Still Life

Roy Scott is having a show.  

Saturday    November 12th   11-5
Sunday      November 13th   11-5

2230 Tenth Street
Berkeley
510-845-2448

I first saw his work in Pam's kitchen and fell in love.

 I now have several of his still life paintings -  in museum frames they really shine.  And I want another. Or a pair. Or a landscape...

All the photos came from his web site. Check it out. Go see his luminous paintings of fruit - and the odd vegetable. And his evocative landscapes. Buy a pair, buy three. Mine make me happy each time I walk by.  And how often can you buy happiness?

Limes, anyone?

The weatherman keeps predicting "Frost in the inland valleys" and I don't know if he means Fresno or Danville. Although why (and how) someone from Fresno would be watching our local TV news is beyond me. Still, we have had some nights so cold I got up and closed my window a bit.

So I've been picking limes.  

More than 50 pounds from one tree, just a bit taller than I.  A branch broke in the wind it was so laden, and so I picked about half the limes. 

Does anyone want some limes? 

Shrink Your Food

Shrink Your Food. That's Scot Meacham Wood's advice for a great cocktail party. 

He gave a talk tonight at Kravat in SF - he was charming, warm, funny, and had a lot of other great ideas, from lovely custom menu cards by Pat McIntosh of Lulalina (who is also warm and charming)

to the coolest wreath created in minutes. The secret? Buy one of those fake pine wreaths. The branches are all wired and you can use them to twist around fresh magnolia branches, some cedar sprigs (okay a lot of cedar sprigs) and a bit of fir. Then you can stick in ornaments, feathers, fruit (real or fake) berries - and they all stay in the fake pine, which by this time has been obliterated by all the cool stuff you've stuffed in. So simple, like Brunelleschi and the egg - but he thought of it, we didn't. 

More of Scot's Fabulous Ideas:

1. Shrink your food - think of a meal. Meat, salad, veggies, dessert. Serve miniature open-faced prime rib sandwiches. Serve stuffing baked in mini muffin cups topped with a dab of cranberry relish. Make mini shepherd's pies. 

2. Do one show-stopper per party - more and you won't enjoy the party. 

3. Plan on one or two pieces of each hors d'oeuvre per person. Two for the show-stopper.

4. If you find someone parked by the food shoveling it in, grab him (or her) by the arm, and drag them away exclaiming "Have you met Lisa? You simply must meet Lisa!'

5. Spread the food around. To prevent the Gazelles Around The Watering Hole syndrome. Or having to find someone named Lisa.

6. Turn off all the lights. Light all the candles. If the party isn't going well turn off more lights, light more candles.

7. If it's a sit-down dinner do something you're comfortable with. Scot's favorite: His grandmother's  Chicken Pot Pie. No complicated new recipes. Only complicated familiar recipes please.

8. Set the table and do the flowers the day before.

9. It's a thing. On a thing. With something on top. That's an hors d'oeuvre. It's not rocket science. Have some fun, spread your wings. It's art not science.

10. Serve dessert - passed (preferably by someone you've hired to help) when it's time for the guests to go. They'll get the hint.

And finally: Go to your own party. Have fun. Don't look at the pictures of your party the next day and wonder when that happened - be there. Not in the kitchen squirting something on an hors d'oeuvre. Don't bite off more than you can chew. Hire some help. Have some fun. If you don't, your guests won't.

He also had some fabulous custom-made cocktails (and some great non-alcoholic ideas) but those are for later. I'm off to plan our Holiday Party...I can see visions of sugarplums already.

Flower Power

If you've never been to a Monday morning class at Loot in Lafayette, you're in for a treat. Ron Morgan, the star and owner, missed a career as a stand-up comic when he chose flowers. Lucky for us.

He has the funniest stories! and great delivery - and he puts together six or eight flower arrangements while telling stories that will make you pee your pants.

He has a fantastic shop full of treasures and inspirations, and while he is making these stunning arrangements...

...he's also showing you how to do it.  Even if you don't have any talent (that would be me) you will learn how to put together a credible flower arrangement. If I can (and I can - finally) anyone can.

Call Betsy at Loot, make a reservation, and go! Oh - and the best part? The arrangements are all for sale. Take a class, give a party. 

My Garden Thru Her Eyes

Diedre the fabulous photographer took some photos of my garden a while ago, and I'm looking at them to reassure myself that:

1. Spring will come

2. My garden will be beautiful again

3. Things really are growing - Sometimes it seems nothing is happening, then I look at a photo and realize I can't see that view anymore, it's filled in. Or overgrown, depending on your point of view. But I can't see the growth day to day, and it is a joy to see my garden thru Deidre's eyes.

After a long summer in the Big Black Boot that passes for a cast these days, the garden has run riot. I planned to hack some of the thugs back today - the salvia, a rose that spreads like a bad rash. Then a wasp got in my hair, panicked, stung me, and I've spent the day sleeping off the Benadryl and icing my head. But it was beautiful not so long ago...

And tomorrow I'll try again. Weed by weed, plant by plant. 

I must confess I love to garden - I find it soothing, the hours fly by. I like being sweaty and working hard, I like seeing a bed transform from and overgrown jungle into a place where plants have room to show off and are not mugging their neighbors. And I love to sit and catch my breath and listen to the Acorn Woodpeckers argue and the mockingbird singing his heart out and the neighbor's dog barking his head off (okay, that one not so much). I love to feel the breeze come up in the evening, to walk around as the sun is setting and see what I've done, what's blooming, who needs a haircut. This last part is best done when the light is fading or I'll never make it inside.

Last week I dug out some iris that were in shade (who knew the Tulip tree would grow so fast?) and planted icelandic poppies in the brightest oranges and pinks I could find. Now I'm thinking cornflower blue pansies to go with them, the ones with just a dot of yellow in the middle and no faces. I hate faces on pansies. And of course there is always clover to weed out and that nasty little annual grass that can set a zillion seeds without peeking over the alyssum. And the tomatoes are over and the dahlias need dividing. 

A garden is a thing of beauty and a job forever. 

Fall into Yosemite

It's fall in Yosemite. Morning mists rise from the golf course at Wawona,

deer feed in the meadows, unafraid. 

Either it's not hunting season or they know they're in a national park - the best national park. Wawona Hotel is a throwback: wide porches...

...and lovely cottages. 

Old fashioned, charming, recently updated. Get a room with a bath or share with really good friends. 

The Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias is close by...

... and you can't comprehend how enormous these trees are until you see people standing on a fallen tree.

The leaves will be at their best this weekend - the last of October. Go now, before the snow falls, while the dogwoods are still bright red and the poplars are shaking their gold onto the river. And it's not crowded. 

What are you waiting for?

Gift Wrap

Best tissue: at Bags and Bows. Whether you're in the mood for birds...

(my favorite) or beasts...

or funny colored zebras

they've got it all.

Toiles and stripes, 

And lots more - these are just the ones I'm ordering. Share with a friend, they come in huge packages. A lifetime supply, except I'm almost out.

They bring a smile to my face when I'm wrapping. And at this time of year we need all the smiles we can get! (and yes I know it's not even Halloween yet).