36:00.001-07:00

In London primarily for the Online Bingo Summit [whoohoo!] I was invited by my lovely friends and crack exhibition stand designers and builders Anna and Rob Laight to visit them and tour the Midlands. We left London Wed eve. after the stand broke down. Tamworth is a little over 2 hours [barring traffic] from London.

The morning started with a delicious breakfast of porridge looking out at Anna and Rob's lovely and immaculate garden. [Anna and Rob pictured.] The weather was absolutely smashing. Periodically sunny, 68 or so, breezy.

More of the lovely garden....

They have a really charming summer house, which I failed to get a good picture of. You'll see in this picture and the next blurry spots. I dropped my lens on the ground and didn't realize it wasn't completely dry. I was also operating under some sleep deprivation, having stayed up talking to Anna until 2am, then up at 7am. Some photographer I am.

I had problems adjusting to the length of day in England. England is approximately the same latitude as northern Canada--approaching 20 hour long days in June. The first morning in London I thought, oh, I'll just leave the curtains open and get up with the sun. The sun rises. I get up. I shower. I feel like HELL. I look at the clock. It's bloody 4am. Aggghhh! And then in the evenings I'd be working or reading and look at the clock and it's freakin' 10pm and still light out and I've not had dinner and I'm nowhere near ready to sleep. So...not so much sleep this trip. But like I said earlier, weather: flat out gorgeous and such a relief after Florida's steamy summer.

Front of the house with two blurry people. Sigh.

First stop Kenilworth Castle approx 45 mins away.

Spawn of Sparky

2009-06-25T11:07:00.000-07:00

I don't know if he's actually related to Sparky or not, of course. But I like the alliteration. [The cats bring in a lot of anoles and I'm always catching them and taking them back outside.]

View of a generous world

2009-06-22T07:45:00.000-07:00

It's finally rained
the rich air vibrates with life
each breath tastes of green

Snuggly Cat Belly #2

2009-05-24T10:52:00.000-07:00

A sweet puzzle, this--
skittish wild kitty sleeps with
such wild abandon

Yardlong Bean

2009-05-24T10:32:00.001-07:00

A variety of Yardlong bean [3 feet plus, white bean? Can't remember]

Do they get to be a yard long? Pretty close. I often see them at 30 inches or so.
Love the Florida summer. Maybe 60 days to flowering? I started these in March.

Prolific as hell. Two plants, about one week.
That's a regular sized dinner plate, sports fans.

***
Yardlong beans for dinner
Yardlong beans for lunch
Covered in roast onion and tarragon pesto
I'll even have them for brunch

***
Yardlong beans on the grill
Yardlong beans with tofu
Yardlong beans in stir fry
A lot of yardlong beans to go thru

***

Florida. Summer.
Watching the yardlong beans grow
a sweet recompense

You can get seeds at Evergreen Seeds.
That's a lot of beans for $4.50 worth of seeds.

Spring Blanket

2009-05-22T09:32:00.000-07:00

thickly-coated cat
any downwind petting mom
wears his shedded hair

Sons & Daughters

2009-05-19T07:13:00.000-07:00

It's May and the blue jays
are learning to fly
still partly gray
awkward adolescent heads
they make flying leaps of
10 feet, then 15, then 30
hopping and cheeping around the yard
somebody's blue jay daughters
somebody's blue jay sons.

Photo courtesy of Ralph Deeds

Morning

2009-05-15T16:00:00.001-07:00

faint light and birdsong

killer Haley finds fortress

behind my curved legs

Great Egret

2009-05-03T11:34:00.001-07:00

So I'm taking a shovel back to the tool corral [where Stephen is supposed to keep his mes, um tools corraled] and I notice something new to the yard....

It's a great egret! It's big! It's after the fish in our fish pond! It does not want to go away! We finally had to build a mesh cage to put over the pond. It remains optimistic about its chances though. We see it all the time.

Awfully pretty though. And kind of wonderous to have in your yard in downtown Snorasota. Florida is amazingly fecund.

glowing in sunlight
thinly bound by gravity
hope stands on stilt legs

Common Yellowthroat Warbler

2009-05-01T08:27:00.001-07:00

So I'm on my front porch reading and I hear this 'tchat.' [srsly, that's what they sound like, you can listen here. an added advantage is if you have cats, they'll run around like crazy looking for the bird. Haley was convinced it was inside the printer.] Tchat, tchat. I look around and see this teensy bird hopping from bush to tree, perching on the plant stakes, looking at the peppers and broccoli. Cute!

He flies over to the bird bath [which hardly anyone uses as a bath, it's mostly too deep but lots of them drink from it] and hops around on the edges. Hop, tchat, hop, tchat. It starts to jump inside the bath-whoa I think--it's actually going swimming? Jumps in, jumps out.

Jumps in, jumps out. Does not want to go swimming. That's when I realize the water is too low for it to reach, and it's thirsty! I fill it up of course, but fully expect that I've scared it off. But no! It only waits until I'm back on the porch and comes and drinks and drinks and drinks. Yeah teensy bird!

It hangs around and sings a bit. wich-i-ty, wich-i-ty, wich-i-ty. wich-i-ty, wich-i-ty, wich-i-ty. then leaves.

I love my front porch.I'm so happy, I sing too. wich-i-ty, wich-i-ty, wich-i-ty. wich-i-ty, wich-i-ty, wich-i-ty.

I think I'll call him Sparky

2009-05-01T07:42:00.000-07:00

The cats bring in lots of anoles [nope, the lizards you see for the most part in South Florida aren't geckos].

screen clinging lizard
is no match for my technique
of catch and release.

If I do this every day, I might get better...

2009-04-28T08:28:00.001-07:00

photo is too dark
haiku is not much better
some disappointment

[attempted study of reds and greens]

kitty haiku # 609

2009-04-27T16:10:00.000-07:00

black and white kitteh
scares all with snarly face and
claws like ninja knives

Sandhill cranes and chick

2009-04-26T11:48:00.000-07:00

three cranes move fishing
my hand sketches thin regrets
upon a white page

Kohlrabi, Kohlrabri...

2009-04-23T15:05:00.001-07:00

I once had a friend named Kohlrabi
And he was friendly as friendly could be
I often had him for dinner
I sometimes had him for tea
But winter she was soon ended
And Mr. Kohlrabi went home
Hot sunny days and hot humid nights
Are not where Mr. Kohlrabi prefers to roam!
But fall will come as it always does
And seeds I will put in the ground
The weeks will pass and the rain will fall
And Mr. Kohlrabi soon will come round!

***
A lovely plant.

Can be eaten raw and crispy in salads [cut off the thick skin]. I also use it like a root vegetable and grill, roast or bake it. It tastes like a potato with some attitude-not spicy mind you--just kind of the different flavor in town.

Myakka State Park

2009-04-20T07:57:00.000-07:00

Beautiful Myakka State Park on an idyllic Sunday.

Then you notice something lurking in the water.

Gatorzzzzzz! Actually, this was just a teensy.
We've seen some monsters out there.

brown tinted water
moving slowly thru rushes
home to dinosaurs

and perhaps lizards too....

2009-04-16T07:16:00.000-07:00

cat sits in window
bathes in morning sunbeams
daydreams about squirrels

Don't Give Up On Broccoli

2009-04-12T09:43:00.001-07:00

Planted in November. Don't give up on broccoli after getting the first head. It's mid-April and I'm still getting enough fresh shoots with tiny heads [eat the tender leaves too] for dinner once or twice a week, from 4 plants. I'll definitely plant more next fall.

don't give up on broccoli
it's a most advantageous fruit
once you cut the head off
it still sends up more fresh shoots

so don't give up on broccoli
thru April, May or June
once a week you steam them up
and happily consume!

Not What I Expected

2009-04-11T08:14:00.000-07:00

The soybeans are coming up
A surprise that—
I thought them
Too long on the shelf
For a comeback
But no, there they are
Bright green as they push
Bulbous heads up through the soil
And the broccoli, bless them!
Still throwing out tender shoots
Topped with tiny flowerets
Still a serving for two
About once a week
I circle the yard
Bees thrum on onions and mustard
Gone to blossom, making
Wry-tasting honey, I imagine
It’s finally rained enough
For the jasmines to put out leaves
Fresh fodder for army worms
I make a mental note
To get out the Conserve
My hip aches
As I trip over the hose
My stomach slightly upset
From the evenings too much
Cheap whiskey and Coke
Last night I was thinking
About how cruel youth was
To spend itself
So unwisely
This morning
As I make neat coils of the hose
I think about
Keeping on.

Surinam Cherry

2009-04-10T08:09:00.000-07:00

too tart for the birds
the bounty of cherries
I keep for myself

Arcadia Rodeo

2009-04-08T07:30:00.001-07:00

Panasonic DMC FZ28 on high-speed burst mode. The camera is way smarter than I am :)

Figuring the new camera out...

2009-04-07T06:17:00.001-07:00

Squirrel eating a loquat. The birds love them too. They're tasty, if you don't mind the fact that most of them have a bite out of them :)

after the loquats
scores of squirrels storm my garden
like TV for cats

Caturday

2009-04-04T08:59:00.000-07:00

Haley, she ponders
shall I catch a lizard now?
or go after squirrels?

Macau 2009 Street Scenes I

2009-03-22T12:16:00.001-07:00

Notice anything odd about this building? How about no exterior adornment. No paint, no plaster, no nothing. And this an area with plenty of salt-water spray to cause the rebar to corrode. I asked my new Chinese acquaintance, Anthony Wai, what the story was...

From Anthony: "Your question about housing is actually quite an interesting one. The reason is not culture.

For this type of housing, we have a local name for them -- "Salty water house/building". Obviously there is no english translation for such a term, but literally we call them like this in the Chinese language. Most of them were built around 1970/80s era. 1970s is where Hong Kong really starts to take off the ground in terms of economic activities -- before that Hong Kong is merely a very poor fishing port. Because the harbour is deep and wide, it protects the ships very well and therefore trading starts to take off. As a result, many Chinese immigrants (mostly illegal) start to come to Hong Kong to find work.

Housing therefore becomes a huge demand. The Hong Kong people simply cannot build houses quick enough. Therefore they need a way to build houses cheap and quickly and efficiently.

There is another problem here -- the lack of water. Today Hong Kong has no water shortage because mainland China supplies river water which is drinkable under a deal between the Chinese and Hong Kong government, China supplies drinkable water to Hong Kong via some big pipes. But the deal was reached in the early 1990s, and before that, Hong Kong always has a water shortage problem. When I was young, there was a year where my family was given 4 hours of water supply every 4 days. You can imagine what life is like when the weather is not favourable.

Without water, no houses can be build. They therefore build houses using sea water, hence "Salty water house". They are unadorned because they are supposed to be cheap houses. The houses do not need to be protected from the salty air, because they are made out of salty water anyway.

Today we find that salty water houses do not last long, and we need to tear them down. They usually start to have structural problem about 20-30 years down the road. But in Macau there are still many of them. You need to understand that up to a few years ago before they open up the gambling industry to foreign ownership, Macau is a very poor place."

I mentioned this to husband Step who worked in Key West. He pointed out that in Key West they used the local sand--full of salt--as aggregate and had the same problems. However, the old Flagler railroad bridges used only huge masses of concrete, no rebar, so no corroding problem.

More housing structures, one painted, two not. I found the diversity in how the porches were adorned fascinating.

And from Anthony: Our living space here is much smaller compared to the western world, some of these flats you see are less then 400 sq ft. So what you see here is that, the people living here pays some money and find someone to renovate the balcony and use it as part of the living room as well. You can look at it as extending the flat to include the balcony area. The metal bars are mainly for reinforcement, and also to prevent the kids from falling down to the street while playing. Because everyone finds a different guy to do the job, so every balcony differs. The balcony is not designed to do this, these are all illegal structures (imagine when there is a fire, the fireman cannot rescue you through the balcony) but the government is not doing anything about it, there are too many of these. It has also happened before that someone put a washing machine on the balcony and the balcony fell down altogether. It must be a heavy machine.

Shopping...

And many, many thanks Anthony for your fascinating input!

Macau 2009 Street Scenes II

2009-03-22T12:09:00.000-07:00

4 different levels, 4 different porch grill approaches.

Painted wall scene. Interpretation from my friend Anthony: The words there say 'everyone enjoys a clean city together'. The kid in the middle is tying up a garbage bag. The arrows are meaning that if you take care of garbage it will lead to a clean city for everyone ( the arrow leading to the right) , if not you will go to jail (arrow leading down).

Lots of scooter action. More from Anthony: Sometimes behind a big casino (e.g. Wynn), you will find hundreds of scooters belonging to employees. Scooter is a main form of transportation in Macau. The scooters you picture there, they are all parking illegally. Last year the government tried to enforced illegal parking for scooters, the Macau people almost went to demonstration. Apparently they need to have 10 times more parking spaces for scooters, there are not enough of them. If you walk around the older part of Macau, many streets are very narrow. One of my Macau friend bought a Mercedes Benz, but sold it less than a month later. He said the car is too big, he could not get into many of the streets and the older car parks. I do not have a car myself so for once I thought about getting a driving license for scooter, it will take me 18 months to get ! a crack at my first driving test! This is a scooter town. Also note that China-HongKong-Macau is building a 3 way bridge so that people can drive from one place to another. Huge project, expected to be finished by 2016. I cannot imagine what will happen in Macau, their infrastructure will not be able to cope with in the influx of vehicles. There will be total chaos here.

fascinating!

Every balcony different. Photos are worth clicking on to get the larger view.

Parking options.

Macau 2009 Mount Fortress

2009-03-22T11:56:00.000-07:00

The Macau Museum [history and culture] is actually inside the cities largest fortification, Mount Fortress. [This is a google maps satellite shot. You can see the fortress walls in the upper left quadrant.] It was a pretty neat museum, I wish we would have had more time. I'd definitely go back again.

Museum entrance.

Looking out from the fortifications at the top at the Grand Lisboa Casino.

Have a coke and a shrine.

City view from the top.

Flame of the Forest. A beautiful blooming tree I saw several times in Macau. Must have an edible fruit because it was also teeming with little birds that I never managed to capture [wait until next year and the new camera, aha!]. I think I've also seen these in Florida.

Macau 2009 A Ma Temple IV

2009-03-22T11:47:00.000-07:00

The temple interiors abound with interesting tableaus. Fruit and chrysanthemums are common.

To the fishing goddess...

These are huge, ornate, incense sticks. I thought to bring one home but wouldn't have been able to get it in my suitcase.

Lotus-shaped candles.

Macau 2009 A Ma Temple III

2009-03-22T11:40:00.000-07:00

Interior temple. Hanging from the ceiling are incense rings. Amazing things.

More incense rings. Some can burn for months.

The red tags are the prayer requests or remembrances.

the color of prayers
neat spirals framing the world
aflame with intent

neat coil after coil
scented record of prayers
and gray ash like snow

Macau 2009 A Ma Temple II

2009-03-22T10:36:00.000-07:00

Another view, first floor interior courtyard. Note the snake plant and frangipani. Florida fauna :)

Every ceremonial structure I saw in Macau and Hong Kong used ceramic representations of bamboo to build the roof. Bamboo can mean many different things, but longevity is a traditional meaning.

And the protecting lions!

If you can, note the round entrance in the background of this shot. I saw round entrances at a Buddhist temple in Hong Kong, this may have been the Buddhist structure.

Looking back down on the first floor courtyard. Note the ceramic tiles crafted to look like bamboo on the roof.

Teensy little birds were everywhere. Sparrows?

Macau 2009 A Ma Temple

2009-03-22T10:04:00.001-07:00

The first tour bus stop was Lotus Square. The Golden Lotus Sculpture was presented to Macau by China, marking the transfer of sovereignty. The gold building in the background is a casino.

The second stop was the A-Ma temple. [Be prepared for a deluge of pictures.] Official history has it that the temple was originally built in 1488 during the Ming Dynasty to commemorate Mazu [a sea goddess who protects sailors], but I suspect it was a place of worship pre-dating the 1488 structure. Why? Recorded history of the peninsula goes back to to 200BC and without a doubt fishing was a major activity even then--and so was the impact of typhoons. And...

[Looking out at the square in front of the temple. It's a popular destination.] One of the most interesting things about the temple is that it's actually a series of small structures devoted to different deities and faiths winding up a hillside. This reminds me of an idea in Neil Gaiman's American Gods: A Novel that there are places of power that attract and often become the site of worship. [In America, as we began to worship the car, these places of power became roadside attractions.] So, taking the two things together I suspect the A-Ma Temple was a place of worship from the time humans got there.

Interior courtyard, first level.

Many interesting shapes and textures.

Check out the broom.

Entrance, another angle.

Macau 2009

2009-03-22T09:05:00.000-07:00

I've traveled to Macau the past two years on behalf of my main client, CyberArts. There's a tradeshow at the Venetian Macau--the Asian iGaming Congress--that we participate in. Last year I took two days and explored Hong Kong, this year I had one day of touring in Macau. It takes a least 24 hours of travel each way [counting layovers, etc.]. A long damn trip, but I do catch up on reading.

Macau is in Southern China and is part of the Pearl River Delta. It's a peninsula approx 40 miles from Hong Kong. Settled in the 16th century by the Portuguese, it was strategically important and faced many attempts by the Dutch to capture it. Which means that for a tourist there are lots of cool forts to look at [more on that later]. Macau, like Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region of China. Meaning, they are chinese but keep their local government.

Macau used to be three islands, but is now two. [The marked regions are Macau, the land mass directly to the left is mainland China.] Coloane and Taipai were joined by fill to form the Cotai Strip, where the huge, new hotels are going. [I wonder how well that will hold up to a direct hit from a monsoon.]

Although a World Heritage Site, Macau is known mainly for the gambling. Macau surpassed Las Vegas in gambling revenues in 2007 [of course, Lost Wages has diversified to become an entertainment destination, and gambling revenues are only about 50% of total revenues, but still]. Macau became so popular a gambling destination for the Chinese that the Chinese govt recently limited visits to Macau to once every three months. [There's a lot more to this story, but some other post, I think.]

[This photo is from Macau Tripping.]The Venetian Macau is currently the hugest of the huge casinos in Macau--it's the fourth largest structure in the world. It's an all suite hotel, the smallest suite is 750 sq feet. I have to say, the rooms are pretty nice.

But the view, not so much. The Cotai Strip is like Vegas. There's no there, there. In London [and Barcelona] the view from the hotel is of a real city with history and culture.

Another gi-normous hotel under construction.

Bad Ass Bluejays

2009-03-21T08:19:00.000-07:00

Bad-ass blue jays. Don't like crows or hawks very much.

and not very afraid of them.

but evidently, neither are cardinals.

it's the tree he sings in every night. I guess neither crow nor hawk was going to stop him.

This was in a tree across the street from our house. Even though we only live about a mile from downtown, our neighborhood has an astonishing amount of wildlife.

Sunday Haiku

2009-03-17T06:15:00.001-07:00

sunday morning, spring
newspaper on front porch
real butter with eggs

A Daikon Radish A Day

2009-03-16T07:24:00.001-07:00

A Daikon Radish a day...will keep your friends from answering the phone, once you start to have an avalanche of them. Luckily, I have a secret weapon:

Roasted Daikon Radish Fries

Cut into 1/4-1/3 strips
marinate in olive oil with a shake or two of cinnamon, curry powder, cayenne pepper and a teaspoon or so of honey.
Roast at 425 for about 10 mins each side.

Yum on!

It's an amazing vegetable. Like the boniato, they like sandy soil. The beets didn't do well at all in the boulevard, but the onions did okay. Along the left edge of the boulevard is a weed called Virginia Pepperweed, sometimes, Poor Man's Pepper. Early settlers used it as a pepper alternative. I always let some come up. It's also a host plant for the Great Southern White butterfly.

Sandy, barely improved soil, they thrived in it. I planted one variety that grew to the size and shape of a football.

Snuffly The Armadillo

2009-03-10T08:29:00.001-07:00

Myakka State Park. So cute. Reminds me of Piglet from Winnie the Pooh.
[must learn how to use new, much improved digital camera]

Great London/England Reads

2009-02-16T07:29:00.000-08:00

I picked up my first Edward Rutherfurd read in the gift shop at Sarum. It was, appropriately, entitled Sarum and tells the history of Sarum [Old Salisbury] and the region from the Stone Age on thru five families. If you like your history fed to you fictionalized, you'll love Rutherfurd.

These books really remind how big a role religion played in everything--including internal and external wars--in Western history. It really drives home what an important [and Enlightened] decision the Founding Fathers made to separate church and state.

City of London

Russia!

I see he's got a new one out on New York I'll have to pick up.

Prince Albert Memorial

2009-02-16T07:13:00.000-08:00

So Anne [Bennedson, one of my friends and co-workers at CyberArts] and I are walking thru Kensington Park, and off in the distance we see a gleam of gold. Gold...must see gold...

We realize as we get closer it must be the in/famous Albert Memorial. It's seriously over the top, but it does work, the way Vegas does.

Each exterior corner has a sculpture depicting four regions of the world; Europe, Asia, Africa, Americas. This one is the Americas. The sculptures on the interior corners are Agriculture, Commerce, Engineering and Manufactures.

The Europe group.

Asia group, and following, Africa.

Looking back at Anne and Royal Albert Hall. It was really pretty cool.

Hong Kong 2008

2009-02-04T07:19:00.000-08:00

Thanks to my gig at CyberArts, I got to travel to Macau for a tradeshow in Feb 2008. I went early and spent a few days sightseeing in Hong Kong. It's a real pleasure to fly in at night--I don't have photos but you can see one here--the skyscrapers all have special lighting. Hong Kong is actually a group of islands and the Kowloon peninsula. The Kowloon peninsula shares a border with southern China. If you look at the top you'll see the Chinese city of Shenzhen, where lots of manufacturing happens. [If you order USB drives for tradeshows like I do, this is where they almost all come from. I know that because of the timing of this tradeshow and the Chinese New Year I had to have the drives shipped directly from the factory to Macau.]

The terrain is very hilly and the area is very populated. Think of all the buildings in Manhattan squished into San Francisco.

So hilly in fact that all of the bridges are new. Why? Because before they moved the airport to Lantau Island the approach was so steep and so constrained to the old airport on Hong Kong Island that there couldn't be any bridges. I've heard it was quite the experience to fly in. Most of the traffic is still by tunnel, and if you look at a good aerial picture of Hong Kong bay you'll notice the lack of bridges.

This is the big tourist area called Victoria Peak. [I took a tour, all the tours go here.] It's famous for the view...

...which is supposed to be spectacular on sunny days. Not so much in February which can be overcast, rainy, windy. In fact, if you look back one picture you'll notice that many of the chrysanthemums [from the Chinese New Year] are knocked over. Windy as hell the day we were up there.

My cold and wind-blown fellow tourons.

These two views from the harbor give some idea of the relentless encroachment of concrete and steel. A lot of people packed in not very much space. I read recently that all flu viruses originate in Asia--I think China in particular. Having been there you can imagine why. Not only do they originate in China, they lose their potency as they spread out from the source, eventually dying.

Old and new Hong Kong, juxtaposed for the moment, although there is a move a foot to sunset the junks.

How Did I Get Here?

2009-02-01T13:35:00.000-08:00

[View from my window at the Royal Garden Hotel]

How did I end up traveling to London? And the other places soon to be posted?

After I got laid off in 2002 I never did find a 'real' job again. So I became a consultant, naturally. I taught myself web design. I did writing and desktop publishing and research for various people. You can see the early years here--site has not been updated since oh, maybe 2006? I eventually got this great gig with CyberArts providing marketing support. It's about 3/4 time. Doing the drafts for manuals, press releases and other collateral [text and layout]. Trying to manage SalesForce. Managing ad buys. A large part of what I do is trade show support. I do all the pre-show arranging, budgeting and attend as part of the tradeshow staff. So I get to travel. How cool is that?

Kensington Park

2009-02-01T12:50:00.000-08:00

[Kensington Palace. It looked cold.]

I didn't have much time for sightseeing this trip, but I did manage to get in a bitterly cold walk through Kensington Park. [Srsly, like 30 degrees and blowing 30 knots. I actually got wind burn.]

[Still Kensington Palace. Still looking cold.]

The natives were more colorful dressers than I remembered.

Contemplating goose down on the hoof.

Swan down should be as warm as goose down, yes???

Actually it was fun seeing the birds. We don't see many swans or geese in this part of Florida. I also saw magpies, some type of common moorhen and a grebe, but failed to get any good pictures.

London in Blue and Gray

2009-02-01T12:29:00.000-08:00

London in blue and gray.

Moira, smokes and friend.

Princess Diana Memorial, Kensington Park.

Night approacheth at Kew Gardens.

Wife Out Of Town?

2009-02-01T11:52:00.001-08:00

No problem! Just keep buying socks until she returns.

The Basics: Watering

2009-02-01T09:33:00.001-08:00

In the summer I water the fruiting plants [eggplant, green beans, tomatoes, peppers] every day and everything else every other day unless it rains. I live downtown a mile from the bay in Sarasota and it is often dry here when it is raining everywhere else. Stuff in the ground I water twice a week. I could probably get away with less, but I have plenty of water.

In the winter I water less frequently. It really depends on how humid it’s been, how hot, etc. I feel the soil of the fruiting plants and if they seem dry, I water. I also check them out when I get the mail in the evening. Does anyone seem listless? Water the next day.

[Sump pump and rain barrel.]

I use a combination of gray water [from our washing machine] and rain water [we have 10 rain barrels. What can I say, I can get obsessive]. The rain barrels are on the corner of each house catching the rain from the gutters. We haven’t used city water in maybe two years now. If you have an older house your washing machine is probably in a utility room or your garage and it’s dead easy to pull the discharge hose out and route it to a rain barrel. And the barrel doesn’t have to be lower than your machine—the pump in the washing machine will do all the work.

There are lots of ways to work your watering system. We have two sump pumps on each side of the house. Stephen got ours at Ace Pump in Sarasota, you can get them at Lowes or Home Depot. Stephen thinks he paid about $150 each for the pumps—1/2 horsepower units. Hook a hose to the pump, drop the pump in the rain or overflow barrel, plug it in and voila! You have water pressure. To remember; you can’t use a nozzle with the laundry water because it will soon get clunked up with fibers.

You could also let gravity work. Put your rain barrels up on some cinder blocks to get them above the height of the containers and you’re good to go. If you hooked your barrels up to an irrigation system—which could be as easy as securing a hose over your containers and drilling holes where you need them—you could pretty much automate the process. I think about it ‘cause it would save time but I like watering by hand. I get to talk to the neighbors, the cats have fun running around and acting crazy, I plan the meal for the evening. It’s also a good opportunity to inspect the plants for pests.

[The kids tired out from playing in the yard.]

Gratuitous plug: If you live in SW Florida and need help with setting up your water system or raised beds, my husband Stephen, the handyman, is available for hire.

The Basics: Why Container Gardening?

2009-02-01T08:25:00.001-08:00

Why Container Gardening?
• I thought there might be some advantage to being able to move plants around to find their optimum sun placement. [And this has been useful given the sun/shade patterns in my yard.]
• Easier to control soil quality. [Nematodes are a big problem here—and I have even gotten them in some of the containers. I just rotate in a plant they’re not interested in, like onions, herbs, leafy greens, root vegetables.]
• They’re pretty! And it gave Stephen a reason to go to thrift shops and garage sales [one of his favorite leisure activities].
• They let you work with limited spaces. You can tuck a container here, two there, etc.
• Great for instant gratification as there is no soil prep to be done [so me].

I didn’t realize I would soon go insane with it. I read Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed and got interested in figuring out what could be grown here under what conditions. An Inconvenient Truth
got me really interested in reducing my carbon footprint. And then I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (P.S.)
and got interested in seeing how much of what I ate could I grow—or buy local. A Perfect Storm [great book] of influences that resulted in the proliferation of containers. I still think it’s a fine choice for me—and the urban environment--but raised beds for some crops and improving the soil for others is better if you have more room. I do both now.

Considerations
• They do have to be watered more often than plants in the ground.
• Soil can get too acidic from over-fertilizing [yet to happen to me].
• Both harder and easier to grow tomatoes [roots get warmer easier meaning they don’t fruit but if you are in a rainy area also easier to control for too much water].
• Potting soil can lose its ability to drain and you need to replace it. This has not happened consistently to me but I do find I get some plants that are not thriving and it’s either the soil has become sludge or nematodes. I’ve got two piles of dirt now in the yard where I’m working this sludge with other organic matter to hopefully restore its ability to drain. If it doesn’t work, I’ll just buy potting soil once a year or so.

I have tried the Earth Box. I have a few friends it works great for but I just wasn’t that taken with it. I had this vision of charming containers perched fetchingly on our winsome stone pathways. What can I say? I’m an artist .

I found that Sam’s Club had the cheapest, lightest containers that suited my purposes. 14” cast concrete [much lighter than ceramic pots] for around $8.00. Other than garage sales or otherwise creative containerment [baby pools, old boats] the $5.00 Home Depot buckets would be your cheapest option, but plastic does degrade in this sun and I wonder about what it releases into the soil as it degrades. Plus I wanted pretty. The Sam’s Club containers aren’t always gorgeous, but they can be easily spiffed up with some paint. Buy some potting soil at the same stop, and you’re almost done.

Most of the potting soils you buy already have 90 days worth of long-release fertilizer, so make a note in your calendar [you will need to keep a plant calendar] when you need to start fertilizing. I use a handful [or two for the fruiting plants] of Fertrelle twice a month. I’ve read lots of stuff that suggests you should use a liquid fertilizer with every watering, but this seems insane to me, because then you periodically have to water the hell out of your containers to get rid of the salts. Plus, how much fertilizer are you putting into the water supply? So, I don’t get HUGE eggplants and peppers, but they’re big enough to feed us [might also be a function of being in containers].

The Basics: Fertilizing and Pest Control

2009-02-01T07:35:00.001-08:00

I use an organic fertilizer called Fertrell. You can get it at most garden supply stores—if you need to find a dealer, you can look here. I add about ¼ cup twice a month. I also add Superthrive to the water every week or so [to be perfectly honest I haven’t seen zooming crops, but it doesn’t hurt anything]. I lime [Soil Doctor Pelletized Lawn Lime1/4 cup] twice a year.

I could probably fertilize more but it’s easy to build up too acidic soil in containers, and what I’m doing seems to be working reasonably well. I could of course test the soil, but if you’ve read any other blog posts by now you’ll realize I like to wing it.

Pest Control.
I only use stuff that doesn’t adversely affect cats, bees, humans and other critters. For pest control I use Garlic Barrier [they recommend every 10-14 days but I find I have to use it once a week during the summer—10 days is fine in the winter]. It takes care of everything but aphids, spider mites and army worms [and some other type of teeny worm that wants to eat the tomatoes]. When I see worm damage I use Conserve Electrolyte [I do pro-actively spray the tomatoes bi-weekly]. Neem Oil is recommended for fungal infestations, but the only plants who ever had a fungal problem where the squash, and well…I’ve also used a milk solution and that seemed to work as well as the Neem Oil. [You can get Conserve and Neem Oil at most garden supply stores, or, look them up on the web.]

About twice a year I get aphids or spider mites on the eggplants. You can just use soap and water to get rid of those and when I see them I also buy ladybugs [In Sarasota, from Hibbs Farm and Garden Supply]. They’ll take care of lots of munching critters.

To keep snails and slugs off the lettuces I built a sand trap—I’ve read they don’t like to cross sand or shell. See the white strip on top of the raised bed? That’s pieces of old vinyl soffit we had around here that had a raised edge filled with sand. You could do it a number of ways though.

Where No Pigeon Has Gone Before

2009-01-31T11:38:00.000-08:00

Unsuccessful pigeon control measures, Royal Garden Hotel, Kensington, London 2009.
The doorman and I were really cracking up over this.

Snakes!

2009-01-13T14:43:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty sure this is a Southern Black Racer, but not a very big one. Maybe 30 inches?

[At the bottom here] Good thing the kittehs did not see him! I've seen these snakes climb trees as well as chase a lizard up a rope and onto our roof one time.Cool!

Edible Landscaping II

2008-12-30T13:59:00.000-08:00

This Katuk is the last plant I got from Echo Farms. It is delish, with a slight peanut taste. A cup has 10% of your protein requirements for the day. You're supposed to keep it chopped at 4-6 feet.

I've not had any bug problems with it. I do water it once a week if it hasn't rained, but I suspect it would be okay on its own.

Bell peppers, good eatin', nice home for frogs. [I'm pretty sure this is a Cuban tree frog, which is considered an invasive species.] Some gardener I am, look at all that grass!

Edible Landscaping

2008-12-30T13:42:00.000-08:00

This spectacular plant is Cranberry Hibiscus [I've also seen it called Red Hibiscus] and/or False Roselle [Latin: Hibiscus acetosella]. An annual/short lived perennial a freeze will knock them back. At least in my yard, it is 100% maintenance free :)

They range in size even in my yard--some getting to 13 feet, some only getting to 4. It reseeds itself, coming up all over the yard. As it comes up you can cut it back to make it bush out.

The leaves are yummy in salads and stir fries. Kind of like a cross between clover and rhubarb--tart.

You can read more about it here, and on the Echo Farms site.

Desperately Seeking Spinach II-Malabar Spinach

2008-12-30T12:53:00.000-08:00

Malabar Spinach was another spinach I've tried. Grows like crazy in the summer, not so happy in the winter. I've put in two varieties. The first, red-stemmed malabar spinach, I got at Evergreen Seeds. It's another lovely plant. The second I got from Echo Farms. It's attractive too.

As with the Okinawa Spinach I think the new leaves, raw, are preferable. Neither of them are a true spinach substitute, IMO. I'll try Tat Soi soon, but at this point in my garden Swiss Chard and/or arugula come the closest as a spinach substitute.

Desperately Seeking Spinach-Okinawa Spinach

2008-12-30T12:20:00.000-08:00

I love spinach. I loooooovve spinach. But spinach is impossible to grow in Southwest Florida. And I do mean impossible. Even Worden Farms in Punta Gorda hasn't been able to [although they do have Kina Savoy and Tat Soi which look fairly close even though they're basically members of the cabbage family. I will be giving them a try soon.]

After a little research I came across Echo Farms in North Fort Myers [A totally cool non-denominational Christian group dedicated to using science and technology to solve hunger in the world. They basically believe that there is the perfect plant for every instance, you just have to figure out what it is]. I've tried 4 of their plants as summer-tolerant spinach/green substitutes. It's also where I got my tropical sweet potato starts. These first two pictures are okinawa spinach. [Echo Farm Plant list here --- Seed bank here]

Okinawa spinach, if nothing else, makes a lovely ground cover. Unlike Malabar spinach it thrives in the summer and winter. And it is profligate. Two plants took over pretty much a 4'x6' patch of space. I like it better raw in salads. As a saute I find all but the youngest leaves get a bit too mucilagenous [like okra] for me. Although it will work in heavier sauces. But, it grows like a weed, totally pest resistant and other than maybe a bi-weekly watering in the spring [where I am at spring is very hot and very dry] it thrives on it's own.

It even gets pretty, teeny dandelion-like flowers in the winter ranging from red to yellow.

[Magic wonders why I am taking pictures of flowers and not him.]

The Urban Locavore In SW Florida

2008-12-28T06:37:00.000-08:00

[Have kittehs and like the birdies too? Put your birdbath in a tree!]

I should make it crystal clear that I'm not a true locavore. I can really only manage the veggies and certain fruits certain times of the year. I live downtown and there's no possibility of cows or chickens and I've yet to find a local source. Would I go that far if I lived in the country? Possibly....I know I'd love to have a big old pond and stock it with tilapia. I did find a local source for rice [hey, it's Florida, we should be able to grow rice here, right?] and I'm trying to find a local retailer that carries it.

Other than that, I try to keep it to this continent [you can be reasonably certain soy products are from the US.] although even that's not always possible [frozen seafood almost invariably comes from Southeast Asia]. But, as Barbara Kingsolver points out even small changes like locally sourced vegetables can make a big difference.

One big difference from you northern locavores/gardeners, you can grow food year round here. Eggplants, peppers, green onions, swiss chard, grape and cherry tomatoes, and arugula can all be grown year round. Well let me rephrase that. I can grow certain things year round here. I know people who manage big-ass tomatoes in the summer here but I've never felt like putting the work into it. Like the squash.

Which brings me to a point I want to make--a lot of people think you have to be a great gardener to grow your own vegetables or to have the yard that I do [jungle-like but pretty.] I'm not. I only have Florida-friendly plants that thrive without any care. My peppers have spots on the leaves and the peppers are kind of small. I should probably read up on it or test the soil or something. But you know what? 6 pepper plants in containers gives me enough peppers when I want them, and that's good enough for me. If it can't produce with my level of care out it goes. And I try to grow only enough that can be consumed by two people at a time--no canning, no freezing--but that works perfectly with our small yard and house. Although I do often have extras for family and friends.

To the year-round staples I make seasonal adjustment. Winter sees mustard greens [they'll actually do well about 9 months of the year as will most leaf lettuces], rapini, kohlrabi, broccolli, cauliflower and others. After visiting Hong Kong in Feb 2008 I realized we should be growing asian vegetables here in the summer. My biggest success--and it was a HUGE success--were yardlong beans. Man, we ate a lot of beans this summer. Yum. We had a lot to give away too. I also experimented with subtropical sweet potatoes--boniato [I got cuttings from Echo Farms]--which grew great but really you need more room than I have to keep you in potatoes all summer. [I failed to take photos of the summer plants but I will this next year.] Which brings me to another point about limited space gardening. Your best ROI are plants that produce for long periods of time. With a head of lettuce once it's done is done, while leaf lettuce you can harvest from much longer.

More on urban gardening soon...

My Yard: Where Squash Go To Die.

2008-12-27T10:44:00.000-08:00

Okay. I've tried summer squash in containers [below is an oriental variety more like zuccini, really]. I get a few wonderful squash, then end-blossom fruit rot. I tried neem oil, more fertilizer, lime, tears, nothing worked [I suppose there are some fungicides I could use but I read the ingredients and They Are Not Coming In My Yard. I have kitty-cats and bees and stuff to consider.

I'm now trying a few varieties out in the boulevard, but I don't expect much.

They're blossoming but I think it's just to taunt me.

I'm not the only one to have problems though. My friend Elena has only successfully grown them IN her compost pile. I talked to the gardener out at Crowley Museum & Nature Center and he has problems too. However, Worden Farms in Punta Gorda manages it, because they have lovely pattypan squash and zuccinni at the farmers market. I am green with envy. They're local though, so I can feel good about buying them every now and again.

[two days later]. Yes indeed, end blossom fruit rot. So done with squash.

Didn't You Ask For Fish Chard?

2008-12-27T09:29:00.000-08:00

This isn't the first time I've tried gardening since moving to Sarasota in 2001. In fact, it's really kind of the 4th. The first time we built 6'x6' raised beds. In hindsight, I didn't improve the soil enough for the types of things I was trying, didn't water enough, a whole mass of factors. I eventually gave up and the tallest grass you ever saw took over. It was luxurious. But eventually my next door neighbor complained about snakes and it was time to go. [We do have snakes in this neighborhood--the eastern glass lizard [quiet a surprise when it drops its tail], teensy ring-necked snakes [extra fun to bring in the house], black racers [too big for cat snacks but loads of fun to chase]--but the grass wasn't the sole reason :) ]

I did however manage to produce enough swiss chard to serve it as a side dish for Thanksgiving dinner to my family. I took a bite--this didn't taste quite right. I looked around the table. Similarly perturbed expressions. "It tastes...like...fish?" said my brother-in-law, Robert. Indeed it did. I had been using fish oil----mostly unsuccessfully--to keep the bugs off. I think that was the end of gardening round one.

Oils as a whole are tough to use in Florida. Sun cooks the leaves. I've since learned to use Garlic Barrier [the recommend every 10 days, in Southwest Florida in the summer you need to use it weekly] and Conserve Electrolyte when the army worms come out [which pretty much only bother the chard and the mustard and mostly in the summer.] And YES! You can grow Swiss Chard in the summer. While I've successfully grown them in containers, they like they're morning-sun-only raised bed better. The chard in the picture above is 18 months old.

Why the green netting? To keep the kitty-cats from using the raised beds as litter boxes.

Happy chard in the afternoon shade! [That's one of my 10 rain barrels on the far left. Yes, I can get a tad excessive but I've never used city water for garden 4.0.]

If you've never cooked chard use it like spinach. Saute a little olive oil, a little garlic, maybe some red pepper flakes, and then the chard until limp. Put it in eggs, soups. Here's a few favorite recipes.

Chard [subsituted for escarole] and beans

Chard Chicken Parmesan Soup Recipe
[Based on a Suzanne Sommers recipe I can no longer find.]

In a big pot saute you up some onions.
Put in a mid-size chicken in [3.5-4lbs]
Add water to cover the chicken [basically you're making chicken stock]
Add a handful of parmesan cheese rinds. As I get down to the rinds, I keep it in the freezer until I make this soup. The rind will get jelly-like and flavor the soup wonderfully.
Cook until the meat falls off the bones.
Let cool a bit, then strain out the chicken bones and skin and gunk. Leave the rinds in. Return the meat to the pot.
Add the juice from two lemons.
Bring up to a simmer, and add a bunch of swiss chard. Remember, it will really diminish as it wilts. I figure at least 4 chopped loosely packed cups per person. I often add more at the end.
Beat 4 egg together. Pour the eggs in as you stir the soup. Voila!

Like the radish greens recipe, this freezes great.

I would guess this makes about 10 servings of soup. You could add rice, serve with a nice crusty bread, etc. A little salt and pepper to taste.

[Haley is done with this swiss chard discussion, although she maintains some interest in the chicken soup.]

How Much Of What?

2008-12-27T08:32:00.000-08:00

Almost everything I make is subject to interpretation and generally messing around with. Paprika Shrimp? That paprika sauce is great with eggplant and tofu too. But here is what I generally mean by ingredient quantities and cooking.

Onions
I generally figure 1/2 an onion per person per portion. So a meal for two? At least one medium to large onion. I personally don't believe you can have TOO much onion. Since I'm using green onions and the sizes range figure one loosely packed cup for the same.

Cooking Onions
Unless I say caramelized [which is harder to do when using veggie broth, but you can add honey at the end of the saute] you can cook the onions to your preference. Less cooking=more texture. I generally cook 'em down pretty well.

Veggie Broth
An excellent substitute for oil for most sauteing. How much? Coat the bottom of your pan, add more if it seems you need to. Srsly, trust the force Luke, you can do this.

Oil
Again, unless I specify, to your preference and/or what the instance calls for. For instance, pesto going on bread as a dip requires a little more oil, pesto going on pasta, less. I find most pesto recipes call for a scary amount of oil and I don't generally use that much.

Garlic
Go light on raw garlic when adding to recipes. I once added 6 cloves of raw garlic to Ayo Blanco soup. Man, that was garlicky! Cooked garlic really mellows out though and you can safely add 2-4 very large cloves to almost any of my recipes.

In large part--in cooking like in art and like in gardening--I let me intuition guide me. Not very intuitive? Here's a really interesting book with concrete exercises about hearing your intuition better. Everyone has it--just not everyone listens to it.

Is That A Radish In Your Pocket? Part III

2008-12-26T17:27:00.001-08:00

So Ginormous.

Okay one more recipe. A common use for Daikon Radish is in stir fries and you can find recipes all over the net. But another common way I use it is:

Paprika Shrimp Recipe
takes about 20 mins.

Put a bunch of olive oil in a pan. How much? It depends upon how many people you plan on feeding. I just made approximately 8 servings of this and used a 1/3 cup of oil. In other recipes I recommend substituting veggie broth for olive oil, but not for this one. I've tried it, and it dilutes the paprika taste.
Take several spoonfulls of good, Spanish paprika. [Srsly, you can get a tin of really great paprika for under $5.00 here . For this recipe I like the smoked sweet because I'm adding bitter in the form of mustard leaves later] Again, how much? For 1/3 cup of oil maybe 4 heaping teaspoons? The resulting mix should be a nice, consistent, dark red. It shouldn't look like olive oil with something in it. It should look like a red sauce.
Paprika, like cumin, is a sauce that really needs to be heated to release it's flavor. I usually heat for 5 mins, then I add onions. Add about 4 tablespoons of honey. Cook the onions at a high simmer to low boil for 5-10 mins.
Add you some mustard greens and stir! When it gets too hot in the summer for the mustard to survive I've used swiss chard but I like mustard greens better. How many? It hugely depends on the type of mustard leaves. I grow about 9 months out of the year Florida broadleaf mustard [also known as Indian Mustard and leaf mustard]. It's way more tender and mellow than the curly, tough mustard you generally get in the grocery store, and, like swiss chard or spinach, wilting greatly decreases it's volume. Figure on four chopped, loosely packed cups per person. For the tough type? Halve it and see what you get. [I highly recommend growing you some mustard. It's dead easy.]
Salt [a little] and pepper
At this point I usually wilt the greens for about 2 minutes and decide if the sauce needs water. It usually does and I add a cup, maybe two. I often add more paprika at this point too.
Add some frozen shrimp. I usually figure two handfuls of shrimp per person. [Yes, I do have measuring instruments in this house but it's just not me.]
By the time the shrimp are heated through and have released their little shrimp juices you are ready!

Serve with rice and a nice crusty bread for sopping up the sauce.

Is That A Radish In Your Pocket? Part II

2008-12-26T16:48:00.000-08:00

[Haley watches fearfully as the radish descends.]

Okay. So how do you use a Daikon Radish? [Now, stop, besides that.]

I basically use them like I would an onion or potato. And this time of year I'm using them a lot. It's like squash in the Northeast in summer. And the greens are fantastic but have to be cooked for awhile.

Radish Fries

Marinate in olive oil, cinnamon and cayenne pepper. A little bit of salt. [Cumin and honey would also work, experiment!]
Roast 'em in an 425 degree oven for 30 mins, turning every 10 mins. [Okay, I'm not sure about the times, I just test every 10 mins until they are crispy on the outside and cooked through.]

Southern Style Radish Greens Recipe
[a nice article on the history of southern greens here ]

Saute some onions [or green onions, in my case].
If you want to cut down on oil, saute in a little vegetable stock.
Cook the onions until they are done.
Take the smoked turkey you bought at the grocery store [necks, whatever, it don't matter] and throw them in next. Move the onions around so the skin touches the pan. [Many classic recipes have this step first.] Turn up the heat high so that the the turkey gets good and hot. This releases the remaining fat and really flavors the greens. Cook about 10 mins, and then flip the turkey parts and cook another 10 mins. [Again, my timing is an estimate, just watch so it doesn't burn.]
Take the big ass daikon radish you pulled out of the weed patch next to the road, cube it, and throw it in.
Add enough water to cover everything.
Add two pinches of red pepper flakes, salt and pepper.
Add about 6 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar.
Chop up the radish greens from your big ass road radish and throw them in.
Cover and boil.

I usually boil for like 5 mins, then turn down for a high simmer. I cook until the turkey meat comes off the bone. There are tons of variations on this recipe. You can add garlic. If I've got tomatoes or other veggies going bad I'll often throw them in [but maybe not mushrooms]. Srsly, you can feed 10 people for about $6.00 worth of smoked turkey parts.

Is That A Radish In Your Pocket?

2008-12-26T16:32:00.000-08:00

Welcome to winter in Southwest Florida. So I’m growing radishes and onions and a few other things out on the boulevard [I grew boniato in the summer here, but that's another post.] And yes, my neighbors do think I'm crazy, but in the nicest way :)

The beets and squash are unconvinced by this environment, but the daikon radishes...

Are incredibly happy. I've been growing them in containers for months [they don't like the heat/humidity of the deep summer, but do well the rest of the time] but they've never looked like this. While I have done some soil improvement, it's still mostly very well draining, sandy, soil.

Ready for a little radishment? [I mean really, who could resist? The other photos were actually scarier than this one.]

Sage Advice

2008-12-26T15:12:00.001-08:00

Sage is another plant you can grow year round in Southwest Florida. Srsly, you can! They just want watered frequently in the summer. While such an lovely, aromatic plant for a long time I just couldn't figure out what to do with it. Most recipes are as a flavoring for meat dishes and for a variety of reasons there's just not that much meat in our household anymore.

Another favorite paring is with butternut squash, but again, if you are eating locally in Florida butternut squash just isn't available that often. So, what was the solution? After some research I came across Sage Pesto. If you do a Google search you'll come across several variations, but here is my own.

Sage Pesto Recipe
2-3 cups of sage leaves
olive oil to your preference
2-3 garlic cloves to your preference
salt [lightly] & pepper
1/4 cup pine nuts or so [you can also use almonds or walnuts for different variations]

I know I'm not specific on measurements, but I mix and taste and adjust.

Let me tell you--this is one spectacular pesto. Good on bread and pasta [if you are going to add some cheese to the pasta, I'd use grated Asiago]. It's often paired with butternut squash because it's sweet. So, if you substitute sweet vegetable for squash, realistically you can pair it with any caramelized vegetable. I'll confess for company I do sometimes pair it with butternut squash ravioli. But at least the pasta is made locally!

Another favorite sage recipe: Sage, onion and pine nut pizza. I order a plain cheese pizza with no sauce from our local delivery guys, top it with sage, green onions and pine nuts, put it under the broiler until the toppings are browned, voila!

Fried sage leaves are also spectacular but I cringe a bit at fried.

Magic wonders why more people don't heed the wisdom of cats. Spend a lot of time outdoors running around, balanced by long naps in the sun, and snuggles. [Sage advice, remember?]

Why Gay Pizza Boy?

2008-12-26T14:05:00.000-08:00

[gay pizza boy considers squashing the squash] You got me. I inherited him already named from my lovely, talented, designer friends Patti and Tony Halstead. [whew! Just came across this in my drafts...old!]

Green onion recipes

2008-12-25T12:49:00.001-08:00

[gay pizza boy thinks fondly of green onions]

To keep my locavore cred I substitute green onions for regular onions in almost everything I cook.

There are also lots of recipes using green onions themselves specifically, but not too many featuring just the vegetable. So here are two:

Braised green Onions Recipe [from BonAppegeek via All About Braising: The Art of Uncomplicated Cooking]
Stuff a dish with as many green onions as you can, with a little butter and water (stock will muddy the delicate flavors), some chopped tarragon or parsley, salt, Bake, tightly covered, at 350 for 40 minutes. Remove the lid, increase the heat to 450 and roast until most of the liquid evaporates, shaking the pan now and then. Season with salt, black pepper, and lemon juice. This is a lot like wilting spinach, or chard, and will greatly reduce the volume.

Green Onion Pesto Recipe
Saute say, two bunches of green onions until cooked . Throw 'em in blender with one or two cloves of garlic to taste, enough olive oil for right pesto consistency and add about a quarter cup of pine nuts [again, to your taste]. Add salt and pepper. After cooking a raw food meal for a friend once [no dairy] I realized you don't really need the parmesan cheese for pesto.

In the beginning....were green onions III

2008-12-25T12:41:00.001-08:00

To get started with the green onions, I simply brought some home from the grocery store, snipped off the root section and planted them. Some have turned out to be bunching[creating a number of green onions from one stem], some not. [If you look at the center of the first picture you'll see two tiny sprouts where planted roots are sending greens up again.]

Green onions thrive year round in Southwest Florida. This past summer they blossomed [my first year trying them]. They have a really interesting, feathery flower that bees LOVE. Interestingly enough only the one stalk blooms and dies, the rest stay green. I let a few go to seed and have grown green onions from seed now too.

In the beginning....were green onions II

2008-12-25T12:33:00.000-08:00

If you save the very tip and the roots you can replant them. In the first photo, in a bowl of water for a day, the onion is already starting to grow out from the center again. You can also cut just the greens, but I like the white stem also. They'll get as large as oh, a little larger than a quarter in diameter if you let them grow long enough.

Oh, and here's a poem for good measure...

The Red Wheelbarrow

William Carlos Williams

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

In the beginning....were green onions I

2008-12-25T12:20:00.001-08:00

Everything I cook starts with onions. After being inspired by Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (P.S.)
to become a locavore I wondered what I would do about onions. You can't grow them in the summer in Southwest Florida, and there's no root cellars to keep 'em in. [Besides, a root cellar in the summer in Florida? I shudder to think what might actually grow in there.] So I decided to try green onions.

You can grow bunches of them in a small space [almost everything I grow is in containers].

It turns out green onions are not only easy, they're everlasting...