A Dirty Hoe In My Garden

I have not done a very good job at documenting the progress on our home remodel.  We have everything in pictures, but I have been horrible about putting it in my blog. For me, it's really hard to take the time to write something when I am right in the middle of it.  Now I find we are almost done with the exception of one thing - the backyard.  That remains pretty much untouched.

Our backyard is not very large as you can see from the picture, but it's a pretty good size for the city.  We have a nice lemon tree that gives fruit all year long, an apple tree and several rose bushes. All horribly overgrown. A lot of the garden is paved and there are beds surrounding the perimeter.  The beds are filled with weeds and spiders.  Lots of both.  I don't like weeds. I am terrified of spiders.

A few weeks ago I decided to go tackle the garden and pulled about three feet of weeds while dodging hundreds of little spiders. It took me six hours. This was certainly not as fun as cleaning up our little front yard!  I really want to garden, but pruning the trees and pulling all those weeds is rather daunting.  Then I had a eureka moment.  Why not have someone else do that part?  I should probably call this a "duh" moment.  Why I didn't think of this before?!  I went to Yelp and starting looking for gardeners.  The one that caught my eye?  Dirty Hoe Landscaping.  The name alone was almost enough, but after reading the reviews and checking out the website I decided to email them.  The owner, Bernie, replied right away and we set up an appointment.

Yesterday Bernie came over and I liked him immediately. I have a really good feeling about him.  We looked around our yard and he asked us lots of questions about what we wanted for our backyard and gave us a lot of advice on what we could do.  We have decided to clear out everything with the exception of the trees and the rose bush on the gazebo. After that Bernie and his team is going to analyze our soil and do whatever they do to fix it.  Finally he will give us a list of plants he thinks would work well in our yard and we can either plant them ourselves or they can do it.  Perfect!  He said clearing out the yard should only take a day! Sure beats my pace and no spiders!!!

We get our quote early next week, but I am pretty sure we are going with Dirty Hoe. With a name like that how can we resist?

Cooking Up Whatever the Heck I Want

The past twelve months or so have been chock full of change for me. New city, new home and a new mother-in-law when you think about it!  When all this change hit me I was smack dab in the middle of this personal growth thing that I have been working on, well my whole life. However, recently I have really been trying to apply myself. Things like how I react to people, keeping my thoughts positive, setting goals and accomplishing them. You know, easy stuff like that. Ha!  If only.  I have accomplished many things I have set out for myself and for that I am really proud. I quit smoking. I stopped drinking. I am losing weight. I am even working on my reactions to things and not being such a drama queen! For all that I give myself one big pat on the back.  The one thing I haven't bee able to get a grip on is my blog. That is one big challenge for me.

I started by blog way back in 2008.  I started it as a way to share recipes with my friends. I had just discovered cooking and Rachel Ray and just started her 30-Minute-Meals show. I was cooking up a storm and my friends and I were sharing recipes a lot. This was a perfect way to do it. I really didn't think much of it. I just got on blogger and set one up.  I never posted all that regularly, but that was enough for me and at least my friends could get my recipes.

A few years later a friend of mine, Shelly, jazzed up her blog Momfiles.com and I was motivated to jazz up mine as well. I found a great template and figured out how to implement it with the help of this great developer from Spain. It the same one I have on there now. I like it. Still, however, I was a bit irregular in my posts.

As time has gone by tons and tons of food blogs have popped up on the internet.  With all these foodies posting recipes for things like Wild Boar with Simmered Napa Kale and Brazilian Lime Infused Creme Fraiche my recipes for things like Pudding In A Cloud seemed pretty pathetic. I became really self-conscious about my writing. How could I keep up with these people?  To make matters worse someone decided that my blog would be fun to attack and left some really nasty comments about a recipe I posted. That really hurt me and pushed me further into my shell. I just started thinking that I had nothing to offer.

The last few months I have been making some feeble attempts to post on my blog. I actually have been forcing myself to do it. You see, I do write every single day. I have been for over a year.  I have written for 300,000 words for 378 days straight.  If I can do that, why can't I write in my blog?

Well, I will tell you why. I am self-conscious. I feel that I don't have anything to say that anyone will be interested it.  Also, I don't want to just write about food anymore.  While I may poke fun at those folks that can turn Pudding In A Cloud into a 25 ingredient recipe with every ingredient in the title, I do admire them and I am learning a lot from them. I can't compete with that.  Aha! That's the key. I don't need to compete.  This isn't a competition, it's a blog.  It's MY blog. I can honestly write whatever I want to.  Cooking with Sean & Joey can be more than cooking in the kitchen. It could be cooking up life.  Cooking up design.  Cooking up adventure.  Right now I am into celebrating my life and I want to share it.  I do have something to offer - my experiences. I am only going to be on this road once. I might as well keep a travel journal.  Who knows? It might even help someone.

So, starting Monday there is going to be a new twist on Cooking with Sean & Joey.  Each day of the week is going to be a new different theme.  I am going to keep my themes a secret right now and I intend for them to grow in their own way. Who knows what I will cook up. I do know one thing. I will be cooking up whatever the heck I want and I am going to have fun with it!

Happy 8th Anniversary!

Last Sunday Joey and I celebrated out 8th Anniversary.  We went to Blue in San Francisco where we went on our very first date.  This year I got Joey the mosaics above.  They are even more beautiful in person. 

I was going to write a long blog post about how we met, but I realized that I have done that already several times.  All I really need to say is that I consider myself very blessed to be spending my life with such a wonderful person. Every day I get to see my very best friend in the world.  How lucky is that?

So here's to 8 years and to many, many more!  I love you, Joey!!!

Celebrating Old

I don't know exactly when it happened. It was more than a day ago, a month ago or even a year ago. Somewhere out of the blue I got old. There were signs here and there that it was happening, but for the longest time I choose to ignore them. "Oh, you're not old" my friends would say like it was an ailment or a disease. Something that would never happen to me. So, if I am not old, what am I supposed to say? Maybe I should say I am vintage. Seems to work for Danish furniture making it worth twice the price, not to mention those items on Fab.com that go for ten times what they cost at the garage sale they were found at. I could say I am mid-century like my house. It certainly makes my 50s tract home sound elegant. I guess I could say I'm retro. That's kind of cool. A boy I once worked with told me he loved my sweater because it looked so retro. Sadly, it really was. My sweater was five years older than he was. I know one thing I don't want to call myself - young. There is nothing more obnoxious than someone saying, "Happy Birthday. You are 48 years young." No, I'm not. That's a stupid expression and I am not young.

Maybe I can just say I'm old. There! I said it. I am old. What's wrong with that?! Old really should be a good thing not something to be ashamed of. I've worked really hard to get to this age and I am taking all the credit for it. Instead of hiding my head in shame about my age, why don't I celebrate it? What's wrong with celebrating old?! So that's that. I am no longer going to worry about my age I am going to celebrate it. I am going to celebrate old!

One Year - 750 Words A Day!

Yesterday I did something I never thought I would do - I reached 365 days of continuous writing on 750words.com!  One year!  I have learned a lot from this exercise.  One thing is that if I stick my mind to something I can achieve it. I also learned that a little work on something each day can actually have an impact.

I am someone that likes to do things pretty quickly and move on to the next thing. I have always been quick to learn things so this has served me well.  However, there are some things in live that you just can't do quickly.  I can't create a beautiful garden in a weekend. I can't train a bird in a day. I can't change myself just by thinking about it for a week.  Yep, I learned all that and so much more from 15 short minutes a day.

I am going to try to keep this in mind with everything I do. One little step at a time.

Another First! Our First Rose

When Joey and I moved into our place in Daly City there was a lot of work to be done both inside and out. We concentrated on the inside because, well, we were going to be in there more and also neither of us liked gardening.  One thing was certain to me, however, those rose bushes had to go!

We have a very simple, small area in the front. I wouldn't even call it a yard really.  It's mostly paved in with ten areas for plants.  Four on each site and two near the door.

Aurora has planted roses in each place except for one huge bougainvillea which really needed trimming.  In fact they all needed trimming. Since I was planning to pull them all out, I decided to keep them this year and replace them next year. I know nothing about roses, but noticed the neighbors that had them had cut theirs way down. I decided I would do the same. It couldn't hurt anything. If it didn't work I was going to pull them anyway and if it did, well, we would see.  This is what they ended up looking like.

(By the way, you can ignore the elegant weed garden next door.)

After about a month I started seeing a little growth on my bushes and yesterday I got my first full rose!  How exciting!  I didn't end up killing any of my bushes.  They are thriving!  I was getting attached to these little bushes.  When I saw our first rose yesterday, I was in love.

Thinking that Aurora planted these bushes 20 years ago and now I am taking care of them is really special to me. They aren't going anywhere and neither am I!

Our First Japanese Maple

Most kids dream of Christmas trees.  Not me. I have dreamt of Japanese Maples for as long as I can remember.  I have always loved their vibrant colors and delicate leaves. The first time I really remember wanting one was when I went to Oregon to visit my grandmother and her neighbor had one.  I knew that if I ever had a yard I would have one.

When I moved to Japan I didn't get a maple or a yard, but I got the privilege of living very close to Kyoto and being able to see the maples in four different season.  One fall we took a boat ride down the river and the hills were ablaze with red maples. I will never forget that day.

I took that image back with me to San Francisco.  Once thing was clear, though.  While my love for Japanese Maples was strong as ever the chance of me having my own yard was pretty slim.  That was until last June when Joey and I got our our in Daly City. Suddenly it was completely possible for me to get the tree of my dreams.  I began in earnest to find my tree. 

A short internet search show me a nursery right near my office that claimed to have a huge selection of Japanese Maples. Off I went to Carlmont Nursery in Belmont. From the front it looks like a store in a strip mall. An nice strip mall, but a strip mall none-the-less.  I drove around to the back to find the entrance and still nothing special.  Then I entered. Oh my goodness!  Japanese Maple heaven. The only place I have seen more is in Japan!  Every color, every shape, every kind imaginable. It didn't take me long, though to find the one I wanted.  It was like it called out to me.  I found a beautiful Skeeter's Broom and fell in love.  A week later they delivered it to my door and planted it in a barrel for me. I love her!

I really never thought I would own one. I guess this taught me to never give up on your dreams!