Camping

We stopped for apples on the way.

I love being there in the off season.  The weather was perfect, and the tourists gone.

The first night, we had the campground to ourselves.

The tidepools, new moon night sky, tumbling on the dunes, empty campground and new binoculars were perfect.  So were the roasted marshmallows and cold root beers.  And my heart soars when I think of the way the boys fell over themselves about the sea caves at low tide, climbing big rocks (and throwing small rocks), and watching the bats and the sunsets.  We learn so much and sleep so deeply when we camp out.

Doesn't it all look so effortless?  It wasn't. 

But it was so wonderful that we'll do it again and again and again.

Now We Are Six

And off to first grade.

Happy Birthday, my darling boy!

For Bill

We saw it in the sky.

This perfectly illustrates how we feel about our dear friend making it back to L.A. after his terrifying trip to Malaise-ia.

Cutbacks

Last night, in the twenty minutes between dinner and bath, we decided to take the kids out for a quick run around in the meadow.

We wanted some fresh air and to let them lose themselves in the tall grass.

Okay, by now anyone familiar with Los Angeles is thinking, "Huh?!"

We've had some budget issues in our city, and as far as I can tell, one of the cutbacks has been not cutting back the grass in the middle of one of our major boulevards.  All summer, I've been driving past these miles of traffic islands that are normally mowed like a golf course, and I've been watching the grass get taller and taller.

It is now quite tall.

This is a wide traffic island that many years ago had a trolley track on it.  It is now so beautiful that I wonder why they ever mowed it in the first place.  How quickly nature would reclaim it completely, if given a chance!

I grew up roaming boundless acres of uncut grasses and wildflowers.

 

 This is not that, but we will take what we can get.

 

Cigar Box Shelves

Here is a way to make a fun little shelf that is also a hidden treasure box:

If your cigar box has a hinged paper lid like mine, you will need to slice off the lid so that you can attach the box flush to the wall.  I like using drywall screws, and I recommend making pilot holes in your box first.  Once it is attached to the wall, you can replace the removable lid:

Now you have a sweet little shelf with a place to hide your treasures.  It looks a little crooked in this picture, but in life, it is level and quite sturdy.  (As my photo assistant was pulling on my leg, I had some difficulty lining up the shot.)

These boxes have a very faint smell of cigars inside that I find nostalgic.  Most smoke shops will give them to you for free or very little money, just ask.  And, no, I did not have to smoke any cigars!

Fiction vs. Reality:  I have always thought that these would make perfect little bedside shelves for kids or in small bedrooms, but mine are actually knickknack shelves in a cluttered corner of my kitchen.  For the above pictures, I put a pillow on my cookbooks so you could see how it would look by a bed.  Here is my reality:

There are many beautiful styles of cigar boxes.  Vintage ones are usually gorgeous.  I have always been partial to these Partagas boxes, and also to the all wood ones by Nat Sherman.  Some of the Nat Shermans have sliding lids, which would also make excellent treasure box shelves.

Cookie Porridge

What do you eat for breakfast?  I make a lot of oatmeal, which is ironically the very food that prompted those ridiculously drawn out battles of wills with my parents when I was a girl.  You know, where I would refuse to eat one bite and had to stay at the table after everyone else was done, watching my oatmeal get worse by the minute.  Now I love it.  Go figure.

I also make polenta (mamaliga), grits and rice porridge (congee), but oatmeal is our hot cereal of choice.  I have recently been getting some ideas about how to spice it up from our favorite cookie recipes.  Muffin and scone recipes work well for this, too.  I just add the spices and dried or fresh fruit that are in the recipe, and cook the oatmeal in my regular way.

This morning we had Molasses Cookie oatmeal, inspired by this sublime recipe from The Silver Palate.

I added a little ginger, clove, salt, butter and cinnamon, and sweetened with molasses.  I often think of pastries that I have enjoyed and try to copy them into my oatmeal.  Blueberry, lemon zest & cardamom oatmeal was a big hit.  What do you add to your porridge?

The Secret Letter

Did you ever write an invisible letter using lemon juice?  After watching Diego check the mailbox again today without finding a response to his letter, I realized that I'd better send him something very special.  I remember doing this with my brothers when we were kids and finding it a terrific thrill.

Just assembling the materials tonight felt magical.

I don't remember ever writing an invisible letter with a brush by candlelight, but it was such a delight that I can't believe I waited this long!

All you have to do is write your letter with lemon juice and let it dry.  To make it visible, have an adult wave the paper over a flame (candle, stove, lighter), letting the flame almost burn the paper.  The areas where you applied the lemon juice will brown faster than the rest of the paper, the words will slowly appear, and you will have decoded the secret message.

Of course, I did a test:

I know that this will be so exciting for Diego tomorrow.  I'm sure any child who has never seen this before  will be totally enchanted by it, so go get out your brush and lemon and write someone a secret letter!