by Christine | Life, Observations, Writing
My husband came into the house yesterday evening and made this pronouncement: “We’re ripping everything out of the yard and only planting boysenberries.” I would like to say I was shocked, but I totally understood.
Once you taste a fresh-from-the-vine boysenberry, there is no going back. You will buy the ones in the store, but they never match up to that burst of sun and summer and berry-goodness that is the fresh boysenberry.
Of course, this is true, too of tomatoes and apricots and strawberries and oh, all manner of garden goodness. To this day, I can’t buy an apricot in the store because as a child we had a productive apricot tree. So much so that mom & dad would make apricot jam, stewed apricots (OH YUM!), apricot pie…whatever we didn’t manage to eat (or the birds didn’t get) all got saved, somehow, to make winter brighter with its fresh, fruity flavor. Store apricots just aren’t the same – the juice isn’t as sweet, the flesh tends to be a bit mealy, and over all they are a disappointment.
Tomatoes are one area where I will bite the bullet and buy in the store when I’m not growing my own.
(But come on. I mean, doesn’t that cherry tomato look DELISH?) I have a confession – I make sure I eat the first ripe cherry tomato, every season. That burst of flavor, mingled with the scent of tomato plant on my hands, is, every year, the herald of summer.
I do love the flowers that summer brings, too. Every year for the past few years, I’ll get what I call “volunteer” sunflowers – ones I haven’t planted, but were remnants of seeds from previous summers. I never rip them out before they’ve grown; I like to believe they are the earth’s way of saying “thank you” to me, so the least I can do is help them grow.
These two sunflowers are about twelve feet tall.
And then there’s the artichoke. Once we’ve eaten our fill of artichokes, we tend to ignore the plant for awhile – to our dismay, overnight it seems the artichokes open up too much to be tasty. Then we do our duty to the birds and bees everywhere, and let them flower.
Stunning, isn’t it? How many bees do you see in this photo?
Here’s the whole plant, showing lots of flowering artichokes.
Yeah, spending time in the garden – even when it’s just weeding and watering – always seems to settle my spirit. Taking photos of my garden is just another delight, especially now that I can get photos from my camera and into the blog, lol! But my favorite thing to do in summer? It’s just to sit in the garden around sunset, drinking wine or a Between the Sheets, talking with my husband as he noodles around on the guitar. Pure heaven.
On the writing front, DEMON HUNT is 99% complete – the publisher just needs to finish the formatting, then once more for strictly a format edit and it’ll be good to go. I hope to have ARCs this time around, so I can get some reviews prior to the launch but we shall see.
One last photo – this one was taken at a winery in Paso Robles. It reminds me of a painting by Monet, and I am very proud of it.
All photos in this blog posting were taken by me.
The year is rapidly approaching the Summer Solstice. What is your favorite way to enjoy summer?
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Thanks so much for visiting and leaving comments – I love hearing from you! Until next time – and remember to drink responsibly!
by Christine | Publishing, Writing
So…the time has come. Ladies and gents, may I present…
Cover design by Taria A. Reed
Tribred Gregor Caine decided long ago to deny his blood legacy. So he isn’t happy when paired with a full-blooded Fae to hunt the demons that overrun Los Angeles. As they fight side by side, he finds she calls to both his Fae and his demon blood; a call he can’t resist.
Warrior Fae Serra Willows crossed into the Human Plane to help destroy the demons released from the Chaos Plane. Finding and shutting down the portal between worlds is more challenging than she expected…and Gregor and his world more seductive than she had ever imagined.
As the killings escalate, Gregor and Serra realize one of the most deadly demons from the Chaos Plane has marked Serra as his own. To save her, Gregor has to face his greatest fear—losing his humanity to the darkness in his blood. But in a race against time, that darkness could become his greatest strength. And he will kill to claim Serra’s love.
Available Summer, 2012
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PLUS – TODAY is the Release Day for BLOOD DREAMS – A Caine Brother’s Short Story! You definitely want to read Blood Dreams before you pick up Demon Hunt – it’s the missing link, so to speak. Here’s the cover!
It’s December, and Los Angeles is in the grip of a serial killer – or so Gregor Caine would like to believe. But the moon grows fat as it builds toward the Winter Solstice and an eclipse. An old woman searching for a friend gone missing believes danger is coming, and the Blood Dreams that keep interrupting Gregor’s sleep portend a swarm of demonic activity.
After summer’s setback, Kendall Sorbis is finally getting started on his Revenge Life List. First up, open a portal to the Chaos Plane. Second, invite the Caines to come and play…
BLOOD DREAMS available TODAY!
Thanks for sharing my excitement!
by Christine | Life, Observations
I didn’t have photos the last time I talked about the garden, but now I do. So here, first off, is the genius door in my garden. On the left is a pink jasmine, which blooms once a year, briefly. On the right is a star jasmine, which pretty much blooms in spring and all summer.
Tom's genius idea in place. Gorgeous!
Right behind the gate, on the other side, is the beginning of my basil dynasty. On the left, sweet basil. In the middle, Thai basil. And on the right (which you can’t see in this photo) varigated perennial basil. I’ll believe it when I see it – the perennial part, I mean.
Here’s my beets and bell peppers bed.
To the right is a pot of mint; in the bed behind this one is a blackberry (marion) climbing up the wire fencing, and strawberries planted in front of it.
The next photo is taken from an extreme corner of my back yard, trying to get as much of the scope of the garden as possible.
To the left is one of the Meyer lemon trees. Straight in front are four small artichoke plants and three bigger ones. Moving to the right is a Bearss Lime tree – and beyond that, more artichokes. (The gate gets lost in this photo.) The beet and bell pepper bed, shown above, is to the right of the trash can. Behind me is another lemon tree and some squash seedlings.
Onion bed, with bee balm (small) in each front corner. Mint is to the left, Johnny Jump Ups and Buddha to the right, more strawberries and a boysenberry behind, with white sage in the pot behind the pot with the Johnny Jump Ups.
Below: My (unweeded) rose garden, showcasing the new bedroom window…
and…the rose garden, tamed through Tom’s diligent weeding work. With some brilliant shadows on the wall, thanks to the annular eclipse today.
Hope you enjoyed the trip through the garden. Thanks for stopping by. I’ll post more as things develop!
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DEMON SOUL is out now…BLOOD DREAMS, a Caine Brothers Short Story available June 1st. DEMON HUNT coming this summer!
by Christine | Life, Observations, Writing
Or maybe I should call this post Sixes and Sevens? I’m be-bothered and out of sorts and ill-at-ease and put your catch-phrase here.
- Thanks to kansaswatercolor.com for the image.
(I’m somewhere there – right there, in the middle of the painting. Or maybe in the upper right side…or down left, toward the bottom…)
There’s no one reason for it, really, and a million tiny reasons for it. A bummer for me is that wine – red wine, as far as I can tell – now severely disrupts my sleep, to the point that I’m not waking at 5am to write because I’ve tossed and turned from 1am to 3am. Which means I need to cut back on my red wine intake, which in turn makes me get pouty-face – and trust me, I am not attractive in pouty-face. But…I don’t know about the wine part of the blog, which makes me even MORE pouty-face.
Then I’ve got something physical going on in my female parts – to where I feel ugly-pregnant. Annoying and irritating, especially when the doc says “well, you’re so close to menopause, you should just wait it out…” Grr. I like my doc, but grr. I go see a female gynocologist this Friday, so will know more then. But at least I had a CT scan a couple weeks ago, and all my other organs are peachy keen and in good health. (Now there was a “fun” way to lose an entire day. Sheesh.)
In case you've never had one - this is what the CT machine looks like.
Add in two boys who don’t yet have jobs, three partials I want to complete and polish up, another partial I need to finish so I can send it off to a couple agents, being stalled in my exercising, wanting to shed at LEAST 20 pounds, and having the typical crazy day at the day job I like and … well, it makes me feel betwixt and between.
Crankypants.
On the positive side? I sent out two partials as requested to an agent on Saturday, for books that are complete, and I found I really enjoyed working with those two books. Hadn’t read them in a couple years at this point.
A week ago, we got brand new windows on the house – and it’s cooler, quieter, and more secure – I LOVE my new windows! Plus it ups the value of the house, always a good thing.
Another positive thing, my oldest son now has his driver’s license, and my younger son is now learning. (21 & 18) Ever since they stopped teaching driver’s ed in the high schools here in California, the average teenage driver age has gone up. And up. A good thing, over all, but still – it’s nice that my kids are finally spreading their wings a bit.
BLOOD DREAMS, my short story set in the Caine Brothers world, releases on June 1st and I’ve got help with a book release promo on that day, so that’ll be fun. I’ve seen my cover for DEMON HUNT and can’t WAIT to show it to everyone – it’s fantastic! AND, I got a cover blurb for that book by NY Times Bestselling Author MAGGIE SHAYNE! So, yeah…lotsa good happening. Plus I’m working on Book 3 of the series.
Another, huge positive – Tom and I are closer than ever. That whole “you complete me” thing? It’s real. It’s more real now than it was 35 years ago, and it just keeps getting better. That, my friends, is scary-good.
Another positive is the garden. Tom’s worked so hard – and so have the boys. We have five original veggie planting beds, and Tom’s added nine more. We’ve decided using the back yard for growing stuff is more interesting than having grass (because our grass is mostly weeds).
We’re growing: cucumber, watermelon, potatoes, zucchini, crook-neck squash, beets, bell peppers, tons of onions, garlic, spinach, cilantro, 5 different kinds of basil, sunflowers, sage (both green and white), italian flat-leaf parsley and curly parsley, thyme, red lettuce from seed, dark green lettuce from seed (not yet seedlings), corn from seed, peas from seed; 3 different kinds of strawberries, black berries and boysenberries; on the bank, we’ve got 11 artichoke plants (6 of which are bearing artichokes this year; the other 5 are too young), two lime trees, two meyer lemon trees, two different orange trees, an apple tree, and pots of tomatoes? Glad you asked! We’ve got 8 pots of tomatoes, plus 4 heirloom tomatoes in the ground. Oh, and two pomegranate trees that aren’t big enough to have fruit on them yet (they’re barely 2 feet tall). Of the seeds not yet planted, bush snow peas, and celery, and I still have some sunflower seeds to plant…
Wow. Big grin. Mentally feeling much better – what a lovely garden (in it’s raggedy way)! I must post pictures. The really fun part of the new beds? Tom carted out this huge, terrific metal doorway that was a prop in a store I used to work for. I got to keep it…and now it’s solid in our garden, with jasmine growing up the sides and a hanging pot of petunias and alyssum in the center…when the jasmine grows up and over, it’ll be pure heaven!
Physically? I still feel blech. But at least, when I get home I’ll be able to sit in the garden with hubby, drink some bland and boring sparkling water, and enjoy all the growing things around me. Maybe I’ll even take pictures.
Thanks for stopping by. Hope you’re having a wonderful un-crankypants day!
by Christine | Wine Friday
There are so many empty bottles of wine on my desk, that the cat now refuses to come up and sleep in his box. The wine bottles scare him when they fall, and the last time it happened he glared at me and went off in a huff.
As I looked at the bottles, however, I realized there were a couple that I either didn’t like or I couldn’t remember how they tasted, and my notebook had gone missing. So…those got tossed. No big loss; one was a Concannon Petite Syrah that I wasn’t that impressed with, and the other I couldn’t remember but was a new label called Handcraft – a Pinot Noir, both from 2010. I will get back to the Handcraft because I don’t have bad memories of it, and because it’s still a new wine to me.
So on to the wines that are left!
Clos du Bois Pinot Noir 2009 North Coast – Alcohol 13.5% by Volume. Regularly $14.27 at Vons; $6.99 on sale
On the Label: “Grown in north coast vineyards influenced by cooling ocean breezes and persistent morning fog, our Pinot Noir exhibits aromas and flavors of red cherry, raspberry, and hints of cranberry harmonized with vanilla and spice from aging in oak barrels.”
My Take: A lovely wine, at a lovely price. It definitely meets/beats the Smoking Loon test (is this better than a $5.99 bottle of Smoking Loon Pinot Noir?) and was a treat. We had this with a lovely home made red pasta sauce with ground pork, pureed tomatos and fresh zucchini, onions, carrots and mushrooms sauteed with the pork. That and a raft of garlic bread made a fantastic meal.
My Rating: ~ Very, Very Drinkable ~ Especially for the price!
Cut The Fluff Comique Revolution White Table Wine 2010 Central Coast
thanks to http://thymetoeatwell.com for the photo
Bottled by Central Coast Wine Warehouse – I could not find the alcohol content on the label. $6.99 (?) at Trader Joe’s.
On the Label: “We had no choice but to CUT THE FLUFF – our white wine smells like apple blossoms, juniper berries & honeydew. TASTES LIKE white peaches, custard & salted pain perdue.”
My Take: This was an interesting wine. It tasted smooth, went down very well, I had no problems with it at all. But surprisingly, neither have I gone out of my way to pick up another bottle, even when I’ve been to Trader Joe’s – and usually I’ll do so if I like it. Not sure what that says about the wine, lol.
My Rating: ~ Drinkable ~ But not memorable. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…
thanks to http://www.cellartracker.com for the image
Tato Montepulciano D’Abruzzo 2009 Denominazione di Origine Controllata Alcohol 13.5% by Volume $6.99 at Trader Joe’s.
On the Label: “Dry Red Wine. Product of Italy” (Brief – gotta love it!)
My Take: Italian wines are, to me, luscious. When I was in Italy in 2004, I couldn’t get a bad glass of red wine, and I always asked for the house wine. Every restaurant seemed to have its own supplier; and while each glass tasted different, the wine inevitably was wonderful.
This wine is, I’m happy to say, no exception. It needed airing; but it was a lovely, full-bodied, rich red wine that went perfectly with hamburgers topped with blue cheese, and lovely roasted smashed potatoes.
My Rating: ~ Very Drinkable ~ and at a great price! Plus the label is really cool.
As usual, this is just my honest opinion – which will depend upon my mood, the weather, and what cycle the moon is in. Your taste buds will differ.
~ Until the next time, cheers – and remember to drink responsibly! ~
Demon Soul is available now. BLOOD DREAMS, a Caine Brothers Short Story, will be available on June 1st. Demon Hunt coming Summer, 2012!
My Rating System: Undrinkable, Barely Drinkable, Drinkable, Very Drinkable, and the ever popular Stay away! This is MY wine, you slut!
(But come on. I mean, doesn’t that cherry tomato look DELISH?) I have a confession – I make sure I eat the first ripe cherry tomato, every season. That burst of flavor, mingled with the scent of tomato plant on my hands, is, every year, the herald of summer.
