Friday Shoot Out: Tastes and Smells

There is the overwhelming fragrance on a walk through the Amador flower farm in the Shenandoah Valley of the California Foothills....

And the wonderful, spicy smell of freshly sliced strawberries from the Great Central Valley....

But have you taken a deep breath while picking the tomatoes from your own garden?

 Have you smelled the subtle sweetness of a hand full of beans?

 

Or the fresh watery aroma of a freshly picked Zucchini ?

 Has the Basil captured your senses as you walk by on a hot summer day?
Nature has it's own way of getting your attention, but if you want lip smacking, in your face, goodness for your senses....
Put some fragrant flowers on your table, then go into the kitchen and make some Pesto with the freshly picked basil leaves. Cook some of the beans, cool them and put oil and vinegar dressing on them.  Now, slice some tomatoes and zucchini and add them to the beans.
Add some Pesto to some cooked pasta. Sweeten the strawberries and add a dollop of whipped cream for dessert.
How is that for the aromas and  flavors of Summer? Want to come for dinner?

Please go to this site for more photos on the subject of "taste and smells".

Vintage Thursday; Photo of a young man

The man on the far right is my maternal grandfather on a hiking trip with friends around the turn of the century. His name was Ludwig Markowsky Lytjen.  He was very handsome.( My oldest grandson looks like him. ) He appeared to love photography. His family was Danish/German and they were Christian Scientists. He was born in October 1883 and  he died in his early 30's. This is all I know of him.
The IOC letters on the man's sweater may stand for the International Ornithological Congress, if my research is at all valid.  It's the only organization that I could find in existence back at the turn of the century. If I'm wrong and the acronym is ICO then it could be the Illinois College of Optometry or the International Coffee Organization, which doesn't shed any light on anything. It's all a guess and really has nothing to do with what is happening in the photo except that the man might be carrying eye drops or he might have brought coffee for everyone. I just thought that I could find more information about where the photo was taken. Acronyms sometimes give you more insight. .
There is a building above them on the left and two people on the rocks in the upper middle of the photo. They are all wearing warm clothing so it's probably not summer....or maybe near the ocean.
I love this photo not only because it's one of the few I have of my grandfather, but because it's so indicative of the times. I think my grandfather was quite the "dandy" and seemed over dressed for the occasion. The group as a whole seems more casual. I love the hats.
I think that the blond man in the middle of the photo is taking the picture. It looks like he is holding a remote camera button. What do you think?

This is the same group of handsome young men on the same day, having lunch and relaxing. My grandfather is on the right in front. He still looks like my oldest grandson. Look at him! No wonder my grandma fell in love with him.
The young man on the left, in front, is still up to his clever deceptions. See his hand? He's taking the picture. That might be driftwood behind them. If so, my guess would still be the ocean.  It does seem awfully rocky. Maybe it's around the Cliff House in San Francisco.
It doesn't really matter where they are. I love these photos. I see a grandfather that I never knew who looks like my son and grandson. I see his hands..... that look familiar too. Something in that steady, staring countenance that reminds me of my people.  That he once lived and loved my grandmother and walked the earth before us, gives me connection and continuance. This is why I love photography. It is, in a way, "calling something by its real name."

Please take a look at Colorado Lady's Blog for other vintage stories.

My Grandmother's House

This was the very first place in my life that I truly and forever fell in love with. This was my maternal grandmother's house. It was a small two bedroom house in the hills above Napa, California. Before there were Wine Trains, fancy bed and breakfasts, balloon rides over the valley and golf courses with gate keepers, there was a very small town were everybody knew your name and folks lived in the same place their whole lives. It was a beautiful town.
My grandmother's name was Johanna. She was raised  on a ranch, on the Silverado Trail, outside of  Napa. Johanna married a man in the last part of the 1910's who was from Berkeley. He was the love of her life. She moved there with him and settled into domestic life. In about 1923 he got sick and died. He was 30 years old and left  my grandmother with three children under the age of five.
She returned to Napa, and the Ranch, where her Italian parents and sisters could help her and she went to work as a cook at the Napa State Hospital in Imola. She was a widow and single parent in the early 1920's without any skills but she did know how to cook.
My mother remembered the ranch as her real home even though they frequently moved into town and rented a house, on Bailey Street near the fairgrounds, when Grandma got tired of living with her parents. She also worked as a dinner cook for a wealthy Italian family in town. My mother, being the oldest, would take care of her brother and sister until her mother got home.  Even though Grandma was tired and worked long hours she would always read them stories before they went to bed. Sometimes she would bring home leftovers or a special dessert for the children.
The year I was born my grandmother built a house with the help of her only son. It was 1944 and she finally got to have a home of her own. She lived there until 1965, surviving two awful fires that came down through the canyon, threatening her house and destroying the surrounding vegetation. Both times the firemen were able to save her home and she would return to her house on the hill. Then in 1965 she got very sick and had to come and live with us.  I think that this was the last blow. She lost her husband, then her youngest daughter,  and then, finally, had to leave the home that she loved. She had cancer. She died in the Spring.

The Prospector and I got married that Summer. Mom rented the house to other people, but in the Summer of 1972 we took our son "M" and moved into my grandma's house. Our son was four years old.
This was a dream of mine ... to live here with the huge rocks, the beautiful view and the memories. We cleaned and painted. We had to replace the floor in the bathroom because one of the renters had let their cat use a corner for a cat box and it rotted the floor out. We fixed everything. I made curtains and decorated "M"s room in blue cowboy things. The Prospector was going to get a job transfer up in the Napa area and we were going to live there forever.
We bought a brand new green truck (for me) and the Prospector commuted to Concord in our little Volkswagen Bug.
 I enrolled "M" in a preschool that was in an elementary school in town. It was the same school that my dad had gone to when he was a boy. There was such a connection to everything. I felt as if I had finally come home.
One night when the Prospector was doing shift work and getting home at 11:00 p.m. he fell asleep driving down Silverado Trail. He was almost home. He woke up just in time to side swipe an oncoming car. He didn't wake me because I was sleeping. I found out the next morning. He was fine, but the Bug was totaled.  The next weekend we went down and looked at homes in Antioch, Ca. The hour drive was too much for him that late at night and there were not going to be any transfers in the near future anywhere around the Napa area.  Two weeks later we bought a house. It was a new house but it was already built. Everything happen so fast. I didn't have time to think about anything but the pending move. We had only been in my Grandma's house for about 6 months.We ended up raising our boys in Antioch. We were there for 23 years.
I love this photo of "M" and I, with our dog Greta. I was pregnant.....

That Spring we had our second child "J". He was the sweetest baby. Greta liked him too. Two boys, five years apart.... just like we had planned. Just what we wanted.... good old birth control pills.

"M" was such a good "big" brother. He helped me with everything. He loved bringing diapers and holding the bottle. He was my little helper.
We had a neighborhood and friends that lived close by. We had a babysitter who lived two doors down, in our court, who could called her parents if she needed help. It was wonderful for the boys to have such a safe place to live. This was where we needed to be. We didn't have to worry about Rattlesnakes or Poison Oak and the likelihood of fire was very slim. It was a beautiful home and life was good.....but....

.... I will always miss the way the sun came in the kitchen windows at my grandmother's house. I painted the kitchen yellow and made blue gingham curtains for the windows. It was a pretty kitchen.
When grandma was living there the kitchen was always a mess. She was not a good housekeeper. When I went up there every summer, I would clean up the kitchen for her. She always wanted to go for a hike or work in the garden rather than clean anything. But I remember the kittens in a basket under the wood stove and the Sears catalogs that I would spend hours looking through.These far outweighed the dust and dirt.
 As a child, I loved the fragrance of the manzanita bushes on a hot day and walking down to the creek, taking my shoes off and splashing around in the water. I would find the biggest Banana Slugs and the smallest tadpoles. Grandma would tell me the real names of the wildflowers and bugs; the Latin names. Then we would climb back up to the house and  take a nap together. She would read me stories and we would talk about things.
A few years after we moved to Antioch there was an awful fire up in Napa. It burned some of the huge homes to the ground around and above the Silverado Country Club. The fire was fast and intense.This time my grandmother's house didn't survive. The Prospector and I drove up there right after the fire and there was nothing left. I found a melted piece of the metal heater cover. That was it.
Someone had bought the house the year before the fire and I guess they had insurance because they built another house right away. It was ugly.
 I have only been back once in 35 years. I will never go back again. The memories are inside of me now. I don't need to see the paved road, or the new house with no windows. The little brown house with the knotty pine walls and the stone fireplace is gone. My yellow kitchen is not there. The wood stove with the basket of kittens will never be again.  What I remember isn't there anymore, but the memories survived the fire...., and the ghosts. I know that my grandmother is walking around up there looking for wildflowers and calling them by their Latin names. I know she went back. It was the only place she was ever really happy.

A unique sculpture in Lafayette, CA.

This is one of the most interesting sculptures I have ever seen. When I was at my sister's house a week or so ago, we drove downtown to see the new library and this sculpture.

The sculpture, called "Speechless" by Brian Goggin, is in a courtyard on the backside of the library.

The pages are flying over the courtyard and into the library.

The pages are suspended on wires and look like they are flying around. You don't see the wires unless the sun hits them, but even if you see the wires it's still kind of magical.

One page was sticking to the wall.

If you stand really close to the stack of pages, you feel like the whole thing is going to fall on you which is, in a way, what books and words do. They fall on your imagination.  It's so visual.
I finally found some information that gives a really good description of what this sculpture looks and feels like.

"Set against the new Lafayette Library a giant wavering bronze stack of paper rises. Had one taken a page from every book in the library collection – stacking one on top of the other – a stack of paper equivalent in height to this sculpture would result. The towering sculpture winds and teeters reaching absurd, precarious proportions. Wind has caught the top pages blowing them across the outdoor plaza, up and through the stairway corridor. Some pages furl in mid air, flying above the walkways while others wrap around trellis posts, past the library walls. Each fluttering page is precisely etched with “drawings” created with layers of text and graphics from the library’s books. The pages glide through the walkways creating a visual flow inspired by the natural air currents streaming through architectural gullies and star and planet constellations.
The bronze pages allude to all pages ever printed. The etched pages use as their pallet imagery scanned directly from books drawing from all sections of the library’s book collection such as philosophy, literature, math, poetry, history, biography, science, and of course art. The dispersing pages fluttering out from the toppling stack is inspired by the library collection’s grand expansion in size and new knowledge platforms beyond books. The expansion is visually alluded to in this site-specific installation – the concurrent transformation of how we learn is captured by the dynamic, dreamlike flight of the bronze pages wafting gracefully through the air."

I want to thank Scott Beall at : http://laughingsquid.com/speechless-site-specific-public-art-installation-by-brian-goggin-at-new-lafayette-library/  for the above description.I couldn't have said it better.
If you're ever in the San Francisco/Oakland/Berkeley area, you could take a short, beautiful drive to Lafayette and check out the new library... and this statue. It's worth the trip.

No Wordless Wednesday Today. I have things to tell you about.

I have to tell you about this new wide angle lens I sent away for. The three photos above, were taken with this lens attached to my Nikon D40 camera. I bought it from New Harbor for...are you ready? $12.38 . It's not a brand I have ever heard of. It's called Neewer.  It's a digital high definition 0.45X super wide angle lens with macro Japan optics. It came with caps and a bag. I don't know how they could make this lens for this price but I don't care, because I'm getting some very interesting photos with it and if it falls apart tomorrow, I won't be crying about the price. I know good lenses are suppose to be very expensive but what the heck. I'm having fun with it and that's what being a photographer is all about.

This lens fits right onto the front of both my Nikon lenses and takes in a wider angle of  view. The only difference I can see so far is, that with landscapes, the foreground  is blurred a bit but the center is very sharp. I don't look at this as a disadvantage because I like the effect.  The outsides of the photo angles in and the focus is in the center. This makes for some very interesting shots. It doesn't work with close ups but I can leave the lens on and it doesn't interfere with closer shots.
It's the cheapest fun I have had in a long time.

Neewer 52mm wide-angle lens~including bag~ for Nikon D40,D50.D60,D70 and D80. Sold by New Harbor- brand new; $7.39 + $4.99 shipping. Fun factor....Priceless.

I have a confession to make. I have not read a book for at least a year. I KNOW! I can't believe it either. I have a pile that I want to read. I have another pile that friends have given me saying..."You've got to read this. It's the best book I've read in a long time." I have no excuse. I just haven't read ANYTHING.... until last week. My friend "D", from Montana, was here a year ago when my Mom died and she bought me two books. One of them was Lost & Found by Jacqueline Sheehan. I started it a few times and them put it down. Finally, last week, I picked it up and made a promised to myself  that I would finish it. I did.
It was wonderful...."You've got to read this. It's the best book I've read in a long time." (sound familiar) If you like dogs, want to change your life, or have lost someone that you loved dearly, you must read this book. It's about grief and the process that one person goes through. It's a love story between a woman and a dog...both wounded animals, both learning to trust again....and sometimes it's from the dogs point of view, which I love. It's about human frailties and how we can all learn to love again, no matter what happens to us. It's a great summertime read.
Thank you "D". I finally understand, my friend. It has taken a whole year, but things are better.

And now I leave you with....

Carl and Cutter, two little Corgis that are becoming  friends. The paw says it all. Carl wouldn't let just anyone do this.
Have a good rest of the week.....

Kiss the Joy as it flies... Blake's kind of morning.

The tomatoes are starting to turn red. Isn't this amazing? Give this heat loving plant the summer heat it desires and "Voila!", red tomatoes.

And so it is with the Moulin Rouge Sunflowers. They are happy with the summer heat and every morning they turn toward the East, as this radiant orb casts its light upon the farm, as if to proclaim the sun's arrival. Do flowers have rituals? Do they know what sustains them?

 
This bee is so beautiful against the white Agapanthus. It was early and many of them were still sleeping. What would it be like to sleep in a flower. The fragrance would be delightful. How do they hold on while they sleep.

My favorite bee is this one.... it's friendly and seems to like having humans around. They never get upset and I have had them crawl onto my hand without stinging. It's a bumble bee but I'm not sure what specific kind. Maybe a Golden Northern.

 This one loves the lavender. It's smaller than the black one and is probably a common Honey Bee. Very industrious, busy and brilliantly colored. They don't seem as friendly and when I started taking pictures this one buzzed and flew right at me, landing on my tee shirt. It stayed long enough for me to get a photo of it, then flew away, as if to say..."Don't get so close next time."

I guess it was just as curious about me as I was about him. Did you know that by passing food mixed with saliva to one another, members of a hive can chemically bond with each other? Is that like French kissing in the bee world? Did you also know that settlers brought the Honey Bee to North America in the 17th century. Just another immigrant, like my great-grandma. I love this stuff.

 Take a good look at this photo. My morning shadow made me look thin.  Thank you morning sun for elongating the shadow of my body and giving me a sense of slenderness that I find endlessly difficult to achieve in my everyday existence.
And as a parting shot..... Carl, the original "finders, keepers, losers, weepers" dog that The Prospector says "...does no wrong.".
I forgot to pick up my garden gloves and Mr. Opportunity found one of them. He would not look at me or drop the glove.  I had to chase him around the yard. I was so close a few times. But he would dart away when I got within reach of "his" prize glove. I finally grabbed him and got the glove. He seemed insulted. The other glove was missing. So was Cutter.... and Carl wasn't talking.
I finally found the other one in the house, on the table, where I had taken it off....Cutter was sleeping on the couch. How could I have blamed him for taking the other glove? Easy.... Carl is teaching him everything he knows. 

Carl with that "look".... and the glove.

Every child comes with the message that god is not yet discouraged of man" ~ R. Tagore~

"We find a delight in the beauty and happiness of children that makes the heart too big for the body."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

At particular epochs of their life, children reveal an intense and extraordinary interest in certain objects and exercises, which one might look for in vain at a later age....Such attention is not the result of mere curiosity; it is more like a burning passion."

~Maria Montessori~

"The adult works to perfect his environment, whereas the child works to perfect himself, using the environment as the means....The child is a being in a constant state of transformation."

~E.M. Standing~

Shoot Out Friday on Saturday : Shoes and Feet

"Uncensored" (Collage of feet on porch steps.)










"Maggie's feet"











"Footprint"

"Hiding"

"Favorite Shoes"


Take a look at some other photos of "Shoes and Feet" on Friday Shoot Out at http://mytownmrlinky.blogspot.com/.

Fun Times and Cool Weather

I got home Wednesday afternoon, returning to the heat of the Foothills. The weather was wonderful down in the Bay Area. The fog hung on the hills like lazy clouds, resting in all the crevasses and valleys. It was so beautiful and cold at night. I wanted to bottle the fog and bring it home with me. It's very hot here.
Sis had been working on her garden and it looked beautiful. She grows Hydrangeas that are so big and beautiful that it's hard to believe they are real. She says that she doesn't fertilize them....it's just the right spot and the right soil. Everything looked so nice.

 On Sunday night my son and his family stopped by after dinner. They had been swimming all afternoon so they didn't go swimming in Sis's pool but they had so much fun just being around it. They watched Uncle "J" skim the water and were fascinated by the pool cleaner that crawled back and forth, cleaning the bottom and sides of the pool.

The really funny thing was watching the dogs watch the boys. Especially Lily, the German Shorthair Pointer. She could not figure out what these little guys were doing and followed them everywhere. Look at her expression in the photo above. (click the picture for a close up.) She watched their every move. I think she might have been the first to jump if one of the boys fell in. I think she was being  "Nana".You know, from Peter Pan. She was so concerned.

The Bean and his bro would watch the "creepy crawler" until it started up the side of the pool toward them. Then they would move back and laugh. What fun! It was like a "monster" that was trying to get them. Then it would move back down and go across to the other side and off they would go to see it come up the other side.

 It was kind of creepy down in the deep water...., all wiggly and moving.

I stayed with the Bambinos on Saturday night while Mommy and Daddy went to the movies. We had a good time. "I promise I won't let them stay up so late next time... but we had to see what happened at the end of the Chipmunk movie."
Sunday Sis and I drove out to Oakland, up in the hills, to see my oldest son. He is working on his house. He has a new bathroom. It's beautiful. I have more photos...tomorrow. Sunday night was when The Bean and his family came over to be terrorized by the pool sweep.
Monday Sis and I went to lunch and that night I took dinner over to my son's house and then we went to the school playground down at the end of the street. I have MORE photos....you do want to see them don't you? I promise I will edit them. I don't want to bore you with hundreds of pictures of grandchildren on swings and bambinos riding Razors (do you know what this is?) and Trikes. But, you know how it is if you're a grandma.

Tuesday Sis and I went to Home Depot to look at flooring for my sons new addition and then to Trader Joes. I love this store. I got my wonderful blue cheese and the Multigrain Baking and Pancake Mix.
That night I met my oldest and we went to dinner in Oakland and ate ice cream at Fenton's. If you live in the Bay Area you know what I'm talking about. ~FENTONS~

It is one of the best ice cream places in Northern California. Steak at a very good restaurant and Ice Cream. Yea! That's the good life.
On Thursday, yesterday, I was so tired that I did mostly.... nothing. I sat at the computer, wrote a easy post, caught up on my email, watered the garden, clipped the old flowers, talked to the animals, NAPPED, sat on the couch, fell asleep, fixed dinner and went to bed.
Today I had a bit more energy.... but now I'm pooped, again. Guess I'm gettin' old. When did that happen?

Vintage Thursday: Spoonin' in the Back Seat

The War was over. Flags were flying. The Country was happy. The world was safe. Life was returning to normal.
Your friend called and said that his dad let him have the Chevy for the evening. "Do you want to make it a double date?"  and you said, "Sure."

You picked up your girlfriends and drive into town. Bill and his date in the front. You and your girl in the backseat.
Benny Goodman was playing on the radio...

  The back seat held the fragrance of home and your girl's perfume. Life was good....

This is a 1938 Chevy Master Deluxe Sedan with many memories tuck into it's mohair seats. The car was kept clean and not used much until the war was over. Rationed gas was too expensive for daily use.
I see a young man, who survived the war and served his country well, sitting back and laughing as he puts his arm around his sweetie.
He came back to a home town that gave him a parade and shook hands with him as he walked down the Main street. Fathers took big sighs of relief and Moms cried tears of joy.

....and Johnny sat in the back seat with his girlfriend and made plans for the rest of his life.

Please go to Colorado Lady's Blog for more vintage stories and posts.