Last weekend's shenanigans. I know, a little late but things seem to be moving slower 'round here these days.

By 11am last Saturday, the temperature was already above 80 in our backyard. We took off for a quick overnight camping trip outside of Napa. I managed to not take a single photo and spent much of the day in the hammock.

These photos are all from C's iPhone.

Hammocks, mountain lions, not doing much and TONS of food.

Preparation for the amateur knife throwing contest. We sacrificed a picnic table.

Post knife-throwing and hammock-napping, a quick game of wiffle ball...devastating loss for the other team. Good thing none of us are the tiniest bit competitive.

Elli and her favorite Uncle Eddie:

SFMOMA

My momma was in town last week and we spent the afternoon at SFMOMA. The Luc Tuymans show was good but the Anniversary show was fantastic. My favorite pieces:

This was a group of drawings by kids between the ages of 6-13 (I think...) from Rhodesia (today known as Zimbabwe), depicting daily life in their villages.

 Of course, I lost the piece of paper where I wrote down all of the information but I believe these were created through an art program led by an artist (whom I can't remember) and then exhibited at the museum.

Two other favorites:

Theophilus Brown, The Referee

Clyfford Still, Untitled (previously Self-Portrait)

Oh, and the little room of Paul Klee's work left me fairly awe-struck. It's been a while since I've felt so invigorated and inspired by an exhibit. It's good to feel excited about art again.

Weekend Activities

Two long, exhuasting days spent cutting and pruning and dragging branches from the backyard down to the driveway. We're clearing the area where we'll build the studio.

The above photo is about 1/3 of the way done on early Saturday.

Spencer from the Oakland Zoo came by again to pick up all of the branches for elephant "browse". We sent him away with an overloaded truck and another pile to be picked up tomorrow.

Spencer says that if you put a pile of Eucalyptus, a pile of Palm, a pile of Oak and a pile of Acacia in front of a hungry elephant, they would probably chose the Oak first and then the Palm.

I took Farmgirl Susan's advice and sprinkled some Diatomaceous earth around the plants that are being eaten. I poked holes in the lid of a mustard jar to make a little cannister. I'm crossing my fingers we'll actually get to harvest some kale and kohlrabi soon.

Wedgewood Love

This is our Wedgewood stove. It was here when we bought the house and quite possibly the first reason I fell in love with our home. I've always cooked and baked but this baby has thrown me full force over the edge. There is nothing like cooking on this stove, and don't even get me started on the magic of the oven. We also discovered that the world's best quesadillas are made on our Wedgewood griddle. Unfortunately a few weeks ago the griddle knob broke off. Wedgewood parts are hard to come by and we thought our perfect melted cheese days were over. Luckily we have a local Wedgewood specialist who had the necessary and rare knob for our little stove.A picture of our happy stove with its missing knob back in place. By the way, notice that door on the left? The oven is on the right and the left side is a storage space....so very cool. And yes, the clock sitting on top of the stove works.
ps- We installed the hood ourselves as the normal ventilation system for a Wedgewood scared us and that's a railroad spike hanging on the wall above the light switch.

Foggy Days and Huge Waves

Sunday morning was like a magical storybook land. We woke up to a heavy fog that covered the tops of the trees and part of the backyard.

We went over to Ocean Beach for the day to see the huge waves. Driving across the bridge into the city was breathtaking. The Golden Gate bridge had been swallowed by the fog along with Alcatraz and Angel Island. We could barely see the entrance to the Treasure Island tunnel!

Most of the beach had been taken over by the massive waves so we walked over to Fort Funston where the sun was shining and a small piece of the beach was still relatively dry. Dog heaven...