This blog is not moving in the usual sense; archives will all stay right here. But if you want to see new posts, please go to indigosom.blogspot.com, where I continue to blog.

We have come to the end of this blog. Like writing the last sentence in a journal, putting it on the shelf, & opening up a fresh new blank book.

This blog started as the Chinese Restaurant Project blog & then followed me through changes I never could have anticipated. It didn’t lead to blogging fame & fortune—no glamorous book deal or money in my pocket—nor even more than a handful of readers (unless you count all the crowds who come just to ogle one pair of cowboy boots), but it wasn’t supposed to. I believe—quite strongly—in the value of a shy, quiet blog that just keeps trundling along its little path.

So, a hug & a kiss for this old thing—& on to the new one!

Ah, the photogenic popovers in winter sunshine, with narcissus shadows…

This winter is so much nicer than the last two.

Remember all that unrelenting gray rain?!

Don’t worry. I’m not riding again. Not that I’ve ruled it out. I’m having more fun with my camera right now.

Pulling out the summer garden…

...& getting ready to put in the winter veggies.

Perfect, sweet Bay Area fall weather for Hardly Strictly... as usual, there is no possible way to see everything: when informed via text about Gillian & Dave joining Robyn Hitchcock on Candyman, I thought, arg, another one gets away! Until last night at the Fillmore when I got to see it from the second row. Bliss! Gillian wore a beautiful new pair of caramel-colored boots with her name in cream mirror-image script. (Image pinched from the Indiana Daily Student)

Happy Birthday Gillian! Thank you Warren!

Every September I take a picture like this, but this year we have something new: peacotums! That’s peach + apricot + plum, the latest in the explosion of pluots, plumcots & apriums that we’ve been enjoying for the past decade or so. Blossom Bluff has been working on these babies for a few years & this is the first season they’ve brought them to market. Instantly addictive, like an extra-sweet pluot, & beautiful to boot. They’re the ones on the river rocks in the middle & lower right. The upper right rock has Flavor Grenade pluots on it.

Today I pulled out the dried-up old sweetpeas & planted sunflower seedlings. The padrón pepper plant is finally giving me a few peppers at a time. Purple string beans are going strong & the cherry tomato is gangbusters. This afternoon I found a sneaky overgrown squash.

Then I picked blackberries & made a pie.

Been a while since we had a nice salad. This one comes to you courtesy of a fierce cilantro jones that seized me last week. First I found this yummy chicken biryani recipe via gojee & was “as faithful as can be—for me”* to the recipe, which meant I used mild peppers instead of hot, & about twice, maybe thrice, as much as cilantro. That jones, you know.

I liked the raita so much that I wanted to put it on everything. Salad dressing? Of course. Blueberries & cilantro are a cool-as-a-cucumber match made in summer heaven, so there you go:

Cilantro Loves Blueberries Salad
feeds 2 serious salad-eaters, 4 normal folks
Little gems &/or other mild green lettuces, a few large handfuls
Blueberries, a large handful
A small splash of olive oil
Avocado slices

Raita (adapted from the biryani recipe above):
1 C cucumber peeled, seeded and finely chopped
1/2 C plain yogurt
2–3 T cilantro minced
2 T mint minced
1/2 t cumin seeds
1/2 t salt
fresh ground black pepper to taste
(You will have a lot of leftover raita!)

Wash & dry the lettuces & blueberries & throw em in a bowl. Dollop a couple of generous spoonfuls of raita on top, followed by a small bloop of olive oil. Toss well. Plate with sliced avocados on the side.

*I’ve always loved this song. You notice they never actually resolve the problem? Heh. Quote is at 0:39.

Bay Area blackberry lovers, listen up!

The blackberry season may be late this year, but it promises to be the most slammin bumper crop I ever did anticipate. The blossoms are so big, they’re bouquet-worthy. In June they covered the brambles in pinkish white masses.

The bees have been on them like nobody’s business.

If you only go blackberry picking once in your life, let this be the summer. Put it on the calendar for 3 or 4 weeks from now.

That’s all I gotta say.