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This Is Fine 🫠☕️🔥 @thiswasfine.bsky.social · 25/10/2025

Another garden update: The oranges are coming in just fine. This is about half of the size they will be in December.

This Is Fine 🫠☕️🔥 @thiswasfine.bsky.social · 25/10/2025

Brief garden update: Passionfruits are on the vine. I am hoping they can ripen before our first frost. We get a much later frost here compared to much of the US.

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This Is Fine 🫠☕️🔥 @thiswasfine.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

Yeah. Well. Ice cream is life. I guess? I made a mess of the counter but it’s all cleaned up now. Well worth the effort.

Organic blueberry ice cream made with cream, whole milk, raw cane sugar, and vanilla extract. Yum!

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This Is Fine 🫠☕️🔥 @thiswasfine.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

Okay. Confession time. I have made more ice cream, and summer is over. Coulda fooled me, the temperature here tomorrow is gonna be 30 C/86 F. But I guess that is how things roll in California. This batch is more of an organic blueberry cream. I halved the blueberries from 4 c to 2 in the recipe.

Organic blueberry cream ice cream. I halved the 4 cups of blueberries in the recipe to 2 cups, so it has a milder blueberry flavour.

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This Is Fine 🫠☕️🔥 @thiswasfine.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

I confess, I am back on the honemade ice cream kick. Made vanilla ice cream this morning, it’s in the freezer now to harden more. I think part of the motivation is it’s going to be 40 C today or 103 F…

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This Is Fine 🫠☕️🔥 @thiswasfine.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

Entrance to the Zion NP River Walk trail, near the shuttle stop.

Beginning of Zion Canyon River Walk trail.

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This Is Fine 🫠☕️🔥 @thiswasfine.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

Entering Zion National Park, Utah. This is the main road with shuttle bus (lower left) that takes you on Zion Canyon Scenic drive from the visitor centre to the renowned River Walk.

Zion Canyon Scenic Drive, Zion NP, Utah. Shuttle bus approaches beneath looming orange canyon walls and tall tree canopy.

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This Is Fine 🫠☕️🔥 @thiswasfine.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

Yes. I have been quiet, between travel out if state and medical issues, including a scheduled colonoscopy yesterday. Still feel tired and hung over from all the drugs the clinic pumped into me yesterday. Am curating photos from my trip to 2 national parks to share. Sneak peek below:

River walk trail at Zion National Park, Utah.

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This Is Fine 🫠☕️🔥 @thiswasfine.bsky.social · 05/07/2025

I scream, you scream,, we all scream for ice cream. And scream about other things…

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This Is Fine 🫠☕️🔥 @thiswasfine.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

Soft serve is ready. But it is a bit too soft, so I am smoothing it out and putting it in the freezer now.

Soft serve blueberry ice cream. Smoothing it out and putting it in the freezer for later. It is a bit too soft for my liking.

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This Is Fine 🫠☕️🔥 @thiswasfine.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

Yes. Back at it again. I rather have the big beautiful blueberry ice cream.

Mixing organic blueberries, raw sugar, granulated sugar, vanilla extract, whipping cream, A2 whole milk, and a pinch of sea salt for ice cream base.

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This Is Fine 🫠☕️🔥 @thiswasfine.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

Whelp. At it again. Making vanilla ice cream right now. I promised myself I would eat less of it over time, but I am not quitting! 🙂

Ice cream churning homemade vanilla ice cream (Philly style; no eggs).

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This Is Fine 🫠☕️🔥 @thiswasfine.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

Today I made a second batch of helado de queso fresco… This time, I pulsed the cheese in the blender, added it to more sugar than I used last time, & added whipping cream to whole milk. So in this batch, there is added cream, somewhat more sugar, somewhat more vanilla, and finer ground cheese.

Putting queso fresco in Ninja blender to pulse to finer particles of cheese.

Mixing queso fresco in with raw sugar, granulated sugar, and vanilla extract.

Adding whole milk and whipping cream to queso fresco, raw sugar, granulated sugar, and vanilla extract.

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This Is Fine 🫠☕️🔥 @thiswasfine.bsky.social · 15/06/2025

Okay! Ready to go in the freezer. In two hours, the soft serve will be less runny. In four hours, it’ll be hard serve ice cream. Right now my kitchen is a mess, but this is bliss!

Soft serve blueberry ice cream, ready to go in the freezer.

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This Is Fine 🫠☕️🔥 @thiswasfine.bsky.social · 15/06/2025

Soft serve stage at this point in the churning…

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This Is Fine 🫠☕️🔥 @thiswasfine.bsky.social · 15/06/2025

And so it begins… MOAR BLUEBERRY ICE CREAM!

Blueberry ice cream base with pureed organic blueberries, raw sugar, granulated sugar, grass fed A2 milk, whipping cream, and sea salt.

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This Is Fine 🫠☕️🔥 @thiswasfine.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

I honestly gotta say, the helado de queso fresco is better the second day. Very nice tangy and sweet taste. I have to work on creamy texture, though. Next batch, I think I will use the Ninja blender to break down the cheese, use less cheese, add more vanilla, and add more cream and milk.

Bowl of helado de queso fresco on the deck.

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This Is Fine 🫠☕️🔥 @thiswasfine.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

Verdict on the helado de queso fresco: It is good, but not as good as the cheese ice cream at O’Brien’s. It is also physically more effort to make than it was worth… The cheese is hard to break down into smaller pieces & it never gets smooth. So far, the blueberry ice cream turned out the best.

The end of a helado de queso fresco taste test session, one more bite left.

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This Is Fine 🫠☕️🔥 @thiswasfine.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

I confess my aching hands couldn’t deal. I crumbled the cheese with my fingers and used a blender as I added in milk. The cheese ice cream I’ve had at O Brien’s (formerly Guanato’s) has chunks of tangy mildly salty cheese in sweet creamy ice cream and it works.

Mixing helqdo de queso fresco in a bowl with a hand mixer. Just whole milk, crumbled queso fresco, vaniila extract, and sugar. (Raw cane sugar was used instead of granulated white.)

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This Is Fine 🫠☕️🔥 @thiswasfine.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

The ice cream adventure continues today. I followed a recipe I slightly modified for helado de queso fresco. I am not sure I selected the correct queso fresco for this task; it is hard and crumbly and cannot be ‘folded into’ the sugar and vanilla extract as described in instructions…

El Mexicano Queso Fresco Casero Crumbling Cheese

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This Is Fine 🫠☕️🔥 @thiswasfine.bsky.social · 07/06/2025

It’s a very messy process. But it yields tasty results. Note that 2 mangoes results in a pale yellow colour. Almost lemon cream. But it tastes mildly of mango. It is soft serve now, but will harden after hours in the freezer.

Scooping mango ice cream out of the churning barrel!

Homemade soft serve mango ice cream, ready for the freezer.

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This Is Fine 🫠☕️🔥 @thiswasfine.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

The mango ice cream is chuuuurrrnnning. And nearly ready for the freezer!

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This Is Fine 🫠☕️🔥 @thiswasfine.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

Was going to get oral surgery, but they took my blood pressure multiple times & it was too high. I white coat, but this was ridiculous. 🙁 I have to reschedule or reevaluate if I ought to do a less invasive procedure. In meantime, I have lots of homemade organic blueberry ice cream I made!

Homemade organic blueberry ice cream in a rectangular glass container next to a bowl of scooped ice cream. Contains organic blueberries, grass fed cream, A2 whole milk, raw sugar and granulated white (2:1), and pinch of sea salt. Very tasty! 🤤

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This Is Fine 🫠☕️🔥 @thiswasfine.bsky.social · 24/05/2025

Ooh! First passionfruit flower of the season! 🥰

First passionfruit flower of the season on my vine!

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This Is Fine 🫠☕️🔥 @thiswasfine.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

Life goes on while the world goes crazy… Recently I had the good fortune of going to the zoo and seeing our new giraffe, Sumi. She was born early March and is mingling with the rest of the journey. 😊

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This Is Fine 🫠☕️🔥 @thiswasfine.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

My artichoke is doing very well and ready to start harvesting.

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This Is Fine 🫠☕️🔥 @thiswasfine.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

Wow! Artichoke is really getting big. Ready to harvest soon!

Tall globe artichoke is close to harvest!

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This Is Fine 🫠☕️🔥 @thiswasfine.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

The marine period of Anza-Borrego State Park unfolded between 23 and 5 million years ago, spanning the Miocene & Pliocene epochs. During this time, the region hosted the Gulf of California, an inland sea teeming with diverse marine life, including whales, dolphins, sharks, and giant sea turtles.

Mountains in Anza Borrego Desert State Park, with a huge red boulder nearly 3 meters across in the foreground.

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This Is Fine 🫠☕️🔥 @thiswasfine.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

Palos verde tree, with its entirely green trunk, branches, and leaves behind a pale yellow and brown cholla cactus. It looks soft and cuddly, but it is not. Do not hug the cholla. It is sharp and painful.

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This Is Fine 🫠☕️🔥 @thiswasfine.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

Ocotillo beginning to bloom outside Anza Borrego Desert State Park Visitor Center.

Ocotillo in bloom. A cactus with many long narrow arms stretches up from the desert floor, covered in small short needles and newly forming partially blooming clusters of reddish-pink flowers.

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This Is Fine 🫠☕️🔥 @thiswasfine.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

One thing I like about this landscape are the cactus and soon-to-bloom wildflowers. The bloom doesn’t begin until late February, though. I have only seen a few plants and ocotillo in bloom this month. (Ocotillo in photo)

Ocotillo beginning to bloom near Anza Borrego Desert State Park Visitor Center.

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This Is Fine 🫠☕️🔥 @thiswasfine.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

View of mountains, cholla cactus and desert bushes in foreground. Anza Borrego State Park, California.

View of mountains, cholla cactus and desert bushes in foreground. The mountains are dry and rocky,, with dry brush and low lying cactus such as beavertails and cholla. You may see ocotillo in the distance. Anza Borrego State Park, California.

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This Is Fine 🫠☕️🔥 @thiswasfine.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

Early blooming chuparosa bush. Anza Borrego State Park, California.

Red clusters of tubular flowers bloom on a half dormant bush in front of large granite and quartz boulders in Anza Borrego State Park.

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This Is Fine 🫠☕️🔥 @thiswasfine.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

Anza Borrego State Park, Surprise Little Canyon - California

View of end of Surprise Little Canyon trail, with rocky mountains in the distance, canyon walls in midground, and desert plants in foreground including a large tall ocotillo cactus with spiny tentacles reaching over 2 m into the sky.

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