Between Hikes - Saturday 2/28/2009

Part of what I do in my job as a script researcher is come up with fake business names for shows to use so they don't accidentally identify an actual business and depict, say, someone getting killed there. We check everything, no matter how ridiculous it sounds.

Believe me, if one of my clients had sent me "Between a Rock and a Leather Place" I would have laughed and figured it would clear.

This is exactly why we check everything, even if we're laughing.



I wouldn't mind having this flour sifter in my kitchen. But for like $3.00, not $15.00. I don't buy a lot at antique shops, as much as I like to cruise them when I'm in the mood.

Really, I want to be the person who buys it at the yard sale before it gets marked up.



Okay, you tell me.

Does this clock just scream, "I love you, Daddy, even though you blew the milk money playing craps?"

More of Braveheart's Stuff - Wednesday 5/14/2008

The Doc's dog, Lulu, is all worn out after a flea treatment. Even royalty tires of its luxuries sometimes.



In my defense, this glass is commenting on whiskey. I drank wine from it, so that's a modest serving.

So glad Braveheart doesn't mind my taking photos of the cool stuff in her house. I love her aesthetic.





Light falling across the vintage tablecloth on the kitchen table.



It's Jimmy's world, the rest of us just live in it.



Later in the evening, Braveheart hosted a very interesting and well-attended event at A Different Light Bookstore. The discussion, based on readings from Leash by Jane DeLynn, Zami: A New Spelling of My Name by Audre Lorde, and Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson, was really successful. People were standing around talking after we packed up the wine and cheese and went next door to a little bar to celebrate.

Great evening. Braveheart's friends are as cool as her decor.

Zen and the Art of Trailer Maintenance - Saturday 3/29/2008

We needed to hook up the trailer this morning and haul it down to Camping World (O Mecca of trailer supplies) in Valencia to have it measured for a slide cover. This will keep leaves and seeds and water from getting on the slide, which is pulled into the trailer when we close up at the end of a trip.

Much better than Hydra risking his life on a ladder with a broom every time.

Reviewing the shots I got, I have to conclude that it was a serendipitous journey.

That bank of clouds is the famous L.A. marine layer lingering in the San Fernando Valley, as seen from Sierra Highway. (Later, we'll call that June gloom.) On many mornings I drive into this before daylight and it can be pretty dense.

Don't worry, we're not going there. We're staying in the sun.



The nice attendant fills up our propane tanks. We used quite a bit of heat on the March trip, when it got down to around 36 degrees at night.



Hydra says this is a '55 Chevy. It was parked at Camping World.

If you know how I grew up, you will know that him knowing things like this warms my heart. Very car-oriented family.




A water tower that Hydra pointed out to me. He's right, I love these things. I'm not sure whether it's a new one or the old one repainted. (I have a shot of the possibly old one somewhere around here.)



I'm really amazed at this shot, also taken from a moving vehicle like the water tower photo. Wow, my little point and shoot Canon A560 really steps up to the plate when you ask it to.

I think this is an old windmill water well building.

Antique Asylum - Friday 2/22/2008

Yeah, I already posted photos for today, but I really like this one. Another part of my Day of Freedom was spent poking around the Antique Asylum in Palmdale.

When this lovely woman sat for this photograph, I'll bet she never expected it to end up being sold for the frame for $5.00 half a century later.



I'd like to caption this one "Molly already had seven little darlings when the twins arrived."

I cannot imagine what her days must have been like.



These two scrapbooks caught my eye. Hydra remembers watching The Ding Dong School as a kid. (Click on that link for another link to a streaming video of the show! She reminds me of my kindergarten teacher, except that Mrs. E didn't smile that much.)

The show was aimed at pre-schoolers, but the owner of these scrapbooks seems to have been a bit older because of the articles cut and pasted from Lexington, MO and Kansas City, MO newspapers. One is dated 1959, the other 1960-64.

I gathered from flipping through the pages that the collector may have been a young African American girl. She was interested in a wide variety of topics, including the space program, Alaska's statehood and Cuba. Interspersed between these big stories were inside-pages coverage of notable women and African Americans, and bits about interracial marriage from clergy points of view to notes about famous interracial marriages (Eartha Kitt's caught my eye because I do love her voice.)

There were no prices on these scrapbooks, and I probably shouldn't be thinking about bringing other people's mementos into my house anyway. But after spending some time with this anonymous collector, I really liked her.

I wish she had written comments in the margins. I'll bet she would have kept a knockout blog.

Blum Ranch Redux - Saturday 2/2/2008

Blum Ranch is a working orchard. Cuz-M and Cuz-P came up for the day and we went over and got them another quarter cord of peach limb firewood. (We bought 1/4 of that this time.)


Inside the barn, they sell fruit (peaches, pears, apples) here in their seasons, and bags of nuts and jars of home made peach preserves at this time of year.


We stood and talked with Elizabeth and Ray for a while, mostly about the fires of '04, which came very close to them. This machine made concrete water pipes that are a part of their irrigation system.