explore your own "backyard": hakone gardens

My husband hates to travel. "Why?" he'll ask rhetorically, "when I live in one of the most beautiful areas of the country? Tourists come here to the Bay Area!" I get it. It's no fun for him to cram his 6'2" into a ridiculously uncomfortable economy seat, suffer jet lag, only then to do it all over again for just a few days in one city. That's my jam. But he's right too. I do love my own backyard of the San Francisco Bay Area and showing it off to visitors. Over the past summer, we got together with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law at the Hakone Gardens and Estate in Saratoga. Below the entrance to the estate. I love flower gardens--Filoli in Woodside is awesome and so is the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park--but I love the simplicity and asymmetry and emphasis of evergreens of a Japanese garden too.

Japanese gardens also highlight the rocks, gravel, ponds and waterfalls of a natural landscape. We entered and walked over the moon bridge to the sound of rushing water....

 

and observed a small waterfall and fed the koi in the pond.

We also climbed up into hillside....

....and thought the upper house and views quietly spectacular.

The tea rooms available for rent to picnickers are also very lovely.

There's a lower house with a large pavilion and museum rooms to describe the Japanese carpentry.

Simple saws and wood carving tools were used by the Japanese artisans commissioned to build the houses.

No nails! Just interlocking timbers.

Fortunately, Hakone was saved from developers and purchased as a community park for Saratoga.

Maybe I'll come back for a quiet birthday celebration. My milestone will be upon me before I know it. I know I want to celebrate with an open water activity like a sea kayaking tour and an informal feast either at a bocce ball court or in a meditative garden such as Hakone.

Patrick and I also traipsed further up the hill to the bamboo forest and tea plantation. The buildings there looked a bit forlorn.

 

And tea needs sun to thrive, which the plants were not getting in this forest. The terraced hill was barren.

Lastly we shopped at the gift shop which had pretty textiles and ceramics.

On this Labor Day weekend, rather than battle airports and art and wine festivals because I abhor crowds, I plan to read, sew and work clay. But perhaps I will also bring my watercolor pad to the Japanese Tea Garden in my town's downtown for a bento box lunch and an afternoon of painting.

canoe: kula ‘anela long distance races

I am so groggy and grumpy when having to wake up while it's still dark, but I had instructions to be at Fort Baker at 6 a.m. from my outrigger canoe club. Our last long distance race (for me at least) of the season. I got lost in the dark and ended up driving around Baker's Beach on the San Francisco side instead of the Marin side. Once I got across the Golden Gate and down to the harbor, my energy was already in overdrive. I do love the sights and sounds as the sun is rising. I never get tired of looking at the Golden Gate Bridge, and I loved that there were dogs all around.

 

I miss my own black and white dog, Sadie when spying on this curious fellow! And oh look, a cruise ship.

  

I vaguely recall going to the Bay Discovery Museum (for a school field trip?), but I don't remember this waterfront, nor Horseshoe Cove at all. I'm going to have to return to Fort Baker.

And here's the North Gate from where we paddle to the start of the races.

  

I found our club tent, which was right next to the hosting club's (Tamalpais Outigger Canoe Clube) tents of coffee, bagels, merch for sale and raffle prizes. Daran, our head coach insisted we take a group pic, and here we are all in our puffy jackets and flip flops except for Bessie in her Uggs and Sophia in her hiking boots.

Mia, the women's coach and I found Grace, the steersman of the canoe I was to be guest paddling for Hei'ilani of Monterey. Grace and I made our way to her meeting on the route. She and I were paddling the novice 4 -mile route from Cavallo Point to the bottom of Richardson Bay and back while the open races would be paddling all the way around Angel Island to Tiburon and Belvedere and back.

 

From the North Gate to Angel Island.

After my novice race, I walked with Bessie and Bel to the top of the headland and to the jetty and back up to watch the other races. We met these crab fisherman on the pier off Horseshoe Cove (no fishing license required! And so I'm going to drag Meral and Mark Sanchez to go crabbing and fishing here). These guys called their crabbing "glabbing" and seemed a lot of fun....

....especially this guy, who told his friends, I don't drink; I'm not gonna hold a beer when posing for a pic for us.

I thrilled at seeing the Coast Guard and was nostalgic for my childhood.

And when not eating shoyu chicken and rice and pan sushi with nori, we watched races. 

I bid farewell to my last view of the San Francisco skyline when exiting the dirt parking lot.

The day was glorious, and I'm definitely hooked on open water activities. I plan on taking sea kayaking lessons with my friend, Nicole, so we can rent kayaks and tour the Elkhorn Slough in Monterey. I told my friend, Barbara at happy hour that we're going to visit her boyfriend in Larkspur to kayak some more in Marin. I'll take my vitamin sea where I can get it.

cook: zucchini and yellow squash fritters

I had outrigger canoe races on Saturday, where I had to be at Fort Baker at 6 in the a.m., but managed to cook squash fritters for a potluck at the community gardens as requested by Patrick the night before. It's a super easy recipe, where I grated the zucchini and yellow squash (from which I also removed its big seeds) into a mesh colander, salted the squash and let it sit for 15 to 20 minutes before squeezing all the water from it with my hands. It's messy, but I like clean, bare hands better than using a kitchen towel or dish cloth to squeeze. And then I mixed into the squash without measuring: beaten eggs, panko, garlic powder, onion powder, (no time to mince fresh alliums), hot smoked paprika, and chopped mint and thyme as well as salt and pepper. I then used a mini ice cream scoop to lay the balls into my cast iron of hot canola oil until they were golden brown on both sides--oh yeah I might have used a spoon to flatten the balls a bit. I then placed the fritters onto parchment paper into a baking sheet, where they went into refrigerator overnight.

 

I told my husband that he could pop the fritters before leaving for the potluck in a 400 degree oven to reheat, but to watch them so as not to burn. I didn't know if it would take 15 or 30 minutes to heat through, but also knew a very hot oven would get them crispy again. I also had whirred in the Vitamix, Greek yogurt with salt, lemon juice, fresh chopped mint, and feta cheese for a dipping sauce.

Patrick came back with just about all the dipping sauce as the fritters were tasty enough I guess without the yogurt. He said that people dug in right away as no fork or knives were needed for these finger foods, and so they were first to disappear. And there ya have it, the perfect crowd-pleasing appetizer for a potluck dish that's easy to re-heat.

clay: 3-taper holder

Remember this pot? I had silicone fondant molds of flowers I had wanted to finally use on a ceramic piece, and after its bisque firing, I stuck to a monochromatic palette and decided just glaze of my favorite color, pink. And while glazing, Melissa pointed out that Muddy Waters added to Blushing Pink makes a dark pink....              

and I love how it turned out. I think it’s going to coordinate well with the beautiful bouquets Patrick has been making in a tablescape.

  

And tapers fit!                          

I’m so pleased by this make.

comfort: domesticity has to include beauty

A couple summers back, I toured the Lincoln Boyhood Memorial in Indiana, a state we had to drive through in order to get back to Kentucky even though we had flown into Louisville. Meral bought me this souvenir mug, and given that it’s election season, I love sipping coffee from it. And yeah the last presidential campaign on it is Obama, which is why I watched the Democratic National Convention tonight because I'm so hopeful for November.

My wooden cutting boards were looking dry and tired, and I remembered this food-safe oil under my sink. I oiled my boards and let them soak overnight before wiping off the excess in the morning (there was none).

They look so much better. I always remember to oil my cast iron pans but sometimes neglect my wood cooking tools. Wooden spoons and spatulas are next. Easy sheet pan dinners like this potato, squash and chicken thighs will rotate regularly on the menu this winter.

And I made my way to Sausalito yesterday morning to exchange my old dinnerware for new dinner plates and bread and butter plates.                

I thought I was gonna choose the aqua and brown, but the opaque white glaze coordinates well with my handmade white and dark brown plates.  

And because Victoria cleaned our house today, I've put out clean linens in the kitchen and am eager to nest and settle into domesticity this fall and winter. And so I’m adhering to John Ruskin’s advice to surround myself with things that are not only functional, but also aesthetically pleasing.