Welcome to my blog, News from Home.  Join me in our Santa Barbara kitchen for favorite recipes and cooking adventures, whether it's drying persimmons in the fall or making rose syrup in spring.   Follow me around the garden for foods  at the peak of ripeness.   My husband Jim and I grow bananas, blood oranges, sapotes, pomegranates - about forty fruit trees in all, plus a changing array of vegetables, herbs and greens.  And join me in the yard and neighborhood for animal visitations, whether it's ducklings in spring, owls hooting at night, or to find out what's scratching at the door of our chicken coop - and so far can't get in (a bobcat)?