2020 in review

The only trip to Cafe Trieste of the year, alas.

January

 

The ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles, what a ride.

February

 

Nothing really to say about this.

March

A peaceful truce in the kitchen.

April

A peaceful cat in the garden.

May

The first of many fruit pies. This was a birthday gift to a good friend.

June

The garden was more than happy to show it's appreciation for all the attention it received this year.

July

The prayer flags disappeared up the tree to the squirrel nest. I like to think my squirrel buddies are being kept warm by them as the weather has turned cold.

August

Neighbors were adding their comments to the big cat. More items have appeared and I have my suspicions as to the perpetrator. My next door neighbor and I joke that we have front yards that people do not steal things but rather add things, that's life in Mayberry, Alameda.

September

Finally, air clean enough air to get out on the bay.

October

 

This is Eddy, my granddog, who lives in Truckee enjoying the first snow.

November

 

 

 

And Covid or no Covid, my yogi friends and I managed an exchange of cookies, candy, scarves, and FRUITCAKE. This is no ordinary fruitcake.

December

 

What a year! Good health to all!

holiday spirit on burbank street

 These are by far the best holiday decorations I've spotted around town. 

The granny square apron was a nice touch as was the small owl across from the flamingo.

this was november

 

 

Some how the entire month of November slipped by in a blur and here we are with almost a week gone in December. Chairs were brought in from the back lawn, tables were set on the back porch for soup and bread sharing. Alas, we will have to wait a few few weeks for that to take place again.

 

 

We managed afternoon Thanksgiving tea with a neighbor.

 

 

Mike and I nipped into the single malt in the fading afternoon light in the living room. Taking a wee nap before roasting a chicken and calling it a turkey dinner. Solstice celebration will be small cookie exchange with neighbors. No complaints really, other than the lack of rain. Our project lists seem to be constantly refilling. And we look forward to 2021.

rowing home from north beach

 

 

Well in my dreams anyway. At least we were able to get out on the water yesterday, tides, wind, and air quality cooperating. And the day felt like a field trip day at least, we followed our row with lunch at abigails 

October is a lovely month to be on the water.

the last day of summer

On this last day of summer the only thing to do was bake a peach pie. This will be the last of the peach pies until 2021. The O'Henrys came in late this year, and they are my preferred peach. They had a strong finish. I will have to move on to persimmons, pears, apple and then savories for the upcoming season.

at peace with zoom yoga dashiell and I

Caving in to zoom yoga, an actual class in a studio a distant memory, I setup props and hope for the best. First, that the technology will work, so far so good on that front. And two, Dashiell will not come in, bite my toes, and try to sit on me. Shut doors are no problem for him to open. There is enough heft in that sturdy body to merely push them aside. This morning he came in, toured the room and settled into the rocking chair, peacefully sleeping through the entire class and then some.

anonymous neighbors leave new cats

As I was leaving the house yesterday morning to drive across town for the Sunday bakery treats, feeling less than cheerful between covid fatigue and bad fire air I spied a new creature laying in the garden. This little ceramic cat had been place in a bed of cat mint. 

When I returned home, two more friends had joined the garden party.

I smiled, what a neighborhood I live in. The air might be bad, a pandemic is still going on but someone placed these little creatures to put a smile on my face. Thank you.

the yang of seasons

I think Dashiell is trying to roll some color into his greyness. Perhaps to match his personality which is definitely not yin. But I too seem to need to color in my life and the garden is certainly yang right now.

And my neighbors around the corner, have taken rainbows to a whole new level.

Wow! Well done Judi and Sarah Jo.

six weeks later

I'm ready to reseed the cilantro and I keep tying up the tomato. We've been harvesting the mint for sun tea, arugula for salad and dill to top grilled salmon. I think the trough gardening has been a success.

The front yard trough is growing a crop of sunflowers that I couldn't bring myself to thin. But my lovely gardener friend Scott offered to do it for me and I let him. I'm hoping to raise some monarchs on the milkweed that's hidden below the sunflowers.

Ah, summertime, and the living is easy, at least in the West End of Alameda.

a small pie

When I answered the phone this week a friend said he pictured me with my hands in pie crust. No, in fact my hands had been in dirt, I was gardening. And besides, I told him, it seemed silly to make a pie for just the two of us. "Agnes" he said "make a small pie". So this afternoon staring at the all the white peaches and apricots on the counter I made a small pie. We may have to eat dessert first.

finally a field trip

A short one, but none the less a field trip, complete with sandwiches, cloth napkins, Fritos, and a view.

 

There was even wildlife both furry and feathered. The live stream is off today but our osprey friends are alive and well.

No signs about not feeding the wildlife so we provided cherries to our ground squirrel friend.

Social distancing was practiced, we didn't get within six feet of the squirrel.

new old art

A street banner from the LACMA exhibit of James Turrell a few years back was added to Michael's blank wall that has been needing something. And Gato can now be found hiding out in the backyard.

We've been very busy sheltering in place.

may update

There has been no blogging due to many hours of hard labor in the garden.

Brick laying and trough planting have been very popular activities lately.

We wanted one trough for the back yard but due to circumstances, probably a direct result of the strange times we are living in, we ended up with two. So seizing the moment and wanting to keep peace with our local hardware store we now have an herb garden in the back yard, and hopefully, a Monarch raising garden, in the front. The ground cherry in the front trough is on it's second move of the year, but hopefully, with plentiful water and good soil it will grow and provide a place to nurture Monarch chrysalis. I have milkweed planted on either side of it. And this years crop of marigolds are on the edges. It may look sparse now, but I'll post an update.
And now for the big event of the day. We were gifted the most perfect loaf of sourdough, hot out of the oven. My neighbor Joe, has been baking bread well before it became the pastime of today. And I think he has achieved perfection.

current updates from my local UPS man

Trampolines are very popular right now according to Gary, my neighbor, and UPS driver down the block. He said he's been delivering a lot of exercise equipment including many trampolines which are quite heavy. He said parents have been coming out to his truck to help him unload. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Gary seemed to be keeping his cheery nature, but then he is on vacation this week.

saturday night entertaining

 

I put on the pearls.

The cats joined us.

Their conversation was a bit limited. But at least they weren't fighting with each other.