For Daniel

One section I haven't mentioned in our epic LA Arboretum visit, yet, was the Tropical Orchid House. 

It really is quite a place,

The space is small, but has so much going on that it is mind boggling.

You don't know where to look next.

There are flowers popping out at you in ll directions.

I first came across orchids through Daniel Karan, who at the time was my chiropractor.

I used to love going to his office just to see the orchids, they were beautiful.

All I had to do was look at them and they withered, but Daniel and his wife Sally must have had a magical touch with these plants for they flourished under their care.

We all flourished under their care.

A walk in the garden

As promised here is the post regarding the LA Arboretum that we visited this last weekend.

It was larger than Fullerton, but I think a littles smaller than the Huntington, and with less attractions currently available. That being said there were many plants and trees to see...

This magnolia tree had the most amazing blooms.

While the weather could have been kinder the color of the blooms cheered us along.

Also when we got close to these flowers they has an aroma of caramelized sugar and were humming like a hive.

The recent storms had taken their toll on many of the trees. 

I had read a blog article with a heartbreaking video shortly after the storm but was still not fully prepared for what I saw.

Some trees were luck enough to be salvageable, however others were not.

Occasionally the remains created abstract scenes against the stormy skies.

Speaking of abstracts in nature, Hundertwasser would have been proud of some of these trees...

Tell me that doesn't remind you of this...

Or that this...

Does not make you think of that...

or that...

Speaking of art, along with all of the amazing natural delights there was art throughout the gardens. I snapped a couple of shots, but nothing like the amount that was there.

Some of the detail was beautiful...

And a bunch of fun.

There were many other delights to be found at this amazing gardens...

However I will leave the orchid house for another post, but until then I will leave you with one of the signature items of these delightful gardens...

Los Angeles Mycological Society Fair

Today was the Los Angeles Mycological Society Fair.

The husband and I had been planning a trip to the LA County Arboretum, he hadn't been since he was too young to remember and I had never been. 

We decided that it being Valentines day we would treat ourselves to a fair. 

We had been to Mo's Mushroom Talk earlier in the week at our local organic gardening club and had picked up an oyster mushroom kit from him at that time, it is sitting safely in our closet growing quietly in the dark, however we did take a peak just for you...

(more updates to follow).

Anyway, back to the fair, we began with a mushroom walk which seemed a bit crowded, so, after the first stop we broke off and took a little wander till it was time for Mo's in depth demo on cultivating kits. 

I learned more this time around from him as he was actually focusing his presentation on the kits (last time he was just delivering them). This time they had a variety of kits for sale, oyster, pink oyster, shitaki, and portobello mushrooms. Having already got one variety going we decided to just wait till we see haw well we do. 

After his presentation we grabbed lunch and take a wander through the amazing gardens. These gardens are large and I will dedicate at least another whole post to them, maybe two as the damage from this years storms really does need to be seen to be believed. Anyway after that we wandered back and took some pick of the exhibits As you can see some were huge...

Some were wet...

Some were dry...

and from the desert...

Some looked poisonous...

Some were poisonous...

And then it was time for the cooking demo by Nancy Silverton and her son Matt. Nancy owns Mozza Restaurant which has just opened a local branch down here in OC. For many years Mo has been her restaurants supplier for fungi and other produce. I caught a nice pic of Nancy Mo, and Matt during the demo...

They were talking about how the nutritional value of mushrooms in increased through cooking them, helps break down the cell walls and access their goodies.

Nancy served a salad that would eat your face while Matt prepared a wonderful mushroom risotto, there was talk of portobello ice-cream but only as a historic event. 

Rocket, piave cheese, white button mushrooms, champagne vinegar, lemon juice, shallots, and olive oil. Quite wonderful!

They then moved on to their book signing for their new book...

I'm sure it is full of wonderful recipes, at some point I will be picking it up I am sure.

 At this point we were fairly thrashed, and although we would love to join LAMS they meet during the week up in LA which is further than we go on school nights. That being said we will keep an eye on their calendar and hopefully they will have weekend foraging events so we may yet join.

Thank you LAMS for a great Valentines treat!

Brigid

three flames in my hearth

three flames burn in the darkness

three flames in my heart 

Busy

Although I check my bloggy buddies regularly, I have been so bust doing stuff that, I haven't had time to blog!

School is going swimmingly, this week we read Marx which I felt very at home reading, albeit that it was not an easy read. This week we read Thompson, a Western Marxist Historian.

I have been working a bunch. Last week I spent a day doing paperwork, sent off my DMV stuff, canceled my Junior College class (this involved producing my greencard on site), got some notary work done completed my death certificate application for my late husband (they asked me if I were the regestree?) Wonder how many dead folks apply for their own certs. Soon I will have all the paperwork ready to send off to the California Controllers office to get the money that I am owed. In the midst of this rather busy day I did bump into California State University Long Beach Pagan Alliance, who seem really cool, they are meeting tonight, but it is raining and my fibro is saying stay home, but we will see.

In other news I got my beans and peas into the ground...

Here are some of them in the ground. We really reworked this whole space. Originally, when we moved in it was a Butterfly and Hummingbird garden with a misplaced rose. Sadly it was messy and disorganized to the point of me, having no real photos of it. We worked on it a little last year, and a little more this spring, remember all that weeding I was doing? I owe a big thanks to Puppy for digging out the aloe vera, it will be so much easier to keep up with now. Well now it looks like this...

The rose is still there as are the columbine, Indian paintbrush and milkweed, but now there is also room for our peas, squash, melons, and who knows what else!

The jaboticaba is in place, but not planted yet (can't wait till that fruits).

On the other side we added a couple of stone fruits that we have been grafting onto there is a peach and a plum, and the peach is in bloom...

As are our blueberries...

It's going to be a good harvest!

Finally I have been getting into making up my own pan-Asian soups, which basically involves trowing together whatever is in the fridge and seeing what's up.

The other day it was miso, tofu, kale, mushrooms, some noodles, and a Vietnamese herb that I use in soup, but have no clue what you call it. It turned out well even if I day so myself...

It was so good I think I feel inspired to go see what's in the fridge right now!

The Return of the Dream Board!

Those of you who have been around for a while know I have made dream boards before.

I had taken it down a while ago, but something felt like it was missing from my life.

So this Sunday I invited over a few girlfriends and we each made a dream board.

So, what's the idea behind these dream boards I hear my newer readers asking.

Well it's simple, it's a visual prompt to help you manifest your dreams.

You put it up somewhere you see it every day and it guides you....

to your dreams!

Yoga Girl created this beautiful board....

Then Echo created this beautiful board...

Constance Came up with this beauty...

And I came up with this...

Many thanks to Lisa Lupa for showing me her star chart many moons ago, this year I intend to pay more attention to it and the wheel in the center of the board will allow me to track the planets.

All in all a wonderful day, love crafting with my girls...

And in the yard...

Things look pretty sweet!

The veggies are going wild!

The seedlings are ready to go in the ground if only the the winds would cooperate.

And the weeding continues on. 

I found smokey bacon flavored tempeh at the store today so I wrapped some up in tortilla with some pb and had taquitos for lunch.