How's Robb?

... Did Robb and I have a great time at our much-anticipated falconry class? Oh yes we did!  I had some trepidation that the place was going to be a dismal set-up with defeated-looking animals in miserably small cages.  I had fairly low expectations, and was very pleasantly surprised by the whole experience. The birds were housed in large immaculate aviaries, and seemed healthy, alert and relaxed. The bird we worked with was a Harris Hawk , a large bird of the American Southwest.  They are unique among raptors, in that they are social animals, hunting and raising their young in family groups.  Their social tendencies make them excellent "working" birds.  Mariposa, the eleven year old bird we worked with was quite a character.  Very intelligent, often anticipating the commands she would be given.  Having worked with wild birds, it was very odd to look a bird directly in the eyes.  In pretty much every photo of me, I'm retracting my head as far away from the b

... Although we haven't working on an official "house projects" Robb and I have been keeping busy.  We're just loading in scenery for the next show at Berkeley Rep, and have another huge play looming on the horizon. I took a class on knitting with beads, taught by the always-lovely Kira Dulaney last weekend.  I've been the program coordinator for a local handspinning guild for the past two years, so I've had the opportunity to bring in all sorts of fascinating fiber artists as teachers and speakers. I try to make the classes as pleasant as possible, and to this end, Robb baked a delicious vegan cake.  Usually, I'm not a fan of vegan baking, because of all the overly processed ingredients used.  (And don't get me started about "raw baking.")  This recipe was made with ingredients that I would classify as actual food, and was exceptionally tasty as well. The cake is based on a recipe widely available on the web and includes all

... Mark your calendars!  This year's Eggstravaganza will be April 13th, the Sunday before Easter. Once again, I'll be teaching folks how to decorate Ukrainian-style Easter eggs.  We'll make some art, enjoy some snacks, and try not to set too many things on fire. (How do you like my eggs?  From left to right, we've got eggs from Lydia, Anne Elliot, and Harriet.  Isabella seems totally uninterested in ever laying another egg. She's lucky in that she's an awfully sweet hen, and that Robb and I are tender-hearted vegetarians.  A chicken in another flock might not be quite so fortunate.)

... Next weekend Robb and I are signed up for a Falconry class.  I'm so excited that I can hardly stand it. How about you?  What have you been wanting to learn more about?  Have you taken classes, or are you still daydreaming? Does anyone have one of those head-mounted video cameras I could borrow?

... After taking a splendid class on the care of citrus trees, I spent Sunday afternoon pruning our Meyer Lemon tree. We'd had what for California was a rather cold winter, and there was a good deal of deadwood to remove.   The lemon tree is just starting to bloom, and it looks like we have the potential for loads of lemons.  Our next door neighbors have a different variety of lemons, and their tree is full of fruit.  They gave us a bowlful of lemons, and in return we gave them some of our newly harvested honey. The Scarlet Runner Beans are starting to clamber up their poles.  Robb tore apart some copper phone wire, and made springy collars for the bean plants and poles.  If we don't guard against snails, we'll lose all the plants. This photo really isn't any good, but it will be fun to look back later in the season, and marvel at how tiny the plants were. One of our cherry trees is blooming.  The purchase of this plant was a Rookie Mistake.  I bou

... This year I quietly resolved to pursue the things I'm curious about in a more active manner.  I've been researching classes on all sort of topics.  Today's subject was the care of citrus trees. Our house has a lovely old Meyer Lemon tree, as well as a few baby citrus trees.  They're wonderful trees, and I wanted to understand their care better.  So I signed up for a class at Pollinate Farm and Garden, an awesome urban farm store, close to my home.  The instructor was Molly Goulet Bolt, a certified arborist who specializes in the care of fruit trees in the Bay Area. Pollinate Farm is unique in that they are a decidedly urban shop, with an on-site orchard.  After about an hour of classroom discussion, our group strolled out into the orchard for a hands on discussion of the finer points of citrus pruning.  What a joy. I've been meaning to write a blog post about Pollinate Farm .  I made a total pest of myself, taking lots of photos in the store

... You know how things go:  someone has a swarm of bees in their backyard in Northern California and so they post about it on Facebook. A friend in Montreal reads the post, and makes a connection. The next thing anyone knows, you're at the home of strangers, trying to remove a clump of honeybees from their tree. I'm totally certain that the founders of Facebook had this in mind, back when they were dreaming about uses for their fledgling company.  This should have been an easy swarm to collect, if it hadn't been for the stream running through the backyard.  Of course the bees had to coalesce on a branch directly over the ravine created by the stream.  Of course. And of course, I did not pack my trusty bucket-on-a-pole when I loaded bee gear into my car. Sadly, the bees flew away while I was waiting for Robb to bring the necessary tool.  I hope the bees found a nice home, somewhere safe with lots of flowers. When I got home, I decided to open the Victor

... A week ago, my scarlet runner beans looked like this. Now, it was clearly time to get them in the ground. The plan was to dig up the ground by the World's Ugliest Fence , and build a trellis structure for the beans. If everything worked out, the vines would disguise our view of the hideous cinderblock wall, attract hummingbirds, and produce loads of delicious beans.  We had to get to work, right away. I turned over the soil, and dug in some semi-composted leaves. Robb built a lovely delicate structure.  There may have been a bit of squabbling, when it came time to erect our structure, but ultimately good humor prevailed.  (Watching demented cat videos helped, as well.) Once we got the beans planted, we re-arranged the fence to keep the chickens out of that bed.  Nothing is more appealing to our hens than a freshly excavated bit of earth.  I did not wish to subject the beans that I had been tending to that kind of avian mayhem. Speaking of avian

...   We had beautiful balmy weather this weekend, so I took the opportunity to look inside our Camelia beehive.  This particular colony was from a swarm I collected last April .  (They were on a bush on Camelia Street in North Berkeley.  I think this is a Spanish spelling, for whatever that's worth.) These bees are wonderfully docile, and a delight to have in the yard.  They are busy, but never aggressive.  My goal in opening the hive was to see if the queen was laying eggs, and if there were any indications that the colony might swarm.  I figure there's never a reason to open a beehive, without clear goals.  It's hard work, and disruptive to the bees. Inside the hive, I saw a nice amount of maturing brood cells, mostly female workers, and a few larger developing drones.  I saw one un-capped cell that could be transformed into a queen-rearing cell, pictured on the bottom of the above photograph.  The cell wasn't particularly large or built-up, so

... A few months back, I bought a great set of vintage lawn chairs from an estate sale.  They would allow Robb to lie down outside when his back needed a break.  They were a particularly lurid shade of 1950s turquoise, shockingly comfy, and in remarkably good shape. The cats seem to love them. But at our house there are RULES. Cardigan and Sleeves, being brothers, can snuggle all day long, and that's just fine.   Smog, being an irritating little urchin, is not invited to snuggle with anyone because he is Too Damn Annoying.   Linguine, being Deposed Nobility, does not snuggle with riffraff. Apparently, vintage lawn furniture over-rules everything, and Snuggling Chaos ensues. Linguine is Not Impressed.

... Spring is in the air, and three out of four of our hens have resumed laying.  As far as we can tell, Isabella is still on hiatus.  Isabella is the one chicken who gets along with everyone else.  She's funny and friendly, and even if she isn't cranking out the eggs, we enjoy having her in our garden. The chickens are a bunch of knuckle-heads, really.  We provide them with three nest boxes, but for some reason, they all fixate on one box and all insist on laying eggs in only that box.  It's not that this box is in any way different from the others.  In fact the "approved" box changes throughout the year.  They all want to use one box, and then suddenly they all switch to another. Yesterday after Lydia laid her egg, she ran around our yard yelling her fool head off.  I tried to distract her with some oats, to get her to stop cackling at top volume.  I live in a neighborhood where the houses are very close together, and don't need to antagonize the n

... What follows are some notes, mostly as reminders for to my Future Self. California is finally getting some much-needed rain.  This current storm system will not come close to ending our current drought conditions, but it does help. I've got scarlet runner beans sprouting, as well as some unknown beans that I grew last year, saved seeds from, and somehow failed to document at all.  Medium sized, speckled, and a total mystery.  I'm also trying to germinate Cherokee trail of tears beans and royalty purple beans.  We didn't bother growing fava beans this winter, because neither Robb nor I particularly like how they taste. We can grow beans fairly easily, but for some reason, I have no success with peas.  I can grow sad scraggly plants, which mostly become fodder for garden pests, and rarely produce any pods at all. The garlic and kale are doing very well.  I've started seeds for magenta and orange chard.  The various dye plants are chuggi