Some of my favorite things about So. Cal.

Yesterday was the 9th anniversary of our arrival in Southern California. It was a beautiful sunny day as I walked out of LAX with 6 week old Nathaniel wrapped in a light cotton blanket. I looked over to see someone wearing a big puffy down coat and figured they must have just arrived from Minnesota and had no where else to put their coat as they brought their luggage to the rental car shuttle. It was only as we were driving away from the airport that I noticed how most people were bundled up for a blizzard. Anyway, it took us awhile to acclimate and now I must admit I feel cold when the temperature drops below 60 F. But I wanted to share some of my favorite things about January in S. Cal.
I was amazed to see trees blooming when we arrived. These trees are covered in white blossoms every January. This one is in our neighbor's front yard.

I have no idea what kind of bush this is, but these very unimpressive flowers have the strongest, most beautiful fragrance of any flower I've ever smelled. They are in our back yard and it only takes a few of them in bloom to perfume the area.

I love that the lavendar by my back door blooms all year.

And this is the time of year for camelias. I've taken pics of all the camelias in our yard. They have no fragrance, but they are long lasting blossoms that are so pretty floating in a bowl of water - which works great when Nathaniel picks them for me without stems.

I love the orange tree in our back yard. It feels like I am bringing a present into the house when I pick one for dinner. I love the work that Chris puts into keeping the trees healthy and free of pests.

This is our Meyer lemon tree. A Meyer lemon isn't a true lemon - it is a cross between a lemon and a mandarin orange. These are the sweetest juiciest lemons ever! They make awesome lemonade and the best lemon merengue pie in the world. I can't imagine using the battery acid that comes in those plastic lemons at the grocery store after using these. (My apologies if any of you or your family owns the company that produces those.) Do you see how many lemons are on this tree? They ripen just before Christmas and we usually use them up by summer. They will stay ripe and fresh on the tree for a year, getting sweeter and sweeter.

This is not one of my kids' favorite things, but I love that I have celery and two kinds of cabbage (and beets not shown) growing in my garden in the middle of winter. I read that celery is one of the fruits and veggies that has the highest residues of pesticides, and since we use it alot, I prefer growing it myself. The cabbage is terrific in sesame chicken noodle soup and minestrone. I like to roast the beets and slice them into a salad with sliced oranges, mild onions, crumbled blue cheese, toasted almonds, and a sweet poppy seed dressing or balsamic vinaigrette.

My favorite lettuce is a small crisp head variety called Tom Thumb.

And here is some of my celery about to be washed and chopped into crispy shrimp rice cakes.

Thanks for sharing in my favorite garden things. Stay tuned. We are waiting for baby grass to appear in the front yard, and when it does I'll post the photo-montage of the major front yard overhaul we've been working on since early December.