hump day nuggets :: i heart october

hump day nuggets :: little bits of the season in photos and words about the last week

This week was...
Filled with friends and family.
Monumental celebrations, amazing sunrises and sunsets.
Community meetings and school conferences.
A trip to the big city and visits to a few farms.
Cooking endeavors and fall yard clean-up.
Potluck gatherings, a small town flea market and a short trip to the much-loved bookmobile.
Computers were upgraded and girlfriends came over to download on my front deck.
This week was...full, memorable and absolutely lovely.

nuggets.

Fake flies on the butter courtesy of three little pranksters

:: Feast.  Let's just say that if I make boeuf bourguignon for you - it means I love you.  For real.  And if I make you homemade seedy bread and a flourless chocolate cake?  Well, then I really, really love you.

We celebrated three birthdays and a wedding anniversary with and for our dear friends.

The evening ended with a Beastie Boys dance party in the living room.  It was time to get ill...in a good way.

:: Plenty.  On my way to the bookmobile this week, I stopped to pick up my bookmobile buddy and couldn't help but admire her pumpkin installation on the front porch.  She grew every single one of them.

She even had a sweet little pumpkin shaped like a heart. We bought a few smaller pumpkins that were cone-shaped and will try to turn one of them into Cyclops (one-eyed giant in Greek mythology).  We'll see how that goes at the annual pumpkin-carving contest this year.  Um, for the record, I've placed twice at this party and can't wait to compete.  Remember my prize-winning cute, silver owl pumpkin from two years ago?  Check it out here.  Oh, and I'm in it to win it, friends.  Results in next week's nuggets.

Claude, the Albino Alligator

:: Hooky.  Friday was a half day at the boy's school and we played a little hooky and headed for the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.

The boys were so excited and ran from one exhibit to the next.  Grady even spent time petting the rainbow boa snake that was in the lobby.  I was totally shocked by his fearlessness and mildly freaked out at the same time, as I have a major snake phobia.  G was completely nonchalant and walked right up, asked to pet it and got the sweet satisfaction of seeing his mom cringe all the while.

The boys were also fascinated with this 1,700 year old Giant Sequoia that was cut down in 1917.  They quickly set out to count the rings, but gave up after they hit 56.  Did you know Giant Sequoias could live to be 3,500 years old?  Neither did I.  Absolutely stunning.

They offered up suggestions for making the planet healthier, as illustrated above, and added their handiwork to the ongoing installation about global warming.  Such wise young men.

:: Wordsmiths.  Our last stop was the Academy library and the boys bustled up the steps, grabbed the first book that interested them and lounged for a bit on the bean bag chairs.  This was my favorite picture of the day.

Half of the Babylonian Book Club of Bodega Bay

:: Celebrate.  Our dear friend had an open house and 70th birthday party all rolled into one on Saturday.  And while we never quite could grab the birthday girl for a photo op, the usual suspects gathered on the front deck.  We basked in the glow of a glorious October sunset, as the fiery orb slowly dipped behind Bodega Head and disappeared into the Pacific Ocean.  Downloading this photo made me smile and take note of the good friendships I've cultivated over the last decade we've lived here and called it home.

:: Soccer.  Grady ended the season on a high note and we gathered with the rest of his team for a potluck gathering in West Sebastopol.  It was so stinking hot here over the weekend, but that didn't stop the boys from running around and enjoying the three acre property.  G was awarded a certificate and acknowledged for his happy, jovial presence on the field and one of the most improved players of the season.  Remember, he did run the wrong way during his first league game!

:: Jamming.  Well, our freezer was just about to run out of room and the time was here to put all that summer sweetness into a mason jar and call it a day.  

My neighbor, Beula, was kind enough to come over and walk me through canning for the second year in a row.  You see, they were taking over almost half of my freezer and it is precious real estate around here.  I still have about four large freezer bags full of berries and some errant used milk containers full of summer strawberries.  So much happy work still to be done.

Beula has been canning for over 50 years and schooled me on the tools I need, organizing my kitchen for the task and timing it all out for me.  She was quality control, too.

:: Overabundance.  In the orchard next to my office, there is a sea of rotting Bosc pear soldiers.  The yellow jackets and flies are having a field day with the carnage strewn about the orchard floor and I wanted to gather what I could from the branches before they met the same fate.

I picked what I could with the extended-orchard-picker-thingy and gathered the last of my tomatoes from the deer-proof patch that was generously loaned to me this year by my colleague.  It's now time to put my summer garden to rest and start planting a few things for winter.  I'm so pleased with what I harvested from my little plot this year.  Tomatoes, chard, beets, carrots and more zinnias than I could shake a stick at.

Last Friday's sunset called to me like a siren and I pulled over on Highway One and snapped a few shots of the dried up fennel seed heads and some strange little creature with horns to the left of me.  Hmmm, where on earth did he come from?

Happy hump day out there.