Spring 2011.   ~mike gradziel.
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Fast food means it was swimming yesterday, twenty miles offshore where Barry was fishing for salmon. We bought our fish before nine in the morning, directly from the boat, and by lunchtime it was sliced into steaks and and sizzling on the grill. Part of the nine-pound fish never even made it to the grill, having become delicious fresh sashimi. The trimmings went into a pot for a batch of fish soup.
boats at Half Moon Bay harbormaster's office, Half Moon Bay Barry withour fish, on his boat
Joy with fish and Hinckley the dog Mike cutting steaks Mike cutting steaks
salmon steaks Hinckley and friends grilled salmon steaks
Hinckley the dog cutting fillets the fate of the fish head
sole, squid, fennel, and seasoning fish soup, with crab, salmon, sole, squid, and vegetables

Massachusetts in May reminds me of coming home from college at the end of the academic year, making the drive across from Albany into the hills where the progress of the season is a couple weeks behind on account of cooler weather. It is like traveling backwards in time, resetting the calendar. The new leaves are small, spring flowers are in bloom, pear blossoms fall like snowflakes and in the forest, at our secret spot, tasty morel mushrooms are pushing through the leaves. It's been a while since I was last home in spring. The mushrooms went into a pan with butter and ended up on buttered triangles of toast, and I ended up back in San Francisco after a meeting for work near Boston. I have two major projects under way: one, replacing the bathroom sink which involves plumbing upgrades, tile work (I was stunned how well a diamond blade cuts compared to a masonry wheel! Cutting porcelain tile was like sawing pine with sharp steel!) and life without a bathroom sink. The other project: saving the lawn, fixing the irrigation system and laying drip line in the back yard. Today's task: in search of straw mulch, I go West.
neighbor's wayward kitty came to visit daffodils in massachusetts violets
the pond, full of frogs flowers in the pasture plum tree blossoms
plum tree blossoms walking dogtooth violet
white trillium old woodroad jack-in-the-pulpits
red trillium woodpiles morel mushroom
finding mushrooms the brook pear tree blossoms
pear tree blossoms pear tree blossoms pear tree blossoms


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