Hello PPLPals,
I'm not quite up to joining Facebook, so I'm posting this message on our blog. Thanks to everybody for all the great book suggestions. I just started "The Painted Drum" by Louise Erdrich and so far I can't put it down.
I've been attending author's presentations in Sacramento lately -- Greg Mortenson (Three cups of Tea), John Jung (Southern Fried Rice-- his childhood as the only Chinese family in Macon, Georgia), and best of all Amy Tan, whom I heard last week. She was very revealing about her childhood which illuminated the mother-daughter conflict so present in her books. She was wonderful, although there wasn't much reference to her various novels. I must admit that I found "Saving Fish from Drowning" to be the least absorbing of her books.
Today we picked the last of our pears. Our crop has been strange this year -- most trees did not produce at all, and many of the large pears that the trees yielded are misshapen,some even lacking a core. That shows what a prolonged frost can do. We were in the Farmer's Market for just three weeks and tried selling olives which Dimitri had cured. Those were a hit, but we just didn't have enough crop to carry us through the end of summer. Lots of pears have gone to the local food bank, which is really in need. We did have a decent grape crop though and new wine is now maturing. It is different every year!
Mary Ann, you'll be sorry to hear that we lost one of our beehives. The bees flew the coop --left a comfortable home at the wrong time for unknown reasons. A friend who got hives at the same time had the same thing happen. Luckily, both of us have one healthy hive going strong. It is not a simple thing to deal with bees, especially with all the diseases and problems.
I'm sending you a couple of photos from our farm. Fall here is exquisite! We are surrounded by color as the leaves make their last spectacle before shriveling and falling. Soon all of the trees (except the olives) will have their skeletons exposed, but meanwhile they are giving us quite a display. The weather here has been lovely -- warm days with a bit of crispness in the air, breezes, blue skies.
The day after the election we leave for parts of India and Bhutan. We are looking forward to gazing at the Himalayas and seeing completely different cultures. Meanwhile, I wish you all a happy autumn. I remember how beautiful November in Pasadena can be. Best not to focus on the news too much these days!
