I am lemon tree, hear me roar

I've learned from working where I work that the North American citrus season is actually in the winter months, not the summer months, which I'd always just assumed. I guess I simply didn't pay attention or care to know when citrus was at its best.

I've also learned that while it's at its best in winter (because colder weather makes for sweeter citrus and better color...to a point; frost isn't good), citrus trees can produce year-round. Back home in Washington, fruit trees only produce once a year, so I assumed we would wait until early next year to be able to harvest from our little lemon tree again.

Wrong.

Around early April I began using lemons a bit more sparingly because I thought we were running low. Then, when my friend Sarah was in town, the tree was suddenly in full bloom.

Holy moley do we ever have a lot of lemons on our hands. New and old.

And I'm a happy camper.

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme

Aside from my husband and two houseplants, I've never had many living things to care for day in and day out. There's a long line of pets from my childhood, but those were a family affair.

Except for the tadpoles. I kept those in my room. They didn't make it to frog stage. But that's another story for another time.

We grew a tomato plant the first summer in our old place. It produced one little tomato. The poor thing didn't get much sun; however, everyday I'd come home for work, wave at Justin and run to the porch to check on it.

Now we have more than one measly little plant to watch and rear into responsible, productive adults leafy plants. I get up in the morning to give them all a drink and to check out their blossoms & buds. I get home from work and, instead of running by Justin and to the backyard, I run through the house to the backyard where I find Justin also checking on the garden...well...either that or he's rearranging his beloved shed once more.

Because we love them so, we'd like to introduce you to our plants, too: These pictures were taken July 2nd, and they've already grown much.

 Artichokes and Watermelon. We inherited the artichokes from one of Justin's co-workers. Let's hope we can keep them going...so far they're having a hard time with the adjustment. I think I've over-watered them.

 Basil and Thyme. I've already used some of the basil :)

 Yellow bell peppers (left) and Blue Lake beans. While I can't eat the bells, I know Justin is keeping a close watch on the little buds because he loves them so.

 Chives and Cilantro. The chives are growing like a weed! We've used it already for a few baked potatoes, so I'm glad it regrows quickly. The cilantro, on the other hand, doesn't like us, so I gave him a trim and am waiting for him to regrow again.

 Spicy Spanish Pepper...hoping it's like a jalapeno. The store was fresh out of jalapenos and I didn't want to wait to get something in the ground. The pepper pictured on the right has grown and grown, and the plant produced three more baby peppers in just this last week. 

 Parsley and Rosemary. I purchased two rosemary plants because I know they can also be ornamental... If you have any great recipes featuring rosemary, please send them along.

Roma tomatoes (a.k.a. plum tomatoes). Since this pic was taken, the plant produced another baby tomato and they're getting to be more pear shaped. I love watching these grow the most.

 I also planted seeds for red leaf lettuce (left) and Brussels sprouts (right). I think the rain washed away my second line of lettuce because the first sprouted while the second is showing no signs of green.

Two more types of tomatoes: Sunny Boy (left) and Granny Smith (right). We got these after we purchased the others, so they're a little behind in production. Granny came with that little tomato, but the plant didn't look so hot, so I've since removed the tomato so the plant can feed its other leaves and stalk to get healthy again. 

 

Our neighbors gave us some geraniums they'd torn out, so we replanted them. They're finally starting to look healthy again. (Mags - these are what I was planting while I was on the phone with you and fighting with the snails!)

 Bougainvillea. I hope it gets bigger and bigger. It's so pretty against the blue of our outside wall.

 More rescued geraniums.

 A front yard tree that suddenly burst with purple flowers.

 Marigolds.

Chocolate sunflower popping up from a seed that Justin's mom sent us. They're growing!!

Some of this was covered in a previous post, but here are garden bed progression shots, for good measure:

Ruh roh

Welcome to the jungle

We moved into our new place at the beginning of February, during California's rainy season. The backyard was a mess, but we were told by our landlord (LLD, as we'll call him) that we would soon see major improvements, complete with garden beds, a shed and some new plants.

Sweet, right?

We thought so, too.

We still do, but the excitement turned to slight frustration over the course of the last five months, as it's taken LLD that long to get the show on the road. We're certainly grateful for the shed and garden beds, but every time we saw him over course of the last five months, he'd say, "I'm going to start on that shed soon..." and then another month would go by. On top of that, the yard looked like a jungle. A real one. Justin had to use a machete to cut down some of the thicker weeds that our man-powered lawn mover couldn't cut through. But I digress...

In just the last two weeks, Team Thompson + LLD have accomplished much. It just took a couple nights of Justin announcing that he'd work until the sun went down to get LLD to follow suit (because he generally puts in one hour and calls it a night). So good work, JT!

Now the shed is up. The garden beds are in. There's dirt in the beds. We've filled the shed. There are plants in the beds. It's awesome.

Here's a series of pictures to show the progression.

 

One of the first pics of the backyard. It was still a baby jungle.

  

But the jungle grew. As did the mulberry tree that needed a good trimming.

 In a moment of desperation, in hopes to not be deemed the "scrappiest house on the block," we bought a man-powered lawn mower.

 Weeds mowed, macheted and knocked down.

  

With the jungle mowed/hacked down, Eva came over on Easter to hunt eggs in our yard.

 LLD rototilled the areas for building...

 

Reviewing the plan for the shed and beds.

  

Pavers for the base of the shed.

 

With garden beds in place, we bought some plants.

 

And waited for dirt.

  

A few weeks later, some dirt appeared. But it wasn't enough. 

 

So Justin watered it and more soil grew. 

Just kidding. LLD brought in more compost. 

Then we filled it in with a little extra.

 

Finishing the shed foundation.

Reviewing the building plans.

 Time to open the boxes that have been sitting in the yard for more than a month.

 

Found a window!

 

 

 

The walls go up!

Shed by morning light.

   

It wasn't a tornado. It was two men that made this mess. 

 

Quite the project, and we still have more to do. LLD wants to get some rock to go around the outside of the beds and had plans to replace most of the fence. No matter how long that takes, we're just glad to have the shed up, so we can get the pile of tarp-covered junk off our patio. We wasted no time to fill up that shed, and we couldn't be happier.

Happy heart

I just got a text from my mom.

She went up to see Nanny today. She went to see her because she's her momma and she loves her. She also went to see her to check on her because of a story that involves Nanny, last week, a bathtub, 26 hours and no one to help her out. But that's another story for another time.

What my mom texted me was a picture of Nanny's fridge.

And this is what was inside:

Seems I'm not the only one who loves those raspberries in a turquoise bowl. If you look closely, you'll see the cracked-wheat bread in there, too!

It's Independence Day

Happy 4th of July, everyone!

 Fireworks from 2009 at Shoreline Amphitheater. Taken before we got trapped in 2 hours of traffic just 1.5 miles from our house. 

I hope you were able to enjoy the holiday by staying at home.

Apparently I was the only one in all of San Jose who had to go to work this morning.

Enjoy your freedom by celebrating safely.

Patio Pastimes

I just love raspberries, don't you? I've eaten them my whole life, yet, somehow, every time I pop open a new container of the red gems, I fall in love with the flavor all over again.

There's nothing like the sweet-tangy flavor of a ripe raspberry.

I think another reason I love them so is because of the flood of memories that wash over me with each berry.

The flavor and fragrance of raspberries always make me think of my Nanny and Bampa, my mother's mom and dad. Nanny and Bampa had raspberry bushes in their yard and, during their season, that's the first place I'd head when we'd go visit. I'd run straight to those bushes.

I have memories from a very young age...probably at 3- or 4-years-old...of going out there with Bampa to pick and eat the raspberries straight off the plant. He'd point out which were the ripest and sweetest. I also remember that I called them strawberries; though he'd remind me each time that they were actually called raspberries, I continued to call them strawberries. I don't know how I even remember that.

Occasionally we'd stay the night at Nanny and Bampa's. If it was a summer morning, I was handed a turquoise bowl and asked to go pick a bowl full of raspberries so we could have them with our breakfast. There is a picture of luscious red berries against the cheery turquoise color of the bowl that's burned in my brain. It's lit just right by the morning sun. I wish I were a painter so I could duplicate it. It makes me happy.

The combination of bright, blue-skied mornings when the sun is already hot on your skin (like this morning), a bowl of raspberries, and the smell of sun-warmed, fine-rock cement that's intertwined with the rich fragrance of sprinkler-soaked soil, takes me back to the times spent in Nanny and Bampa's backyard.

It's home to some of my most favorite childhood memories. It's where we ate Nanny's perfectly scrambled eggs and cracked-wheat toast with real butter (unless we chose Cinnamon Toast Crunch), argued with cousins and brothers over who got the bouncy/rocking patio chair where we'd eat said breakfast, picked fresh raspberries and put them in her turquoise bowls, ran circles around the house by way of the path we created through the front yard shrubbery, made forts in the "forest," rode bikes down the hill as fast as we could, fell out of trees and lost our air, sneaked in to dip all 10 digits in Nanny's hot wax she had to treat arthritis, skinned our knees, had squirt-gun fights, walked across her yard to Aunt Pat's yard to play in the sand box or sit in the hot tub, and, of course, waited for the perfect moment to ask if she would pretty-please take it to Aunt Looie's pool for a swim.

 Cousins in Nanny's yard! Top left: Benjamin, Donnie, Carrie, Matt. Bottom left: Maggie, Andrew (taller one), Joe (in stripes), Chris, Kimberly, Kristen. While this picture makes me happy, it also brings a tear to my eye as two are no longer with us: Matt & Kristen.

All these memories play back to a soundtrack of perhaps one of the sweetest and most cherished sounds of my childhood, too: the sound of chatter & laughs from my aunts, uncles, cousins & grandparents, all sitting around the backyard patio, taking in the heat of summer nights.

 

Well, it looks like mom beat everyone to the bouncy/rocking chair on the patio this time. Aunt, uncles, parents and grandparents pictured at Nanny's: Left (in red) and going clockwise: Uncle Don, Uncle Lou, Aunt Kathy, Nanny, mom, dad. More are usually on the patio...lots more!

You simply can't beat a summer night in the Valley. And you can't beat the flavor of a ripe raspberry.

I wish I could go back to a time on the patio right now, but I guess this bowl of raspberries, in one of my turquoise bowls, of course, will have to do.