wetlands report......by joyce oroz

 

Okay, everyone be patient, I'm writing my blog with one hand tied behind my back-- not because I'm an expert at this but because my hand is tied behind my back. Actually I'm letting my Dragon do the work. His name is George and I'm thinking of using him in my next book.

I have news on the wetlands mural front. It appears the mural is moving right along becoming more beautiful everyday or at least every Wednesday. Thank you Linda for the beautiful Hawks.

Going back......by Joyce Riley

SUNDAY DINNER MEMORIES

                                            Poem by Joyce Riley

Flowers on the table,
Guests opening the gate,
Mother with her apron off,                                         
Napkins by each plate,
Butter and a butter knife,
Peas I helped to shell,
Fried chicken on a platter,
Oh, I remember well,
Cousins, aunts and uncles,
Arriving with good wishes,
But, what I remember most of all
the stacks of dirty dishes.

September at the Sea.........Joyce Oroz

The days are warm, the sun sets a little earlier and the little cubs have all gone back to school. It must be fall. What a wonderful time of the year, especially if you happen to have a grandson learning to drive who can drive you to the Santa Cruz wharf for lunch.

 

 

We roared up the mountain, down the other side, then crawled through traffic and several construction zones. We were hungry as bears, but the wait was worth it because salmon season is going strong and hungry bears love those fish!

 

 

Dazzled by Dahlias......by Joyce oroz

I double-dog-dare you to pass by the Gomez Gas Station in Watsonville without a double and triple look at the lovely dahlias surrounding the facility. The bulbs are carefully replanted each spring for a big showing all summer. Prices for gas are pretty much the same everywhere so why not pull into the station that offers a very pleasant visual experience? There are many ways to compete and I think Gomez has a good one.

Wetlands Mural Continues......by Joyce Oroz

Moving right along, the "ladies of the murals"  plug away with unabashed excitement and joy. Actually, they do enjoy the work--between wind storms. What could be more fun than painting outside in  fresh ocean air just a few yards from the beautiful wetlands of Watsonville?

Linda recently created a blue heron in flight and helped me paint two children planting native vegitation from a photo of high school students volunteering in the wetlands restoration education project. And like the energizer bunny, Kathy works the landscape.

 Healthy freshwater wetlands are home to hundreds of species interconnected through a web of life. Aquatic invertebrates are the foundation of the delicate wetlands food web and are bioindicators of wetlands health; they can help us determine the health of an environment because they are sensitive to changes. Other examples of bioindicators are frogs and steelhead trout. The presence of sensitive organisms is a sign that the environment is fulfilling at least some of the basic needs for the survival of those organisms and that it may actually be healthy. During the month of October, 2010, every PV High freshman took to the sloughs to monitor aquatic invertebrates as part of their ecology unit for Integrated Science.

                                          Linda's white pelicans
With the help of docents, PVHS students worked in small groups to identify each organism they collected. The creatures were placed into sensitivity groups, and at the end of the study students found that on average the water quality at the uppermost part of the West Branch of Struve Slough was fair during the month of October. Students and volunteers will continue this study and expand it over the long-term as part of Project Tierra.

this is a template---not a green heron

 

All they want is a home.........Joyce Oroz

Shelter Art Foundation photos from 9/8/2012 of some of the adoptable animals at Monterey County Animal Services.

 Interested in an animal? Please contact MCAS directly at 769.8850. Need more info about the animal? Go to MCAS animal search page http://mtyhd.org/manager/animalSearch/

 Give life – adopt!

 Animal ID Number - A115864 This is the ID number for that particular animal. Use the ID number to speak to shelter staff about the specific animals that interest you.

 These great photos and others like them may be viewed, commented on, liked and shared at the www.facebook.com/shelterartfoundation page.

 Interested in helping? We would love to have you! Photographers, editors, animal wranglers, public relations and marketing.

 Thank you to our WONDERFUL volunteers!!!

 Photographer/ Editor/Wrangler: Peggy Harris Cardona (MC Environmental Health)

Wranglers:

• Bob Bates (MC Environmental Health)
• Joe Sorby (Citizen volunteer)
• Linda Allen (Citizen volunteer from Minden, NV)
•  

Enjoy! Please forward to interested parties. Thank you!

 Nancy Treffry, REHS

County of Monterey

Drinking Water Protection Services (DWPS)

1270 Natividad Rd. Salinas, CA 93906 Ph: (831) 796-1299

Who has the best fair?......by Joyce oroz

My Favorite Fair happens to be the best fair in California.

 

http://youtu.be/G8de7S0Xi54            info@SantaCruzCountyFair.com

The Santa Cruz County Fair starts tomorrow, Tuesday, September 11 and ends Sunday September 16th. 2601 East Lake Avenue, Watsonville, CA 95076.........join the fun!

I am feeling overdue for my fair fix ... a fabulous view from the ferris wheel, the horse show, rodeo, pig race, flower show, rose garden, live music, homemade quilts and apple pie and 4H animals and legos .........and food from a double string of booths that stretch from one end of the grounds to the other.
It's a lot to see in one day but I'll give it my best shot.
See you there!

Quinoa with a dollop..........by Joyce oroz

 

Question: Is quinoa (kinwa) in the oatmeal, ice cream, banana, celery or tumbleweed family?

Answer: Quinoa is a species of goosefoot in the tumbleweed family. Who knew?

Question: Why is quinoa considered a pseudo cereal rather than a true cereal?

Answer: Because it is grown primarily for it’s edible seeds and is not a member of the grass family, or the Jones’ or the Smith’s. As a chenopod, quinoa is closely related to species such as beets, spinach and hamburgers. OK, not the hamburgers, but quinoa does have a lot of protein.

Question: How do I eat quinoa?

Answer: Stay tuned for my favorite recipe.

 
My favorite recipe:

In medium size pot, boil 2 cups water

add 1 cup quinoa (red or regular variety)

½ t sea salt

turn down heat and simmer 13-15 minutes

Meanwhile, heat 3T coconut or grape seed oil in frying pan

Add 1 1/2 cups finely chopped red or green cabbage and

1/2 cup finely chopped onion—sauté for one minute only.

When quinoa is tender turn off the heat

Stir in onion and cabbage

use as a side dish with a dollop of Greek-style yogurt on top of each serving.

      
Another way to serve quinoa is: follow the recipe
above--let it cool in the refrigerator
When cold, stir in 2/3 cup plain Greek style yogurt for a cool, creamy, chewy salad.

 

  

The Naked Truth.....by AR

One of my favorite family memories was a "that's what I said, but that's not what I meant" incident with our son, Scott.

Our friend, Brenda, has beautiful, pink flowers that are part of the amaryllis family, called naked ladies, growing in front of her country home and partially up her driveway. Early one morning Brenda heard a car stop in front of her house, she heard low voices, then a few minutes later the car drove away. She thought nothing of it until she discovered that about a third of her naked ladies had been cut and taken away. Someone had stolen her flowers! Later in the morning she was talking to a neighbor, who had also had some flowers stolen out of her yard, and the neighbor encouraged Brenda to telephone the sheriff. When the sheriff arrived he said there have been a rash of flower burglaries in this end of the county and the flower vendors in San Francisco had already been notified. The thieves probably wouldn't be caught because no one could positively identify their flowers. The situation puzzled Brenda, "why anyone would steal her flowers?", until she did a little research and found that the vendors in San Francisco were paying $3 a stem for her naked lady flowers. Brenda figured the thieves must have seen her, or heard her dog barking, as she wandered around her garden early that morning, but that they'd be back because there were still a lot of these naked lady flowers blooming along side of the road. She took a bottle of nail polish and marked everyone of her naked ladies, so she could identify them if the thieves returned. 

 

Then early the next morning, she sat in a chair where she could see the road, and her precious naked ladies, with a loaded shotgun, that she was going to shoot into the air to scare off the thieves. The dog was kept in the house, so he wouldn't bark and scare off the thieves. Brenda waited with a nice hot cup of tea. She was giddy with anticipation. Nothing happened. It was now later in the morning than when she had heard the thieves arrive yesterday. Still, nothing happened. It would only take a minute to heat up another cup of tea, so she went into the house, leaving the door open so she could hear if anybody drove up, went to the bathroom, make her tea, walked out the side door .... and she heard the thieves. Thankfully the gun was way on the other side of the house, next to the lawn chair. Brenda's only course of action was to scurry down the driveway, yelling obscenities at the thieves, who quickly hopped into their car, along with Brenda's flowers and drove away. The only description she had was "it was a white car."

No make, no model, no license plate number. It was a clean get-away. Brenda was so mad ... but she had marked all of her flowers with nail polish. So, she calls the sheriff's office again and reports the theft, and explained that she could now identify her flowers.

This is a story that needs to be shared. One, because it's Brenda. Two, because it's funny and lastly because it's such a strange thing to steal. You see these pink naked ladies everywhere during the late summer. So, I relate the story to my husband, who has no idea what these flowers look like. The next day,we had gone into town with our son, Scott. Coming home, Scott is driving, I'm in the front seat, and we're making a left-hand turn onto a busy road, and while we're stopped waiting for traffic, I'm looking around. Scott starts to make the left-hand turn when I loudly declare to my husband in the backseat, "Oh my gosh, look at all those naked ladies over there!!" Scott reacted immediately, turning the car right, looking for real live human naked ladies. Scott hadn't heard the naked ladies flower story. Scott was really disappointed (and we were now going in the wrong direction.)

These are not naked ladies--I think they are day lilies? but that's another story.

 

I think of Scott every time I see naked lady flowers. I even took a picture of them for the front of his upcoming birthday card. Everybody should have naked ladies on their birthday, especially young men. It's our duty as mothers to educate them (with a little embarrassment thrown in.)

Thanks for sharing, AR!!

Labor Day Slugs..........by Joyce Oroz

 

 

Labor Day is nothing without a picnic. Picnics are great for getting away from work, cooking, driving and taking care of kids. With great anticipation, I prepared food, packed the food into the car and drove across two counties to be in the redwood forest with the kids.

About thirty family members came together from The Bay Area, Bakersfield, Texas and Transylvania. They all had one thing in common—their cameras. A day later we are emailing pictures to each other and commenting on pictures sent to facebook. Pictures of people eating, sitting, eating, standing and eating one last bite before we hit the road--along with kahbillions of other motorists heading home like sun-burned over-fed slugs.

And next year we will do it all again!