First Harvest: Bush Beans!

A lot of seeds in our garden (especially the ones that don't get enough sun) didn't sprout, but we do have a good showing of bush beans and tomatoes at least, plus a few other slower growing things.

Our first harvest was this week:
The bush beans are purple, but after they're cooked, they turn green. I made a stir fry with sesame oil, soy sauce, carrots and beef. Yay for eating things we grew in our own "backyard!"

Yosemite

I remember hearing about Yosemite from my sophomore year roommate Jenn Gray. She had a poster hanging above her part of the bunk bed, as I recall. Well, many years later, I finally made it, thanks to a friend who got us a coveted spot at the Upper Pines campground for 6 nights.


We took our bikes and rode them around the valley. Colin packed up our chairs and books so that we could get set up with our feet in the river to read all afternoon.




We went with our friends Raymond and Cathy, split up the meal planning, and ate all but one of our meals either on the trail or at our campground. I borrowed a dutch oven and we made veggie lasagna over the fire. Yum!

The one non-camping experience - yummy Sunday brunch at the Ahwahnee.


Huge Sequoias at Wawona.

Cooking dinner on Glacier Point with Half Dome behind us!

Our last day at Yosemite, Colin and I hiked Half Dome. After an early morning trip to the Clinic in the valley and getting lost trying to find the trail up, we were on our way.

After stopping at the base of the rock for lunch, this is what we faced. I almost told Colin I'd wait for him here. That line of people on the left side of the picture are going up holding on to cables. Going up was pretty hard, but I was glad I didn't stay at the bottom once I got to the top.

At the top of the cables.

Colin at the top with the valley below!

Going back down the cables is a lot easier, so I was able to smile some while we waited for others to come up around us.So happy to be off those cables!

The mist trail going back down from Half Dome is really beautiful! We would have taken more pictures here, but we were pretty ready to get back to camp after a 19 mile roundtrip hike!

And really happy that Ray and Cathy had curry for us to eat. As soon as we started eating it, though, we found out that there was bear in Curry Village, so we took our curry with us to get a glimpse. Colin made me take a picture of him eating curry in Curry Village before I took a picture of the bear. I think he was pretty delirious at this point.

So, we did see the bear - eating apples out of a tree. You can't really see him in the pics, but this completed our Yosemite trip!

Oh, and a last use of the dutch oven for campfire peach cobbler! Yeah!
A great trip!

A True California Birthday

Colin made pancakes and eggs for my birthday brunch, and even more incredibly, had studied how to make coffee using my aero press.



He planned a little gathering at Corona del Mar beach where half of the greater LA area also was, I guess because it was the first really hot weekend of the summer. The water felt so good, though, and it was nice and cool at night on the beach.

We roasted chicken sausages for hot dogs, Colin had a chocolate muffin birthday cake for me (and had the rest of the crew blow bubbles as I blew out the candles), and then he made his world famous s'mores. We ended the night with ceviche accompanied by margarita and a lemon martini compliments of a generous mutual friend at Las Brisas. Good times.

6 months!

To mark our 6 month anniversary, I made this cake.
and this chicken and potato salad
and a new journal for us, inspired by #3 from this list.

I also got this movie, which is a thinker (what I like), but a for sure downer. Not really sure what I was thinking when I picked it. Colin said, "Yeah, maybe next time a romantic comedy or something?"

Portland

We took a little trip up to Portland, where Colin's brother Boone lives, for the long weekend. We stopped by Redding on the way up and the way back, where my friend Joanne lives. We went to the Friday night service at Bethel on the way up and had dinner and loads of encouragement from her and her friends on the way back, but I didn't get any pictures of our time with her.


Colin bought two things for this trip: a bike rack for the car and a self timer for watering the garden. We loved following Boone all around downtown Portland on our bikes.


We spent the afternoon and evening at the Blues Festival, where Boone was drawn to swing the hammer. His first swing drew many oohs and aahs from the crowd.

And we ended the day on Sunday with fireworks. A lovely July 4th.

Two Blogs, a Celebration, and Disbelief

These two blogs are my new favorites: Dinner: A Love Story and Today's Letters.
Go check them out when you get a chance.

I sold my first headband to a perfect stranger on my handmade etsy site and celebrated last night with a dinner of lemon goat cheese chicken with sundried tomatoes and pasta, roasted carrots and asparagus, and ghetto sangria (chilled red wine, 7-up and a squeeze of lemon). We even had some after dinner tea and warm chocolate chip cookies since I had some dough left over in the freezer.

The weather here is perfect. (If only we could get a little rain to make it feel cozier!) I honestly can't believe it's staying between 60 and 70 degrees in the middle of July.

prayer

I just saw this in a Sojourners e-mail. I feel like I might be getting closer to understanding what it means.

Civilization is littered with unsolved problems, baffling impasses. The best minds of the world are at the end of their tether. The most knowledgeable observers of our condition are badly frightened. The most relevant contribution that Christians make at these points of impasse is the act of prayer -- determined, repeated, leisurely meetings with the personal and living God. New life is conceived in these meetings.

- Eugene H. Peterson, from his book Earth & Altar