disco garden

photo by blake gardner photography

we finally got to use our yard in the way it was intended! 

weeks of cleaning and prepping

yielded a lovely pre-ordination casual dinner party, 

underneath the LED light canopy and disco ball

hung by ryan. 

photo by blake gardner photography

you can see the disco ball hanging way up amidst the LED canopy. 

photo by blake gardner photography

my favorite outdoor office area even got a sprinkling of red LEDs. 

photo by blake gardner photography

we were super happy to host our friends and family 

for this special night under the "stars." 

photo by blake gardner photography

our friend jenna showed off her moves on the trampoline. 

photo by blake gardner photography

friends share vegan s'mores around the fire pit. 

viva la vegan gatherings! 

ryan's cleverness = bowling alley table

ryan can do pretty much anything. 

he made a beautiful table out of bowling alley lane over the weekend! 

i'm so excited about it. 

i've wanted a nice, long table for outdoor dining for a couple of years. 

the one he made sits 12. 

last fall, when we used bowling alley lanes for our kitchen counters, 

ryan had in mind he would use the left-over wood for an outdoor table. 

the cool thing about the table

(other than the fact people used to bowl on it)

is that all the wood is reclaimed. 

the edges are made out of wood from our friend Denise's old fence. 

the legs ... i can't remember exactly,

but the pieces of redwood used to be part of our house in some way. 

ryan cut wood, sanded, stained. 

he's amazing! 

i love that he has big visions, 

and the wherewithal to achieve them. 

i can't wait to see our friends and family 

gathered around the table saturday night, 

as we celebrate my ordination on Sunday! 

jammin' & cannin'

Friend Jackie and I had the best time today making jam! 

i felt like such a homemaker puttering around in the kitchen, 

making the jam and canning it in those sweet little jars. 

and i kept thinking "we're doing this for fun - just think about the times

when women had to do this in order to have food in the winter." 

a humbling thought. 

jackie and i started at the pasadena farmer's market this morning, 

and snagged ripe strawberries, figs, and plums. 

above is a medley of three colors of figs, and they were so sweet. 

our canning supplies at the ready! 

jackie and i had jammed and canned before, 

but a long time before - 

i think my last time was 1994 or 1995, 

and Jackie's was 2000. We still had our canning supplies! 

figs, sugar, lemon zest = super yummy fig jam.

and the plum spice jam was A-mazing. 

the color is a deep red-purple, just lovely. 

i need a pic of a piece of toast with some jam slathered on it. 

the best part (other than eating it) is listening 

to the satisfying POP of the lids sealing. 

fabulous way to spend saturday with a dear friend. 

xo! 

strawberry pie!

i'm back! 

7.5 weeks away this summer. 

but home long enough to make a no-bake strawberry pie. 

and to take pictures that give it an eerie glow. 

i'm a minister, not a photographer, what can i say? 

in the midst of my summer travels we had some house work done: 

- drip irrigation installed

- exterior of the house painted

- a french drain installed along the side/back of house

pictures coming soooooon! 

can't wait to catch up on all my blog reading. 

love! 

cinnamon rolls

today i did something i've wanted to do for a long time - 

bake cinnamon rolls from scratch. 

last fall my sweet honey man gave me 

the cookbook vegan brunch by isa chandra moskowitz. 

this week i am getting reacquainted with my home life after being gone 

for almost 6 weeks, and i dove into this cookbook. 

her recipe for cinnamon rolls is straightforward, 

and made it relatively easy and downright painless to get these going. 

the yeast foamed, the dough rose, it rolled out easily. 

it made 12, we've already eaten 9. 

who wants the last three? 

edible landscape, redlands, CA

kat and geoff

saturday i returned home from my 

"summer 2011 unitarian universalist tour"

the way i fondly refer to my travel-heavy summer work schedule. 

at our UU family camp, 7000 feet in the san bernardino mountains, 

i connected with kat, keith, and geoff. 

we bonded over our edible landscapes. 

they live on my way home, and generously offered to give me a tour of their place. 

i fell in love! 

they have lots of raised beds in the front and back yards, 

growing herbs, flowers, vegetables, fruits. 

the pathways are a recycled tire mulch. 

it's springy to the touch, 

and kat says it's no problem to be on your knees while weeding. 

they'd been out of town for a week, 

but thanks to their drip irrigation system, 

everything looked lush. 

check out this happy, healthy row of raspberries. 

love that they went vertical. 

more raised beds. 

tomatoes exploding out of their cage. 

their paradise has been in the making for the past 8 years. 

it was so inspirational and

helps me look with new eyes on my own garden. 

now that i'm back home, 

i can't wait to catch up on all my blog reading! 

peace. 

root simple book signing!

kelly and erik, creators of root simple blog
and authors of two books!

i had a great time tonight at kelly and erik's 

book-signing at vroman's bookstore in pasadena. 

they are do-it-yourselfers, and their blog 

chronicles their journey toward self-sustainability, 

in their very urban neighborhood of 

Los Feliz, or is it Silverlake, or it is HaFoSaFo? 

(apparently they are right on the boundary). 

i've been stalking, i mean reading, their blog 

for many months now. 

i keep thinking "i can't believe they can do that, or that"

so it was extra cool to be at the book-signing, 

and see they are real people, who are funny and nice. 

and who are confident enough to show real pictures of a real working garden

(meaning: real gardens don't always look perfect). 

i wish i would have taken a pic of them tonight. 

but i was too busy mentally getting on board with kelly's 

assertion that you really can make your own face cream, 

and it's easy, cheap, and eco-friendly. 

this is their new book. 

makes me wish i had taken home ec in high school, 

instead of the agri class. 

can't wait to dive into it. 

and i'm hoping they will open up their space for a tour. 

it is so helpful to see other people's working gardens and get good ideas. 

kelly and erik, you rock!