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.

My first Celebrity Tomato picked and consumed December 13, 2010.  I was delighted with the color and texture.  It had the perfect balance of acidity and sweetness.  The quality of fruit picked in your garden when ripe will surpass anything available on the market, even in season.

Thanks Margo, Kaylin, Brendon and Trae for the creative centerpieces at Thanksgiving Dinner and thank you Ken and Norma and family for inviting us every year to your annual celebration of tradition and festivity.  The food is always delicious and the company top notch. We feel truly blessed. Thank you!

Let us make this Thanksgiving Feast the one where we rekindle the traditional spirit of a Feast.  Let us enjoy the spiritual and physical benefits of “breaking bread” with friends, family and relatives.  Let us reflect upon the blessings in our life and express our appreciation to those who make a difference to us and to others.

Let us practice gratitude every day.  Let’s start with our breath and our heartbeat.  We should all be humbled by the life that flows through our being and marvel at all its glory.

Artwork by Ava Hasson.  Thank you, Ava!

Growing up in New Jersey, you are proud of your tomatoes. In my recent quest to grow my own tomatoes (Celebrity, Big Boy, Better Boy and Cherokee Purple), I have learned much about the 7500 different varieties of tomatoes and why the New Jersey tomato receives such notoriety across the country for best flavor, tenderness and juiciness.  The history and lore of the Jersey tomato developed not because of the unique weather or soil conditions in the state but it had everything to do with the competitive landscape in the farming industry.   New Jersey did not have the land or resources to compete with the large commercial growers in Florida, California and New Mexico that dominated the commercial farming market beginning in the 50s.  A tomato’s flavor, tenderness and juiciness have to due with variety, growing care and how long they remain on the vine to ripen.

New Jersey got lucky. Jersey farmers never concerned themselves with picking green, tasteless tomatoes that would have to withstand transport and storage so they focused on cultivating stake grown varieties which protect a tomato from soil borne diseases.  The tomatoes were picked when soft and vine ripened for immediate sale to the local markets and farm stands for the enjoyment of all of us living in the Garden State.  Jersey tomatoes are tastier and the “slow food” tomatoes are not treated with chemicals such as ethylene that give a green tomato a red glow.  You get the real deal!

This is not Kill Bill or the Karate Kid.  This is the 2010 Seibukai Shiai Dojo (“Pure Heart”)  Tournament hosted at the Delray Community Center last weekend where all ages and ranks from the Little Dragons to the “Black Mambas” competed on technique, strength and skill.  We came to support and watch our fellow students test their competency in kata and kumite.   The Senseis are passionate about karate and truly dedicated to make each and every student’s experience positive and life changing.  All ranks from the Senseis to the Little Dragons teach you more than you could possibly teach them.  We feel honored to be training with such a talented and committed group.

Friday, November 12, 2010, Diane’s Backyard (A toad rescued from jacuzzi.)

Saturday, November 13, 2010, Jupiter, FL–Weekend at Rick’s Fish Camp

Laughing Therapy Group and a Patient Surfer Playing Banjo (8:00 am Jupiter, FL)

Sunday, November 14, 2010–Nature Conservancy, Blowing Rock Preserve-Jupiter Island

Every year my parents would drive us to the beach house at the Jersey Shore for our summer ritual of sun and fun.  As soon as we turned off the Garden State Parkway and headed down Route 35,  I would be overwhelmed by the smell of salt and sea and how the air grew damp from the surrounding water. It is unique to the Jersey Shore which is sandwiched between the Atlantic Ocean and Barnegat Bay.  Even now when I take the drive, the smell evokes memories of summer romance, my parents, my siblings, my first job and the joy of unstructured time.  

Our sense of smell is the only sense that is directly linked to memory and there is a growing awareness of the power of scent.  Smell plays a large part in our lives. Pheromones, or hormone-like substances, are as individual as we are. Just as no two people are alike, no two people smell alike. Pheromones are our own private fingerprint and influence our choice in mates.  Aromatherapists have contended for years that a scent can affect people in profound ways and scientists are now trying to find the hard evidence of those connections.  For example, they say the scent of the grapefruit can take years off your age!

I started to reflect again about the power of scent when recent guests gave us a very cool house gift –a candle from Le Labo Fragrances, a London and New York based perfumery.  www.lelabofragrances.com.   At Le Labo their goal “is to help you ‘open your nostrils ” , as they state, “in the same way a good book opens their readers’ eyes to life.  Philosophers speak about “men with stitched-up eyelids’ when referring to people who are blind to the basics of existence”. They believe “most of us live with stitched-up nostrils, having grown up in a world where smells are hidden away, and our olfactory senses left to wither”.

Le Labo wants us ” to breathe in deeply and take in all that life has to offer”.  I agree.  Thank you,  Cindy and Stephen for helping us broaden our “olfactory palette” with Santal 26–the scent is phenomenal!