14 January 07
From Farm To Pie
On an appropriately pie-shaped plot of land south of San Francisco on the Peninsula coast is an educational farm named Pie Ranch. This farm grows all the ingredients for pies: wheat, berries, bees for honey, goats for milk, chickens for eggs, pumpkins for pumpkin filling. This week they opened up a a café and pie shop in San Francisco named Mission Pie, located at 25th and Mission. Why pie? They say:
We call ourselves Pie Ranch for several reasons: 1) because the ranch is in the shape of a slice of pie; 2) pie, with all its ingredients and associations, is a great means for understanding how food comes from the land to our tables and 3) because the promise of pie will encourage city youth and adults to come discover the beauty and importance of rapidly disappearing farms to the future of people in the Bay Area, our food security, health and our understanding and appreciation of life and nature.
(From World Changing).
13 January 07
Sketching Outing
So, so cold last night, but not as bad as it might have been. We met up with some friends at the Farmers’ Market and there were Chicken Tractor, a local bluegrass band, freezing their fingers off. One young aficionado couldn’t take all the excitement.
I’ve been doing some more playing with colored pencil outlines for letters (below and also here).
11 January 07
Freeze
No, it’s not Minnesota here, but we’re having an unusual Arctic air mass moving in. The minimum temperature for the next several days is expected to drop to the 20s Fahrenheit. Right now it’s 37 outside and dropping, with a north wind picking up. We’re worried about our newly-planted guavas; we’ve covered them with gardening fleece tarps that will hopefully keep them out of trouble.
10 January 07
A Busy Day
I’m back from MacWorld. I thought an Apple phone, long predicted as the feature of this year’s Keynote, was a silly idea.
I can only say I’m really glad they weren’t for sale today, because I’d have gone against all good sense and plopped down a big wad of cash for something I don’t need.
Didn’t stop me salivating, though.
The event was the usual overstimulating paradise for geeks. As usual, there were the obvious tech types and the obvious designer types and the obvious mac nuts. Sometimes all these occurred in the same person, but mostly it was three separate groups.
I went down on the train with the Yolo Designers, a group that meets on the last Friday of every month in downtown Davis. They were able to help me come up with some specs for a new computer I need to order at work “as soon as possible.”
I’m well prepared…
9 January 07
Gobs More Of Weather Data
I’m not quite sure how to directly make use of the data for Pica’s garden, but at least there’s a good source of such information for us. This is CIMIS, the California Irrigation Management Information System. The state Department of Water Resources maintains a set of over 120 automated weather stations in the agricultural portions of California to provide measurements of evapotranspiration — that is, water loss from soil and plants to the atmosphere — for irrigation planning purposes. Conveniently, there’s a station less than 2 miles from our house. It’s a very solid data record, and it’s neat to see an event like last Friday’s bitter north wind reflected there.
8 January 07
Colored Pencil Odyssey
Long-time readers of Feathers of Hope will know that both Numenius and I like watercolor pencils. I also like non-soluble ones and have a large collection of Prismacolors. Sounds like there are others I should try, but for now, I have penty to be going on with.
The idea here is to use colored pencils to “sculpt” letterforms and areas around them, following an article I read in the latest issue of Bound and Lettered.
I’ll post some results here soon, but [Images uploaded 1/11/07] for now I’m having a great time experimenting with color, shading, texture. It’s not just a medium for children…
7 January 07
Kitty Basket
For a holiday present my folks gave us a gift basket filled with pasta, olive oil, and other Italian food goodies. They did not however realize that it turns out to be the perfect transportable cat nook. We unwrapped the gift basket last night and Charlie has since spent many hours dozing within!
6 January 07
Full of Joy
... is how my friend who is undergoing surgery on Monday described herself this evening on the phone.
So am I. I was full of joy in my encounter with two Jersey heifers across the road whose manure I was nicking for my compost; full of joy as I ate my veggie tamales at lunchtime; full of joy as I watched the killdeer overhead, scolding scolding as I put mulch onto my broccoli and onions, in preparation for the terrifying freeze we’re expecting this week; full of joy as I heard the white-tailed kite calling this morning.
And full of joy at my expanding list of creative projects to undertake sometime soon. I’m bursting with energy. Watch out, world.
[I am especially full of joy that Barbara is feeling so chipper. Thanks for the great conversation, Brabs.]
5 January 07
Beetles Among Us
Thankfully the stinky beetles that were invading our house this fall have become scarce (though they have been replaced for now in the household insect pest department by Argentine ants). I never did take one into the Bohart Museum of Entomology for positive identification, but my best guess is that they are Nomius pygmaeus, based on appearance and that this species has been described as a stinky occasional household pest.
Happily, would-be California coleopterists have two new resources to call upon. The first is the website of the California Beetle Project at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. This is an online checklist and database describing the more than 7500 species of beetles in California. The second is that UC Press has just published the Field Guide to Beetles of California. I haven’t seen this book yet but judging by the many others in the California Natural History Guide series it should be very good.
4 January 07
Continuing
Many thanks to all who commented on my End post or who emailed or who spoke on the phone. (And thank you for all the good wishes for my friend, which I will pass along.)
I am spending a lot of time thinking about this. It is not a bad time nor certainly a waste of time.
Numenius said something the other day that struck me as odd: he wondered why religious ritual needed to be connected inherently with belief. It would never occur to me not to connect them, but that’s not an answer. Look, he said, it’s a good thing, in itself, to observe Shabbat.
I certainly do crave ritual. It’s just that if it’s not backed up by substance, it feels empty to me. But it doesn’t stop me — the font at St. Francis is huge and central; I sloshed my hand in it on the way out to bless myself. Even with these thoughts of emptiness running through my head. The water was cool and, well, blessing. It always is.