A Tomato Yard Sale

This way to an Hierloom [sic] Tomato Yard Sale!

Apricots and Squirrels

Those awful squirrels are at it again. My apricots are NOT QUITE RIPE, and yet, they are being demolished by those terrible demons! ARGGGGGG!!!!!

Grades of Green Assembly

When Vista found out that we had won the Grades of Green Trash-Free Lunch Challenge, I made sure I put the assembly on my calendar so I could cheer on our school. It was a pretty big deal. The superintendent, three school board members, the Claremont mayor and a few other dignitaries were in attendance. The promoters of the challenge came and made some speeches and then recognized Vista's Green Team before presenting them with a check for $1,000.

Students are sorting their trash and recyclables. 

Two presenters are getting the students to yell - Trash Free!

The dignitaries had chairs in the shade. It was hot out!

 Two of Vista's awesome teachers!

The Green Team assembled

Missing Tree

I could see more sky than usual as I walked up to Vista's music room today. It quickly came to me that a tree was missing. They must have removed it over spring break. Several years ago I blogged about how I always had to sweep up the pink flowers from the tree so that students would not slip on them on the way to class.

Apparently I don't have that issue any more, but I hope that they replace that tree with some other kind.

More Gardens

After enjoying RSABG, we toured 5 private gardens and here are some of my favorite photos.

Vista's Green Team - Follow-Up

Last night two of Vista's fabulous 5th graders made a pitch to the Claremont Community and Human Services Commission for funds for the Vista Garden. Here they are, making last-minute adjustments to the speech they gave with the teacher leader of Vista's Green Team. I blogged about this project in January, noting that Vista was participating in the Grades of Green Trash-Free Lunch Challenge. As one of 23 schools in LA County, we found out recently that we were in the top three. Perhaps this video helped us get to the top....Yesterday the officials from the program visited the school and by the end of the day we found out that Vista had won first place! 

Council Chambers

Here is a video of the girls speaking before the commissioners. I am so proud of how they spoke clearly and with obvious enthusiasm for their work on the Green Team.

Bees in Trees

This morning C noticed that bees were swarming in one of our street trees. I called the city, and they said they will send someone out to look at it. They didn't want to call the bee removal people unless I could actually see a hive. I explained that the hole in the tree is over 10 feet high, and I'm pretty sure I can't see if there is a hive or not. I do know that our street has had bee infestations for many years now. 

I went out and took some photos with my long lens, and then I made a very slap-dash movie. I don't have the inclination to make an animated gif today, but I used Quicktime to take a screen movie, and then I ran through the 19 photos very quickly in iPhoto. 

Women's Retreat - Highland Springs Resort

It was time, once again, for our annual Women's Retreat. This year we had a new venue and a different weekend (the MLK holiday weekend this time, rather than the last weekend in January). The Glen Ivy Retreat Center has closed, so we were on the hunt for a new venue. We came up with the Highland Springs Resort and Conference Center in Cherry Valley. You can read about the history of the land here from the early 1800s when the land was a Rancho - an outpost for the San Gabriel Mission, then as a stagecoach stop, then in 1927 as a health resort (complete with colon cleansing and vegetarian meals).

Today the Resort hosts weddings, retreats, conferences, and also walk-ins for lunch and dinner at the Grand Oak Steakhouse and Bar (I guess they gave up on the idea of vegetarian food....). The claim to fame, I think, are the lavender fields, but the olive trees are also beautiful. Yesterday we took a walk through the trees, by the fields and ended up at the 1100-year-old Oak Tree and a pen of sheep and some beautiful vistas.

New Agave

One of H's colleagues is expecting her first child and decided that all the potentially hazardous poke-your-eye-out plants have to leave their yard. They offered us some agave, and we took them up on just one. It's a pretty good size, and now our yard is protected from any attack babies. Now, if only it would reach out and get some of our squirrels….

Vista Fall Garden

Last week I spied this bulletin board at the CUSD Office. I had heard that the pumpkins in the Vista garden were especially plentiful this year, and the PFA sold them recently, depleting their stock in less than 20 minutes.

Garden Tomatoes

Finally! The tomatoes are getting ripe!

First Tomato of the Season

I picked our first garden tomato of the season just now. The peaches are almost finished, and the tomatoes seem behind schedule. This one may look unripe because it has so much green on it, but it is definitely ripe.

Something was eating the tomatoes while they were very green and hard, and the way they were boring into the fruit did not look like a squirrel. H looked carefully last week and saw some large green caterpillars munching away, so it was easy to pluck those things off to remove them. They were also eating away the leaves of the plants - stripping them bare.

Communi-trees

When I was wandering through the Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Garden during the Folk Festival, I came across these "Communi-trees" near the back of the garden. I had not seen them before, and I always enjoy seeing new things in the garden.  You can read the sign about the creation of the sculptures.

Old CD solution?

My clutter cleanse is going quite well. I am keeping track of items I am purging, and so far in June it's more than 40 items. Some of those items are old CDs, and I thought that if I hung some in my peach tree, the sun shining off of the reflective side might, just maybe, scare off a squirrel or two. I have no idea if this will work, but it is worth a try. I'll let you know.

Apricots!

About 5 years ago we planted a fruit cocktail tree which has two kinds of peaches, a nectarine and apricot. We have not gotten much fruit from it yet, until this spring. We were thrilled to see so many apricots. However, those &$#! squirrels started nibbling on them when they were still hard. So, I showed those little buggers and stripped the tree clean of the fruit and took them inside to ripen. It didn't take long, and this week I made apricot jam. Yum.

Cactus Flowers

Every week or two one of our little cacti flowers, and recently it had these five flowers all at once. The blooms last about a day and then are gone....

Giant Carrot

As seen at Vista this week. This carrot is even bigger that the photo might indicate!

Salad Days

The weather has turned hot - really hot yesterday at about 100 degrees. Time to have a salad for dinner every night. Time to find new recipes. I have been following a local blogger (see Blogs I Follow and find What's For Meat?) who sprinkles stories from her life at home with three little girls with recipes. The other day I looked through her salad recipes and copied a bunch and have tried two so far.

Tonight we had Butternut Squash with Lentils and Goat Cheese. We will have it again, and next time I will make sure we have enough mint leaves in the pot in the yard. Since I just knew we had a whole bunch, I didn't look before I went shopping, and when I went out with the scissors tonight, I harvested about a teaspoonful. 

Winter to Spring

My mom sent me this photo taken in Fort Collins two days ago - in APRIL. Spring is having a hard time coming through the door in Colorado right now.

During our winter, when we do actually get below freezing for short periods at a time, our bougainvillea appeared to have succumbed to the frost. (The green in the photo is the invasive asparagus fern that I can't seem to eradicate.) I took this photo in February

This is the same bougainvillea, photographed a few days ago, showing that spring is definitely coming to Claremont. 

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Day 18 - Clutter Cleanse: A VHS entitled "Isaac Asimov Presents a Musical Video Voyage in Outer Space: Voyage to the Outer Planets and Beyond." This video shows images from JPL and NASA of the planets set to Gustav Holst's The Planets. I think I showed the video once to students years ago, and it was pretty slow going for them. I'm sure that if I want to play students any of this music, I can find a different way to introduce it. Donated.

Garden Tour 2013

This year's CUCC Garden Tour was definitely cloudier and chillier than last year's. That did not deter people from wandering the 6 featured gardens in Historic Claremont. Our Celtic Duo, Drowsy Maggie, played background music for one of the houses, thankfully inside the pool house room off of the garden. Since we were the second group to perform, we took the opportunity to visit the other gardens and enjoy the diversity and beauty of them all before our gig. I took along my camera and shot lots of photos. Here are a few of my favorites.

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Days 13 and 14 - Clutter Cleanse: I finally got around to shredding my folks' outdated will and trust. I also decided that I was not going to finish the book The Beet Queen by Louise Erdrich, so that gets donated.