The Hammock is Up

Mark set the posts and hung up his hammock this past weekend. It's really comfortable and has a great view.

Flower Beds in Bloom

The Herb Garden

Salad Bar

We're growing a salad bar in the garden this year. This patch is just starting to sprout. It's got a huge variety of lettuce, spinach, basil, radishes, and bunching onions all mixed together. It's experimental, but so far it is coming along pretty good. The bugs do seem to be eating their fair share

One Local Summer Week #2

Salad from our garden

Chicken with Forty Cloves of Garlic (From Barefoot in Paris, Ina Garten Cookbook)

Local Chicken (raised in my backyard)
Local Spring Hill Farms Butter
Local Kendall Jackson Olive Oil
Local Kendall Jackson Wine
Local Clover Stornetta Cream

Local Farmers Market Garlic

Herbs from my garden

Honeymoon

After almost 1 year of wedded bliss Mark and I finally managed to go on our dream honeymoon. We've spent the last week soaking up the sunshine on the beaches of Cancun. It was a wonderful experience. The hotel we stayed at was relatively small and quiet. I finally had a chance to do nothing but relax and read. I read three great books. the Omnivores Dilemma, The Botany of Desire and In Defense of Food, all by Michaeal Pollan. I have to say that these books have got me thinking really hard about putting anything I have not grown myself into my mouth. Mark and I also did some snorkeling and enjoyed a trip to Xcaret. There were sea turtles coming up on to the beach to lay their eggs at night. The hotel has a section of the beach sectioned off to keep the eggs safe from the tourist traffic. The eggs get carefully moved to the safe area each night. One of the best parts of the trip was the amazing fresh food. It was awesome to eat whole food (nothing packaged) each day.