HFM

This isn't specifically about the house or garden, but it does involve the dog, & the community we live in, so I hope you'll indulge this plug for a fundraiser I'm doing for an important health care resource in San Francisco. If you follow health care stuff at all, you are probably aware that access to quality (or even competent)   care is not just an issue of money. Doctors make assumptions about who you are that are based on what you look like, that then affect how they hear your complaints, & what treatment they recommend (if any). Women, for example, have battled sexism in the doctor's office for decades, knowing that their symptoms aren't just "in their heads." LGBT people & people of color also face barriers caused by the bad ideas in some doctors' heads. For example, there is a very famous transgender author who writes about being thrown out of an emergency room (and into a snowstorm, I might add), despite a 104-degree fever caused b...

Last week, I made a plea for help in identifying the mysterious new plant in the back yard. Great news! Momma Arave solved the puzzle. It is the elegantly named Gopher Spurge:  http://www.mountainvalleygrowers.com/euplathyrus.htm Thank you for saving the day, Georganne! Meanwhile, the garden keeps on growing happily. Pea blossoms: Fava blossoms: Heads of lettuce, new arugula sprouts, swiss chard sprouts: Spinach, beets (& cat-proofing materials): And a dog enjoying the sunshine: Not bad for the last weekend in April!

As if spinach & arugula risotto weren't enough deliciousness for one week, last night Adrienne made smothered chicken, with collards & butter lettuce from the garden. Ridiculously good!

As promised, here is a photo of the spinach & arugula risotto Adrienne made tonight, with stuff from the garden: Delicious!

The weather has been fantastic for the past week or so -- high 60's/low 70's, bright & sunny. The bad news is that it made all the arugula bolt while I was on the east coast for a visit last week: This is about a pound's worth. Maybe two. The good news is that we now can make lots of arugula pesto! The other good news is that I now have lots of room to plant the swiss chard seeds my dad sent after I got back to Mars! Saturday & Sunday this weekend were dedicated to gardening. Here's the garden, at about 8am Saturday morning: The fava plants are about 4 feet tall, & have just started blooming: I noticed today that the first planting of snap peas has just produced a few blossoms, as well! Anyway, this weekend, I planted the swiss chard, and more spinach, beets, & carrots, but I spent most of my time weeding & cutting back some of the more ornamental plants edging the garden -- pretty, but starting to choke the vegetables. I also cleared out all kinds o...

This week, we celebrated two important Mars events. We pulled up the first of the radishes: And we got a few days of sunny, 70-degree weather after a week of rain. Some of us were particularly excited: