How's Robb?

... This has made me smile for the past few days.  An ad campaign for Scotland promotes two of the Shetland Islands most famous icons:  Shetland Ponies, and exquisitely hand-knit Shetland sweaters (or more properly "jumpers").   The garments were created by Shetland knitter Doreen Brown , and really are works of art.

... This morning I drove over to the municipal mulch pile (with the million-dollar view of the San Francisco Bay and Golden Gate Bridge) and filled up a car-load of mulch.  I've worked out a pretty good system.  I transport everything in five gallon paint buckets, which I borrow from work.  They're just the right size, not too heavy or awkward.  I can scoop up thirty-five gallons of free mulch in a mere minutes. Half the mulch was dug into our soil, and the other half went into our chickens' run.  The girls seemed to approve.  They dug chicken-sized holes and indulged in a frenzy of mulch-bathing. When I was first researching chickens, I read a lot of online discussions where new chicken-keepers thought their animals were having seizures, when they were in fact dust-bathing.  Chickens flopping around with a sort of dazed expression, making unusual noises, while kicking dirt all over themselves?  Totally normal.

... Despite my go-it-alone personality, I quite enjoy pausing every week to notice what's going on in our little garden, and then sharing my observations with a community of garden bloggers.  This activity is inspired by Daphne's weekly blog round-up , which is rather fascinating, if you like that sort of thing. This week has seen rather cold temperatures in the Bay Area, and worryingly low temperatures in California's citrus growing regions.  The farmers are in peril of losing their crops, which would be catastrophic.  I've been hearing a lot of talk about how all farm subsidies (including crop insurance) should be stripped from American farmers.  The thinking is that this would force farmers to be more serious about their business.  This sort of talk makes my blood boil. I spent seven summers living on a dairy farm (I was painting scenery for an opera company, and they housed me in a 19th century farmhouse).  Nobody, and I mean NOBODY works harder and is more

... I hate to tempt fate by mentioning this, but it seems that Robb has found a good balance for medicating our kitty Smog.  Around Christmas and New Year's, Smog was very sick, indeed.  We were horribly worried about him. And now he's as spry as can be.  He's bounding around the house, much to the consternation of Linguine. Smog wants to chase and play with everyone, and Linguine is not amused.  He comes charging up to her, tail held high, and she gives him the Death Stare.  She's too dignified to bother with anything more than that. We do occasionally see them Almost Touching.  And for some reason, we find this terribly entertaining.  Smog is healthy, but I'm down with a nasty cold that has been knocking over everyone at work.  I've got a new intern, and I'm as woozy as can be.  It's Sunday, and I'll be dragging myself into work today, to paint a stage floor.  These things are very tightly scheduled, so there's no way of putting th

... Sometimes you've just got to admit that you were wrong.  In my case, I have to admit that my decision to paint our garden fence red was a poor one.  While this particular color of red is commonly used for fences around here, it just looked odd in our back yard.  So, I've started painting the red pickets a pale yellow.  Robb had the idea to keep the fence posts red, and of course he was right about this. I just couldn't see it until we'd gone ahead and painted things the wrong color.  Oh well.  It's not like I haven't repainted anything before.  Painting and then repainting is pretty much what I do for a living. If I'm being entirely honest, I have to admit that the red was the second color that I painted those pickets.  Originally, I chose a dark purple-grey that seemed like a really good idea.  The dark would recede into space, and the purple would vibrate off of the green garden plants.  In reality, the color looked dirty and boring, a

... Every year, Robb and I make a batch of Christmas cookies for our nearest neighbors, which we bundle up with some home made jam or backyard honey. We really enjoy putting together these packages.   And they're a great way to stay in our neighbor's good graces.  When we first started keeping bees, we were pretty secretive about the whole endeavor.  We "outed" ourselves by giving gifts of clearly-labeled backyard honey.  Often, we get little gifts in return. Some are pretty random.  A store bought iceberg lettuce?  A clock radio?  A whole roast chicken?  What do two vegetarians do with gifts like that last one? Ask the cats. While I'll never be ungrateful for any kind gift, I'm particularly thrilled when we get fresh produce from our neighbors.  These mandarin oranges came from our next-door-neighbor's tree, and they're quite seriously the most delicious mandarins I've ever eaten.   What could be more wonderful than a

... Work continues on our garden fence.  I've been painting pickets, and Robb has been building and installing fence posts.  I'm pretty certain that we could fend off an army of vampires with all of these spikes.  They're all custom-cut, because 1) nobody makes chicken-height fencing, and 2) we're maniacs, who can't do anything the easy way.