Sun

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Salad: It’s What’s for Dinner

I cling to the fantasy of eating a salad made entirely from my garden. Alas, we don’t have the room to grow all we would need, so our meals are about compromise.  Tonight’s dinner was a blend of both worlds: supermarket greens and a delicious avocado, along with fresh tomatoes from our garden.  I sliced our first heirloom grown from seed, and tossed in a handful of Sun Gold organic cherry tomatoes grown from a nursery starter.

garden salad

Garden Salad

Two of the peppers are turning yellow, so they’ll make it to the table by the end of the week.  Our basil continues unabated, a garden staple all summer long.

tomatoes, basil

Basil, Roma, Sun Gold and Heirloom Tomatoes

The days are shortening with our hemisphere’s Autumnal Equinox just 10 days away.  Suddenly summer is over.

Living in our moderate climate, warm days will continue into November.  The garden tells a different story, however, as plants perform the grand finale, before packing it in for the season.  It’s been a great run.

Golden pepper

Golden Pepper

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Early Bird Special: Catch the 4:02 to the Vernal Equinox

DSC_0033It’s here.  Well, almost here.  The first day of spring. The day we gardeners dream about.

If you live on the west coast of North America like I do, spring officially arrives at 4:02 am. When I worked full-time, I used to try to take the first few days of spring off so I could start a garden. This year, I’ve rearranged my schedule to attend the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show. I am so excited.

The show opens tomorrow, March 20th and runs through Sunday.  It’s exciting to be among the first to arrive when everything is still fresh. This year’s theme is Gardens Make the World Go Around.  Frankly, I couldn’t agree more!

I’ll be taking photos galore to share with you later in the week. And…guess what?  It’s raining!  (Shhhhhh….we don’t want it to stop).

Ah, spring, how I love you so.

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What is a Vernal Equinox?

An equinox occurs twice a year (around 20 March and 22 September), when the tilt of the Earth’s axis is inclined neither away from nor towards the Sun, the center of the Sun being in the same plane as the Earth’s equator. The term equinox can also be used in a broader sense, meaning the date when such a passage happens. The name “equinox” is derived from the Latin aequus (equal) and nox (night), because around the equinox, night and day are about equal length.

At an equinox the Sun is at one of two opposite points on the celestial sphere where the celestial equator (i.e. declination 0) and ecliptic intersect. These points of intersection are called equinoctial points: classically, the vernal point (RA = 00h 00m 00s and longitude = 0º) and the autumnal point (RA = 12h 00m 00s and longitude = 180º). By extension, the term equinox may denote an equinoctial point.

The equinoxes are the only times when the sub-solar point is on the Equator. The sub-solar point (the place on the Earth’s surface where the center of the Sun is exactly overhead) crosses the Equator moving northward at the March equinox and moving southward at the September equinox. (Since the sun’s ecliptic latitude isn’t exactly zero it isn’t exactly above the equator at the moment of the equinox, but the two events usually occur less than 30 seconds apart.) – Read more at Wikipedia