Earth Day in San Francisco

Monday, April 22, is Earth Day.  On Saturday, April 20, many Earth Day celebrations took place through out the Bay Area.  I took BART to Civic Center to enjoy a day of Earth Day festivities.  Many  green merchants of the Bay Area had booths at the festival promoting their products and services. Rainbow Grocery had fresh bananas for everyone.  I ate 3 bananas yesterday while having a great time soaking up the sun and participated in some group art projects.

Holistic Hooping provided many colorful hoops of various sizes for anyone who wanted some twirling exercise. I was never good at hula hooping so I just watched others laughing and giggling with hoops around them. Chinook Books were being given away for free, which usually costs $20 each. It's a book of sustainable local coupons. I flipped through the book and immediately found a free pet wash coupon which normally costs $12.

In addition to free bananas, I also enjoyed many samples of Naked Juice and Odwalla while checking out some organic clothing merchants.

My friend who loves to dance ended up dancing on the grassy area with others wearing solar powered wireless headphones. I, on the other hand, sat on the grass carefully read through the entire Chinook Book and bookmarked all the useful coupons in the area.

As the festival ended at 6 p.m., we headed to the food court at Westfield San Francisco Centre for dinner. We were pleasantly surprised to find Loving Hut Vegan Cuisine in the food court and were able to use one of the coupons from Chinook Book. Neither of us are vegetarians, but we can't deny how delicious Loving Hut's dishes are.

Earth Day festivities were filled with live music, free food samples, money saving coupons to take home, and feeling of peace. It's one of the many free local festivals I highly recommend.

Spring is Here

Orchids are blooming again

Last weekend when I walked into the farm, I suddenly noticed all the colorful flowers. Unlike other gardens, most of my flowers will turn into food. Many years ago, a family friend gave us a pot of orchid. We have since then separated that one pot of orchids into 3 pots. I even transplanted one pot into the ground.  For a couple years, they did not bloom. Last weekend I was surprised to see the flowers in one pot and buds in the other pot that was transplanted into the garden.  That was a big happy surprise for me!

Mizuna blossom

All the mizuna plants are almost as tall as I am, and they are in full bloom. This is what happens since I didn't eat them all. I love seeing a sea of yellow flowers with a lot of bees buzzing around them. Even though I didn't eat all the greens, the bees now can collect the pollens and make honey.  Later on the flowers will produce seeds, and next year I will have mizuna again without doing any work.

Asian pear blossom

Both the pear and peach trees are blooming. A bunch of bumble bees have joined the honey bees. Thank to their efforts, I will have a tree full of peaches again in the summer. I am really looking forward to it!

Bumble bee busy at work

Sunday Streets San Francisco

Kelsey inside of Embarcadero BART Station

Daylight saving time started this morning, so we lost an hour.  I could be working in the garden, but the weather was nice so I decided to take another day trip instead. Today was also the first Sunday of San Francisco Sunday Streets 2013. According to its website, "Sunday Streets are events that encourage recreation, community activities and fun in San Francisco. Sunday Streets closes stretches of city streets to automobile traffic, and opens them to people for several hours on a various Sundays throughout the year, so participants can enjoy a large, temporary, public space where they can bike, walk, run, dance, do yoga, or do any other physical activity. Non-profit and health organizations offer free activities and share information about their services during the event."

Roller Skater girls on Embarcadero Ave.

I have heard of these events in past years but have never checked it out.  Since I woke up early this morning, I decided to put Kelsey's backpacks, a.k.a. service dog costume, on her again and take her for a BART ride.  After taking Kelsey on the ferry last October, I was sure Kelsey would do just fine on BART. Kelsey entered and exited BART gates with me, got on and off the escalators and elevators with little confusion.  I could see that she just watched my feet and followed.

Embarcadeo was quite nice without the usual weekend traffic. We took a long walk down the pier. Normally I would go shopping in the Ferry Building, but I didn't want to push my luck and drag Kelsey in there, too.

On Sunday, January 6, 2013, San Francisco began charging for Sunday parking. Ever since that took place, I have stopped driving to the city on Sundays. Some people have been upset with getting parking tickets on Sunday. I hope with Sunday Streets, people can just leave their cars at home for at least a day.

Best Dog Park in Napa

The weather has finally warmed up. I decided that I had to get out of town and go explore while I had Martin Luther King Jr. Day off even though I am still recovering from this latest sinus infection and agonizing coughs. I did a quick overview of surrounding counties and thought Napa would be a nice day trip. I Googled for dog parks in Napa, and sure enough there is a highly rated one called Alston Park. It's being compared to Point Isabel without the ocean. I could certainly enjoy a change of scenery and away from the cold ocean breeze. I packed up all the essentials and Kelsey and got on the road around 10 a.m. heading over to Napa, which is less an hour away from El Cerrito.

There are two enclosure for dogs to roam around and play with each other. One for small and/or shy dogs. The other one for large dogs. Kelsey is friendly with all dogs but she really isn't a run-around and play-catch kind of dog. The other dogs can charge at Kelsey at top speed hoping to get Kelsey to run with them, but they only get a dog who stays at the same spot and looks them with a wagging docked tail. After Kelsey sniffed around the enclosure and greeted other excitable dogs, I took her on a trial walk. The trails were beautiful and surrounded by rows of grape plants, a signature scenery of Napa.

After we walked around Aston Park, I took Kelsey to Downtown Napa. Many people are out at the riverfront enjoying the sun and the view. I was surprised how friendly and well mannered the kids were as they came up to me asking for permission to pet Kelsey. Kelsey absolutely loved the girls and just leaned herself on them. The younger girl told me that their 3-year-old lab ran away that morning, and they haven't been able to find her. I sure hope they get their dog back.  

Napa is now one of my favorite neighboring cities for a day trip for sure.

Time to Harvest Potatoes

Before weeds are removed

It has been about 10 months since I started working for a public school as the manager. I have learned that I simply had to give up on a significant amount of gardening time. Overseeing 159 kindergartener through second graders is no easy task, and I never know exactly what can happen each day. I have hired a small crew of gardeners to help me maintain the farm every other weekend.  However, I am responsible for all the vegetable beds and fertilization.

We have been experiencing very cold temperature that fell below 40 degrees Fahrenheit in the past couple of weeks. I covered up my passion fruit vines a few times and could only hope for the best as the temperature kept dropping. Today, the weather seems to be back to normal. The sun is out and it feels warm. The passion fruit vines have all survived. 

After weeds are removed

I have unfortunately caught another cold or flu as another outbreak took place in the school. Illness tends to spread like wild fire in the school. As the students become sick, the teachers and administrative staff often all get hit one after another. I was never into taking dietary supplements, but after being sick about every other month, I finally went out and got every immune boosting supplement that I could get my hands on - vitamin C in 1000 mg tablets, zinc, garlic tablets, plus a few others. Fortunately, it's Martin Luther King Jr. weekend so I get to rest for 3 days before going back to the viral incubator.

I took the opportunity today to clear out most weeds in my vegetable beds. The last bell peppers all  died from the frost. The mizuna I planted last year have now self germinated and just grow on their own without any effort on my part. I have been collecting them for salad. The potatoes are now ready for harvesting as all the potato plants are wilted and dying off. They also self propagate year after year with very little effort on my part.

Mizuna and potatoes