So grateful for our bounty!  Swiss chard in the basket.  Rosemary, front and center. Thyme on top of the pruners.  Sage to the right.  Oregano above the dish full of pesto my daughter made with fresh basil she grew (the best pesto ever)!  Heirloom zebra, green and red tomatoes.  Red hot chili peppers.  Kale to the left of the tomatoes and heirloom ears of corn between the chard and kale.  Oh, and a teeny weeny yellow summer squash fully grown.

Apparently, my cukes, squashes, pumpkins and zucchini are puny or non-existent this year.  Last year, I had trouble with peppers, but this year, so far so good.  All the plants or seeds are organic, growing in organic soil, mulched from time to time from my compost pile.

Organic IS better.  The bounty you grow has to survive without artificial feeding or protection.  Therefore, it has to contain higher levels of antioxidants because “the more stress plants suffer, the more polyphenols they produce.” according to Lamuela, a University of Barcelona scientist in the latest study.  Your produce is forced to activate its own defense mechanisms and you eat that vitality.  Just like you consume all the antibiotics if you eat conventional/industrial meat and dairy.  You ARE what you eat!

Wild (never buy farmed) Sea Bass sautéed in 1 teaspoon of coconut oil (organic), smothered in my little chef’s homemade tangy pesto with zebra and heirloom bite sized tomatoes sprinkled with a little of Cecilia’s salt seasoning.

You still have time if you are in the area to check out the OC fair. Every year for 23 days we get to experience a little bit of farm life, a little bit of country charm and a little bit of everything over the top, new or plain zany!  This year the OC Fair will continue till  Sunday, August 11th.

It is the fun zone of the summer:  it’s close to the beach so it is refreshing on a summer night, concerts of every musical hue of band strut their stuff every evening,  there are carnival rides for kids and grown-up kids, floral arrangements and tablescaping , creative shopping and crafts of all sorts, food (where else can you get a giant grilled turkey leg or a fried Oreo?),  gardens tended by UC Master Gardening volunteers, prized farm animals of every ilk, gender and age, performances on stages by various artistes and of course, people watching while you sit and rest your feet on any number of benches strategically strewn around the 150 acred grounds.

Where else can you see pumpkins in July?  Or two day old piglets?

Tomorrow final day 21 of the Tour de France.  From Versailles to Paris!!!!

All’s well that ends well – ne c’est pas, Shakespeare?

I get more bizarre every day……

My friend/walking buddy J’s brother planted these sunflowers from seed for their mom and then took these pictures.  Notice the bee in the middle of the lemonade colored sunflower head.

We need bees in order to exist – go out there and garden!!!

Plant seeds, sow plants, maybe even take up beekeeping.  Just a thought!

Walking, last minute shopping, training, meeting with women friends, prepping for our party, attending other party – woohoo!

Discipline:  Sometimes we’re too easy on ourselves, lacking self-discipline and giving ourselves slack and in places where we simply shouldn’t. Then we’re loaded with guilt and suffering! The only way to end the torture of self-condemnation is to try to live a life that earns your self-respect. – Marianne Williamson

Thank you Marianne.  I have loved her and her writing for a long time.  She teaches, interprets and lives the tenets of A Course in Miracles.  About six or seven years ago, I followed the course work – it is a one year commitment to self.

Two years ago, I had the privilege of meeting her, have her sign all my books and hug her in LA at a three day conference where all she spoke of was basically LOVE! Like Wayne Dyer, who I also went to see in LA years ago, she does not leave the stage until all who want to see her, talk to her, ask her anything, hug her or get their book signed are through the line.

I went in July of 2011 with my friend R who passed away recently.  R used to drive into LA every Monday night for a stretch of time to volunteer at the center where Marianne speaks for free, once a week.

After that weekend, I was enthusiastic and I picked up the workbook from A Course again but didn’t follow through.  I got about a third way there.  Maybe I should start again.

Marianne Williamson’s books based on the Course are inspirational to say the least and to hear her speak is mesmerizing and life changing.

Tomorrow was to be a special anniversary for R if she had lived to see it.  I will be with her all day in spirit. 

R took this picture of Marianne and I at the seminar during a break. 

On the topic of discipline, I walked five miles today, did most of what I had listed on my  “to do” pad and ate cleanly and well. 

Highlights:

Organic chicken roasted with green beans, red onions and mushrooms, rosemary and drizzled with fresh lemon juice (I picked around ten lemons this morning from our back tree).

Full fat goat’s milk yogurt with organic blueberries, cinnamon, stevia and raw organic red walnuts.

A salad of organic leaf lettuce, Swiss chard from our garden, organic feta, chopped pralines, lemon juice, my seasoning salt, one whole small organic avocado and organic olive oil.

Blueberries with yogurt, cinnamon and walnuts

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOSHING

I don’t know what got into me today but I had an organic sweet potato for breakfast, roasted with organic coconut oil, dried rosemary from our garden and Himalayan pink salt.

For a snack, I combined cut up, organic red kale (minus the vein or center stem) with organic coconut milk, chia seeds, goji berries, cacao and maca with a hint of stevia to sweeten the deal and consumed a green fiber filled and organic everything smoothie.

For lunch, I ingested one whole organic peeled eggplant cut into bite-size pieces, dredged in organic turmeric, salt, ground chipotle chile pepper and cumin, roasted along with some cut up organic yellow onion again in coconut oil.  Yummy.

And for some reason, my dinner resembles dessert.  Organic strawberries with vanilla balsamic matched up with Koko’s coconut cream gouda.

I guess Monday is meatless but I didn’t plan it, my body urged me to purge.  Bon Appetit!Pure Coconut Bliss All Day!

For tomorrow, since I am on a roll – I am roasting up some organic zucchini and organic leeks, cut up and mixed up with organic coconut oil and hot curry powder.  Also, organic broccoli with leeks, coconut oil, garlic cloves, red pepper and salt.  I might add a little acid like lemon juice towards the end and accompany the roasted crucerferous veggie with Bucheronde (a Brie/Camembert type) cheese and some sesame seed crackers.

If I feel the need for dessert later, good old rich and creamy goat cheese plain yogurt works for me.  I add lots of organic cinnamon, a few drops of stevia and organic raw red walnuts snapped into tiny pieces with my fingers.  Organic blueberries are at the ready if I elect to add those too.

Last night, I ate an organic green leaf lettuce chopped up with organic feta, sun dried tomatoes, Kalamata olives, tortilla strips, organic lemon juice squeezed fresh, organic olive oil and Himalayan salt.

By posting this, I hope to inspire but also continue my healthy journey.

Have you ever found a new use for something old?

This morning on our walk, my friend (same gal pal who advised me to run now and get my Copper River salmon) and I saw a rusty table on the sidewalk obviously on trash/free/please take me away status.  We saw this same table two days ago and then I never remembered to pick it up with my car and bring it home.

Since it was still there and my friend thought it was darling and perfect for the yard and knowing that I’d probably forget to drive the car over and pick it up again, we walked it home.  She would have gladly taken it, since I hesitated, but she’s selling her home.

This table is made of iron and has no soft spots to grab on to.  This table is rusted and rickety, only useful for décor.  This table weighs at least ten pounds.  We joked we were getting our walk plus resistance training workout in.

Two crazy garden lovers who saw potential, loveliness and charm in something abandoned carried this table home in spurts.  It was an act of love and hope.  We walked about three quarters of a mile with it together, switching hands, places and avoiding banging into fire hydrants, bushes and mailboxes. She graciously carried it alone with both arms in the home stretch at the top of our downhill climb to my house.

We re-arranged the aged relic in about a half dozen places till we found the exact spot we both felt was

1) Filling a purpose or space.

2) Pleasing to the eye within its dimensions and in relation to the immediate environment it was framed in.

We did this using a keen eye for proportion and using our aesthetic appreciation for pleasing landscapes on our walks. It took seconds to agree on the appropriate placement.

She wanted me to send her a picture when I was done filling it with what I perceived to imagine, ferns and shade loving plants.  But after she left and I hurried into my car to visit Home Depot once again this week (I am in total garden mode), I realized what it needed was for me to collect all my weathered finds I had scattered all over my property, and place them in unison around and on top of this table.

Voila!

 Reuse Recycle Restore

I am going to totally add some ratty, ‘seen better days’ wind chimes and hang them from the tree branches!

The artist is the confidant of nature, flowers carry on dialogues with him through the graceful bending of their stems and the harmoniously tinted nuances of their blossoms, Every flower has a cordial word which nature directs towards him.

Auguste Rodin

I have been gardening all day.  Muscles sore after an epsom salt bath.great satisfaction and expectationsTime to plant tomatoes and basil too!

One of the most profound but deeply simple and revealing understandings I received from Master Gardening was the concept and science that a plant only germinates, sprouts, grows, withstands storms, bounces back after being pelleted by rain, survives the swaying of the wind and basks in the sun in order to do one thing and one thing only:  reproduce.

A plant propagates and multiplies itself by seed from inside a flower or fruit, spores, via runners and roots or bulb cloning. Its sole purpose is to make more of itself.

It made me realize it’s what life is all about, what life does, what nature seeks.  It’s about being the best, strongest or adaptable specimen in order to proliferate and continue evolution.

This blew my mind.  It still does.