Blue Sky

I don't think I have ever been so happy to see blue sky as I was today, but today was the first time in a week that we have seen it. We have been under grey/brown clouds all week because of the over 1,000 fires burning in California. The air has been thick with the smell of smoke and the quality has not been good all week. Today has been a little better. Mother Nature is such a wonder though because in the midst of such infernal devastation and terrible air quality, we have had some of the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets that I have ever seen. The sun has been a firey orb all week and because of the smoke laden skies there has been an eerie glow at sunrise and sunset. This is a picture I took at sunset.

My little camera couldn't capture the firey red of the sun exactly, but The Sacramento Bee had some spectacular pictures. The one below was taken by Bee photographer Paul Kitagaki, Jr.

Summer Breeze....Makes Me Feel Fine...

Okay, well I'm not feeling fine, but singing this song makes me feel a little better. It is warm and oh, so smokey here in the Sacramento Valley. With all the fires raging in Northern California, the air is hazy, smokey and smells like 1,000 wood burning fireplaces are burning at once. It is a good day to stay inside in the valley.


I haven't felt like cooking much lately because we have had 100 degree temperatures, but today it is a balmy 92. So, it seemed a perfect day to have a salad for dinner. One of our favorite summer salads is Nopales (Cactus) Salad that John's grandmother used to make all the time. You can make it with fresh cactus or jarred cactus. Either way is tasty, one just takes longer to fix than the other. John bought some fresh cactus at the grocery store a few days ago, so we used the fresh, but I'll give you the recipe for the cactus in a jar.

1 jar of Nopales (Embasa is our favorite)
1/2 round of queso fresco
A bunch of cilantro
3-4 Roma tomatoes
1 large onion
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Rinse the nopales well and drain. They will feel slimy when you pour them from the jar, but just rinse really well. Put in a large bowl. Slice the tomatoes and add to the bowl, along with chopped cilantro, and sliced onion. Crumble the queso fresco and add to the bowl. Pour in some olive oil. You can eyeball it - I usually do a few turns around the bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix well. That's it!

When you want to fix something a little different, yet very refreshing - this is the salad for you. It is rich in vitamins, especially the cactus is rich in Vitamin A. Serve it as a side with tacos, or as a meal with some french bread or tortillias. I hope you try this sometime and enjoy!

Tomatoes!

I have little Roma tomatoes growing! I can't wait until they grow larger and ripen, so I can make a salsa with them. Romas are my favorite tomato to use for salsa. I also planted an heirloom, Mr. Stripey, at the same time, but no tomato sighting yet - just lots of flowers. It is always so exciting to get the first fruit of the season!

Happy Father's Day!

to two special men in my life who are both wonderful fathers.

My Dad (Daddy - yes, I still call him that!), and my husband.

A Day in Cambria

I apologize for not getting this post done earlier, but I take so many photos when we go on a trip that it takes me awhile to sort through them. Plus, it's been kind of busy around here the last couple of weeks.

Where did I leave off? Oh yeah, a beautiful sunset on the beach. The next morning we woke up early and had a great breakfast at the same restaurant we ate at the night before. I usually only eat breakfast when we are traveling for some odd reason. Then, we headed across the street to climb on the rocks and watch the waves.

See the little starfish in the middle of the rock?!! Awesome!

Another favorite pastime of ours when we go to the beach and is climbing rocks. It is one of the things I enjoy about the Pacific Coast.

There were starfish on almost every rock. This was a perfect spot!

It's so much fun to explore the rocks and you can't see the tide pools unless you climb the rocks. You never know what you are going to find when you peer into a tide pool.

Even more starfish...

There were a lot of sea anemones.

And a lot of crabs. But, this beady-eyed crab caught my fancy...

A mussel shell on the rock. I told you I take pictures of anything and everything...Bear with me.

Not sure what kind of beach flowers these are, but I thought they were pretty.

These two seagulls were just hanging out...

My very own meerkats. Okay, I know they aren't meerkats, but I love that show on the Discovery Channel and these little guys reminded me of them - especially the one standing up. I had a packet of oyster crackers in my pocket leftover from dinner the night before that I was saving for just this type of emergency. I know, I know, you shouldn't feed the wildlife, but how could I not?! They were scurrying around our feet and chattering. I had to do something!

We were starting to get a little hungry, so we stopped at El Chorlito's which is a Mexican restaurant that some of the locals told us had really good seafood. John had the fried talapia. Now, I had a taste and it was delicious, but I cannot bring myself to eat an unskinned whole fish like this. I had a shrimp taco instead. Everything was savorosa!

After lunch we headed into the town of Cambria. It's a great little village with tons of shops. I always have to stop in at Moonstones and pick up a prism for my project room window.

The gardens were beautiful in each cottage, store, or restaurant.

The following pictures are from a garden at a shop called, 'Heart's Ease.' The store had every kind of dried herb imaginable in jars and jars and in the garden out back there were wildflowers and herbs and beautiful flowers everywhere.

I bought an Italian terra cotta flower pot and a cute birdhouse ornament made out of a walnut. It was a very fun weekend, but it was getting late and we had to head back to Sacramento.

Until next time.

A Weekend at the Coast

Last weekend, after the wedding in Bakersfield, we went over to the coast to San Luis Obispo. It is about a 2 and a half hour drive from Bakersfield.

This is a picture of migrant farm workers working in a field outside of Wasco, Ca. In the background are thousands of roses being grown for one of the nurseries.

It was eerie coming upon these drills. All you could see for miles were these drills. Some working up and down and some still. From a distance, I thought it looked like a graveyard for cranes.

We stopped for a few hours at the California Polytechnic University (Cal Poly) and I had to take pictures of the flowers that I saw on campus. You can always find an arboretum and gardens on the university campuses here.

Beautiful Birds of Paradise.

I love the scent of Maganolias.

These next pictures were taken in the Rose Garden.

'Judy Garland' I fell in love with this rose!

This one looks like a firework and is appropriately called, '4th of July.'

This sweet rose is the 'Julia Child' rose.

We drove into San Luis Obispo for lunch and I took this photo outside of a beauty salon. I just loved this window box.

I love the font on the street signs.

We stopped at a few antique stores.

A stop in Morro Bay. This rock is the famous Morro Rock.

One of my favorite things to do is to walk along the beach and look for seashells and sea glass.

After a very full day, we headed north to Cambria on Highway 1 where we were going to stay the night. We got there right before the sun set and as I was taking pictures a flock of pelicans flew overhead.

It was a picture perfect way to end the day.

An Evening to Remember

This past Friday we went to Bakersfield, California to attend a family wedding. Even though it was a family wedding, I have to say that I wasn't that excited about going. I mean, really, Bakersfield?! What is in Bakersfield? Well, plenty. It turned out to be one of the most memorable evenings and was simply one of the most elegant events we have attended. We knew as soon as we walked up to the gate that it was going to be something pretty extraordinary. We were met at the gates by two men in tuxedos who checked our names off on their handheld lists. As we walked up the long driveway we saw a beautiful white Rolls Royce at the end of the drive that had carried the bride and groom from the church. We turned the corner and our eyes met beautiful lush gardens with soft music wafting through the summer night air. Luckily, it wasn't a typical evening in Bakersfield. The temps were in the mild 80s, but usually it is right around 100 degrees this time of year.










A tent just for fruit.

The gardens were absolutely beautiful. In my excitement, I didn't get a picture of the rose garden (darn it!), but it was picture perfect with a black rod iron table and chairs set in the center.

The main house.

I saw different people sitting in front of this fireplace throughout the night. It is a perfect place to 'get away' from it all.








The tennis court was covered with pea gravel for the event and the net was removed of course. I was standing in a gazebo that overlooked the tennis court that was now the larger eating area.





Guests mingled at the pool house (far back).

There was a live band that played Big Band music all night. It was the kind of music that is timeless and guests from all ages could dance to and enjoy. Just perfect. Interestingly, the band is composed of scientists from Stanford University who play music as a hobby and do gigs such as these on the weekends.

This is a table setting in the gazebo. The tables here were decorated differently than the rest of the tables, but it worked. Everything was picture perfect. The menu was filet mignon, the best rice pilaf I have ever tasted and roasted asparagus wrapped in a carrot shaving. For dessert, chocolate or white cake and flan. A very nice White Zinfandel and Cabernet Savignon were served with dinner. There were also two open bars which made for a very fun evening with guests grabbing a microphone and singing by the end of the night.

This is a gate behind the gazebo that leads to one of the guest houses. I peeked through the window of the gate and could see a beautiful cottage garden and there was also a table set up there for the wedding. A kind of secret wedding celebration garden. Love it. I loved the staghorn ferns growing on either side of the garden gate.

This was taken late in the evening when a lot of the guests had left, but there were white lights everywhere on the property. It made it seem like a magical wonderland.

Even the pool was decorated with pink rose petals and candles. How very romantic!

This home was simply a wonderful place to have a wedding reception. I am so glad that we went and it was even better that we got to catch up with family members that we haven't seen in awhile surrounded by these lush gardens and fantastic music. Bakersfield. Who knew?!