for jess
Month: August 2024
Odocoileus hemionus californicus
A family of young deer walked through our garden the other morning. That’s not a rare sight in these parts, but a friend of ours only a few miles away had a black bear in his front yard, which is extremely unusual for Malibu.
bowl o’fruit
On Draw with Me this week, we tackled a classic art school subject. John Singer Sargent, I am not.
for cass
High, med or low? Cass is the best SIL ever. Happy birthday, beautiful.
Ipomoea batatas
The gardening calendar tells me that August is the time to plant sweet potatoes, and this specimen in the veggie basket agrees. It’s going in the ground today!
Domesticated sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) have been around for a long time; they were present In Central America at least 5,000 years ago. The tuberous root is long and tapered, with a smooth skin whose colour can be yellow, orange, red, brown, purple, or beige. Its flesh ranges from beige through white, red, pink, violet, yellow, orange, and purple. Sweet potato cultivars with white or pale yellow flesh are less sweet and moist than those with red, pink or orange flesh.
Although darker sweet potatoes are often referred to as “yams” in parts of North America, the species is very distant from true yams. I love the name “kumara” (emphasis on the first syllable) which I learned from my Kiwi friends.
blondies
While I love to cook meals, I’m not much of a baker, probably because I don’t usually eat baked goods. But I can rise to the occasion if requested.
for lynne
I was so pleased when my dear friend Lola introduced us to Lynne, and even happier when they married in 2012. A few years later, baby Ella joined the family (her birthday card will appear on this blog next week). Happy birthday Lynne! We all love you!
Rhus integrifolia
Lemonadeberry is native to these parts; we have a LOT growing on our block. It occurs in both chaparral and coastal sage scrub communities, enduring heat and windy conditions well.
The fruit are eaten by many birds, and the nectar feeds both birds and butterflies. The berries make a pleasingly tart snack if popped in the mouth right off the bush, and sucked for their juice. They can also be dried, then soaked in water and heated to make a kind of hot pink lemonade.
dragon talisman
I found a somewhat cool website called From Old Books. It’s not an elegant site—I know there are similar but better ones out there—but it‘s worth having a poke around if you‘re interested in old imagery. I liked a certain dragon woodcut, so copied it into my sketchbook. Then I had a play around making a digital collage with some of the other images on the site.
at Red Cross
I was at Red Cross to give whole blood, but the phlebotomist let me know that I would be an ideal candidate for platelet donation. Maybe next time, I said, knowing that it involves the immobilisation of both arms for two hours. In the recovery area, this bald poster child added her persuasion. So yeah, next time🩸.
hashiworks 