Author Archives: Ellen

Outdoor Wednesday ~ Morro Bay & Cambria

It’s time to visit Susan at A Southern DayDreamer to see the outdoor world around the blogisphere. Thank you Susan!

This is the amazing Rock at Morro Bay that is called the Gibraltar of the Pacific. With an extra day this past weekend because of Labor Day Dear and I drove up the coast of California on Saturday to escape the heat and bad air in Southern California.

It was a beautiful breezy day on the Central Coast of California. We had breakfast in Morro Bay, then walked around the Rock and the bay. We spent some time in the downtown area antique and thrift store shopping.

This Pelican almost landed on my head on his descent.

Instead of heading home we decided to drive North a little farther to the beach community of Cambria.

We enjoyed the ambiance of this town. There were pretty gardens and fun shops to walk through.

After our stroll through town we headed down to the beach and had a brisk windy walk.

We left home at 7:00 A.M. and arrived back home at 8:30 P.M. It was a full day!

Ruby Tuesday ~ Cambria

It’s time for Ruby Tuesday and I was happy to find Ruby photos to share. Mary at Work of the Poet is our hostess for this weekly event. Click on the Ruby Slippers to see more red.

On Saturday we drove up the coast to Central California. We enjoyed strolling around Morro Bay and then a little further north to Cambria. Cambria is a charming little town that has lots of fun things to photograph. I haven’t had any red/ruby in my photos for a while but there were plenty ruby moments here. I would love to travel back to this town and spend the night in one of their bed and breakfasts and have tea at the English Tea Room, “The Tea Cozy”.

Happy Ruby Tuesday everyone!

Mosaic Blue Monday!

I’m combining Mary’s Mosaic Monday with Smiling Sally’s Blue Monday this week. Please visit each site to see more blue and more mosaics.

Dear and I took a car trip up the California coast on Saturday to the communities of Morro Bay and Cambria. It was an amazing thing to see the Rock at Morro Bay that is called the Gibraltar of the Pacific. We were happy to get away from the heat and muggy skies of Southern California for the cooler marine skies in Central California. I’ll be showing more of my photos from both spots soon.

Happy Labor Day everyone…

One Thrifty Find…

Rhoda at Southern Hospitality is hosting Today’s Thrifty Treasures for a few more weeks so you still have time to join in. Thank you Rhoda.

My thrifty find that I’m showing this week is this 3 tiered tin server. I can’t remember exactly what I paid for it but it was under $5.00.

I’m looking forward to using it soon. Maybe for a fall tea. Hope you all are enjoying your Labor Day Weekend…

Rock of Ages ~ Hymn

Rock of Ages

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the water and the blood,
From Thy wounded side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure;
Save from wrath and make me pure.

Not the labor of my hands
Can fulfill Thy law’s demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and Thou alone.

Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to the cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress;
Helpless look to Thee for grace;
Foul, I to the fountain fly;
Wash me, Savior, or I die.

While I draw this fleeting breath,
When mine eyes shall close in death,
[originally When my eye-strings break in death]
When I soar to worlds unknown,
See Thee on Thy judgment throne,
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.

Words by: Augustus M. Toplady, 1776

ht: Cyberhymnal

Labor Day Weekend…

 

This is going to be a fun long weekend for Dear and me. We are going to celebrate his birthday every day this weekend. This year Dear’s birthday happens to fall on 09-09-09! All the more reason to celebrate in style. On Saturday we are driving up the coast to Morro Bay for lunch and whatever else comes our way.

On Sunday after church we are headed south down the coast to have a birthday brunch at The Five Crowns Restaurant in Corona Del Mar. Monday morning the tide is low at the right time for us so we are going to have an early morning walk on the beach in Ventura. I hope to get lots of fun photos to share.

I also am documenting some things about my blog that are interesting to me and probably not so much to you….

This post is #1861.

I have had over 414,000 visits to my blog.

I am in my third year of blogging.

These last couple days I have had over 500 hits on all my Glendale Forest Lawn posts. I think this is because Michael Jackson’s funeral was there on Wednesday and people are curious about Glendale Forest Lawn now.

My most viewed post so far is my recipe for Rice Krispy Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars with 8732 views.

Coming in at 2nd is my recipe for Russian Easter Bread with 6210 views.

One of my earliest posts that comes in at third is An Irish Blessing for a New Home with 5362 views.

The fourth top post was my 2008 Christmas Tour of Homes with 4226 views.

Blogging has been a fun creative exercise for me and I’ve found a great joy in photography since I started blogging. I appreciate the little things more. One of the best benefits in blogging are all the friendships that have developed around the world. I don’t know how long I’ll keep this going but for as long as I do I’m going to have fun doing it. I love hearing from all my bloggy friends.

Have a good weekend…

 

Friday’s Fave Five ~ Changes…

It’s Partay time at Susanne’s because this is the 52nd Fave Five! Visit her at Living to Tell the Story to link up with your favorites. Thank you Susanne!!

Changes are afoot in our family. If and when I can share specifics I will. Our middle son is embarking on a new adventure in his life. He is leaving that jackhammer and concrete work behind him. Because of this change things have been buzzing here in Southern California and at our home in the state of Washington. Lots of fun calls, lots of plans, lots of prayers, lots of excitement. So here are my favorites. First three to do with the new adventure and the last three from my week here in So.Cal.

1. A fulfilling achievement for our son.

2. Friends and siblings around him that have been spending all the time they can with him before he leaves on his new journey.

3. Older brother stepping in to take care of what we can’t from miles away.

4. Walking early morning most days with Willow and seeing some fun sights. It really has made a difference to get back into this regular routine. It’s also good because as we huff and puff we share and support each other.

5. Having a day with Dear without any “have tos” except for stopping at a donut shop and feeling like we’re kids again eating a really good donut!

6. Oh yes and my extra fave is very “sweet” indeed. Our Seattle Sounders F.C. won their first trophy by beating D.C. United in the U.S. Open Cup Final on Wednesday night. I watched the game on the soccer channel and was a screaming fan in my condo with my Sounders t-shirt on!

For all of you who live in the U.S. Happy Labor Day weekend to you. Enjoy your extra day off. For everyone else have a great weekend.

 

BooMama’s DipTacular!

Just in time for Football and Soccer BooMama is having a Blog Carnival for us to share dip recipes. Just click on the button to see more dips or to join in the fun. This carnival starts tomorrow, Friday. I’m going to repost this recipe that is yummilicious for y’all to try!

I was standing in the bank waiting my turn and on the television they had Giada from the Food Network making some great looking bruschetta. I got the ingredients I needed and decided to try it. Hopefully I get it right because I didn’t write anything down.

The ingredients she used were whole milk ricotta cheese, tomatoes seeded and chopped, fresh mint chopped, salt and pepper. I don’t remember if she used garlic so I went ahead and used a clove of garlic, also. She mixed these ingredients all together and put it into a nice serving bowl. She used Ciabatta bread that she drizzled with olive oil and grilled. After it was grilled she squeezed some fresh lemon on the slices. Your company can spread as much of the topping that they want on the slices of bread and enjoy…

If you need more specific amounts here’s what I used. About 8oz. of ricotta, 1 beefsteak tomato chopped, 10 mint leaves chopped, 1 clove garlic, minced, salt and pepper to taste. I bought a small loaf of Artisan Sea Salt Filone bread from Von’s/Safeway. This bread worked out good because it filled in the extra salt the dip needed. I will be making this again because it was duhlicious! Michelle found the link for the original recipe  and you can find it here.

Tablescape Thursday ~ Roosters…

Time again to visit Susan at Between Naps on the Porch to be inspired to set your table by seeing the creativity of Bloggers around the world.

Well I should have posted this last week when we were having our Rooster Party over at Barb’s but here it is a week late and a few dollars short. Just a few because like usual I bought most of this stuff on clearance or thrifting.

I’m happy to say we had a meal at this table way back in mid July! My brother and his wife came over for the afternoon and we went out for lunch and then barbecued Salmon for dinner. My SIL made her fabulous Mexican rice to go with the coleslaw and Salmon. Dear barbecued the Salmon so I just sat on my duff! This dinner plan worked out good because my back decided to freeze up on me after helping some young folks at our church scrape their popcorn ceilings in the morning before Tim and Letty arrived. I was also happy I had the table all set the day before so I could take the photos for Tablescape Thursday which made it easy for everyone to wait on me for dinner on Saturday.

You can see I was able to get up off the couch to snap some shots of our guests at the table and sit down again to enjoy the meal!

Just to clarify this table and dinner was way back mid July. My back is just fine today!!