Berkeley Rose Garden, bahn mi & more - Thriving week 29

Last Thursday was certainly varied!

First a dermatologist annual visit with a few spots being frozen off. Then I stopped at ACE Hardware and bought a cobweb brush. I have tried to avoid getting one but house maintenance is harder without it. I’m all about simplifying and making house and yard work easier this year.

We had wanted to check out the  Berkeley Rose Garden and although it is late in the blooming season it was very pretty and with a nice rose scent as you walked through. Pretty views across the bay too. My photo doesn’t do it justice.

The garden was built by hundreds of WPA workers over 4 years.You can’t tell from my photo but it was carved into a steep rock hillside and the rock used to make stairs and amphitheater levels.

On the way home we got bahn mi sandwiches to eat at home. They were bbq chicken with grated carrots, etc. and a definite Asian flavor but included both jalapeños and cilantro. The combo led to us researching the origins of both. Jalapeños definitely originated in Mexico but cilantro was variously attributed to the Eastern Mediterranean, Egypt, India or China. I think we forget that there has always been both migration and traveling that included transporting foods to new locations. People definitely like to create new food combos for variations of traditional dishes.

I’ve written about needing to make friends and I’m glad that I had a deep conversation with a woman I met right after we moved here and really like. I hope to put myself put there more each week.

However, I’m feeling rather like a “stick in the mud” as my parents used to say. My sons and their families are respectively off to Michigan for a wedding and in Hawaii. 3 different neighbors just got back from Japan, one is on an Alaskan cruise and goes to Guatemala later in the summer, and one leaves for Spain soon returning for a one day turnaround before their whole family goes to Slovakia and Croatia. Better up our game at being a tourist in our own area!

Before our son and family left for Hawaii he brought over their ripe garden bounty. I don’t like the texture of raw plums but have found a recipe for sautéed plums to try as a topping for yogurt, cereal, etc. or as a meat side dish depending on seasonings used.

I finished cleaning the garage by cleaning the water heater closet, organized the stuff stored in the office closet so I  can now step in to reach thing which involved moving some stuff to the new garage shelves, and decluttered a few clothes that have not fit for over a year.