It is my darling’s 50th birthday. Celebrate!  We started early with a sampling from Cupcake Couture including Cocoa Channel, Mond olo Blahnik, Coconut Klein and Red Valentino.  The decadent butter cream and cream cheese frostings have your sweet tooth begging for more!

You do not have to go the workplace to see this productivity.  It is happening right in my backyard.  

There is one queen in a hive and her main goal is to make more bees.  She can lay over 1,500 eggs per day and can live 2-8 years.  The drones are males and have no stinger.  They live about eight weeks and their function is to mate with a new queen.

The Worker bees do all the different tasks needed to maintain and operate the hive.  They are all sterile females.  When young, they are called house bees and work in the hive doing comb construction,  tending the queen and drones, cleaning, temperature regulation and defending the hive.  The older workers are called field bees.  They forage outside the hive to gather nectar, pollen, water and certain sticky plant resins used for hive construction.  My yard is full of the field bees. 

As the field bees forage for nectar, pollen sticks to the fuzzy hairs which cover their bodies.  Some of this pollen rubs off on the next flower they visit, fertilizing the flower and resulting in better fruit production which is one of the reasons for my bumper tomato crop!  Although the tomato plant is considered a self-pollinator, they benefit from the bee’s activity.

When a bee works a tomato plant, it pulls the flowers down into a vertical position and puts its fat belly against the stigma and buzzes.  Pollen is released.  It falls by gravity (since the flower is now tilting down) directly to the bee’s fuzzy (and statically charged) belly.  The bee’s work below on a tomato blossom.

Love:

Today, I will renew myself by letting go of all expectations.

Today, I will consider the priorities in my life.

Today, I will know that love is the only reality.

Love is the most important priority.

When the truth takes root in my heart, I will not be tempted to waste so much time on trivialities.  When this truth takes root in my heart, I will not be tempted to waste time on the trivial and banal.  Today, I will stake my life in what is timeless.

Today, I will be redeemed through love.

 Deepak Chopra

Happy Valentine’s Day!

In 1872, Claude Monet’s aim was not to create an accurate landscape, but to record the impressions or feelings formed while looking at the Le Havre harbor in France.  Monet named the piece Impression Sunrise (an oil on canvas).  The painting is signficant because it was shown in the 1874 Exhibit.  Other artists, like himself,  who exhibited their work at the show (such as Degas and Renoir) were later referred to as Impressionists, hence, the birth of the movement.  

They say Impressionist Art is concerned with capturing light and color of a fleeting moment on canvas, usually with brilliant colors painted in small strokes, side by side, rather than blended together.  

Since there are no gifted painters in my household, the digital camera has become our artistic eye to the world.  These photos represent rising sunlight with its own significance and majestic beauty.  Sunrise photography poses it own challenges and results but it can capture the dramatic effects of nature. Each photograph is taken within five minutes apart but at different shutter speed/aperture combinations and ISO at 100.

Shutter speed/aperture combination at 1/125 8.0   

Shutter speed/aperture combination at 1/4000 5.0 with a telephoto zoom lens

It was scheduled as a Kiteboarding Contest but with no wind, there was a quick improvisation and the paddleboarders and “yakers” surfaced.  While the arctic front was blasting the rest of the country with severe weather, the riders arrived in Jupiter this past weekend for the turquoise-blue tropical water and a Kiteboarding Competition that hosts a crew of friendly local kiteboarders and riders from across the state.  Everyone arrived in hopes of shore break and the fairly consistent onshore and sideshore winds unique to the area.  The wind did not cooperate but there was not a beat missed. Under Tiffany blue skies, the kiteboarders hung their sails on the beach and transformed into paddlers and surfers. 

We were at peace reveling in the fun and enjoyed the simplicity of the wave and the sea.

Honestly, how many other people do you know can say they have eight siblings? Not very many I bet.  Growing up in a large family is a unique thing and the experiences that come with it are not at all common. They say it builds tolerance (“she or he did it” or you get blamed), creativity (you tend to “make up or create fun”), negotiation skills (“it is hers, yours or mine” or somewhere in between) and responsibility (you worry about the safety of your brothers and sisters). It is an amazing experience that you never forget or regret.  

But like everything in life, good and bad things happen.  So my motto for 2011 is ” Go out on a Limb”.  I encourage you to do the same.  Life races by— we need to challenge ourselves, take risks, be present for the journey, embrace gratitude and spend quality time with the ones we love.   We owe it to ourselves.

Wishing everyone a healthy, happy and peaceful new year!

The pomegranate is one of the oldest fruits and has deep roots in both biblical and Judaic history. In fact, many scholars debate whether the apple in the Garden of Eden was in fact a pomegranate.  They are a fascinating fruit since every pomegranate is composed of exactly 840 seeds. Each seed is surrounded by a sac of sweet-tart juice contained by a thin skin. The seeds (arils) are compacted in a layer resembling a honeycomb around the core.

The challenge is to de-seed them. Here is the trick.  First, you cut off the ends of the crown and discard them.  Second, you score the outside red membrane in quarters.  You want to make sure you do not penetrate the core when you are scoring because you will break open the seeds and lose the juice which can be very messy.  Third, you submerge the pomegranate in water and start to break loose the honeycomb membrane with your fingers.  The seeds will naturally fall to the bottom of the bowl.  They seeds are a great accent for a green or berry salad and they are full of antioxidants so eat up! 

Thank you, Karen, for the introduction to this exotic fruit.  Pomegranates originated in tropical Asia and they are grown throughout the Mediterranean and Middle East. In the United States, commercial producers grow pomegranates in the San Joaquin Valley of California and their peak season is November and December.

Diane’s Backyard (Boca Raton, FL)

It is about shadow and light and a disappearing act by the Moon but since we know how the “magic” works  (unlike our ancestors) we can appreciate the beauty.

A lunar eclipse occurs when the moon passes behind the earth so that the earth blocks the sun’s rays from striking the moon. This can occur only when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are aligned exactly, or very closely so, with the Earth in the middle. Hence, there is always a full moon the night of a lunar eclipse.  This year for the first time in 372 years, the  lunar eclipse coincides with the winter solstice, the time at which the sun is at its southernmost point in the sky.

Love this quote for the holiday season and gift suggestions:

To your enemy, forgiveness.  To an opponent, tolerance.  To a friend, your heart.  To a customer, service.  To all, charity.  To every child, a good example.  To yourself, respect. —  Oren Arnold

Happy Holidays!  The tree is up.  May the mirth and merriment continue.