Rain in La Jolla

All the weather reports had said that a rainstorm was heading our way, and as anyone who lives in the San Diego area knows, this is like telling people in Florida that a hurricane is coming, or a snowstorm is heading for the east coast. Now don't ask me why this sends panic throughout the region, since most people, like me, are from some other cold, rainy place - but it does. It becomes a big talking point, even before it gets here.
There are people like me, who can't stand rain under any circumstances, people (the sensible ones) who say we need the rain, and another group who seem to think it's exciting in some way. Although last year this group quickly dwindled when we had several weeks of non-stop heavy rain in January.
Well this year is just the opposite, I think it has only rained about three or four times since October, when our rainy season often starts (when I say rainy season, I mean we could get a rainstorm now and then), so it's never sensible to put away the flip-flops and sunscreen. So even I agreed, that when it started raining last night, we did need the rain.
However, if this is it, I'm sure this hasn't solved our water shortage. I put boots and a coat on this morning and took my umbrella as it was raining hard. By lunchtime I had a light jacket and the boots, plus sunglasses. An hour later, gray sky had become blue, and the seals who had been alone on the beach were being eyed again by happy tourists.
By the time I returned home, the only sign there was that there had even been any rain was a band of fluffy clouds in the distance. I think we are supposed to get more rain tomorrow, and then towards the end of the week, but we'll see. This is definitely a change from the weather I left behind in England!

A Time to Love - Stevie Wonder

I am a Starbucks fan, and so it's not surprising that as well as buying coffee there every day, I also buy other bits and pieces too. That's where I saw the Stevie Wonder CD, "A Time to Love".

I've always been a Stevie Wonder fan since I was a teenager when I bought the Motown Story. Stevie Wonder was introduced in that as a 5 year old playing "Fingertips", and I continued to buy his music long after that. Although I'd heard him recording with various other artists, I'd not bought any of his CD's for a few years now, and was interested to hear what this was like. It is awesome! It has the same soulful sound of his older music, and whether he's singing about love, politics and wars, or just getting by in life, his lyrics always make you stop and think and they haunt you long after the music ends.

I loved the one called "Positivity" which says "you should always look at the negative, but always live in the positive", how cool is that? Then, of course, the title song, "A Time to Love", is amazing, questioning the things we make time for in this world - oil excavation, paying taxes, and conquering nations. It is also interesting to note that people from all corners of the world have worked together to make this recording. So, when will there be a time to love?

mexican sage

When we went to the garden center the other day, as well as the California Poppies, we also bought a plant called Salvia Gesneraeflora which I later learned was commonly known as Mexican Sage. This was good news for me as I only live a short distance from the Mexican border, so I figured the climate it was used to was similar to mine. It was about three feet tall with bright flame colored flowers. The day I bought the plant was gray with a marine layer coming in, and the bright red flowers really stood out.

However, on close inspection when I got home, the plant did not look too healthy. Many of the leaves were dry and shriveled with brown tips. So it was the usual question for me, did it need watering, or did it have some kind of disease? Well, I guess I could start by watering it when I repotted it. It did feel really dry. Repotting was also not easy as the delicate flowered stems kept breaking off, so the three foot tall plant was now about two feet tall. On the tag that came with the plant it said that it had very large, bright red flowers in fall, winter and spring, so I guess this could just be the normal leaf drop at the end of the flowering season. Just to be on the safe side, I put it right at the back near the fence in a kind of quarantine, so if it did have any deadly leaf disease, nothing else would catch it.

So now after a week has gone by, I am just watching its progress and waiting to see what happens. So far, some of the flowers have fallen off, but there are new leaves coming through that look green and healthy. This was described as the "mountain form" of Mexican sage, so I am hoping if it can live wild on the mountains, it can manage to live in my container garden.

california poppy

The other day I went to buy some more plants to add to the container garden. By the time I arrived at the garden center, the weather had changed to cold and damp with a marine layer coming in. The garden center I went to had recently moved location and did not have a great selection of plants to choose from, but I saw some California poppies and decided they would really brighten things up. I bought four plants and thought I could put two poppies in two containers. I've seen them growing in a yard across the road from me each year, and always love how wild and graceful they look. Unfortunately, as I loaded them into my car, a couple of the flowers snapped off - I hadn't realized they were quite this fragile. Not to worry, they had plenty of buds on them, so I figured other flowers would soon come out.

I didn't have time to plant them when I got home, so left them overnight in the plastic containers they came in. The next day when I went out a couple of the flowers had opened and looked really great. I decided to plant them in terracotta pots that afternoon, but by the time I got to them a few hours later they looked like they had suffered major heat stroke or something, and all the leaves were wilting. OK, I'm pretty good at reviving plants, so I figured they needed a shadier spot and a drop of water and they'd be fine. Next day was really sunny and warm and they did, in fact, look better. The next day, however, was colder and they only had about an hour of sun. The following day they looked positively sick, with one wilting flower. So I looked in my container plant guide book, and it said they need sun to flower, only flower between 10 am and 4 pm, and don't like lots of water. So I moved them to a sunnier spot on the patio, and snapped the only flower off in the process. They were now becoming a major challenge.

Next day there was just one flower trying to stand up. A pathetic display. I looked them up on the internet and found a site that says they like cool sunny weather, and don't do well in containers. Great - it's a container garden - I guess I'll monitor their progress and get ready for another trip to the garden center!

freedomland

I have just finished reading by Richard Price. What a heartbreaking and powerful story. It is a complicated story about crime, and racial tension. The story is set around the main characters Brenda Martin, whose son is missing, detective Lorenzo, and an eager news reporter, Jesse.

The story opens with Brenda Martin walking in a daze down a street in a depressed, inner city area of New Jersey. You are not sure what exactly has happened to her, but you know it isn't good. As the story unfolds, you can't help feeling sorry for this woman, even though all the signs are that she is not being honest with anyone, including herself, and has somehow become completely isolated from everyone around her - her family, her work colleagues, and her neighbors. In fact, that seems to be the common thread which binds these three dominant characters together. The detective, who struggles to retain control of the Armstrong housing project that he polices, is torn between being friend and confidante to the often desperate people in the neighborhood, and maintaining law and order strictly by the book. His own personal relationship with his wife and children also adds to his isolation. Jesse, the reporter, also lives a kind of lonely life, chasing after that "special story" then phoning in the details to someone in her office, never quite making a real connection with anyone.

As the harrowing tale develops, the tension builds in the sultry, claustrophobic heat of a late New Jersey summer, adding to everyone's fear and frustration. One error in judgment leads to another, causing potentially catastrophic results along the way. You are not quite sure how things are going to turn out at any point, but you know that at any moment someone's pent up anger, hatred, and fear could tip the balance in a city that is waiting to explode.

I am not going to tell you how it ends, but it is a great story, challenging us to think about issues that we would probably rather avoid, and although it is a work of fiction, you could still see this tragic tale happening in one of our cities. If you don't read the book, please go and see the movie when it comes out.

Orange Tree

When we first moved here we bought a dwarf orange tree and planted it in a tub on the patio. It flowers about three times a year, and has produced no edible oranges whatsoever. The blossoms smell wonderful and look great. The first year it only managed flowers. The second year it did produce some tiny oranges - when I say tiny, I mean about the size of a cherry - which all fell off.

Last year when it flowered in summer it looked really promising. There were about ten oranges which looked as though they might make it to full size. Gradually, one by one, all but one fell off. We decided that the tree didn't like its position on the patio which was in shade for part of the day, so we moved it to a sunnier spot. The odd thing is that the one remaining orange remained on the tree even through the first rain in September.

We've gone through the hot October days, a few windy days, and a couple of rain storms in December, and the same orange is still hanging on.

The tree is now covered in buds and I am pretty optimistic about getting fruit, now it's in its new position. Then again, I guess if all else fails, I'll still have this lone fruit which is decorative if nothing else. If anyone has any suggestions on how to get this tree to produce fruit, please let me know.

My Paella

I love making this recipe. I used to make it in England, and now make it here in California with slightly different ingredients. If you do not know Paella, it is an everyday Spanish dish, and its ingredients vary greatly, but the nearer you are to the coast, the more seafood it will contain. As well as seafood, it also contains chicken and pork (even if in the form of sausage or ham).

Ingredients I used (serves 4)

1 lb clams (littlenecks are good)
1/2 lb shell on large shrimp
2 cooked boneless chicken breasts
2 mild italian or chorizo sausages
1 medium sized red pepper
1 can diced tomatoes
1 tbsp. olive oil
1/2 large onion chopped
1 crushed garlic clove
12 oz bottled clam juice
1/2 glass dry white wine
10 oz long grain rice
Saffron threads (infused)
5 oz fresh or frozen peas (thawed)
Salt & pepper to taste
Lemon & parsley garnish


You can vary the ingredients by adding mussels, langostinos, or lobster and you can use ham or pork instead of sausage.

1. Prepare the shellfish. Wash the shrimp under running water, and scrub the clams and leave to soak to remove any sand (if they are particularly sandy, leave them for 5-6 hours).

2. Pour boiling water on the saffron threadsand leave to infuse for 15-20 minutes.

3. Chop the onion into small pieces, and crush the garlic.

4. Remove the seeds from the pepper and cut into strips.

5. Part cook the sausage in a frying pan with a little cold water for about 6 minutes. Remove from pan and leave for a few minutes to cool. Blot with a paper towel to remove excess fat and remove the skin with scissors. Cut the sausage into small pieces.

6. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and lightly fry the onion and crushed garlic until the onion is transparent. Add the part cooked sausage and fry over a high heat. Add the pepper to this mixture and cook for five minutes.

7. Add the cooked chicken and tomatoes. Cook gently for 2 minutes before adding the white wine, saffron liquid, and about half the clam juice. Stir well.

8. Stir in the rice, then bring the mixture to the boil.

9. Add the shrimp and the clams and stir well. Cook with the lid on for approx. 20 minutes, until the rice is cooked. Check frequently while cooking, as the rice absorbs the liquid quickly, so add more clam juice as needed.


10. Serve with lemon wedges and parsely garnish. Enjoy!