Picnic with the Pinks

Thing 1 and Thing 2 had a school holiday, and we spent the day together. It was the first time they'd been to the top of the mountain...

...where it was still freezing - literally. So we had our picnic halfway down. There are not many things both Things like to eat, so I got up at dawn to roast a chicken (cold chicken isn't one of the things they eat) and it was a huge hit. Then we played Spot Your House.

They did. 

Thing 2 wanted to build stuff, and when it got too cold outside we made bath salts for sore muscles.

Epsom salts, essential oils, food coloring.

I may sleep for a week, but I haven't had so much fun since I was a kid. I think there's a lesson in there - if you want to have as much fun as you did when you were a kid, get a kid to be your guide. Thank you Pinks.

Strawberries with the volume turned up

"Have you ever tasted a strawberry right off the vine, warm from the sun?" asked my friend Leslie, mother of The Three Pinks. She had been berry picking in Brentwood. (I had been at the dentist. Who wants to trade places?)

Yes, I have tasted strawberries right off the vine. I grow strawberries. My mother grew strawberries, and my grandmother. But not these strawberries. Not even close. 

The taste is somewhere between those tiny fraise de bois (which can be a but mushy, tho food snobs will never admit it) and a really great California grown strawberry. Strawberry with the volume turned up.

I don't know its name, but I will. Oh yes I will. I rarely succumb to the must-have plant, but one taste and I'm on a mission.  She also brought cherries...

When I asked the cultivar name, she said "crack." I think it's actually a coral cherry, but the strawberry? definitely crack. Must have more....

A Christmas Party, or Thank God for Ron Morgan

We had a Christmas Party. I had a blast planning the table, going to the San Francisco Flower Mart with Ann at dawn. Leslie of The Three Pinks is right, the magic that is the Flower Mart disappears when the sun comes up.

I think all those Monday mornings spend watching Ron Morgan work his magic are paying off. Ron always says "Just play and have fun!" and I did. I think it turned out well...but you can see for yourself.

The reindeer and silver leaves are from Ron Morgan's shop in Lafayette, Loot.

The hollow birch logs and the glass vases are from the Flower Mart. Beads and balls from Target.

And the inspiration is from Ron, from Cathy, from Ann. Thank you for making my life more beautiful...and more fun. 

Flower Market

Long before dawn we were at the San Francisco Flower Market, my neighbor Leslie, one of the Pinks (thing one) and I. 

It is one of only 5 grower owned flower markets in the US. It is ginormous. It is fragrant, frenetic, breathtakingly beautiful and occasionally strange. Worth getting up at O-dark-hundred? Leslie probably has something to say about it on her blog, The Three Pinks. Take a look below - you be the judge.

Thing one fell in love with these cockscomb.

We looked at baskets and vases, ribbons and huge packs of tissue - a lifetime supply for any normal person. It feels a bit like being in a kid's storybook. Long musty aisles in dimly lit stores full of antlers and ostrich eggs. Next door are brightly lit cages stuffed with branches and blossoms. 

Thing one was thrilled with her loot.

The gorgeous pink and green bag did not come from the Flower Market, it is from Mixed Bag Designs. The best thing about them? They stay open when they're empty, so you can load them without a fight. If you've ever tried to hold a bag open with one hand while trying to wrestle your purchases into it with the other you know what I'm talking about. I use them at the grocery store, at the farmer's market, at the department stores when I remember. And at the Flower Market.

Wrapped up our treasures... 

Left the weird and wonderful behind...

And came out of the huge warehouses just as the sun was coming. up. I don't know about The Pinks, but I had a blast.