Corks and Cactus

Ed and I have been trying to make the most of our membership to the Botanical Gardens (as I mentioned not that long ago), so when I read about an event that combined wine tasting with the garden, I knew we had to check it out. Enter: Corks and Cactus.

This is a yearly event that showcases 40 different wines on each of its two days, along with live music, cooking demonstrations, and delicious food you can buy to pair with all your wines.

The wine tasting booths were all set up inside, with each booth having about 5 wines to taste. Each guest was given a menu, so you could just go around and request the wine(s) you wanted! It was hard not to want to taste all 40 wines, but we couldn't go too crazy :).

We were starving, so when we got there, we treated ourselves to a cheese plate and a sandwich, both of which were excellent. I think the best part, though, was just sitting outside in the beautiful sunlight. I've definitely been having a lot more moments of feeling very fortunate to live in such a beautiful place. Even, more, I've been able to appreciate that this deserty place does have some beauty :). 

After a few hours of relaxing, we headed to the back patio for a "cooking demonstration" from the chefs of Gertrudes, the wonderful restaurant on site here at the garden. 

While the demonstration wasn't really all that exciting, the food samples we got to have were wonderful. Lamb with a lovely jus, rainbow chard, and barley - perfect with a nice tasting. 

After our final snack, we headed back out to the main space to spend a last few minutes taking in the afternoon. 

And, had one last tasting. 

We couldn't leave without visiting with some of our favorite plants. I've gained such an affinity for agaves, after planting them at our house, so it was fun to walk through. We were amazed by this beautiful stalk. Of course, with my newfound knowledge of agaves, the stalk made me a bit sad, too, because most agaves die after they flower. Pretty impressive, though.

Now our fourth garden visit, I'm starting to understand why people gain such a love of plants and gardening. It's been so fun to see how the plants have changed since we first saw them in October, and it's especially exciting now as we're entering into spring. This tree below was completely bare back in October and now has these great leaves. 

There seem to be more flowers every time we visit, and I think the next month might be pretty amazing.

Much of the cacti haven't changed that much, but are still captivating all the same. 

We weren't the only ones out enjoying the gardens. There was also a wedding going on! We stumbled upon the bride and groom taking pictures. 

I was excited to see one of my Parry's Agave all grown up. Someday ours will look like that! Not sure how long it'll take, though :). 

We decided to take a walk on the wildflower loop, which hasn't quite come into its own for spring, but is heading there. 

It's interesting that a year ago, we came out here the very first time, where I experienced my high and lows picturing desert living. 

But, I do think I'm starting to adjust, at least to some extent. I'm still not super excited about being out on the trails, but I can look out on a scene like this and see the beauty of it all. 

It helps when everything is growing, becoming new, and starting over. 

This really was the perfect way to spend our last weekend in February, and is definitely an event we'll return to in the future. Both the Corks and the Cactus were impressively amazing. 

A Lovely Valentines

While this is pretty far passed at this point, I still wanted to share what we did on our actual valentine's day celebration. Coming home from work, I walked outside to find this:

I had no idea that Ed was planning anything (since our big celebration was over the weekend and I was making dinner), so it was such a pleasant surprise. Bread with olive oil and vinegar pretty much comes out for every special at home meal, but the margaritas were a very pleasant and welcome surprise. For dinner, we had filets, purple mashed potatoes, and Ed's wonderful molten lava cakes. 

It was the perfect, relaxed way to celebrate the past 5 1/2 years of wonderful love together.

Botanical Garden

As members of the Botanical Garden, we have the benefit of free membership whenever we feel like it.  So, to help inspire us for our impending big landscaping remodel, we decided to go visit and get excited about Sonoran plants. 

While I'm still not pro-cactus, these ones are pretty amazing.

Ed had to take a little time to grind some mesquite pods, just like the native Arizona people. 

We were pretty taken with this cactus (saguaro) skeleton, as well. 

Admittedly, I was not as excited as I'd hoped about the desert plants. However, one did catch my eye. I thought this little agave was very cute, and I really liked how symmetrical it was. Spoiler - we're now the proud owners of two Parry's Agaves. I can't wait to see how they grow :). 

Spring was definitely just beginning to enter the garden, with a few early plants beginning their blooms. 

On our way out, we walked through the art installation, that we had a great time seeing with Bill and Jenny at La Noche de las Luminerias. It was fun to see them in the daytime as well. 

All that walking around certainly worked up an appetite, so we decided to go to Gertrudes, the new restaurant that just opened at the gardens. We were certainly not disappointed. It helped that the weather was ideal, and we were able to sit outside on the patio, sipping a mimosa (me) and coffee (Ed) and enjoying watching clouds roll by and a little quail hopping around through the plants. 

                            

The, food, though, was pretty darn wonderful, too. We couldn't decide between breakfast or lunch. Despite it being 12pm, they had a great looking breakfast menu. So, we decided to have one of each. 

Our breakfast choice: The Hot Mess

Okay, this was wonderful. It felt very bay area-ish to be having a meal of locally sourced, organic produce. Definitely the best eggs I've ever had, and the other flavors of salsa verde, pork, cheese and tortillas was just fabulous. This one came highly recommended, and for good reason. 

For our lunch course, we went with a blue cheese burger. We were sold on the blue cheese being from Point Reyes, and were certainly not disappointed. Truly telling, I had a hugely difficult time deciding on that all important "last bite."

Just as we finished our meal, the clouds started rolling in more quickly and the temperature dropped, making us glad we had finished and were heading home. These kinds of days are just lovely. 

Outdoor Living

This weekend is all about the outdoors. Back in California, that meant spending the weekend on the trails. Here, that means (at least this time) spending time working on our yards. When we first moved, we were thrilled our home had a beautiful front lawn.

However, come November or so, and this lawn was looking anything but beautiful. Bermuda grass dies  goes dormant in the winter, and leaves a lot to be desired. We also went ahead and took out that big Juniper, which meant that everything looked pretty sad and bare. Added, to the ascetic issues, the irrigation was pretty shot and needed to be replaced. 

Put that all together, and it was enough motivation for us to get over our aversion to desert living and totally "Arizonize" our front lawn, complete with a heat loving tree, agaves, and lots and lots of gravel. This was way too big of a job for us to DIY, so we hired some experts to carry out our vision. And, this was the weekend to bring it to life!

Saturday was all about prep work for us. Our first stop was a local nursery to pick out some plants that we wanted to bring home. 

It was the perfect day to be out looking at plants and walking around this expansive nursery. They had succulents galore, as well as plenty of trees, shrubs, and pretty much anything we could desire. 

We left with a great collection, including some veggies for the back! We couldn't decide on a tree, yet, though, so we saved that decision for later. 

Our second outdoor errand was to pick out gravel. It's a bit nervewracking to be choosing a stone that you'll be ordering tons of (literally - I think we're getting 9 tons of it!). We went with "pink coral" - going with that reddish shade of rock pretty ubiquitous out here (added bonus - it was on sale :) ). We also picked out some river rocks for our "stream" and some rock to match the gravel we already have in the back to "freshen things up." 

While we were out, we took a break and got some frozen yogurt in one of our favorite little shopping complexes. It has great lake views, and we took advantage of our 80ish degree day by basking outside while enjoying a tasty treat.

From there, it was on to Moon Valley Nursery to pick out a tree. Going in, we were pretty sold on getting a Jacaranda. They are such beautiful trees and we love their flowers. However, once we got there, we started second guessing ourselves. They'd only blossom for a week or two here, and we weren't totally positive about how they'd grow. While checking them out, we stumbled upon another tree that got us interested - the Tipu Tree. 

(What it will look like when it's older)

This tree is known for handling Arizona's heat well, as well as withstanding mild freezes (into the 20s). We'd almost left, deciding to go home and research, when we were stopped by an employee, asking us how we did with our shopping. I explained what we were looking at, and mentioned some of the varieties, and he pointed out the Tipu tree they had growing right there. 

It was so pretty! The picture doesn't do it justice. The light looked so pretty through the leaves, and it looked about exactly as we wanted our tree to look - not too deserty or too bulky. After admiring it, we headed right back and got a helper to help us pick one out. 

Ours is obviously a whole lot smaller to start, but this is considered a very fast growing tree that should make a ton of progress in the next year. We were told that both the managers of the nursery have put in Tipu trees, which, to us, really boded well. We easily loaded our little tree into the Prius and brought it to its new home. 

With all of our new purchases home at last, I got to do some gardening. Believe it or not, I don't think I've gardened, really, since I was a kid. But, since I'd bought the vegetables, I figured they were mine to plant. Ends up, I really liked it! I loved the smell of dirt, being out in the sun, and doing something that felt very productive. I really hope everything grows well. 

To start, I had to transplant some of the plants we had, to make room for our new ones. 

We ended up with 6 squash plants, a basil, and a cilantro. 

Our lettuce family plants are doing pretty well, and are now all together. The red leaf lettuce has definitely been growing the best, though I probably like the taste of our kale the best! I'm hoping the chard transferred okay :). 

After gardening, I spent the rest of the afternoon lazing by the pool. I figured, with all the workers coming tomorrow, this was the last chance for it!

We finished the evening by finishing our Valentine's Day celebration by going out to eat at Tempe's "House of Tricks"

I wore my special "wedding shoes" for the occasion. As these are by far, my most expensive shoes (being Vera Wang and all) I have worn them all of maybe 3 times besides my wedding. They were very fun to wear for our dinner.

We snagged an outdoor table (in keeping with our theme of the day), which was just perfect.

The ambiance of the restaurant was so lovely and romantic and definitely made us enjoy the prospect of the many outdoor meals we'll be able to enjoy now that the evenings are becoming a bit warmer.

We started with some delicious sparkling rose to start the evening on a romantic foot.

The rest of the meal was just as lovely. The foot was very good. Nothing spectacular, necessarily, but, with the stars twinkling through the branches over our heads, as we sat in peaceful conversation, the night ended up pretty perfectly.

One of the reason people want to move to Phoenix is for the prospect of beautiful weather for most of the year. I'm happy to say that lately, I can definitely see their point.