Cold Up There

Hey, guess who won this week's contest: it was Betsy Coles! Congratulations, Betsy! Like everyone else who entered this week, Betsy answered Friday's question correctly. "What famous San Marino institution just received a $100 million gift?" Why, the Huntington, of course.

Betsy's name was pulled out of a (clean) poo bag by my neighbor's delightful mother/mother-in-law/grandmother when I sidelined her while she was trying to get from her car to her family. I'll be mailing out Betsy's copy of Hometown Pasadena 2009-2010 this week. It's my last one, so this Friday I'll be giving away my one and only copy of Helen of Pasadena by Lian Dolan! That's going to bed the day after Thanksgiving, and we're kicking off the holiday season with Helen. Be sure and check in to win.

Despite yesterday's rain, the Farmers' Market did a brisk business. More than one merchant mentioned, however, that the Saturday before Thanksgiving should be BIG, much bigger than a rainy day crowd. I admit I didn't really want to go but I was out of Sconeage granola and that is not to be borne.

When I finished shopping I came home and stayed cozy indoors. I love that on a rainy day. I felt so domestic I made corn bread. Okay, it was from a mix, but it filled the house with a nice smell. I didn't feel domestic enough to do laundry, but it was a pleasant afternoon.

I thought I'd do a comparison of our weather with that of Chicago and New York but it's not bad out east. It was 45 degrees and cloudy in Chicago yesterday, and 54 degrees and sunny in New York. (They say it got to 63 degrees here but I'm not buyin' it.) You know where it was really cold yesterday? Right here in California, in the mountains at Mammoth. 38 degrees and snow. And it got down below 20 overnight.

It's beautiful there, though. Check out what the Chieftess has been finding with her camera at Mammoth Lakes Daily Photo.

Back to the Sconeage

I know. It looks kind of like an ad.

It is, sort of. The Sconeage Bakery is one of my regular stops at the Saturday morning Farmers' Market at Victory Park because I am flat out addicted to that granola. When John comes with me he always gets a scone. He loves them in every flavor, partly because he's not picky but mostly because they're all good. And don't get me started about the cookies.

And Lionel (pronounced "Lee-o-NEL"), the owner of Sconeage, is from France. He has a French accent. He speaks French to those who speak French to him. Plus he's a nice guy. Plus his lovely daughter, who works the booth with him, is so over all that Frenchspeak.

I took all my photos yesterday at the market with the Canon 20D, which recently returned from being repaired. I'm having to learn to use it all over again. I took several shots of Dillon and Graeme, whom you may remember from last summer. They returned to the market yesterday to add a touch of class, playing their classical-contemporary fiddles with the mountains as their backdrop. (You can book the Dillon and Graeme violin duet for events; email scran7(at)att.net). The two are another year more handsome, more polished and more talented, but I'm sorry to say my photos are...not. I'm not working the camera well in bright sun and/or shadow yet.

The photo above came out okay. I emailed it to John and we messed with it on the iPad in an app called TiltShiftGenerator. Then he emailed it back to me and I uploaded it to the blog.

This stuff was probably easier in the days of darkroom.

Abundancia

photo inspired by John Sandel

There's always something to photograph at the Saturday Farmers' Market at Victory Park. Yesterday everyone was exclaiming over the purple peppers (near the top of the photo) at the Jaime Farms booth.

We shopped all around the market: peppers, zucchini, eggplant, broccoli, arugula, freshly baked bread, peaches, granola and fresh swordfish. You can also buy oils, plants, beef jerky, cheese, olives, and a lot of other things I'm forgetting. The only way to get fresher produce is to grow it yourself (or to have a generous neighbor who gardens).

We ate our peaches for lunch and had the fish and broccoli last night. We're going to make a ratatouille this week; I was inspired by the Altadena Hiker. I probably won't take pictures of mine. I'm not the Julia Child disciple she is.

There's a new Farmers' Market in town called the South Lake Avenue Summer Farmers' Market. It happens every Wednesday from 3:30-7:30 pm until September 29th in Shopper's Lane at Del Mar Blvd. And don't forget the Tuesday market at Villa Parke and the Thursday market at Robinson Park (also 'til September; check out the Pasadena Farmers' Markets here).

Pasadena has so many Farmers' Markets we could buy fresh produce almost every day if we needed to. But we don't. I didn't have to buy tomatoes for the ratatouille yesterday because we have a generous neighbor who gardens.

The Market Itself

My old Nissan, fondly nicknamed "the Snot Comet" (don't ask), finally took a nose dive. I am between cars. This temporarily makes me and John a one-car family, which wouldn't be difficult anywhere but here in soCal.

I enjoy a good walk for local errands. We have the ARTS bus for getting around town if I need to go further afield. The Gold Line will be getting us to and from Azusa within a mere four years. (Of course most of my driving takes me in the other direction and public transportation takes a tad less than four years to get me where I need to go, but only a tad.)

John and I have been taking turns with the car. It's working out. (Good thing it's temporary.)

But

One thing I keep having to miss, schedule-wise, is the Saturday Farmer's Market. This is a horrible, terrible, dire problem. Grocery store fruits and vegetables are not the same. I don't care what store you get them from, they're not as good. We've managed without them, but we suffer. I am not managing, however, without granola from The Sconeage. Lionel's company makes such superb granola that I've become addicted to it. I am miserable without it.

My stash had run out. Last week I was craving my granola and lo and behold! Friend Bellis called from the Farmer's Market and offered to pick up four containers to tide me over! Bless her!

I still owe her five bucks.

Now that I've found The Sconeage website I realize I can order online, but that is beside the point.