The season has begun

There is a new farmer’s market in town. It’s deep in the downtown area, near the civic center. A couple of growers who don’t participate locally are there. These growers take their produce to San Francisco and Los Angeles where they get top dollar. People in Fresno are reluctant (cheap) to pay the prices these growers can charge and get in the bigger markets. The quality of their fruit is amazing and it’s organic.

This is today’s haul. The blueberries are just beginning and they are amazing. It will be a short season, though, because we’ve had some really hot days already. Today is cool and breezy. I felt like I was in San Francisco at the Ferry Building while buying these.

The power of storytelling in our life

I’ve been thinking long and hard on why I blog, why I write stories, and today I was actually interviewed, via Skype, by a student in the Netherlands who is writing a thesis on this idea. Renee Meijer, who like me, writes on Cowbird, is writing about the storytelling aspect of Cowbird and why and how we tell our stories. It was a fascinating conversation, and she certainly stirred my thinking even more so.

She told me about live storytelling events that I had never heard about before. I thought such an event would be interesting to see. Sort of like a poetry reading, but different in that the storyteller must tell a true-life tale. We chatted about what story means and what I enjoy about Cowbird. And that brings me to why I write. The stories on Cowbird give me a glimpse into other people’s lives and how they make order of their world. Same for reading other’s blogs. It’s undoubtedly the voyeur in me. I also like to share my own life through stories knowing that there are readers who are getting to know more about me.

I told Renee about my experience with my students to whom I would tell stories. They would remember the story but not some pertinent fact about marketing or economics. That’s when I realized the power of stories. We definitely affect the lives of others through our stories. That’s why Jesus told stories to get his message across.

So, dear Reader, thank you for reading my stories here. And, if you have a blog,  thank you for sharing a part of your life with me.  Your stories are powerful. Don’t stop telling them.

 

Taking care of children

We are all reeling from the news coming out of the midwest and especially Oklahoma as we hear of the devastation caused by mighty tornadoes. Even though we prepare and drill for such emergencies, until something like this hits, you have no idea if you can actually withstand nature’s power or not.

A local school was hit with an emergency yesterday when the winery next to it suddenly exploded and caught on fire. All of the students and staff were safely evacuated to another school. The drills and preparation paid off. Parents were notified as to where their children would be and that they were safe. So many parents in Oklahoma will not be getting that phone call.

In a brighter note, as we get ready for a very hot summer here in the San Joaquin Valley (we’ve already had 100 degree days), good news has come from Kaiser Permanente. A $60,000 grant from Kaiser Permanente Fresno will help reopen four neighborhood pools starting June 17 and provide free swimming lessons for children.

The pools at neighborhood centers will be open daily from 1 to 5 p.m. until August 18 when school will start. The grant will also provide funding to Fresno United Neighborhoods to help maintain and staff the pools. The swim lessons will be held in the morning through a program called “Splash into a Safe and Healthy Summer,” and 500 kids are expected to learn water safety during the summer. Hopefully those children will not only have fun and stay cool, but be safer in a community full of swimming pools where every year we have drownings.

More stick art

Back in February I posted about an art installation by Patrick Dougherty at Fresno State University. It’s called the Learning Curve. I knew that he had done other installations and some of you even mentioned this in your comments. When we were in the Bay area last week we stopped off in Palo Alto, home of Stanford University, and saw this piece, installed in 2011 and called Double Take.

Today’s juice

Today is CSA box, but that’s later, and tomorrow is farmer’s market. The weekend buys are about gone, too, so pickings are a little lean around here for the juice.

Cherries and apricots have arrived so we are filling up on those each day. I bought a few apriums and one squishy one was left in the fruit bowl so I threw it in along with an apple, carrot, half bag of cranberries, and 4 kale leaves. The end product looks sludgey and tastes a bit green:

Grandparent’s Day

Although yesterday was Mother’s Day, we didn’t do anything special around here. Jennifer did call, late in the day, as she is very busy on Sundays with her job as youth pastor. Not only did she make flowers for all the mothers in her church, but she also entertained her in-laws who were visiting to celebrate our granddaughter’s fourth birthday, which happens to be today. Four years ago my life changed, big time, and all for the better. Becoming  grandma was one of the best things to ever happen in my life.

May 13 2009

 

We won’t be there today to celebrate with Leeya. I left a card with four, one dollar bills for her to open this morning when her parents and baby brother sing Happy Birthday to her.

Last week, when we were visiting in the bay area, Leeya spent one night in the hotel with us. I snapped a photo of her and Terry, on their way back from breakfast. It made me think of an earlier picture Terry had taken of Leeya and me as we walked along the salt marshes in Alviso when Leeya was two. I photoshopped the two pictures in celebration of this birthday and how happy we are to be grandparents.

Leeya walking with grandparents

How did it get to be May 11?

I almost wrote May 10 for the title of this post and then realized we just finished  another night so it’s a new day. The time is flying by. We have not been at home  this past week and the next few weeks will be much the same.

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is getting ready for a major renovation and will close for three years beginning June 2. A major photography exhibit by Garry Winogrand has been at SFMOMA the last few weeks and one we really wanted to see. Winogrand died in 1984 with over 4,000 undeveloped rolls of film sitting in black plastic bags. Another 2,000 rolls had been developed into contact sheets but not edited. All of this work was culled to be included in this exhibit. It was amazing and we thoroughly enjoyed seeing it. Just as we completed our tour of the fourth floor exhibit, the fire alarm sounded and we

Evacuation

were evacuated from the building. Since it was free Tuesday, we decided we had gotten our money’s worth and went on to enjoy the Yerba Buena Gardens which are across the street from the museum.

 

 

A lovely spot for lunch in Yerba Buena Gardens

 

Yerba Buena Gardens

Today’s juice

Apple, basil, beet, cranberry, kale.

Orange you glad I made cupcakes?

The recipe called for a bundt pan. I hate those pans so poured the batter into lined cupcake pans.

I put the extras in the freezer but they had to come out yesterday to make room for the beerocks I made.

A fresh batch of orange buttercream frosting makes the cupcakes just as good as the day I baked them.

Today’s juicing ingredients

Strawberries, kale, basil, fennel, apple.