Grandma Velva Ann Higgins 1915-2009

My grandma (my mom's mom) Velva passed away healthy and peacefully on March 21, 2009. She was 94 years old, and fortunate enough to have a wonderful family of 2 children, 7 grandchildren, and 9 (and a half!) great-grandchildren.

I will always remember her as being strong-willed, opinionated, loving, generous, and funny. Living on Balboa Island, she would take daily walks and loved talking to the neighbors and petting all the island kitties! She was very interested in healing ailments through food and supplements, and made a huge impact on my life and my love of nutrition.

She will be greatly missed, and I am sad that she will never get to meet my son. But I am happy to know that some of her genes will live on through him, and hopefully I can pass down to him some of the wonderful things she taught me in my life.

We had a nice family get together after her service last week. She would have loved it!

(Brother-in-law Tim, Robert and sister Susan)

(Siblings and their husbands: Craig, Maura, Robert, Me, Susan, Tim)

(Tim and my Aunt Paula- Dad's sister)

(My cousins: Gabrielle and Carissa)

(Only some of the 3 generations of family!)

(Nephews Aeon and Nicky with my dad. The photo was totally dark, so I had to lighten it, which accounts for the bad quality!)

The Fruits of Our Labor!

No, I am not referring to the baby... Robert was finally able to harvest a salad made entirely of beets, beet greens, romaine lettuce, mesclun greens, and carrots ALL from our garden! The beets were a bit small, but exceptionally sweet, and it made us really appreciate how much work it takes to be able to eat something as simple as a salad.

Go Red for Ladybugs!

Yesterday, March 14, was Robert's late cousin's 26th birthday. Kyla passed away last year, and at the time was a spokesperson for the American Heart Association's Go Red For Women campaign.

In order to celebrate her birthday, her mom, Aunt Karla, decided to release 26 red (Kyla's favorite color, and honoring her cause of "Go Red") balloons at noon on her birthday. Of course, since Aunt Karla lives in Colorado Springs, we were not able to share in the activity with her personally.

Robert and I wanted to release something, too. Robert came up with the idea to release red ladybugs in the garden at noon on her birthday. That way, the garden benefits, and every time we see a ladybug we can think fondly of our cousin and the wonderful memories we have of her.

Why Ladybugs?

The ladybug is a predator of aphids, mealybugs, spider mites, whiteflys, thrips, and other soft-bodied insects that typically invade gardens and are a menace to crops. A single ladybug is capable of consuming up to 50 to 60 aphids per day!
We purchased a box of live ladybugs from our local farm center, and the box contained at least 1500 live ladybugs. They should lay their eggs in the garden, and when they fly away, a new generation begins to take over the "natural pesticide control" work.

Garden Update- March 2009

Our garden is growing bigger and bigger everyday (much like I am!). We have the following growing: Carrots, beets, onions (different varieties), lettuce (different varieties), garlic, fava beans, cucumber, hot peppers (different varieties), bell peppers, tomatoes, herbs, lavender, rosemary, and avocado and palm trees.

We have had to construct several cages over the garden to protect from the many bunnies, birds, and other critters in our backyard who feasted on our garden with the apparent thought of "Thank you so much for planting this wonderful salad bar for us!"

Most of the cages are not permanent. We simply raise them off the plants when we want to garden, and lower them back on for protection.

A new permanent structure is being built over an empty bed, and that will have doors that we just walk through.