Julia's Mexico City

No photo. Just a thought about how nice it is to work at home with Kurt and when it is time for lunch, we fired up the BBQ, threw burgers on, picked ripe tomatoes from our garden to put on the burgers and had a lovely meal. So fabulous.

Labels: backyard, lunch

We converted the garage a couple of years ago into an office space for Kurt. The walls are drywalled and we put in a big window (thanks to Kurt and Mary) and a new entry door so it feels like a cool little studio. But "Cool" doesn't work in summer as there is no ceiling, just the unfinished underside of the roof. So in the summer it gets beastly hot from time to time. There is an R2 unit air conditioner, but it has to work too hard and wasn't as effective as possible with all that hot air coming through. So, a frugal idea -- use a large shade sail to block as much sun/heat as possible before it hits the roof all afternoon.

Voila:


And it appears to be working pretty well for the price/effort.

Labels: backyard, house, kurt

So Kurt got the shade sail up and it looks quite nice.



In terms of practicality, not bad, I just wish it had been a little larger and a right triangle instead of an equilateral triangle. We talked about putting another one up to control the hot sun in the afternoons where this one misses, but alas, there is no obvious place to attach another. Summer won't last much longer, right?

Labels: backyard

Summer time is here and our tomatoes are plump and ripe and deeeelicious! And we have so many and it is so hot that gazpacho is the answer.



YUM!

Labels: backyard, food, gardens

We are doing a little update to our backyard/backdoor. Tearing down the makeshift pergola thingy that was here when the house was bought (and is now full of termites) and we'll put up a shade sail instead. Someday there will be a set of french doors and a deck...





No, your eyes are not playing tricks, that door is TINY.

Labels: backyard

We had friends over for dinner last Wednesday, a lovely outdoor affair.




Summer can be pretty nice.

Labels: backyard, cooking

Did you know hummingbirds prefer showers to sit-down baths? This is not something I have thought about. Ever. But I learned this as I was watering plants at a friends house the other day. I was in their backyard, giving all their potted plants a drink (the friends are on holiday) and this hummingbird kept coming over to check me out. I wasn't sure if it was a territorial thing or if it was attracted to my visor (which has brightly colored flowers on it) or if Timmy had fallen down a well and only the bird knew about it. Soon I figured out she was after the water and began to dance around in it. I held the hose steady and she darted in and out, up and down and got a bit soaked, then flew up to a wire to lather up then came back down for a rinse.

I didn't have my camera with me (dang it!) but thanks to Flickr and to photographer Pisco Bandito specifically, you can see a bit of what I saw:


I was mesmerized by the little beauty. They seem to have no fear for such a tiny creature. We need to put our hummingbird feeder back up.

This morning while blogging about hummingbirds and having coffee, I heard some loud squaking and realized it was a wild parrot. I looked out my window and saw these two dudes hanging our for a minute:

(Check out the little bird about to land in the middle -- click the picutre for bigger image.)
Close up:


They looked like they were on their way somewhere but were having a fight because they never sat any closer to each other.
"Why can't we get pancakes?"
"We got pancakes last time, I would like an omelette for once."
"You are so selfish!"
"Me? You're the one who woke me up early to go out and said I could pick the place!"

Okay, maybe they weren't arguing over pancakes. What would parrots argue about? This article about the Amazon Parrot in LA says that parrots mate for life, so that could have actually been a couple, out for breakfast...



Someday in the not too distant future, I will have a new camera with a longer lens......can't wait!

Labels: backyard, birds, los angeles

We put our new BBQ to it's second test on Friday night. Threw on some pork ribs from TJs and aspargus from ParadiseO.


In all honesty, the ribs were just a bit too dry when finished, but hey, we are learning the ways of a gas grill. And it certainly didn't stop us from chowing down. Tasty! Next time we know to make the heat lower...I love the ease of the gas grill and cooking outside on these warm summer nights. Can you hear me sighing with relaxed pleasure? Aaaaaahhhhhhh.

Labels: backyard, cooking, food

We have arrived into the 21st Century with a new gas grill! Shiny:

As we were going to sleep last night Kurt told me he put the umbrella up over it so nothing would happen to it. I find Kurt to be a pretty thoughtful guy.

Can't WAIT to use it. I love cooking outside and now this will make that so much easier. It even has a side burner to make it more like a stove outside. Speaking of stoves outside, our neighbors have a brilliant thing in their yard that I want to copy someday. They have an old gas stove, perhaps an O'Keefe and Merritt like this one:

out in their yard with a gas line hooked up to it. So their outdoor cooking is even easier.

By the way, this is the actual stove we have in our kitchen. I wish it were just as new looking.

Labels: backyard

Fireplace mentioned in previous post:

Labels: backyard, fireplace, parties