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Olive the name Olivia.

Alas, I don’t make girls.

On the other hand, the olive tree is in fruit.

the olives out back

So I picked some for a brining project.

I picked some for brining

I have no idea what I am doing! Does anyone out there have any pointers?
I’m following Mother Earth New’s “Cure Your Own Olives.” There are no expectations attached to this project, other than pure curiosity; this year the yield is low and this batch will be small. In fact, at this point, the joy is all in the harvesting–the sun on my shoulders; the cats gophering around my feet; the dog looking up at me with a ball in his mouth, just waiting; the feeling of connection I get with this land, caring for everything living on it and taking, in return, a small harvest in thanksgiving. It’s great.

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ladybugzes

The other night, on our way down the bike trail, a ladybug landed on my arm and it hitched the whole 9 miles to the brewery. I made sure it stayed safe because there’s no insect cuter and I’m all for public transit.

With it in mind, I got to work last night at my desk. It’s a great group; I love this nature journal exchange we’ve got going on at Moly_x_9.

I’m mailing Scoach’s Moleskine journal tomorrow an it’s headed for Hawaii.

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our backyard friend’s silhouettes

our backyard friend’s silhouettes, originally uploaded by young@art.

A warmup set, and part of my new silhouette obsession: Winsor & Newton Black Indian Ink atop delta ceramcoat atop gesso atop the pages of a Moleskine (heavy stock) sketchbook.

We have no more critters in our backyard than anyone else, but I wage that ours are the cutest, because of the quail. There’s a family, about 20 of them, that run the perimeter at dusk. The California Thrasher couple have a nest somewhere in the hedge; when we lay in the sun by the bird bath, one of them will watch us from the grapefruit tree, sometimes with a red worm in his mouth, for a half-hour or more. Hummingbirds are always fighting, and the woodpeckers have assaulted the old olive tree on their continual hunt for boring insects.