Barbies, Bees, Botanicals

Some of you may have heard me go on about the cute little displays of fairy gardens, gnomes, dinosaurs and Barbies at Magnolia Gift & Garden. Last year I really wanted a "Barbie Bathtub". But, they sold out. Alas, Barbie is back! And she's on my front porch table now:

I'm sorry I didn't have my camera with me at the nursery. I have to say I was a little envious of Valerie's friend, Gwyn, who snapped off loads of pix at the nursery while playing songs on her iphone. I keep saying I don't need an iphone because I'm not really a phone person. But I do like to play music and take pix. My friend Caryl says calling an iphone a "phone" is like calling a garage a hammer. A phone is such a small function of what it can do. I must resist the dark side! Help me Obiwan Kenobi! You're my only hope!

Okay, so last weekend my friend Kimberly and I attended another Biodynamic bee keeping class at the Steiner College in Sacramento. This is the third one we've attened together. It is out tradition that no matter who is driving, we must get lost. But by some miracle we arrived on time! Well, we were 5 minutes past ... but class hadn't officially started yet. We pretty much spent the rest of the day high fiving eachother regarding this success.

Well, that is until we got lost on the way home. At one point we were stuck in traffic in a suburban town when we expected to be on a highway in the middle of agricultural land. "Where are we?" I interrupted our conversation to ask. Kimberly looked out the window, "I don't know." Suddenly a fire truck raced up next to us with sirens and lights blazing. "Ah, Lincoln. We're in Lincoln." Kimberly stated matter of factly as the large engine with "Lincoln" emblazoned on the side navigated its way through traffic. That was a bummer. Lincoln wasn't necesarily on our way home. Another long cut. No more high fives. I really am losing it in my young old age.

So, for those of you who have not visited the amazing Steiner College, it is part of a biodynamic farm that is just too beautiful to imagine. We went seed collecting on our breaks. Check out some of these amazing flowers:

Not only are there amazing plants, but animals as well. We could hear the tinkling of bells around the necks of the sheep as we strolled through the gardens.

And while Keith Gelber was giving demonstrations at one of the hives, I saw a cow come up in the bushes behind Kimberly.

It was very exciting until I realized there was a fence between the cows and the hives. Probably a good thing.

Only one person got stung during the whole event this time (usually no one gets stung). But Keith got one on the side of his nose. No swelling but it sure made his eyes water. Here he is not long before the event.

So, yes, the bees are always exciting. But we gave ourselves a farm tour and did a little seed collecting. In order to get plant starts like this:

You need compost like this:

I believe the secret ingredient is this:

The college also has a beautiful water feature. This is surrounded by shade trees and little places to sit. We chose to stand and laugh. I aspire to do this some day:

They also have a big old bird house. I wonder if this is actually an owl house? I guess it's difficult to get the scale of this since there are no people in the picture. But, unless they are harboring pterodactyls, I'm guessing it's an owl house.

Well, after a day of bees, seed collecting and food dares (Kimberly and I had the macho Thai food lunch. She definitely beats me. And I like spicy. I'm pretty sure my mouth wrote a few checks my butt shouldn't cash though)it was back home to chores. All laundry and wood stacking and what not. At least Valerie has a friend to help out with the laundry:

And here is what my "helper" was up to:

Thanks, Mr. Whiskers. Thanks a lot.