New Leaves

New Leaves
Originally uploaded by jessajune

In California, spring comes early. We've had acacia and mustard and plum blossoms since February, of course. But in early March, more and more plants are braving the rain and putting out new leaves. I took advantage of this morning's sun to snap a few photos.

In other news, I also finished my second pair of socks that are intended for me - it feels like the first pair are ALWAYS in the laundry, as I put them on the moment they are dry enough to wear. So now I'll have a rotation of 2... and work will start soon on pair number 3. People told me that sock knitting was an addictive process, but I didn't believe them until I put on that first pair. There's really nothing quite like them.

How did it get to be spring already?

Plum Blossoms III
Originally uploaded by jessajune

But it has. E's street is filled with ornamental plum trees, and they are all in bloom. Every time you step out the door, there is a sweetness to the air.

But it is that time - we're starting to talk about what to do with the garden. (Mom says if it's all left to Dad and I, the entire yard will be planted with hot peppers and squash. This may be true.) I planted some cilantro just yesterday, and it felt good to have my hands in the soil again. There is some serious weeding to be done, as well, both in the vegetable planters and around my front door. It's supposed to rain this weekend, so I should get out there and work on it.

On the knitting front, things are moving quickly as well... I've joined a Ravelry group where we're put into teams and given assignments and earn points - it sounds silly, but I have finished many more projects since I joined. I've never had problem starting things, but finishing is another story, so this has been a great development for me.

Since finishing the Spain socks a few posts below, I made yet another black hat for E (I am done for a while - that's 3 black hats in the course of a year. Black yarn is BORING, y'all.), a red hat for me, some yoga socks (no heels or toes) and a pair of red/pink/orange socks for Mom's birthday. I told you I'd been busy!

And the photography has been progressing along, as promised. I'm pretty sure that I'll turn this photo-a-day thing into a yearlong project. I'm having too much fun to stop!

Winter Weather

Winter? Lemon tree doesn't care.
Originally uploaded by jessajune

The clouds are getting darker as the afternoon goes on. I checked the weather and rain isn't forecast until tomorrow, but apparently we have a freeze warning for tonight.

Don't tell the lemon tree. Took this photo just last week - as you can see, it's actually blossoming.

I'm wondering if I should try to cover the citrus trees. May go find some blankets and do that. Good thing I am under the weather and haven't planted my seedling kale yet.

Back from Maine!

Plank Bridge
Originally uploaded by jessajune

I am back from Maine! You didn't even know I was gone, did you? You thought this was my usual sort of not-posting-in-the-blog. But no! I had the excuse of being across the country, where it is both foggy and warm at the same time, which is pretty bizarre for we folks who hang out in San Francisco.

It was a great trip. Maine is beautiful. And very wet. They are apparently having an unusually cool/wet summer, which does not at all detract from the beauty, but does make tramping around the countryside sort of an adventure. Fortunately, I overpacked, so I had sufficient dry clothes for regular changing.

I've posted a boringly large set of photos to my Flickr: Maine Trip July 09.

Fire in China Camp

I'm glad we went to China Camp when we did. They just had a big fire over there yesterday. Fortunately no one was hurt. Apparently there has been a lot of Sudden Oak Death in that area, which lead to a lot of dried out trees in addition to the usual dry grass.

The weather has been hot this week and will continue through the weekend, which means fire danger around this area is pretty high. Be careful out there.

Early Rising

It seems odd to be waking up regularly at 6am when one doesn't have to... and yet, that's what I've been doing all week. I suppose it's the light. It's certainly not the heat, which I was blaming at first - after our crazy weekend heat wave, weather has returned pretty much to normal spring: pleasantly warm during the day, chilly at night.

The temptation is to pull something over my head and go back to sleep, but I've been having such odd dreams it seems wiser to get up and start the day instead. At some point the bed late/rise early thing is going to catch up with me.

Springtime Lunch

It is a gorgeous day out there - sunny, warm, breezy. Everything is sprouting or blooming.

And to top it all off, I just had a perfect spring lunch. Salsa-cooked chicken in corn tortillas topped with peppery wild arugula, followed by a Toracco/Tarocco blood orange so juicy I ate it over the sink.

I usually say autumn is my favorite season, but today I am loving spring.

Gearing up for Austin

It's almost that time... I'm packing and planning for my trip to Austin today. I'm not leaving until Friday morning, but I'll be working at the Santa Cruz library tomorrow, and then heading from there straight to SF to hang out with my guy for the last time before heading southeast to the hometown of SXSW.

I am looking forward to some great discussions, lots of fabulous food, and seeing all those fun folks I generally only catch once a year at this conference. I am not looking forward to the weather - last week, the forecast called for mid-to-low 80s... this week, it claims a high of 45 on the day of my arrival. What happened? Now I have NO IDEA what to pack.

Nonetheless, I have to get started. I guess it's a "pack for every contingency" kind of trip. Good thing I have a nice new suitcase.

E-I-E-I-O

Yesterday morning, Dad picked up some baby chicks and we set up the nesting box for them. I'm not a huge fan of birds-as-pets for whatever reason, but there is something undeniably cute about these little balls of fluff. Plus, keeping chickens is relatively easy for big rewards, if you're a fan of eggs, and you can do it in suburbia so long as you don't keep roosters.

They're about 4 days old now, and they'll grow really fast. By mid-April, they should be ready to go into the coop.

It was in general a pretty farm-like day. Once the chicks were settled, Dad and I tied up the peas (harder than it sounds, mostly because of the amount of squatting and stooping required), prepped a new plant bed, and transplanted some vegetables from their pots in the greenhouse: collards, beets, swiss chard, and some volunteer carrots. (Volunteer meaning Dad doesn't know where the seeds came from - they were just kind of growing there.) E will be happy to know I also planted that sprouted garlic that he's been wondering about.

And after that, I trimmed back the grape vines - a bit late in the season for it, but they hadn't started sprouting yet, so hopefully no harm done. And when I say I trimmed them, I mean, after gently sounding Dad out about it - he's more of a "let the plants do what they want" than a "manicured garden" kind of guy - I pretty much hacked them back to the main trunks. (He'd said I should do whatever I wanted! Honest.) So it will be interesting to see what that does for fruit production - if the grapes spend too much energy maintaining canes they don't do as much in the fruit department. Last year there wasn't much and the birds got most of it. This year, we'll see.

It was a beautiful day - cool, but quite warm enough while working in the sun that I left my sweater behind. It was really nice to be outside after all the rain we've been having.

Rain, rain

Loving the rain. It's been going for several days straight now, and we haven't been letting it stop us from our business, even if it means getting wet. I just watch the water run down into the storm drains and smile, and hope the local reservoirs and mountains are getting their fill as well.

Not only that, but watching the news last night, I was amused to notice that the station had sent reporters to the mountains on either side of the valley to report on problems, but neither group had anything to report other than precipitation. No landslides, no major accidents. Just water from the sky.

So keep being careful out there, and enjoy the wet! And if you're not the type who enjoys the rain, I've posted some pre-storm spring pictures to my Flickr you might enjoy as you look forward to warmer, drier times.

Snow?

So I didn't go to the library as scheduled this morning because there was supposed to be snow on highway 17 and snow showers in the morning in Santa Cruz, and we people from California just don't rock like that. I rescheduled for tomorrow, when it is supposed to be a low of 34 (rather than 29). If you've ever driven on highway 17, you know that the nastiness of the road is only surpassed by the idiocy of the people who drive it, and I really didn't want to add ice to that equation.

But I was all up and showered and everything, so I went out to run my errands. This turned out to be far more difficult than expected. The stamp machine at the Saratoga post office is now no longer in service. If you want to get stamps, they recommend going to Campbell or Los Gatos, according to the sign. I thought about standing in the line to get stamps, but that was clearly going to take ages, and I had other things to do. I decided I could run my other errands in Los Gatos, most likely, so I went there. After finally finding the post office (I started at the wrong end of Santa Cruz Ave, it seems), I park a billion miles away, trudge through the rain - pity I didn't bring my jacket - and get to the post office. It does, in fact, have two postage vending machines. Neither of them have seasonal stamps in them. I look at the line - every bit as long in as the one in Saratoga. I decide the green ink I've used to address the envelopes is festivity enough, and buy some liberty bell stamps. Not exactly "silver bells" but slightly more seasonal than the flag, right? And dump my mail into the slot. I've just missed the 10am mail time. Oh well.

Now I am ravenous, so I go in to Los Gatos Coffee Roasting Co. to grab a mediocre bagel and some coffee, only to find there is nowhere to sit. I stand at the condiment counter for a while until an older gentleman takes pity on me and invites me to share his table. I review my internship notes as I don't have any other reading material, the newspapers all being read by other customers.

Then I go to run my other errand, and since it's Christmas related I won't say that much about it, other than the fact that there was a sample out of the item I wanted, but none of the right boxes behind it. After trying 20 minutes to get the attention of a sales person, I left. The thought of driving out to find another store was too mch for me, so I gave up and came home.

I was feeling pretty disgruntled by now. But then, as I was driving up the street, I saw this:
I know, it's a bit glare-y and blurry, but that, in the center hill there, is snow. In Saratoga. Snow! By afternoon it will most likely be gone - it's warmed up quite a bit in the last 2 hours. But this is only the second snow in our area IN MY LIFE, and I cannot help but be happy about it. Merry Christmas!

Countdown: 6 days

The wedding is in 6 days! There's still loads to do. But I've gotten a kicky new haircut. Less glam than the last one, but probably more me.

I like it. I'm thinking I may need to get some hair rollers to try to reproduce the volume at home.

Also, it is HOT.

Cue Twilight Zone Music

Yesterday, in California, in July, it rained.

I'll give you a minute to let this sink in.

I'm not talking about the mountains or anything like that. Right here, in the mid-to-southern part of the bay area, in the Valley, water fell from the sky for several hours. I've lived here most of my life, and I can't recall rain at this time of year... ever.

Dreaming of Cake

Apparently May has moved to mid-summer. I had no idea. Everyone keeps saying the heatwave is due to be over any day, yet it keeps on roastin'.

Not that I'm really complaining. I'm rather enjoying it, really. Nice change of pace. And as long as I'm remembering to water, my plants don't seem to mind overmuch.

Soon I will go home, and tonight (along with the work) there will be Indian food and cake! Can't go wrong with cake.

Especially chocolate.

Weather

Sun is streaming in the window, but the trees across the way are silhouetted in front of dark clouds.

An omen? Or just pretty weather?