Potatoe croquettes for lunch today. Great use of leftover mashed potatoes.

plated golden brown croquettes with one cut open, revealing fluffy white potatoes and chives

Citrus gummies are a great way to use backyard citrus. We made Meyer lemon with Valencia orange gummies. An Alton Brown recipe. We’ve frozen our remaining Meyer lemon juice. Our citrus season is now over.

orange gummies in a bin atop a red cuttingboard and a wooden cuttingboard

macOS Shortcuts, Logger for Shortcuts, Shortcuts Temporary Files, and Hazel

Logger for Shortcuts provided me exactly the information to figure out how to get Hazel to properly use a Shortcut against a file. Now I can have Hazel run a specific Shortcut against a file whenever a new file shows up. Background: for some reason when Hazel starts a Shortcut, the Shortcut operates on a copy of the file in a temporary folder. My programmer brain assumed that the Shortcut Input would be immutable.

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From last Monday near Tomales Point in beautiful California, a genus Arctia moth caterpillar on lupins.

red and black fuzzy caterpillar on slender pinnate lupine leaves.

Raspberry Shakes do great science in the challenging conditions of Haiti: When a seismic network failed, citizen science stepped in on Ars Technica

I’ve been playing Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 on the Xbox Series S. I’m surprised at how it keeps my mind off everything and on a passion of mine and so it really helps my anxiety. Last time I played was w/ FS 98. This is amazing but not without some bizarre issues.

From last Monday, a very loud acorn woodpecker at the Point Reyes National seashore visitor center.

red headed & black body acorn woodpecker laughing atop a light pole against a clear blue sky

From last Monday, the Pacific Ocean and Tonalite rock at Tomales Point.

white with specks of dark minerals in tonalite rock against the blue ocean

Peppers and two tomato seedlings are making great progress. We’ll likely be hardening them off in a few weeks and plant by April.🌱

tray of small pepper plants under a grow light with a fan blowing on them.

More Point Reyes National Seashore photos from last Monday: bumble hovering near a flower, elk, and another coyote.

bumble bee hovering over a flowerseveral elk feeding and lazing about on grasselk with lots of antlers on a hillcoyote in a grassy area against the blue pacific ocean.

Yesterday, at Point Reyes National Seashore on the Tomales Point Trail, this hunting coyote could have been showing off. The coyote didn’t catch anything.

coyote hopping across the trailcoyote pouncing on a possible meal

The freeze we got a few weeks ago, down to 28°F, did no clear harm to our plants. Mandarin, Valencia, Meyer lemon, & avocado flowers fine. Our nectarine is setting fruit as shown by this cute little green ovary. And ladybugs are all over our California wild roses 🌱🌳

green fruit set on nectarine. jackets about to fall.

Front yard is looking really nice. I’ve been trying to rein it in with lots of pruning. I know our annual wildflowers super appreciated the 0.38” of rain last week. 🌱

various bushes in the front yard including California lilacview of front yard including a random clump of daffodils

After weeks of warmer than normal weather, weather swung the other way and we had freezing temps for a few days. Had to cover up the weaker & less freeze tolerant trees. I don’t see damage to my earlier than normal blooming trees yet: all citrus, all stone fruit, one avocado 🌱🤞

frozen bird bathcovered up meyer lemon tree

We’re slowly preparing the backyard crop rows for planting. We just pulled all the weeds & bolting cilantro out to the compost pile. Saturday we enjoyed a fresh fennel salad. Next weekend we’ll test the drip tape, make any repairs, remove cat poop 🙄, and then add compost. 🌱

Harvested our first homegrown Valencia orange this year. So very sweet. Even the pith isn’t bitter. We may want to harvest the rest early if there’s a freeze later this week. Fortunately there’s only a dozen-ish. ~243 mandarins harvested so far — makes great juice 🌱🌳

sliced valencia orangejuicing mandarins

The Annie Cat.

a tuxedo cat vertically stretching on a seat back

Veggie sushi for dinner tonight.

cutting rolls of sushi on a blue cuttingboardplated sushi

Gilias were the first annual flowers to bloom in our yard. Can you believe these are just as or more aggressive at spreading compared to poppies? 🌱

purple round gilia flowers

First bloom for our Valencia orange tree. About three weeks early compared to 2020 & 2021. 🌱🌳