eat your fruits and vegetables

[carrots grown by my sister, avocados from my parents' yard, mangoes from a coworkers neighborhood. the rest i think all came from fruitville grove...]

Summer Yum

big zucc bread, little zucc bread

h2o melon

rinds for pickling

my first attempt at (refigerator) pickling

local yummies

It's Saturday

After a hectic several months at my ‘day’ job (mostly 60+ hour weeks, with one solid 80 hour week in there) I finally have a weekend (a three day one, at that) that I don’t have to work.

And my Saturday has been…a Saturday. I feel so very refreshed right now.

Next step - deep breath. Sink into hammock.

I got up late (ahhhh) drank my coffee, cleaned my kitchen. First thing is my favorite time to clean my kitchen, which means I usually end the day with piles of dishes sitting on the counter. But…to each her own, right?

I went to Hibbs Farm & Garden for some organic potting soil. I have to say, when they closed the garden section at my Target I was upset, but I think it was really a blessing in disguise. I have this great garden center/nursery just down the road from me, but I’d always go to Target because I had to go there anyway. Got my potting soil (their selection is broader than just the MiracleGro I could find at Target), spied a very handsome man working there (I’ll have to go back more often!) and returned to my balcony.

Repotted mint bequeathed to me by my sister (so I can return her pot to her finally). Got three good plants out of it! Potted jade clippings from my parents to replace mine the squirrels massacred. Planted some more jasmine seeds (hope they weren’t too dry – I’ve had them for a while now…carried them around in my purse for a couple of weeks because I kept forgetting about them. Good thing they didn’t sprout in there!). Swept my balcony (long time coming) and swabbed pollen off as many surfaces as I could.

Finally picked up my package from Aquarian Bath at my apartment office. (Long hours mean the office is generally closed by the time I get home. One day I’ll have a house with a front door mat postmen can oh-so-subtly drape over my packages so that I don’t have to wait a week to retrieve them.)

Discovered pool is open again – woohoo! Summertime is here with a vengeance. (Why wouldn’t you re-marcite in the winter when people don’t want to swim?)

Went to the library down the road to continue reviewing/studying for the Arch History class I am teaching at the end of summer(!). No domestic distractions. And much quieter than the downtown branch. This one has a reading garden too (with lots of butterflies - a plus if you don’t find them creepy).

Finally went to the Fruitville Grove Market and discovered they have, not only yummy produce and breads and things, but also local eggs! I’ve been trying to find local eggs for a while. Success at last.

Enjoying a glass of truly fresh FL OJ, all the pulp included.

And about to sink into that hammock.

Happy Saturday to you.

(This guy has been with me for a while.)

Weeki Wachee Weekend (was wonderful)

First, let me start by spelling the name of the spring correctly…it’s not Weeki “Watchee” as I’d typed in my last post. It’s Weeki Wachee. And it’s plain fun to say – give it a try! The name means “winding river” or “little spring”.

Saturday morning my sister, my niece, and I ventured out (after visiting a farmers’ market to take advantage of one of the last weekends of strawberry season) and up 75. We took our exit and everything was peachy keen, until, for the third time, our mapquest directions told us to turn L on Cortez Blvd/SR 50. Third time. In a row. We’d never left Cortez Blvd/SR 50. After seriously doubting the accuracy of the directions, and one wide u-turn we realized, yes, you turn on the same road three times. Really, who planned this town?

(Strawberry goodness)

Alas! We got there and snagged a primo parking spot and made our way in. The first show was just starting – it was the Mermaids of Yesteryear, which featured mermaids from the past decades back in the water in a sort of behind-the-scenes show – fun, right? One of my favorite shows ever is Pushing Daisies, and throughout the day, but especially during this show, I kept thinking of Aunts Lily and Vivian, the retired Darling Mermaid Darlings. I was so happy the mermaids of yesteryear were back in their tails – they seemed content to be diving and dancing.

(Darling mermaids)

Aside from being a fairy-“tail” (oh, I love being cheesy) attraction that caters to the young and young-at-heart, the setting of Weeki Wachee is a slice of lovely, shady, quiet Florida. I really do love this state. Well, it was quiet except for the very vocal peacocks roaming around. These were not shy birds. They had no qualms about snatching sweet potato fries from hungry tourists.

(I love his lovely blue)

We snacked on our own fries (keeping one eye on the peacocks), wandered around the lovely grounds, took photos in the mermaid props (of course), and peered into the natural springs. Is it just my native Floridian blood, or is 74.2 degrees just too chilly to call swimmable? Though the swimming hole was full of people…perhaps snowbirds?

(My sister - the mermaid queen, me - the…king? My niece, who loves the camera, was being uncharacteristically camera- shy and didn’t want to pose…)

(Mermaid Me...ooh lala)

(People more cold-tolerant than me)

Next, the feature mermaid show had my niece (and me) captivated. I think when you’re little you probably don’t even notice the breathing hoses, but even through my thoroughly jaded adult eyes, the mermaid show was as I had imagined it would be 20 years ago - full of wonder. The show was a rendition of The Little Mermaid - a little bit H.C. Andersen, a little bit Disney, and a little bit Weeki Wachee original - and it was just right. We even got to meet the mermaid princess after the show!

(Lovely mermaid)

(My sister and niece [being oddly camera shy again] with the mermaid princess!)

We concluded our outing with a ride on the river boat (we almost didn’t make it because, unfortunately it seems, some people have no manners, and have no problem jumping in front of entire lines of patient people to make sure they get theirs…). We saw a bald eagle, an osprey nest, a deer, and some kayakers along the way.

(The chilly water did actually look inviting by this point in the day – it was a tad warm in the sun.)

What a beautiful, magical day.

PS - my sister wrote a guest post on our friend's blog SHDesignFL - check it out too!

Romanesco, Beware!

(My romanesco, slightly less-than-perfect but with lovely 'arms' curling defensively up around it)

My sister discovered this vegetable called romanesco at my local Farmer’s Market. We call it the “fractal veggie” as it is like a cross between a broccoli and a cauliflower but in a geometrical fractal explosion.

It’s a Spring-ish (it’s getting towards Spring here in FL – not to make all of y’all who are currently snowed in jealous) veggie so I peer into the Worden Farms tent at the Farmers’ Market whenever I’m there, awaiting its arrival.

Last week I was out of town on market day, for my Mom’s birthday. But I’d mentioned this green geometrical wonder to my friend who also frequents the Farmers’ Market…lo and behold it was there! And she bought one for me!

So after work on Monday she grabbed it from her apt, met me at study group (study study study [why didn’t I pay more attention to moments of inertia and radii of gyration when I was in structures class??]) and passed it off to me after study group. But then we decided to continue studying (at a bar…strangely effective for the first 30 minutes or so), then went to dinner, and by the time the night was over…my beautiful veggie had slipped my mind.

Until…not when I got in my car Tuesday morning and should have seen it (still groggy), but when I arrived on a construction site soon after, and saw it sitting next to my notepad (which I’d thankfully remembered). Who brings raw heads of vegetable to a meeting on a construction site? So in my car it sat, in the thankfully cool morning lack-of-sun.

So when I made it into my office finally I felt like I was toting around a poor little orphan vegetable, which amused me to no end. I couldn’t leave it in my car so I brought it in. And I feared I’d forget it at the end of the day, so believe it or not, I set an Outlook Reminder to 4:50 pm “Romanesco – bring home”. Normally I’d have used a post-it, but alas, post-its don’t have times that can be set when they’ll pop up in your face…

So…to make the long and uneventful, but amusing-to-me, story of my orphan vegetable slightly shorter than it could have been…it’s now home safe and sound.

But I was too lazy to cook tonight and ate leftovers from my freezer. So, Romanesco, beware…tomorrow is your last day!

(The picture-perfect romanesco that the wikipedia folks found, in all its fractal glory)

I was so drawn to the pretty colors at the Farmer's Market that I snagged this lovely bunch of radishes. It wasn't until I got home that I realized...I don't know what to do with radishes except slice them into a salad! Any suggestions?