All is calm...All is bright

What a wonder this time of year is. Family, friends, food, and all things miraculous. Have a wonderful Christmas and a glorious New Year.

Compost bins 1, 2 and 3. Now labelled as I'm totally OCD.

My neighbors and my husband and I all use my compost bins. The inevitable question "which bin?" has always answered with 'first bin on the left'. Over time has been shortened to 'bin 1'. So I went out and bought these lovely brass house numbers and now the guess work is over. It's the same as labelling the herbs. I do that mostly for my husband but on occassion my neighbors ask for herbs too. I love sharing anything I grow, so it gives me great pleasure when they ask.

Getting the grow lights up!!

Baby lettuce's under grow lights

Me...a total vision. Nuff said.

Back in the house with my cold feet.

Greenhouse bed with lettuce. Flattened by water.

Swear to God, the whole back yard glows.
Looks like the mother-ship has landed.

Foraging for salad. Success.

At first glance it looks like there is nothing really growing that I could make a salad with. I noticed that a few of the lettuce's in the garden were quite a decent size. I grabbed my bucket and picked some leaves. I noticed that the French Sorrel had some baby leaves coming up so I picked a few of those for punch. Went into the greenhouse and found several leaves that while tiny, were big enough to pick. I returned outside and meandered. I noticed that there were still several Chilean Guavas on the bush and they were turning whitish. They are at their sweetest when they start to have a white blush. So I added those to the bucket. Neighbor Judy had given me a few beets and I grated one up and added that. I then threw some pumpkin seeds on and Raspberry Lime dressing. It was awesome. I have really missed fresh salad.

Summer Salad. Remember when we ate like this every day !

We had a family barbecue this summer and this was the salad I made. I had forgotten how pretty they are. The days will be getting longer very soon.
On the topic of summer, I received my Westcoast Seed Catalogue today. I know what I'll be reading this weekend.

The microwave oven is leaving. Yayyy.

I have heard too many horror stories about microwave ovens. I just think they are a bad idea. It took me a while to gently get my husband on board. He has discovered that food tastes better oven warmed. Almost killed myself getting it down off a highish shelf that sits at about six feet. I was at the house alone and no ladder. Wow. That was close. Got the job done though, no worries. That gave me another shelf in this very small kitchen. A place to put the glass containers I've been switching everything over to. Isn't that wonderful. I think it looks really cool.

Meyer Lemon tree. How beautiful can a lemon be!!

I am in love with my Meyer Lemon. We had our first lemon last week. You can indeed taste the orange in it's background. I can see why they think it was originally bred with a mandarin orange. They are delicious. Everyone should have one.

Christmas Tree...what an incredibly satisfying chore.

Bare Tree

Sorry about some of the pictures. I'm not sure what I did differently. I'm usually pretty good a tree pictures. I'll get a better after tomorrow.

Some ornaments on.

Some of the 300 glass icicles on

If you look close you can see the little 'ice balls' that lay on the branches.