Calvinball update- "Seed Catalogs"

 (sorry in advance for the horrible yellow tinge to the photos- I've been scrapping pretty late at night, and the lighting isn't the best for true-to-life photos.)

that being said, the positive thing is that I've been scrapping! This Calvinball contest is getting me to complete layouts I've had halfway done for ages, or ones that have been just marinating in my head... (attending a 12-hour crop at the local SB store yesterday helped, too... haha!)

This layout has no photos at all, and is one I've wanted to do for years but couldn't figure out quite 'how' to do it. I got the vintage seed catalog cover images from the internet, and left myself plenty of room for journaling my memories of gardening and the excitement the seed catalogs would garner when they came in the mail. (Sadly, Mom says they don't send print catalogs anymore-- it was always fun to read through them, read the cool names they came up with for the new varieties, and see the pictures people sent in of their 5-lb tomato, 150-lb pumpkin, carrots that looked like faces, etc.) 

This page talks about the kinds of things I remember eating from the garden-- rhubarb, strawberries, fresh peas, green onions, radishes, apples, currants, plums, and pears from Grandma and Grandpa's yard... and Mom's process for selecting what new seeds were needed by going through the box of left-over seed packets she had stored in the kitchen cabinet from the previous year. 

this page used only patterned paper, journaling cards, and vintage buttons

Once I got that page done, I realized I hadn't said everything I wanted to so I made another one (see it below). I started out with a 6x12 yellow background and added canning jars that were cut out from a different piece of patterned paper. I added the canning labels from a third piece of paper and started writing. Again, I didn't have enough room... so I added a 3-inch strip of lined paper to the right side of the layout to give myself plenty of room to write. 

The second page talks about my memories of helping out in the garden, starting with helping to plant the seeds in the spring (and putting the seed packets on a stick at the end of the row so we could remember what was in each row), thinning out the plants when they came up to give them room to grow bigger, pulling the weeds, and picking the vegetables when they were ready. 

There was nothing quite like going out into the garden with a bowl and a paring knife to pull the first green onions and radishes from the garden, then eating them at dinner only 5 or 10 minutes later, or picking a dozen ears of sweet corn, taking off the husks, and dropping them right into the boiling water to have that 'just picked' freshness and sweetness that didn't even need butter.

cutout canning jars for adding my journaling, and more vintage buttons 

This page also talks about how grateful I am to have had the opportunity to grow up the way I did: to learn how my food is grown, and the effort and work that goes into getting food for your table and preserving it for the winter. So many people nowadays don't have any idea of the labor involved in getting that bunch of green onions to the grocery store, or what type investment of time, effort, and faith / hope in the weather and growing conditions you have to have to be a farmer, or just to cultivate some of your own food. I am truly grateful I had that experience, and that my mom and dad (I love you guys!!), by giving me the experience of working outdoors in the garden, instilled a love of plants and nature in me that I will always have. 

Even though I still don't like cooked peas, lol! (private joke-- I hate cooked peas, so I would always get a small bowlful of raw peas instead of having to eat the cooked ones... )

This post took way more space to write than I thought, just to talk about one layout. (but it's worth it-- it's a layout I really like, even though there are no photos on it at all.) So keep your eye out for more Calvinball scrapping posts soon! And, I went hiking last weekend to see some of the very ephemeral spring wildflowers we have here in Arizona-- the flowers were gorgeous, I got some fresh air, and I got a few good pictures out of it (along with a bit of a sunburn!), so I'll post some of those photos soon. 

photo heavy post- last weekend's food and garden tourism

A week ago Saturday, Tom and I headed south to Tucson, for lunch. Yes, lunch! (and a bit of sightseeing, in addition to eating.) It was a beautiful day for a drive, and we headed out early...

our destination

We got to the restaurant  in South Tucson at about 10:30 am to wait
for their 11:00 lunch opening. And we were not the first people there- it was a good thing we left home early!

The restaurant is 'Mi Nidito' which means 'My Little Nest' in Spanish;
it's been serving food in Tucson since 1952, and was featured
on the Travel Channel show Man vs. Food.

We waited with some very nice people out front of the restaurant, and got a booth when the restaurant opened... our waitress asked, 'do you need a menu?' (apparently they get a lot of regulars who know what they're going to order!) Us, now, we needed some time to check out the offerings on the menu, so we could narrow it down. The couple in the booth behind us didn't need menus; they ordered straightaway, and were giving us a bit of advice about what was good. In talking to them, we found out that was because they've eaten lunch at Mi Nidito every Saturday for the past 20 years! Now that is definitely a ringing endorsement! One of the restaurant's other 'claims to fame' is one of their previous customers: former President Bill Clinton- they even have the President's booth marked in the restaurant! (and no, we didn't sit in it... lol!)

Our table: we had no idea we were going to get this much food!!

The food was delicious, and the portions were quite generous: we brought home plenty of leftovers!  We got a Tostada with chiles as an appetizer (which is sort of like a Mexican pizza), I got chicken enchiladas with red sauce, and Tom got a beef chimichanga. The chimichanga (which was the size of a pillow, lol!) was made with their house specialty: a shredded beef called birria. Birria is brisket which is slow cooked with chiles and spices, then shredded. Neither of us could place the flavors in the shredded beef, but luckily we happened to see the television show episode again last week- turns out that the 'secret ingredient' in the shredded beef is pickling spices, which gives it a really complex, mellow flavor! The food was all delicious, and we'll definitely be eating there again.

After we ate lunch, we headed back north to do some sightseeing at a cactus nursery we'd heard about from some friends who live in Tucson. (On the way, we saw an estate sale, so we stopped for a quick look. Turns out it's a recurring sale, and there was so much stuff that a quick look wasn't possible- so I'll save that one for another time, lol!)

The cactus nursery was total visual overload-- I definitely want to go back again, and maybe bring at least few plants back home with me. I'd love to have (at least) one of everything, but we don't have nearly enough room! For now, I'll have to settle for admiring the plants in the photos and post just a few of the many pictures I took to give you an idea of the scope of the place:

one of the (huge) cacti right at the main entrance-
I don't know what kind it is, but I'd love one!

 The property is on approximately 10 acres, and contains rows and rows of nursery plants and greenhouses for propagating cacti- check this out!  (and don't forget, you can click on any of the photos to make it larger.)

one of the many propagation houses on the property

I can't even begin to imagine how many hundreds of plants are in this greenhouse, let alone in all of the greenhouses on the property- there had to be at least 10 or 15 greenhouses altogether (the actual number is 24, according to their website). Looking at the pots in these houses closer, it's even more amazing to contemplate:

teeny, tiny baby cacti

Some of these cacti are so very tiny that you can't even see any of the plants themselves; all you can see are the feathery cactus spines. I had to add in the quarter when I took the photo just to add a sense of scale to the picture.

I don't even know what kind of cacti this is, but I
thought it was really cute, since it was so tiny!

As we wandered around on the property, we came upon a 'cacti compost heap' of sorts. We both would love to figure out some way to bring this impressive Saguaro skeleton home with us... unfortunately our family room isn't big enough for it, nor was it for sale (and even if it had been, I'm sure we couldn't have afforded it, lol). But wouldn't it make a striking accent piece in a room, preferably with a spotlight on it?!?

A view from the nursery's property off to the east. These are either the Santa Catalina mountains or the Rincon Mountains- I'm not sure which. (geography was never my strong suit.) Regardless of what mountain range it is, it's a gorgeous view. That's one of the things I love most about living in the desert, the expansive vistas and the fact that you can see around you for miles.

A really cool looking aloe plant in the main greenhouse!! he looks kinda mean,
doesn't he?!? I definitely would love to have one of these for our backyard!

a close-up of the individual flowers in the aloe flower cluster-
I bet the hummingbirds would love it, too!

A view of their main display garden... cacti can definitely make
an eye-catching presentation when you landscape with them!

A few (very large) containers in the display garden area. 

a sea of Golden Barrel Cacti in the main greenhouse area

I have tons more photos from the nursery- we were only there for a couple hours, but I took close to 100 photos in that time. This place was amazing, and we probably didn't even see half of it in the time we were there! If you want more info about it, you can Google it: Bach's Cactus Nursery. Since they don't ship plants, they don't have too much of a website, but if you click on this link: Danger Garden blog post about Bach's nursery you can read a very nice blog post written by a gardener /  blogger that contains many more photos of the place. (and I'll post more of my cacti photos soon!)

it wasn't exactly on time...

...the night blooming cereus, that is. It looks like this bloom opened very late at night / very early in the morning, so it was still fully open when I took the dogs outside on Thursday at 5 am. 

while I'm glad I got a chance to see the flower in its 'full glory' due to its late-night bloom, I think this means it opened too late to be pollinated (since these flowers are usually pollinated by moths). I really need to get a yardstick or measuring tape out here, to see how much this cactus has grown- it has to be at least a foot since last winter! (apparently cacti like hot, dry weather! and perhaps, the overspray from the sprinkler doesn't hurt it either- haha!)