Easter Photos, extended

Wow. If you want to see our full Easter experience, here are Robin's photos from the event. She documented the day pretty well. Captions and everything so you can follow along with the games.

Three Little Trees

Another cold weekend. Snow. Sleet. Hail.

Not kidding.

Thanks to craigslist, we found a new home for the clay and rocks in the back of Ken's truck leftover from when we did the driveway. I am so happy it is gone. This weekend I also got to go to a few nurseries and walk around... two jackets, gloves, hood over my head with a cup of hot coffee. Even though it was bitter cold, spring is approaching so bare root trees are still available and discounted.

I bought three trees this weekend. Grand total $45.

My new friends are:

Coral Bark Maple
I love this tree. Bright stunning red bark in the winter. Chartreuse leaves in spring. Lush green leaves in summer. Bright orange foliage in fall. A four season tree. It gets 15-25 feet tall. I bought a little one (maybe a foot or two in a gallon container). I planted it in the front yard so we'll see it everyday -- even when it's gloomy. Plus, in time it will provide some nice shade for our front porch which gets plenty of sun. I can't wait for him to grow up. Apparently they grow pretty fast when they're young and then they slow down when they get older. Perfect since the 5 gallon size was $40 and the 10 gallon size was $175! Score!

Dwarf Asian Pear
Oh sweet little thing. It gets between 5-10 feet tall. Plus, it has 5 varieties grafted onto the dwarf rootstock so it will produce different types of pears from the same tree. I am excited. All grafts are blooming profusely right now. It is planted where the tomatoes where last year -- the bed near the deck and garage. I can't remember all of the varieties but I know one is Anjou.

Semi-Dwarf Apple Tree
For as much as I love my pear tree, Ken wanted an apple, which is probably how I convinced him to allow the pear tree in the yard (when he heard an apple tree was coming home with it). Like the pear tree, the apple tree has 5 varieties grafted onto the rootstock. It's a semi-dwarf variety, so it will get between 15-30 feet. It is planted in the backyard and will provide some much needed shade in the summer months... not to mention apples! The varieties it has are Honeycrisp, Red Gravenstein, Chehalis, Gala and Liberty. Delicious.

I am so excited for spring.

Science education everywhere

Many thanks to Arthur for the link...

Here is a cute article [in the NY Times] about a scientist teaching kids about cosmetic chemistry - "What puts the ick in lipstick"

Enjoy.

Snow

Yesterday morning and then again this morning. Sigh. This is not the spring weekend I wanted.

On the bright side, the cold weather has kept me indoors. I slept 11 hours on Wednesday night and went to bed at 9:30 last night. I've surrounded the bed with gardening magazines that my neighbors left me before they moved. BBC Gardener's World is by far my favorite. Apparently gardening in the UK is a lot like gardening here. I read them until I fall asleep and then I drool on them... flowers like water, right? I've read them so many times that their covers have fallen off. I adore them.

I got my gardening fix last weekend and throughout the week. I went to the nursery last weekend and found some new edible friends:

Strawberries
We had two June-bearing varieties before (quinalt, hood) but I live with Ken and there were never enough to go around. So I bought three varieties (25 plants of each) so we have well over 100 strawberry plants to keep us well-fed. I planted the strawberries under the rose and blueberry bushes.

Aromas- Everbearing. Flavorful, large, darkred berries. Very high yields. Disease resistant. Considered by many to be the best everbearing cultivar.

Diamante - Everbearing. Excellent fresh fruit. Compact, erect plant form facilitates higher plant densities and easy harvest.

Eversweet - Everbearing. Amazingly productive! Exceptionally sweet, large berries have a delectable flavor reminiscent of heirloom varieties. A truly outstanding performer, its production surpasses that of any other cultivated strawberry. Full sun. Water regularly.


Lingonberries
I planted two plants of a dwarfing variety, but I can't remember the name. They're in front of the strawberries, under the blueberry bushes.



Hops
We're up to four plants now (Cascade, Nugget, Willamette) and now...

Kent Golding - Alpha acid 56%. Developed in Kent County in the UK. Adds flowery aroma to some of the best English bitters.

All four will be trailing up and over our soon-to-be arbor over the back deck.



Hardy Kiwi
Kiwis are generally giant plants. We're talking 30 feet. And you need male and female varieties to get fruit. But did you know that there are hardy kiwis that can withstand -25 degrees F, are self-fertile and can be eaten whole -- skin and all). The fruit is slightly bigger than a grape. Plus, this variety does not get gargantuan like most other kiwis... only 8-10 feet. Perfect for a wall or fence. Behold:

Actinidia arguta "Issai" This is one of the only self-fruitful varieties of hardy kiwi. It bears within 1 year of planting and produces a smaller vine that's good for container growing. Hardy in USDA zone 5.


Seeds

All seeds were 50% off this past weekend, so I picked up a bunch. I can't remember the names off-hand but there were some dwarf sunflowers, pole beans, sugar snap peas, detroit red beats, lemon cucumber, a regular cucumber, sweet peas, chives and some other goodies. I will start them indoors this weekend.



Citrus
Citrus doesn't grow well in the cold. Sad. So imagine my surprise when I found this new friend. I ordered him two days ago; he'll be here next week. I told a friend about it, who sent me this article. I am excited.


Yuzu Ichandrin - Prized in Japan for flavoring and juice, this very hardy variety bears abundant, easy-to-peel, 3" diameter fruit with tasty, lemon-lime flavor. Yuzu Ichandrin is reportedly hardy to 0°F. Around 5 feet tall.

Easter 2008, the short version

Easter was a huge hit this year. We had 800-900 eggs this year and it took me 3 hours to hide them all. It was also pouring down rain most of the day (even though the day before and day after were sunny and lovely). Oh well. We rolled up all the rugs, pushed back the furniture and rigged a popup shelter with tarps along the side so we could be outside on the porch as the rain came horizontally.

I'm still putting together the pictures and the games, but here are a few to get you started. 50 people, lots of games.


Carrot Board with the 50 carrots:


Telling the rules of the egg hunt before it begins. We had a break in the rain:


Egg hunt madness:


After the egg hunt. The crowd watching the games taking place:


Laughing at the games:

Slappers in the Finals!

We had our dodgeball tournament on Saturday. Our team has been together for 8 seasons but we've never gotten past the 2nd round of the tournament -- even the season when we were undefeated. We've always done team breakfasts before our games, so we decided to do a team dinner instead. Gumbo at our house.

One of our teammates responded to our invite with this:

"Will Lisa's cooking make me a better player? Maybe I'll catch something on Saturday. I'm in."

Well, I am happy to report that we beat the team that has thrice knocked us out in the 2nd round! And our teammate who posted the above made the clutch catch to put us ahead! (We play best of 7 games in the tournament and were down 2-3 before coming back to win 4-3.) It was awesome. We were so excited.

We won our next game after that, which took us to the semifinals against a tough team who was expected to win the whole thing since they won their division during regular season.

Joe, Jesse, Corey and Spud from the other team



We won the first game but were quickly down down 2-3. Sad. Turns out I had the best day of dodgeball of my life and caught the ball from Jesse (above) that tied the game. I was so happy. So now we're tied and they have one guy left who throws the ball to me. I dropped to my knees and caught it. We won the game and were going to the finals. I could hardly believe it. My team picked me up and spun me around. I was very, very excited. We ended up losing in the finals, but our team was on cloud 9. Brian H. was in town this past weekend to share it with us, too. He can attest to how excited I was.

Here are some pictures of our team as we went up to get our trophy. We beat 47 other teams to get there. Looks like team dinner is going to stick.

Us calling for the rest of our team


Some have shown up. We are happy. L-R: Brian, Ken, me, Dennis, Alyson


And we finally get our team picture, but it's blurry. Nate, FanEric and Alyson are just out of the shot. You can definitely see how happy we are though.


Congratulations Slappers!

Rachel and Justin's Wedding

Last weekend was Rachel and Justin's wedding in San Francisco. We had a great time and it was awesome to see them. We got in on Friday afternoon and spent some time with Whitney and Greg at Rachel & Justin's apartment before the rehearsal dinner. Whit is a good friend from college who lives in Virginia, so I don't get to see her and Greg very often. They're super fun so it was great to catch up.

Whit and Greg



My folks were also in town for the wedding, so we had breakfast with them on Saturday before Ken and I went looking for a replacement wallet for yours truly (since I dropped mine in the toilet). I found a new one that I love. Red and awesome.

Ken and me after breakfast



The wedding was held at the Presidio overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. That was their theme for the wedding -- Whit made the invitations with it, one of their friends had a giant lego replica of it in the cocktail hour room and Rachel asked me to make the cake topper, so I also used the bridge (using their colors of orange and pale green).

Rachel and her dad going down the aisle



They had a super fun wedding. Lots of dancing and merriment. Rachel's brother made a promise to her over 10 years when he was 14 that he'd sing "Gettin' jiggy with it" at her wedding. He did not disappoint. It was hilarious.

Jeff getting jiggy


Rachel and Justin dancing


My family


My mom and me


The cake topper I made



The next day, my folks, Ken and I went on a bike ride across the Golden Gate bridge, into Sausalito and took the ferry back across the bay. It was fun.

Biking the golden gate


Then it was time to us to fly home. A super busy weekend. Sad we didn't catch up with Arthur and Liz while we were there but there just wasn't enough time this go around.

Happy wedding Rachel and Justin!

Bedtime Flower

Ken took the dog out last night while I cleaned the dishes. I was brushing my teeth when he got back. I went into the bedroom to put on my PJs, and lo and behold, I had this sweet camellia flower waiting for me by my bedside. (this isn't the same one, but it looks similar). He was sitting in water, happy as a lark. I was happy, too. I love flowers.