Christmas Cactus Blossoms in June

We rented a Uhal truck in Atlanta and drove it all the way to Athens. The sole purpose was to move all our plants in the pots. Surely it was not fun. Fortunately all the plants arrived undamaged. Well we are almost ready to move in our new house. At this moment, we still have to bear for a week in our rented house. So are all our plants. They are crowded in a tiny back yard and on the steps of front door. I just do a minimal maintenance. I am just not able to set my mind set to work on them until they are moved.

Well they seems just doing fine. My Christmas Cactus is blossoming and just beautiful. Some of sun burned indoor plants are recovering. I just can not wait for moving to our new house.

Spaghetti MeatBalls

I have been always pretty confidence of my cooking. That "my cooking" is Chinese food. I just have a good grasp of Chinese Cuisine. No recipe is ever needed for my cooking. I often improvise with whatever I have in the fridge. However, it is totally different story when it comes to Western Cuisine for me.

I can not remember how many times I have had Spaghetti Meatballs. But I never dared enough to make it myself. Somehow I just do not feel that I have the handler of subtlety to Western Cuisine. For me, a lot of butter, cheese, and wine will do for Western food just as most of American think that soybean sauce will do for Chinese food.

A coup days ago, I happened to watch Barefoot Contessa that afternoon. I love Ina's show. Especially do not worry about fat and sugar and extra cups of them are all good for a special occassion which is everyday^^. No wonder that American size of 3 to 4 course meal makes us fatter and bigger than the moderation of French's 5 course meal. She was making saghetti with meatballs. Stranger enough I felt that I started to be able to remember the ingredients and wanted to give Sammy a little surprise. I almost followed her recipe since I never wrote it down or checked on line.

Here my ingredients are:

For meatballs:
ground beef
ground veal
bread crumbs
some chopped parsley
grated pamesan cheese
salt
black pepper
beaten egg
red wine (remember wrong)
minced garlic(bad memory)
olive oil
soybean sauce (old habit, hard to break)

For the sauce:
olive oill
yellow onion
minced garlic
red win
can crushed tomatoes
parsley & basil
salt
black pepper
fresh mushroom(I add)

It turned out actually pretty good. Apparently Sammy liked a lot and he filled all the way up to his throat. I am impressed with my first home-made spaghetti meatballs.

Food subtlety resides in culture intrigue. I hope that one day I will have the same instinct of Western cuisine as I have with Chinese one. My learning curve seems terribly long. Well, at least I had my first spaghetti meatballs now. Here it is

When Organic Becomes A Part of My Daily Life

When we lived in Atlanta, Whole Food Grocery Store was the way to go if we wanted something organic. It is a very nice store. We did enjoy shopping there. But surely it did not come cheap. Our friend Tricia called it the Whole Pay Check instead. No too much exaggerated!

Somehow it makes you being cool to shop there since you are into organic. And of course it shows that you are able to afford. For me, it is a stupid Urban thing. It is not more stupid of organic itself than people.

I always believe that diversity and freshness is the key for our diet. Organic is certainly a plus. We always shopped in Korean farmer's market or Decature farmer's market.

When we moved to Athens, we still have to go shopping in Kroger which is only chain shop here. But this local farmer's market certainly fascinates me. It is every Saturday from 9-1. This is a farmer's market in a real sense. Local farmers bring their vegatable, fruit, plants, home-made sauce and jelly, local produced honey ...

I am often asked to taste the produce in raw since it is allowed without chemicals applied . I realize that most of them are organic. Of course we do not know what percentage they are up to the organic standard. what really matters is that ORGANIC is in the conscience of this community. Amazing me more is those traditional chinese vegatable appearance - Garlic Stem, Garlic Leak, Chinese Roman lettuce, ... Certainly it becomes affordable.

I complained about the selection of Whole Food produce. It was always samo samo. Here we have Freshness, Organic and Diversity, Affordability. How does FODA sound? not too good yet. I will try again. Well certainly Organic becomes a part of my daily life before I realize it.

Look at those baby potato, Garlic Stem, Squash, tomato and our friend Robin's Potato and Rosemary Bread from Big Chimney with wild flowers. Just can't get better than this!!!

Night in Athens

Our Landmark!













Tiki is here to stay!














Is this cart nice? How about being a coffee table in our living room?













Still Glamour in Athens


















Certainly Cheap is way to go

















This town is for real!

Floor in Progress

More Pictures Of Our New House

My pineapple plant is already looking good with our front porch.














I worked on this kitchen floor hard!!!


















How about a side garden for this cute side doorway?














Red Butterfly chairs through the windows in the front porch.














A cute bathroom upstair!














Potential back yard needs be transformed













The Best for the Last! Former owner painted this garage panels. He happened to work where Sammy works. Well someone is gonna carry the legacy(my favorite line in "Sordid Life")!

Darwin's Theory Of Gardening

Finally, we have our new house now. I am totally exhausted after hard work of two and half days. We rent a kind of electrical spade to scrape out the ugly ninoleum floor for the wood floor underneath. It almost vibbed my head off after two and half days. Mission is accomplished for real. Certainly it is hard, hard work, Mr. President!

Now back to my Darwin's theory. When we were there, we had a chance to meet our new neighbor Jane and her dog Annie. She is this middle aged, friendly, hippy lady. We talked about her dog and our dog Trotty.

Not long before she asked me if I do planting. Here we go. It is my favorite topic again. We became instant friends. She showed her back yard and her plants. She has a lot of my favorites for sure - peony, day lily, Dahlia, hosta. Somehow, It is just hard for me to describe her garden. She might sense my wondering and summed up her philosophy for gardening, which is just planting something somewhere as whoever likes. Some might happen to do well and they are the keepers. Goodbye to the rest or the rest goodbye to her. It sounds very Darwinism. The nature selects the good ones and eliminates the weak ones. Well I hope that you all get the picture of her garden now.

I can tell that she is very passionate about gardening just as I am. I think that it all matters having fun and enjoying gardening! But I can tell that she is somehow frustrated with the outcome of her effort. I feel for her since It happens to me too. This makes me wonder that it would be lovely if Intelligent Design is here for all frustrated gardeners.

Well just one problem? As claimed, Human Being was created by this God's Intelligent Design. Certainly a bunch of gorgeous beings and a lot more ugly ones. Then how are we gonna know who gets the pretty garden powered by the Design of whatever's Intelligence?

Rediscover the Virtue of "Be Humble"

I am Chinese and grew up in China until 25. I had been taught to be humble since I ever could remember. My dad would constantly tell me that only being humble would keep you learning from whoever knows what you do not. This is one of core Confucian teachings passed for more than 2000 years. It has had fundamental impact on the livelihood of Chinese people for thousands of years.

Seniors must be respected since they are considered wiser. Teachers need be followed for they might know what we do not. Authorities should be obeyed simply because they have power. are they attributed to the virtue or fault of humbleness? It certainly puzzled my generation.

Before my journey to the States, I was repeatedly told that I had to present the confidence and aggressiveness when I landed the another side of the Pacific ocean. American is the land that authories are challenged(I am not sure that it is always true now). The new journey carried a lot of my anticipation and anxiety. I struggled subconsciously between the culture conflict. It could not be subtler when the mind was searching for the balancing point. That is because I admire the spirit of this young country and cherish the root of my motherland.

Chinese teachers rarely show the exuberance and pile praises on you even you are the best of the best. Alway advise you of more to overcome. American teachers love to encourage with "you are the best" even you might be the worst of the best or whatever. It is not about which one is better. But the difference is what culture can offer.

A genuine humbleness is a beautiful quality of human being. It is the ultimate realization of our strength through the venerability. The more we learn, the more we realize how little we know.

This American journey gives me a chance to rediscover being as a Chinese indeed.

Fine Memory For Our Old House

My gardenia flower arrangements




























Table set for my mom's scallion pancake. I can not wait for using those my favorite china.














My garden again

Something Nostalgic For Our Arts and Crafts House

It was a long memorial weekend two weeks back. We went to Columbus and hoped that we could get the grill on sale in Target Store. It was sold out. Then we crossed town from west to east and stopped to visit a few shops before headed home. We tried to see one of our favorite store - Design within Reach. It was too late and closed. I wish that name really means it, How about "Design Within Outreach"? Certainly nothing is cheap. But every piece is just beautiful. I hope that someday we will own some.

World Market was the only store that we were able to get in. This was the second time I visited WM. Last time we bought two pagodas as clearance items. One was for Norma's birthday. One was placed in our yard in Atlanta. We were intrigued by all kinds of paper lamps and picked a couple to hang with those we have on the front porch of our new house. However, Sammy spotted three lamp-shape containers covered with this vibrant bright red fabric in the pile of clearance items. I immediately realized that we sensed the same thing. They are just magic pieces for that porch.

This fabric always reminds me of my childhood somehow. It was very typical old Chinese fabric from Northeast countryside. I do not think that my family ever had anything made of it since it was too country for us. But I am being attached since it has the footprint of the time and age. That is the best interpretation of the word "Nostalgic". I called it re-experiencable in mind. I might create a word. But you know what I mean.

Amazingly, Sammy just always has the eye for things unique and unconvetional. That is the talent. When nostlgia merges from East countryside folklore piece to West architectural classic, please allow me to present: