Elliot´s Gran, Bev is what I´ve heard about Grans: the smothering love, the sweetness, the pushing of food and good stories. Her home is cool and quiet, and though it is handsome from the street, you would never know the magic garden she hides out back, in traditional Dutch style. Full of roses, jasmine, lilacs, and flowers, it also has oranges, limes, lemons, grapes, peaches, cherries, apples, persimmons and blackberries. Being the winter, the garden is asleep, but we pruned and tended it in the chilly sunshine, with Bev teaching us about the various perils of fruit trees. I picked limes, tangerines and grapefruit, crushing their leaves with my hands and inhaling the acrid ordor. Rufous, violet-crowned, and ruby-throated hummingbirds, tanagers, crows and bluejays swooped and grappled with overripe persimmons. I would love to see the garden in summer...
The downside to the visit was the elaborate meals! I know, what a thing to complain about. But I am the one that is in shorts for the next month...Bev had the best recipes for cookies and porridge (seriously), and a mean Gin and tonic (Elliot will make one for you when you get back, promise). We spent most of our time at the table, chatting, sipping coffee, and being coerced into eating.
We also took a drive through the country, through miles and miles of pear, and apple orchards, vineyards and farm fields, to a place called Locke, an old Chinese town that was founded during the completion of the railroad. It was wild, and rickety, looking as much like a set from Peter Pan as possible. Sideways, hand-painted façades advertised "LeeWong Grocery" and "Star Theater" but held old bookstores, vintage art galleries, and piles of dusty antiques. Laundry was strung across the narrow boardwalk, and rapid-fire Mandarin conversations and laughter bellowed through holes in the walls.
It was such an amazing respite, and so wonderful to meet the Matron of the McRae family. Elliot promised to visit again soon, and we left with a bundle of fresh citrus, sandwiches and cookies, which took us almost 3 days to eat...
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