Forward...into the past!

Seriously-- Zucchini! I wish I had more neighbors who gardened. I've recently discovered that I love home-grown tomatoes. Never liked what can be had in a store (even "heirloom" tomatoes at WFM!): they all taste like yuck. No flavor, wrong texture and picked too green. Then my Bro-in-law served some heirloom tomatoes from their garden and I was blown away at how wonderful they were. At first I thought it was the heirloom part...but no-- it was that these tomatoes were picked ripe from the garden just a few hours previous.

For those so interested, it turns out there is a great book about this called Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit that is both depressing and fascinating. Before fresh tomatoes I thought they were only good for ketchup and spaghetti sauce.

Wow-- veered off-topic! Happy Z-Day! (<--not zombies or Zoie, for better or worse...)

Images from the fall of 2012.

FLickr set here

The weather has finally turned autumnal and dog walks can again be taken at any hour of the day. We took a couple of hikes in the mountains above the Valley and enjoyed the sunset.

The first hike had us watched by an early-rising gibbous moon. We noticed a jet-- a very modern fighter jet-- circling the Valley. Very unusual for that time of the day since there is usually a lot of airline traffic. Then I remembered: President Obama was coming in to town to be on Leno-- and his helicopter was hopping from LAX to Burbank at about this time. I love my camera: P&S it may be, but you can actually see the armament even at this distance.

A friend's daughter broke the zipper on her halloween/cosplay costume and E and I offered to repair it. The most difficult part: the zipper itself. 56" long with double sliders. None of the regular stores in the Fashion District (forget JoAnnes!) had anything even close. Despairing, I wandered the area and, true to FD form: came across Zip Up Zipper! A zipper super-store! The have zippers that are literally floor-to-ceiling-- there was one hanging from the warehouse ceiling that had to be 25 feet long! I found a stainless steel, double-slider zipper that was about 20 inches too long...and the owner just cut it down, added some ends and voila! Perfect! The FD is certainly one reason to love Los Angeles.

Bonsai class was a huge surprise!: the teacher took one of my pot-bound (cup-bound, really) 7 year old oaks and used a technique that will create a plant that has a foot of bare root, terminating in the soil of the pot. I had no idea that I'd see this that day-- it's an advanced technique that I'd never have the nerve to try myself.



Lastly, we had some special guests at work the other week: four Bengal tigers! It turns out that the whole place needed to be on lock-down: tigers are so temperamental and sensitive that no extraneous visitors or pets (especially barky border collies) could be in the building. One of the tigers was charming: she was a 17 year old veteran who was so calm that the trainers let us get close and take pictures with her. I've seen many tigers at zoos...but it's not until you see them this close that your really get a sense of the immense size and power. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to meet them.

...our dry, dusty home has one huge advantage over the deep greenery of the German forests: my little dog pack. We've gone on a number of sizeable local hikes and walks since I got back, mostly my attempt to assuage the guilt I feel when I have to board them. Because of the heat, we've had to walk either very later (midnight or so) or very early (about 6am). For one thing, it doesn't start to cool off until about then-- and even at that time the temps are still in the 70's (21+c), with about the 70% humidity.

Today we walked on a favorite trail and got to see the sun rise. The dogs were thrilled: while any walk would have been welcome, they love the squirrel, digging and sniffing ops that a real trail hike affords.

One creature that is loving this heat and humidity: my red habanero chili plant. This old guy is about four years old now (warm SoCal winters and taking them in during the rare freezing nights). He went nuts while I was away.



Good to be home.