spring quarter has begun with a colorful start. i was craving the florentine bread soup from pasta moon in half moon bay (the best), so i picked some kale and made a pretty good version at home! 

and just like that...look how the kale has grown! already lady bugs crawl over my garden plot eating into the kale leaves, and i like how my plot now has a bit of symmetry: a border of kale, the pop of orange, and the grass that i hope will one day carpet the entire plot. we got a bit of rain this quarter, but still i think it's generally been too hot.  

planting my favorite flowers: calla lilies! they are everywhere in the bay this time of year, especially big sur with the famous calla lily valley. i also spotted them on castro st. in mountain view recently, as well as up in sf by the legion of honor. for how delicate they look, the petals are surprisingly waxy.

 i also planted some kale. 

a moment of pure devastation! through an honest mistake, the garden maintenance staff cleared out my garden plot instead another plot whose owner was leaving. all my dear plans vanished in an instant! but after an hour of mourning, i realized this was a nice opportunity to start afresh. my garden was getting quite chaotic anyways. the stanford staff were kind enough to reimburse me for my plants, so I  bought my favorite short grass with little dainty white flowers they have at Summerwinds. 

things have gotten a bit wild and dreary with the weird weather: too warm, but the occasional cold spell. the garden smells overwhelmingly of thyme as i give one last thorough watering before my trip to Hong Kong!

starting the autumn quarter garden! it's stll been pretty warm here in northern california, so my lemongrass is growing like crazy. I tried to create a border with marigolds, but only the left side seems to have held up. 

at this point pretty sure these weren't roma tomatoes, but couldn't exactly tell what they were? sadly they didn't really taste that good when cooked :( 

as a true southern californian, i had to plant bougainvillea!  

(also recently discovered an instagram account devoted to the bougainvilleas of los angeles https://www.instagram.com/bougsofla/?hl=en) 

round 2 of the roma tomatoes! they look different this year?

 (also thinking of using the leaves to make homemade pasta https://www.reddit.com/r/food/comments/f5vd9w/prochef_tomato_leaf_maccheroncini/) 

thyme invading everything (at least it smells great!)

there are poppies blooming everywhere around the on campus garden plots!

sadly, these are the best the tulips every bloomed :( so close! I think it's because it was a super warm winter here in northern california

tulips (legally!) from amsterdam starting to bud :) 

roma tomatoes thriving in the current heat wave!

the shishito pepper russian roulette begins :) 

surprise calla lily cheering me up after the first day of chemo :) 

ladybug!

kale

thyme

chamomile

lemongrass

marigolds

rosemary

roma tomatoes

alpine strawberries

Japanese eggplant

foxgloves

shishito peppers

cherry tomatoes after a random late-summer rain + farewell before I leave to visit MIT :(

stout little jalapeños ❤️

the most aesthetic carrots in the world

nobody knows if the flower is named after the myth or the myth is named after the flower

the very first alpine strawberry!

marigolds

garlic chives

carrots

calla lilies

pansies

jalapeños

a burst of dahlias! 

starting the garden, with the coolest moss 😍