I had a neighbor recently check out and comment on my neglected website, so I am reminded that I ought to update ( Read more... )

Many of the plants I put in the ground over the Winter are doing well. Many of the seeds sown have come up and I've got a nice crop of California poppies blooming now and some pea blossoms on the way ( Read more... )

I just had my one year anniversary at the new house. I celebrated by hosting a pancake breakfast and had seventy or so folks stop by, including my new next door neighbors and some newly arrived neighbors living down the block ( Read more... )

I'm settling into the new house. While there seems to be so much more work than I can ever get done, I've at least stopped the hemorrhaging. While I still feel overwhelmed by it all, now I can pick and choose the projects in my own time. I'm trying to complete projects that don't cost me much until I re-build three months of emergency reserves ( Read more... )

I bought a house. A fix-er-upper in West Oakland. The process of buying, getting it livable, moving and trying to keep everything from hemorrhaging has kept me very busy ( Read more... )

I've got plenty growing in the garden this year. Nothing that is producing much, but at least the plants continue to grow. Tomatoes are doing much better this year than last. There is a possibility I might get some fruit this year. Rhubarb was attacked early on by snails who ate so much of the new growth so aggressively I suspect the plants won ( Read more... )

Tomato plants + LED grow light didn't go so well. Maybe because I didn't get them under the light quickly enough--or maybe water or lack of wind or some other factor. They seemed to dig the light for the first few weeks, then died spectacularly. It was an expensive fail ( Read more... )

Just home from a roadtrip to Palm Springs. I had Thursday off for Veterans Day, then took Friday and Monday off to make for a long weekend. I needed some sun. Not soak up the sun and get tan and/or cancer, but some wow I can be outdoors and actually see blue sky sun. Seems I only need two days of that before my ginger skin starts screaming ( Read more... )

A whole 'nother season gone by ( Read more... )

I've been doing plenty of gardening lately. Some landscaping to make the yard a happy place for bees and hummingbirds, and also some container gardening for tomatoes, strawberries, and plenty of herbs. I recently got some bigger containers and a Eureka Lemon tree, a Mandarin Satsuma tree and a couple blueberry bushes. I hope to find another ( Read more... )