I love a good porch and I’ve admired the one on this building for years. Our attorney had her office here at one time.
Peach Tree Leaves
We planted this peach tree in the early spring of 2013. It has beared fruit only twice since then and each time the birds got to the peaches before they ripened, leaving nothing for us but leaves. I’ve thought about replacing it with another orange tree (we’ve had great success with our orange trees) but the peach is such a pretty tree and the birds seem to love it. And we love the birds.
“Would you like to throw a stone at me?
Here, take all that’s left of my peach.”— excerpt from the poem “Peach” by D.H. Lawrence 1929
Smoked Bratwurst
A few hours on the smoker and the taste of these Johnsonville brats goes from good to fantastic.
Squash
We grow vegetables and herbs out in the backyard in raised planter boxes. My wife always puts in squash. It’s her favorite but it has a tendency to take off like a rocket and overgrow everything else in the garden. So we give it its very own planter box. Knock yourself out, squash.
Curiosity and a Sense of Wonder
For my wife, who continues to overflow with both.
Avocado Propagation
The avocado seed went in the jar last May. Eight weeks later, after no splits or sprouts, the avocado seed went in the trash. Disappointing, but it’s probably for the best. We don’t want a fruitless avocado tree, and it turns out the odds of a seed propagated avocado tree bearing fruit are pretty slim. At least not for many years, if then. Maybe we’ll try again in the spring and plant two young Hass avocado trees out in the backyard instead of starting from a seed.
How the West Was Won
Cable TV
I’m old enough to remember a time without cable television. In those days it was rooftop antennas, thirteen channels, and iffy reception. But it was also free.
Plum Blossoms
Our plum tree has been in the ground for six years now and it looks like it’s finally thinking about bearing fruit.
Cookware
Yay! New pots and pans in the house. I’m gonna cook something right after I look at them for a while. Because from this point forward I’m pretty sure they’ll never be as bright and shiny as they are right now.
Orange Peel Beef
After all these years I can still remember my first taste of orange peel beef. Can you?
Joshua Trees Triptych
For better or worse, I’ve always been a single shot kind of photographer. So if I’m not mistaken, this is my first triptych. And it was fun. Thinking of my photography in terms of sets or series of images is something I’d enjoy doing more often.
Breakfast
“I know family comes first, but shouldn’t that mean after breakfast?”
― Jeff Lindsay, Dearly Devoted Dexter
Miles From Somewhere
I really wish I hadn’t chopped off the legs on this sign. Leaning across the passenger seat shooting out the car window, sometimes these things happen.
Coffee
I’m not a fan of Starbucks Coffee. I’ve never really forgiven them for waking America up to the fact that there was so much more to coffee than what the Folgers, Yuban, and Maxwell House of my day had to offer, thereby raising the price of a cup of coffee from half a buck to almost four dollars in just a few short years. But that’s water under the bridge, as they say, and we’re all better off now because of it. Aren’t we?
Anyway, I do like some of their coffee cups, and this is one of them.