The City Daily Photo monthly theme for December is "Shop Window." I decided to post one from a couple of years ago that shows our city cares about those less fortunate. This one is advertising the Toy Bank which gives free donated toys to needy children for Christmas.
Barbara Radisavljeivc, Paso Robles, USA
The theme, though, reminds me of some of the shop windows I saw when I was a little girl when the big department stores were downtown instead of in malls. In those days, a trip downtown was like visiting a wonderland. For me in those days downtown meant downtown Long Beach, California. The department store was Buffum's, although it was not the only store with the magic window displays.
A Christmas window back then was an extravaganza. There were moving toys everywhere. Maybe Santa could be seen in his workshop with busy elves packing toys while Rudolph and the other reindeer waited to depart. There were toy trains circling around the North Pole. Now some 65 years later, it's hard to remember the details. I had no camera back then. Just picture the decorated house that wins all the community awards for its display, and then imagine it in a store window.
I don't see those kinds of displays today. Maybe I just don't live in a place where stores still go all out in wanting to attract window shoppers with children. Maybe the malls ruined the tradition. Perhaps it's different in other states or other countries.
Do department stores in your community have magical displays in December to attract shoppers? Or just merchandise? Can you remember a really magnificent Christmas window display ? I'll be looking through the other photos on this theme from bloggers around the world.
Meanwhile, maybe this will be the year you bring the magic of a model train into your home to circle the tree. Some of these can actually go around the standing part of your tree, instead of just on the ground. Be sure to get enough track if you have a large tree. Some on-site reviews feature videos.
Part of Sycamore Herb Farm Herb Garden after the fire before it reopened,
Fat Cat Farm used to be Sycamore Herb Farm, owned by Bruce and Sandy Shomler. When I first moved to Templeton, California in 1993, it was one of my first discoveries, only a mile east of my new home. I started my first garden with the herbs I bought from them. I loved the herb farm. There were animals to look at, a lush herb garden that let you know what the herbs you bought might grow into, and a marvelous gift shop full of fresh herbs, herbal gifts, books about herbs, and other wonderful things. There was also an antique car right in the gift shop. It was the kind of place I could easily get lost in. I often would go there on Sunday afternoons just to look around and relax because they had made it a beautiful place.
Then, in 2004, a terrible thing happened. A fire burned down the main building and I'm not sure what else, but Sycamore Farm closed. When it reopened, it had become a tasting room for Lone Madrone Winery, which radically changed the atmosphere of what used to be the old gift shop, but the herb farm also reopened in 2007. I was glad to see it back and continued my herb-buying trips. Then one day when I went in, I found that the herb farm had closed once again. I bought a couple of left-over plants for half price, sorry that they were no longer loved and cared for. In 2009 I returned to Lone Madrome to take pictures of what remained of the old Sycamore Herb Farm. I was delighted when Rhoda Chute revived the herb farm and renamed it Fat Cat Farm in 2010. Unfortunately, it, too, is now gone, but it was a beautiful place that deserves to be remembered as a part of Paso Robles history. We will tour it was it was in 2010.
Isn't this entrance inviting? My real tours of Fat Cat Farm will be in video a bit farther down, but here's an idea of what's ahead. As we enter, we will pass the goats to our right. You will probably hear them before you will see them. Then the restrooms are just a bit farther on. Look ahead and to the left and you will see the herb gardens and a picnic area nestled under the trees. Continue straight ahead past the tasting room and you will find the herb farm. Its long tables were beginning to fill up again with herbs of all kinds.
Fat Cat Farm did not just offer the usual herbs you might find at a regular nursery or large garden center. In those places you normally find the most common varieties of the most common herbs. You are able to come home with a lavender, a sage or two, oregano, curly parsley, flat leaf parsley, dill, basil, chives, thyme, basil, and maybe a couple of others I may have forgotten.
At Fat Cat Farm you could find many varieties of lavender, sage, oregano, mint, thyme, basil, scented geraniums, and maybe some I've forgotten. On this visit I came home with tansy, which I had wanted for years. I got some pink grapefruit yarrow and some bronze fennel. Rhoda Chute, the owner of Fat Cat Farm, also recommended some plants I'd never heard of before to meet some of my needs. These were a silver germander and variegated sweet myrtle. I was also able to get some German chamomile that I needed.
Rhoda herself is a treasure. When I go to places like Home Depot and other garden centers, I'm on my own. They have few people who can make recommendations on what will meet your needs. Rhoda knows her stuff and can answer questions even about what she doesn't have yet. She patiently helped me find what I needed. She was planning big things for the future of Fat Cat Farm. Once all the herb beds were full again, she planned to move on to providing fresh-cut flowers and newly harvested herbs. She also planned to have heirloom cottage flowers and vegetables and plants that are hard to find anywhere else.
Just as Sycamore Herb Farm before it, Fat Cat used organic methods. I knew that the plants I bought would not have seen chemicals or poisons. Since I also avoid those things, I was very pleased to buy anything I could at Fat Cat Farm. I really miss having it a mile east of me.
That's Rhoda you see walking across the screen as we enter Fat Cat Farm. We'll pay a brief visit to the goat and her kid and then look around the herbs near the entrance for a bit. As we approach the Lone Madrone Tasting Room on the way to the Fat Cat Farm, Rhoda walks by again and I threaten to come back and interview her someday soon. We walk past the tasting room and out to the area where the herbs are sold and take a brief look at the butterfly garden behind that area, the growing beds for the herbs, and a new planting area. Another video will take a closer look at the butterfly garden.
A closer look at the Butterfly Garden at Fat Cat Farm, June 15, 2010
This video focuses on just the Butterfly Garden and a more extensive look at the herb store area as they were in 2010.
A Closer Look at Fat Cat Farm's Growing Beds
This very short video records my conversation with Rhoda, the owner, about the plants in this bed and her history with the farm.
Ok. I like to watch animals because I don't have any. This video is just goats talking to each other and me talking to the goats. These are the animals your children might like to watch if you visit. You met them briefly on the way in on the first video.
We all know that an organic farm needs a lot of manure, and it has to come from somewhere. I suspect that the chickens and goats helped provide it. So let's meet the chickens that lived at Fat Cat Farm. Your children might also like to watch them.
It breaks my heart that the gardens are gone. You can click any photo to make it larger for a more detailed view.
Since Fat Cat Farm closed, I now rely on Serena Wyatt at Grown from the Heart to supply me with herb and vegetable seedlings. She is very helpful and I like doing business with her at the Templeton Farmers Market.
Do you remember Sycamore Herb Farm or Fat Cat Farm? Do you miss having a local herb farm as much as I do? Do you have a local herb farm where you live?
