Notes from my patio

Here's a happy picture. My son built a little lending library in front of his house. I'm pretty proud of him. They keep it full of children's books. He says it gets a lot of use.

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Grampa Don said:
Campbells original condensed chicken noodle soup and a cup of buttermilk for lunch. Comfort food on a grey morning.

This is my marketing day. Renee checked me out. I asked her if she knew that the building used to be a bowling alley. She said she had heard that. I bowled there once. Didn't do too well.

The squirrels like the mulberry tree. I see them go up and down it a lot. Recently two young ones came down. I could tell they were young by their size. Then they did a strange thing. They sat there and touched noses for the longest time. Then one went off one way the other one a different way. It was like they were kissing goodbye.

I searched and found that squirrels do this to recognize family. They were swapping scents.

In the Spring, the squirrels eat the buds of the mulberry, and the rest of the year they chew on the bark. Sometimes I will find a small branch on the ground. Here's what the buds look like.

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Squirrels are rather recent in our neighborhood. We first noticed them about 15 years ago. I used to put out peanuts for them and some became really tame. A couple would come up to me when they saw me because they knew I had a peanut. From what I can gather they are eastern fox squirrels and were introduced to California. They aren't native here.
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Our oak trees drop some similar looking squiggles. I once looked them up and they are called catkins. They also drop acorns for the squirrels!
 
Sitting in the patio with my tea this morning thinking about loneliness. Maybe that's because it's kind of cool and overcast today. The thermometer says 70 and anything below 80 is flannel shirt weather for me.

Sure, I still get lonely at times. I miss having someone to say good morning to and just being around. But, it's not like at first. That was really tough. I had never lived alone before. I went from living with my folks one day to being married the next. When my wife died, I still had my older son living with me. Then he died and not long after that I had to put our little dog to sleep. Suddenly there was just me and my memories.

My younger son was great. I don't know what I would have done without his support. Time doesn't heal all, but it helps. I'm fine most of the time, but there's still some hurt. I guess that's always going to be true.
 
Grampa Don said:
Here's a happy picture. My son built a little lending library in front of his house. I'm pretty proud of him. They keep it full of children's books. He says it gets a lot of use.

little-library-small.jpg
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That is just beautiful as well as a wonderful idea for the community. Did you teach your son carpentry or did he learn from you by association? So nicely built!! You have every right to be proud of him.
 
Kika said:
That is just beautiful as well as a wonderful idea for the community. Did you teach your son carpentry or did he learn from you by association? So nicely built!! You have every right to be proud of him.
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No, when I offer help he usually declines. He enjoys figuring out things for himself. He did use my table saw for parts of it.
 
Grampa Don said:
Sitting in the patio with my tea this morning thinking about loneliness. Maybe that's because it's kind of cool and overcast today. The thermometer says 70 and anything below 80 is flannel shirt weather for me.

Sure, I still get lonely at times. I miss having someone to say good morning to and just being around. But, it's not like at first. That was really tough. I had never lived alone before. I went from living with my folks one day to being married the next. When my wife died, I still had my older son living with me. Then he died and not long after that I had to put our little dog to sleep. Suddenly there was just me and my memories.

My younger son was great. I don't know what I would have done without his support. Time doesn't heal all, but it helps. I'm fine most of the time, but there's still some hurt. I guess that's always going to be true.
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My story is a little like yours. My son was with me when I lost my husband years ago. That sure helped a lot. Now my son has been gone five years and my wonderful cat left about two years ago. I do have a couple of male roommates and we help each other out.
 
Grampa Don said:
We do have seasons here in the LA basin, but they're subtle. I can tell it's Fall because the daytime temps top at about 80 and nights drop to 60. The pomegranate leaves are starting to turn yellow and fall. In early December the mulberry will start dropping leaves too. We usually don't get hard frost so most things can last all Winter. All the deciduous trees will eventually be bare.

I fired up the heater the other day to make sure it still works. The air conditioner died during a heat spell this summer due to a relay that failed. It's 19 years old so you have to expect things like that.

There's a chance of light showers on Tuesday but I'm not holding my breath. Last year we only got 5.5 inches of rain all winter.

When I was a kid we sometimes could smell the smudge pots burning in the orange groves when it got cold. Then later they changed to running big fans and you could hear them at night. That's all gone now. There is one tiny orange grove left here in town just as a memorial.
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Oranges. I have a friend out there, near Orange Cove that recommended 'Cara-Cara' oranges to me....never heard of them before. Aldi is the only place near me that has them. They are wonderful!!!
 
RadishRose said:
Oranges. I have a friend out there, near Orange Cove that recommended 'Cara-Cara' oranges to me....never heard of them before. Aldi is the only place near me that has them. They are wonderful!!!
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I've never heard of Cara-Cara oranges. I see they are navel, so probably easy to peal and sweet. There are over a thousand varieties of citrus. UC Riverside has about a thousand of them planted.

Groves here were largely Valencia. They had seeds and were a little more tart. We used to bite the end off and squeeze the juice into our mouths. Then split them open and eat the pulp. I'd get a rash around my mouth from doing it.
 
Grampa Don said:
This is my patio. It's my favorite spot.

patio.jpg


The old rattan chair swivels and rocks and it's comfortable. I like to sit in it when it's nice out like this morning; sometimes with a cup of tea, sometimes with my pipe and ginger ale, and sometimes with nothing but my thoughts. Usually there are birds, squirrels, or lizards to watch, even interesting bugs.

The hummingbird feeder is always busy. Lately there have been 6 or 7 of them fighting over it, but it has suddenly dropped off to 3 or 4. Maybe a couple have found a better feeder.

The picket fence is there because of a little dog we used to have. There is a garden area behind the garage and we wanted to keep him out of it. Now, the gate is always open. There is a bird bath behind the fence that is hard to see in the photo. I keep it clean and filled and put a ladder on it for the squirrels. We used to have a post with bird feeders, but I took it down. I got tired of taking care of it.

I intend to use this thread for occasional ramblings. I don't expect it will be of much interest to most folks, but it's something to do.
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Looking good, Don. You’ve made yourself a real refuge. You make me think of my aunt’s house in South Carolina. We stayed with her during that big eclipse a few years back.

I discovered Cara Cara oranges in Hawaii and like them. Another citrus I like are kumquats but I don’t grow any. That would just make the squirrels here and rats near the creek fatter and bolder.
 
Grampa Don said:
There was a period when I rode my bicycle to work, about 4 miles. I went right by an orange grove. And on a cool morning when the trees were in blossom the smell was fantastic. I miss that bicycle. I loved the ride. The area is all built up now.
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I'm sure Californian orange groves are a beautiful sight to see, and probably have no match ... but these are our orange and Lemon groves near our house in Spain...we're surrounded by them and have both lemon and oranges growing on our gated community as well

Orange-grove-Spain-HD.jpg
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spain-Lemon-grove-HD.jpg

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hollydolly said:
I'm sure Californian orange groves are a beautiful sight to see, and probably have no match ... but these are our orange and Lemon groves near our house in Spain...we're surrounded by them and have both lemon and oranges growing on our gated community as well

Orange-grove-Spain-HD.jpg
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Is there a different variety of oranges that is popular there? For juice I like blood oranges as well as Valencia.

On a garden tour once I came across a lemon tree which was being grown just for the aroma of the flowers. Yum!
 
MarkD said:
Is there a different variety of oranges that is popular there? For juice I like blood oranges as well as Valencia.

On a garden tour once I came across a lemon tree which was being grown just for the aroma of the flowers. Yum!
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They are Valencia oranges because it's the Valencia Province.. they are usually picked for juice because they're sweet ... the other more popular ones and those that are grown at the groves all around our villages are Seville which are extremely sour and are used in making Marmalade et al
 
hollydolly said:
They are Valencia oranges because it's the Valencia Province.. they are usually picked for juice because they're sweet ... the other more popular ones and those that are grown at the groves all around our villages are Seville which are extremely sour and are used in making Marmalade et al
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I've read that Meyer lemons flower are the best of that clan but someone on line says this is the most fragrant of any citrus tree: Chinotto (Sour Orange).
 
Grampa Don said:
There was a period when I rode my bicycle to work, about 4 miles. I went right by an orange grove. And on a cool morning when the trees were in blossom the smell was fantastic. I miss that bicycle. I loved the ride. The area is all built up now.
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I always knew it was springtime when I smelled the scent of orange blossoms in the air. That scent is no longer in the air during the spring because the orange groves are all gone.
 

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