Tomato Harvest

A couple of my heirloom tomatoes finally came around!
The big guy on top is an Italian Heirloom, in the top corner is a handful of Cherry Romas, the Russo Sicilian (look at the seeds on this one - it was like cutting open a bell pepper), and a Black Krim that I probably picked a couple days early but couldn't wait for :)

6 AM

Since I never really see the outside (or inside) of my house at 6am, I've never really seen it in this light.
From this angle, it almost looks like things are coming together! ;) 

Blooms on my new hydrangea on the front corner. 'Limelight'

Moonflower getting ready to close back up for the day.

My succulents hanging out, looking pretty. :)
At the bottom of the picture, you can just see the little sprigs that were grown from cuttings and recently transplanted into this large metal bowl. So far, so good!

Inspiration

After coming back from California, I was just so ready to try new things here in Iowa. I've done a little research about hardy varieties of fig and am playing around a little more with my succulents.
In finishing up some of the detail paint work on the backside of my house, I came to a point about halfway through the back wall where the neighbors' peach tree was starting to grow over the fence. She and I had talked about it and she was going to trim them back. After checking with her to make sure it was OK, I snipped off a couple smaller shoots, shaved off a little bark near the cut end of the branch and coated it with rooting hormone, and potted it.

It's going to look a little sad for a while, but hopefully the cut end of this shoot will send out new roots and take hold in the pot. I amended the soil with a little organic fertilizer before planting, firming, and watering the branch. If it doesn't work, at least it hasn't cost me anything...if it DOES work, I'll have my own peaches a couple summers from now!

It's that time of year, again!

Mine all mine!
This was my first good sized tomato harvest this year with several varieties to sample:
Italian Heirloom, Amish Paste, Cherokee Purple, Green Zebra, Cherry Roma, and more!
I purchased the tomatoes as small plants from Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah, Iowa and it's been fun to watch them grow and produce in a BIG way!

Californ-i-a: Food

We had some really great food in California. Some of it had it's picture taken..some of it was devoured before I remembered.
In addition to In-N-Out Burger and some of the traditional stuff like that, we ate at a couple really cool little local spots. This one was called Back Abbey - a little British-inspired pub with nice outdoor seating.

I had the Back Abbey with fries and a French beer :)
The burger was ridiculous: Angus beef, Nimon Ranch bacon, caramelized onion, garlic aioli
I was really excited about the fries, too..fried in duck fat. I've heard good things, and they didn't disappoint.

The bakery in Claremont has been around for nearly 100 years. It's currently operating as Some Crust Bakery and makes everything by hand with local and organic ingredients.

My breakfast sandwich: turkey, egg, cheeses, garlic aioli, avocado, and red onion on homemade sourdough. Delish!

I want this life.

One of the coolest things was picking fruit from the edible landscape at the Claremont Colleges. It's all organic, and there for the picking if you're a student. Luckily, we had one :)
I don't think I had ever had figs before...now I think I need to plant some!

Olive trees on campus - so pretty!

The allee of oranges. Megan says campus smells amazing when the citrus blossoms are out.

Pitzer College had a really great little student-run garden complete with chickens, bees, and a mini-orchard.

Little pomegranates ripening away.

A good day's work! Plums, lemons, oranges, apples, a pomegranate, a persimmon, avocado, limes, and figs.
Our need to eat out went down drastically after this :)

Megan and I were playing with figs..so cool!
This is fig, prociutto, and chevre pizza with caramelized onions, a balsamic reduction and arugula. So. Good.

Figs wrapped in prosciutto. We tried it roasted and un-roasted, and we both preferred roasting.
We also tried it with some capicola and thinly sliced salami...it was all great!
We also tried a couple internet recipes: sauteed figs in honey butter (good) and figs sauteed in brown sugar butter served with sweetened mascarpone cheese, a balsamic reduction, and honey butter (AMAZING!)

Californ-i-a: Plants

Megan doesn't live too terribly far from Mt. Baldy.
Naturally, we had to take a trip up the mountain to see what it was all about.

Then we get into the Claremont Colleges again and all of their wonderful plants.
I was digging all the succulents..and these huge agave (?) that were easily taller than all of us.

Would hate to be the one to trim all the boxwood.. :/

My red-tipped jade!

HUGE jade! I ended up using my foot for scale in all of these pictures..sue me.

No idea what these trees are..thought they were cool, though.

All the little succulents I have in pots were going crazy all over the place!
Alongside the Pacific Coast Highway was one of the smaller varieties I have at home spread out like a carpet over the entire roadside..it was incredible!

Again..these were over 6' tall!

This is exactly what I was going for with my big bowl planter at home!
Clearly, I failed ;)

I just really like jade..

Californ-i-a: Buildings

It’s been a little quiet around here lately..because I’ve been a busy guy lately!

First, Knoxville hosted RAGBRAI (the [Des Moines] Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa). This was the 41^st year the ride has trekked across the state, and the third time Knoxville has hosted as an overnight town. We hosted 22,000 cyclists and between 5-8,000 support staff, media pesonnel, and others just along for the party.
This year, I was on the planning committee and also in charge of the Beverage Garden and Entertainment Committees. 14 bands and $40,000 in beer sales in one night: OK!

I digress.

A few days after RAGBRAI rolled through, I had planned to take a trip to California with a group of friends to visit our friend Megan. Megan is pursuing her PhD at Claremont Graduate University – one of the Claremont Colleges. From her apartment, we fanned out and saw the sights, ate the food, and joined the parties. Pretty good fun, all in all!

I have a ton of pictures, so I’m breaking it up into three entries..the first is the ‘Building Blog’ – a little collection of some of the buildings I thought were cool (or easily replicated for a future project in Knoxville ;) )

The Village of Claremont - such a pretty little town!

The buildings were pretty much all of the same vintage and most had been really nicely updated or restored. 

Even the buildings with a little wear on them were beautiful. I really liked all the brackets everywhere.

Even their Post Office was pretty!

Loved all the big windows in these old buildings.

A neat little shop

I thought these transom windows were the coolest things ever. I don't think I'd ever seen them open?

Train Depot...whoa.

The campus Megan studies on was fantastic - I took so many pictures!

There are a handful of individual colleges in 'The Claremont Colleges'.
The most amazing - in my opinion - was the Scripps College. 

This is a dormatory. A freaking DORM! WITH BALCONIES!

Part of the same dorm building..

..as is this..

There's also a giant rose garden in the courtyard between two of the dormitories.
Because, why not?

Even their bricks were cool. Gah..

I took a lot of pergola pictures on this trip..I think that might be one of my next projects..

Mrs. Scripps died without any heirs and apparently owned a good chunk of San Diego. She left her estate to various causes around California, and a huge amount of money to - what became - the Scripps College. 

This was a section of Claremont McKenna - one of the other colleges on the campus.
Very cool!

What trip to California would be complete without doing all the touristy things?

I could get used to that..

I probably could NOT get used to that! Woof..

A new sidewalk project for me? ;)

Gahh..even the ice cream places were fancy..

Here we are walking...outside all the stores. ;)

I suppose you can do fun things with your sidewalks when you don't have to shovel them..

Dolby (formerly Kodak) Theater - home of the Oscars!

Grauman's Chinese Theater - got to match hands and feet with our favorite celebrities :)

The Griffith Observatory - pretty cool building in it's own right. I really liked all the Art Deco detailing

Of course, the great thing about an observatory is the view from the top of the hill!
Downtown L.A.

The Hollywood Sign!

From the Mulholland Drive Overlook

Hollywood Sign from the other side

Spent a good part of one day strolling up and down Venice Beach - I liked this house :)

The (HUGE) beach!

Really nice biking/walking/skating paths up and down the length of the beach.
Mountains and palm trees on the beach..almost makes running not sound so bad..

Venice Beach is famously..weird. There were plenty of odd folks and LOTS of "medical" marijuana in the air. But, it's all part of the experience :)
I thought these houses were pretty cool - great detail in the paint jobs!

There were also lots of really nice beachfront properties, so it's an interesting mix

Huntington Beach was our actual 'beach' day, and it was perfect!
After toasting on the beach for a while, we decided to brave the chilly water and go for a swim. Which basically turned into the group of Midwesterners battling the waves...and losing :)