Ventura Coast - Saturday 4/4/2009

Just some Gerbera daisies we saw in a gas station we stopped at. Love the colors.


We started out our visit to Ventura with a meal on the pier. Hydra had the mussels. I had a seared ahi sandwich.



Unfortunately, the restaurant's logo is better than its food.


The view from our table was pretty great, though. This is the Ventura Pier.


Hydra gives Flat Brayden his first look at the Pacific Ocean. Later, we helped Flat Brayden pick up a piece of a shell and a small smooth stone for souvenirs.


The water at the end of the pier. Beautiful color, huh!?

There were lots of people fishing. We noticed someone using shrimp as bait, which prompted me to ask Hydra, "What can you fish for that's better than shrimp?"



Looking back at the shore. Honestly, if I could choose any coastal Southern California town to live in, it would be Ventura.


The tracks the water leaves behind.


Yes. This is when my foot got wet. Right before I leapt onto this rock.


These little guys amused us by hopping away while never putting the other foot on the ground. Hee!


Just a cool shop sign in the shopping district of Ventura.



We stopped at a fruit stand on the way back so Flat Brayden could check out the orange groves. He's growing up in a farming community, like I did. Figure he'll be interested to know that California produces something like 75% of all the domestic fruit the U.S. eats.

What Part of New York is This? - Friday 4/3/2009

Why, it's CSI: New York, of course! There were directions cards tacked up at my freeway exit on the way home tonight that led me to this site, where CSI:New York has been/will be filming. I wonder if they'll do some sort of color process on these hills?

There's a lot of filming done out here. CSI classic, Duel (1972), Charlie Wilson's War (2007), Reno 911, Bones, etc., etc. Lots of nice quiet winding roads.



And just wanted to share this lovely moment. The Palmdale High School chorale sang at the Barnes & Noble in support of a local literacy project. A percentage of sales went to the project.

The chorale is award-winning and that wasn't a surprise to hear after a few minutes of listening to them. I love that they wear tuxes and long black dresses, too. The director chose terrific songs and uses complex and moving arrangements, weaving the voices together in a varied selection of hymns, pop tunes, and songs from other cultures.

Nice little surprise for our Friday evening.

Here's an article I found about the dirctor, Mike McCullough.

Newhall Farmer's Market - Thursday 4/2/2009

The last time I stopped by toward the end of last summer, this was a bedraggled little market being held in a parking lot. Now they close off Market Street (aha!) and there were already several vendors this early in the year.



I can't remember what these gorgeous little tomatoes were called--not tomato, not plumb--but they are delicious. They must be lovely in the field.


I've been reading Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, which is an account of her family's efforts to eat only locally grown foods for a full year. This should be easier for me here in California. She keeps bemoaning the produce she can't have because it's shipped in from here!

I can tell, though, that I've pushed beet season to it's limits. The beets were smaller than those I've had in the past couple of months, and the greens were not as tender.


Dodger poses with some "unsprayed" (no pesticides, but they probably aren't certified organic) tomatoes. Specialty fruit for only $1.oo a pound!


What I did on my mini spring break: made a steamed beet green salad with roasted beets, cauliflower and carrots, fresh tomatoes, crumbled bleu cheese and pine nuts.

Mmm mmm mm-mm-mm!


And for dessert: Trader Joe's French Village Creamline Yogurt and fresh Oxnard-grown strawberries.

Life's good in the SoCal.

NaPoWriMo : No Fooling! - Tuesday 4/1/2009

I am pretty sure that I take a photo of the gazanias in the midst of the ice plant every year. Just such a lovely beginning to spring. Both of these plants were in the yard when we bought the house.


The apricot tree was also here. See the little apricots? They're about the size of green olives right now.


Dodger and I went out to the table on the deck to write. We spent a lot of time listening to all the birds visiting in the yard, and even spotted a (fairly unusual) bright orange Oriole in the willow!

I'm participating in NaPoWriMo with some of my online friends. What, you ask?

It's National Poetry Writing Month! If you want to join in and would like some inspiration, go to Read Write Poem, where the bloggers offer daily poetry exercises for the month of April. There's still time to catch up! (Post a poem here, if you like!)

Believe me, writing a poem a day for 30 days is way saner than writing a novel in the same amount of time. For long-form writers like me, it's a nice way to focus on brevity and have a little fun. No pressure for me to write good ones, either. I'm not a poet.

I'm not going to put up all my poems, but since you're here, here's the first one.

April 1:

Bird Song

Within the unbudded honeysuckle,
sparrow peeps pleas to his best girl.
Finch thrums passion
beak to beak in the apricot tree.
Fragrant rosemary dark
harbors dove’s croon and coddle.
Oriole dances saucily on the willow branch
tail left, tail right, step step.
Quail whistles wittily from the juniper.
Raven glides close upon his love’s glossy crown,
folds wing over wing as they rise over the greening hill.
Me? I hum Beatles tunes
beneath your berry pie kitchen window.

Sunny Day - Tuesday 3/31/2009

Haulin' your blues away. (sing it!)

Hey, everything looks blissful as reflected in the back of this massive tanker truck, doesn't it?

Sharp (Cheddar) Contrast - Sunday 3/29/2009

Maybe the reason the recipe for potatoes au gratin said to cover the dish in aluminum foil was not so much that they didn't expect me to be outfitted with my fab vintage Pyrex, complete with lid. Maybe it was to save me this boiled over and burnt mess.

Actually, the potatoes inside were pretty good. It was a very very simple recipe that I found online. Maybe too simple. Or maybe the Irish Blarney cheddar wasn't quite the thing.

I will say, though, that these tasted terrific with poached eggs a couple of days later. And the Pyrex cleaned up pretty easily after soaking in Dawn and scrubbing a bit with one of those green Scotch scrubbers.

Does anyone have a good recipe for potatoes au gratin they'd like to share?

I'll make it, and then I'll make it famous!

Afternoon in the Arroyo Seco - Wednesday 3/25/2009

We'll get there. But first, have a look at these bronze baby shoes that Braveheart gave Tomasina this afternoon.

Braveheart's getting rid of a lot of the lovely things that have been a part of her home, because she's planning to move with The Doc to New York City in a few months. We're having a special writing group meeting tonight complete with a walk, hamburgers, fries, and mango mousse cakes from Porto's in celebration of Braveheart finishing up her coursework on the path to becoming a therapist.

She's going to be great at it.

But we're going to miss her terribly.

I think she should seriously weigh the psychic damage she's going to do to Tomasina and I against the helping a load of stressed out New Yorkers.


We started our walk at a different place from the last time I came here with Tomasina. Isn't this a cool table? It has a chess board inlayed on the top.

There was a fierce woman nearby practicing archery. I would have taken her picture but, as I say...she was fierce.

Big trail, little dog.

Once again, Bisquit sets a example. She's losing her sight, but she trots right along.




Braveheart and Tomasina wait for me while I snap some photos of this Ireland-worthy wall. There are no better friends than those who will say, as Tomasina did tonight, "Don't forget your camera!" when you're headed out for a hike.

Except maybe those who say, "Don't forget your notebook."


This is the portion of the Arroyo Seco where Tory the rescued chocolate lab was frolicking a few minutes ago. He doesn't like cameras, though, so he skedaddled out of the shot.


Tomasina points out the place where she saw the aftermath of a successful suicide a few weeks ago. She speculates that they can get around the barriers by climbing around the lamp post. Very sobering.



On the way back, Bisquit at lasts condescends to allow Braveheart to carry her for a while.

Just to make Braveheart feel useful, mind you.


If you invite me to your house enough times, I will eventually feel comfortable enough to start taking pictures. I love the things people treasure or find interesting.

The champagne top is from the bottle I just opened on the deck, because I'd left it in the fridge and there was some concern about a possible explosion. I must tell you, that I eased the cork out with utmost calm. All that spilled over the lip was a faint trail of champagne-scented mist.

If there's one thing Sundry is good at, it's opening champagne.

But that's another story.

Scouting Pin - Monday 3/23/2009

OneL has this pin from her scouting days. She's not sure if it was Brownies or Jr. Girl Scouts, but she's wondering if anyone knows what it was for.

It was probably a monumental achievement, and who doesn't need to be reminded of past successes every now and again?

I took this photo to help her identify it. Anyone have a clue?

An answer came in via e-mail from Hydra's cousin, Paradise (aka Cuz-S) : it's a Brownie Friendship Pin! It was in use from 1956-1976, so it's officially vintage.

Flat Brayden Learns Some Chords - Sunday 3/22/2009

Hydra took some time over the weekend and showed Flat Brayden a few chords. He practiced quite a bit and seems to have a knack for music.

Here he is on our last day of camping, playing When the Saints Go Marching In for the camp manager, who is very cool.

Eh? - Saturday 3/21/2009

Yeah, yeah. It's a beautiful day in Heritage Valley, but I didn't take any pictures of the oranges and orange blossoms on the trees, or the mountains wreathed in clouds.

I took a photo of this bizarre egg salad sandwich Hydra bought at Starbucks. There was a whole danged egg in the middle of it.

Yeah, I don't have any illusions that those sandwiches at the 'Bucks are made with a lot of care, but you'd think someone would have noticed a whole egg getting into a sandwich unchopped.

Starbucks is in trouble, and it's not just because they've saturated the market.

Guitars. No Cadillacs - Friday 3/20/2009

Now really. Is there a better way to spend the day than in the company of musicians?

We went in to Fillmore in the early morning for our Starbucks fix and to sit and read the Ventura County Star. The Voice came in for his daily brew and we sat and talked for quite a while.

We met up again back at the campground. Click below for a sample of The Voice's voice. Wish I'd thought to hit the video sooner!

We are so lucky to have found Songmakers. It's an amazing group of people.

Shrouded Oranges - Thursday 3/19/2009

Not sure why these particular orange trees were covered, while both younger trees and trees with blossoms on them were not covered. Thought at first it had to do with a frost threat.

It just struck me that it might have something to do with pollination, and keeping random bees from visiting.

Near Fillmore, CA, where we went to camp for the weekend. Beautiful!

Wearin' o' the Green - Monday 3/16/2009

Okay, so it's a day early, but it's greener than I've seen it in north eastern Los Angeles County since we moved here.

This is along the Southbound 14, heading home from my yoga class. Aaah.

Estate Sale - Sunday 3/15/2009

Gorgeous morning over Acton Valley. It was calm, cool and damp out. Lovely.



We went to an estate sale nearby. We thought we might want a couple of things but needed to measure the space in the house. One of the three sons helping to clear out the house wrote the important dimensions on masking tape and I stuck them on my arm.

I am always fascinated by estate sales. Going into people's houses. Seeing the view from their house, which was pretty great from the other side of the 14 and around a hill from that freeway.

"We're getting rid of some of Gammy and Gampa's stuff because they don't need all of it anymore," I heard one of the sons say to his energetic 3-year-old son.

Often estate sales happen when someone dies, but I don't think this was the case. The pall of grief wasn't hanging over the sellers. And when I was looking at the remaining appliances and dinner ware laid out on the kitchen counter, I saw a print out about selling short.

Sad enough. These houses are not more than 5 or 6 years old. I'll bet the couple's investments went south. Let's give those AIG execs their bonuses for doing this to people, shall we? I can't even express how angry this makes me if I let myself think about it.

We bought a leather recliner. When two of the grown "boys" picked it up, one said, "Okay, I just got bummed."

They told us this was the chair that the dad always sat in to read, but not in a "he's in a better place" kind of way.

I assured them that it's going to sit in a corner of our bedroom with windows on both sides, and that it will be used for reading again. I think they were kind of glad that it went to people who aren't going to stick it on their porch till it rots or something.

The little one shouted "good-bye! good-bye" as we pulled out of the driveway, and the whole family was waving at us. We hurried to roll down our windows and wave back.

I took a reading break this afternoon and sat in that chair with the windows open on both sides of me. Dodger was on my knee, loving looking out over my shoulders.

It was a very good buy.

Poppies Popping - Saturday 3/14/2009

The poppies are starting up a little early this year, thanks to all the rain. Most of them are up on inaccessible hills in our area.


According to the Antelope Valley California Poppy Preserve's website, the poppies aren't in full bloom yet.

We have a few in our yard. Most of the flowers on the hills near us are smaller yellow and purple flowers.

These were taken on Soledad Canyon Road.

Spinning Out of Control - Friday 3/13/2009

I keep track of my workouts in my calendar and online. This week was going well till Friday.

Mon : 20 min + 15 min brisk walk

Tue : 35 min cardio/elliptical

Wed : 60 min spinning class + 15 min warm-up + 80 crunches - This spinning class was great! The instructor was fun. She mixed up a lot of basic moves into sprints and rests of different lengths. At the end she let us do whatever we wanted for a couple of minutes and I really pounded it. It was amazing and I hit the zone and felt great for 24 hours.

Thu : worked late to help a coworker and didn’t make it to a class I was hoping to take

Fri : 65 min spinning class + 15 min warm up + 80 crunches
—This class was off from the beginning. Didn’t like the instructor at all. She sauntered in late, adjusted my bike to a position that gave me a couple of pinched nerves in my back (I’m realizing by Sunday morning), and basically let us follow along to her personal workout. She had zero body fat, and didn’t do what most instructors do,which is remind you to work at your 6 or 8 or whatever you’re going for.

She’d just have us go full tilt for the length of a whole song. BORING, plus anaerobic and not good for those of us who are carrying some extra weight.

One young woman who was new was probably 50 pounds over weight. The instructor cranked my bike’s resistance up and I saw her do the same to the other woman. Dangerous.

She does not know who I am. Doesn’t know what issues I might have. I left feeling sick and was still blotchy in the face an hour later. I should probably complain to the gym. She’s teaching at least 2 classes a week and she’s lazy about the teaching part. (rant rant)

Lesson learned: I know my limits and I know when I am really working hard, and no one cranks my bike up but me.

Show Me the Tater! - Thursday 3/12/2009

There has been a lot of chatter on Facebook today about the impending arrival of a batch of corned beef and cabbage. The raw materials arrived today, but it takes a long time to cook this dish, so we were thwarted in our attempts to have it for dinner.

(It has been started, as you can see, in the big yellow stock pot in the background.)


Dodger's determined to get to the bottom of this.

Where is the potato he has been promised? Huh?

If you'd like to be Dodger's friend, he's on Facebook as Artful Dodger. Is it wise to name your pets after scruffy, pick-pocketing street urchins?

CSI: Toluca Lake - Wednesday 3/11/2009

What the heck happened to OneL's mini-fridge overnight!?

Let's consider the evidence, shall we?



Indentation of some sort in the frost-laded freezer compartment. It's about six inches long, and rounded as if a cylinder was resting there. What could make that distinctive mark?

Cat?

No. Not enough toes.

Gun?

No. Too narrow.

Thermonuclear device?

I don't think so, but the idea will haunt me throughout the investigation.



Further inspection draws my eye to the brown liquid in the bottom of the refrigerator compartment and on top of the filing cabinet upon which it rests. Same liquid is splashed on the interior door.

Dried blood?

A fingerful rules this out. Blood's salty. This is sweet.

I snort some. No effect beyond a sticky burning sensation.

Will need to resort to brute intelligence to determine the type of substance. No time to wait for lab results. A life could be at stake.

What's that? A cylinder rests strangely akimbo in the door! Could it be connected with the indentation in the frost?!?

Cue process music! Darken the lights! Take a swab! Measure it. Measure it twice! Scrunch up forehead. Purse lips.

!?!!?!?!?!?!?!

I think I have the answer!


This Diet Coke, bottled in only a few dozen plants in North America, apparently exploded when the liquid inside froze. Took the whole bottom of the can out and blew open the refrigerator door.

Luckily this happened after work hours, so no one was hurt.

Or were they?

It's 7:00 a.m. No one else is here yet. Was anyone injured? Or worse yet...killed!?!?!?!?!

Will make it my mission to grill everyone regarding her possible involvement upon her arrival.

Making coffee.

Setting up interrogation lamp and unpacking Girl Scout Cookies, which will function as a much better incentive than a carrot with this crowd.

I am on it folks.

Flat Brayden Has Landed! - Tuesday 3/10/2009

My cousin's son is participating in a Flat Stanley project in his second grade class, and they asked me to host his flat self!

If you're unfamiliar with the Flat Stanley concept, you can click on the link above or trust my explanation in a nutshell. It's based on a 1964 children's book by the same name, in which a child is flattened but not hurt, and decides to mail himself to a place he would like to visit but can't otherwise.

I am absolutely thrilled to host Flat Brayden! He arrived today and we set him up in the guest room. Even though it was a long trip, he was too excited to take a nap, but he was very nice about lying down for a bit and having a little apple juice.

We get to have him for a couple of weeks, so I'm looking forward to taking him camping, and to the rocks, and the mountains, and maybe Hydra will teach him a few chords on the guitar.

Hydra and I had our first argument about Flat Brayden. Hydra said it would be okay to give him a Coke, but I thought apple juice was more appropriate for a second grader. I mean, caffeine on a school night?

You have to set some limits. And who's going to stay up all night with him all hyped up? Huh?

This raising kids thing is as hard as everyone says it is!

Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood - Monday 3/9/2009

They've restored the sign at Papoo's Hot Dog Show. Yay!

It's a gorgeous day. Sunny and cool. Perfect for walking during breaks.



Down the street at Trader Joe's it looks like a European market. Wow.



Later, at Braveheart's, I attempt to capture the drool of ecstasy on Jimmy's face. Didn't really capture it, darn it.


Settling in for the night in the guest bed. Braveheart has a keen sense of style and decor, but I wouldn't advise letting your kid spend the night in here.


Seriously.