Before Dawn - Friday 3/23/2007

Three people had the day off on Friday, and I thought it was going to be a rough day because of that. I went to Western Bagel and Von's to get bagels, cream cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers and onions to share.

This is the window of Dana Drugs, near the Von's grocery. The lights were just kind of impressive there in the dark, and I was surprised at how the lettering on the mailboxes caught the fill light!

Start of the Fire - Thursday 3/22/2007

This is where the van that started the fire went off the freeway just before the exit sign to Santiago Road. This is the far side of Hydra's mountain from our house.

You're Going to Have to Bear With Me - Wednesday 3/21/2007

Well. Or actually you can choose not to bear with me. Between working way too hard, trying to book rooms in France, and problems with Blogger, I haven't been posting as frequently as I mean to.

And when I do, I'm likely to show you stuff like this because, frankly, I'm still a bit obsessed with the recent fire. The sky was so gorgeous Wednesday afternoon that it called me out for a hike. You can see our brick step at the bottom of this shot.


Meanwhile, elsewhere in the yard, spring is right on schedule. Oh, the salad dressings and beverages I'll make with this mint later.

I adore fresh mint. Where I grew up, it was a major crop a generation earlier. Mint and onions. It grew wild in the ditches and hedgerows when I was a kid. When my dad was a pre-teen he and friends would be hired to "stomp mint." Kind of like stomping grapes, but the mint had been boiled and they were pressing the liquour out of it.

Evidence of Speed - Wednesday 3/21/2007

See the unburned patch between the junipers? That's how fast the fire was moving, I guess. I walked up onto the hillside a little yer

Foggy Morning - Tuesday 3/20/2007

You have to forgive a lot in the city sometimes. Taken from the street in front of my office building. That hill's in Griffith Park.

It's a wonderful resource. We lived on the other side of GP when we first moved here, and we used it a lot for hiking and to go to the beautiful observatory. Free entertainment! (At that time, anyway.)

I wonder how many hamsters are buried up there behind Forest Lawn. Three of ours are...Bobby, Meli and Bentley.

Dog Butter - Monday 3/192007

Yes, it's late and I'm reduced to photographing my butter dish.

Kenney Grove - Sunday 3/18/2007

L and I agreed to meet in the morning to talk a power walk. We walked around a big country block for about an hour and ten minutes. Had a nice talk, too. She's one of the Lollipops!

I noticed a few things and took off with my camera to walk around the campground and back down the road a bit.
Interesting take on the estate entrance.


This isn't our rig, but this gives an idea of what it's like to camp in this quiet campground.



It was a bit hard to leave on Sunday afternoon. We'd expected to be there three nights, and we weren't quite done. We'll miss the next campout because I'll be returning from France that weekend. But we'll be back in July. I can barely wait.

What Does This Building Do? - Saturday 3/17/2007

No, really. I'm curious.

I'm guessing it has something to do with fruit, since Fillmore, CA is such a big citrus growing town. This building is near a railroad track.

We went into town for lunch and dinner. I did, however, make a pretty fabulous egg dish for breakfast, with shrimp, artichoke hearts, leeks, tomatoes and garlic. We have a breakfast tradition with a couple of friends at these campouts.

I stayed up late singing around a campfire. Three other women and I got into a groove and were singing backup harmonies for one of the guys who does a lot of fifties songs. Dean and the Lollipops was born around 9pm on this date.

Who's Parked in My Spot? - Friday 3/16/2007

That seems to be the question on this little brown bird's mind. Shortly after we finished setting up at the campground, I put Dodger's travel cage on the table in the dinette and this little guy stopped by to check him out!



It was great to get away from the smokey smell around the house and to see all our acoustic music playing friends for our first group campout of the year.

Baby Don't Mind - Thursday 3/15/2007

Another shot from my day of evacuation. That's running from my house in front of the flames, not a medical description.


This baby's mama got her out of harm's way, on the grass down by Santiago Road. She is about to have an in-depth encounter with her toes.



As Hydra and I walked back down to the road where we parked our vehicles after seeing that the house was okay, I had to think... if things had gone differently, our Tahoe and Echo might have held just about everything we own.

Whew!

Oh, on a kind of cool note, I wrote a letter to the editor of our local newspaper The Country Journal to thank the firefighters , homeowners' association and neighbors, and they published three of my photos, too!