Author Archives: Ellen

Aren’t They Cute?

 

Our drive to and home from the funeral on Saturday was quite treacherous at times with rain squalls that turned the freeways into rivers. We saw a few cars that had hydroplaned and ended up in the medians or in accidents with other vehicles.

 

But we made it there and home again just fine and it was worth it to see these cuties, my mom and dad.

 

Here are the song sheets from the funeral with the same songs in Russian and English side by side.

 

A closer look at the same song here in English and below in Russian…

 

I was pleased that I understood most of the Russian message at the funeral service. The English message delivered by my brother Steve was challenging…

Welcome to my bi-lingual world…

Some of you asked if Dear is Russian and the answer is no. He took Russian in college and he can read Russian. He sang with our Russian choir when we were dating. Dear is half Swedish and half English, Welsh and Cherokee. :0)

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.

Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head…

 

See the wetness out this window? We have had rain in Southern California for the last couple of days and we are promised some more rain tomorrow. I find it very refreshing being a transplant from the Seattle area. I was happy to have to pull out my great Marmot raincoat!

Tomorrow we are travelling across town to Whittier for a funeral. The Aunt of my best friend from my Russian Baptist Days in L.A. died last Saturday. My friend and her cousins (whose mom died) were connected in many different ways to my family and extended family. Our Russian community is all inter-connected in hard to explain ways. So it will be a day of tears for the grief her children are feeling from saying goodbye and a day of rejoicing in knowing she is with her Savior in heaven. A day of remembering our friendships and re-connecting and seeing the kids “all grown up”. A day of looking at someone and thinking “oh my I know who you are but I can’t remember your name right now”. Does that ever happen to you?  We will sing in Russian and sing in English. We will hear messages in Russian and a message in English. We will pray in Russian and pray in English. We will gather at the church, then head to the graveside, then we will all meet together for lunch.

“Therefore in life I’ll trust in Thee,
In death I will adore;
And after death will sing Thy praise
When time shall be no more.”

Hope you all have a day filled with an awareness of the God who made this world for us to enjoy and numbers our days…

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.

10 Things I Love ~

Cori G! at Gingerbread Crumbs & Co. via Pam at Grey Like Snuffie is passing along a meme about 10 things you love starting with an assigned letter. She assigned me either the letter L or R to list 10 things I love. I chose to list 10 L’s I love.

 

If you’d like to play let me know and I’ll assign you a letter or two to choose from.

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.

Friday’s Fave Five

Our first Friday in February. Time to think back over the last week and choose 5 favorites. Our hostess Susanne provides Mr. Linky for you to join in if you’d like. So head on over and join in on the fun.

1. Saturday morning walks with Dear are always on the top of my list. We had a low tide walk this last Saturday and saw lots of birds and collected several shells. We generally start these Saturday morning walks before the sun rises.

 

2. On Sunday after a great church service filled with worship we headed to Agoura to do some antique shopping. We found a nice Italian restaurant to have a snack before the stores opened at 11:00.  Hand Rolled Meatball Sandwich – Topped with Marinara Sauce and Mozzarella (we grind our own beef & pork) Mama’s Italian Kitchen in Agoura.

3. We decided to add a DVR to our Fios service at the condo. I never imagined how simple it is to record programs we want to watch later. No punching in start time or end time. I just click on the show and it takes care of recording it no matter how short or long it is. Then when we decide to watch the programs we get to skip all the commercials. That was a favorite this week.

4.  Eating in every night this week. We’ve had some good eats. Can you tell food is an important part of my life. :0)

 

5. Dear and I are still walking during the week and working out on the bowflex. Those work outs and walking with Willow most days  really makes me feel better. On Thursday we had some real good rain in Camarillo so Willow and I didn’t walk. Even though she grew up in Oregon she doesn’t walk in the rain :0)

For more Favorites visit Susanne at Living to Tell the Story.

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.

Looking At the Sky on Friday

 

This was taken last Saturday at Emma Wood State Beach in Ventura, California on our Dawn walk.

For more Looking at the Sky visit Crazy Working Mom.

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.

Tablescape Thursday ~ Red-White-Black

Tablescape Tuesday is now Tablescape Thursday! To see some pretty Tablescapes visit Susan at Between Naps on the Porch.

 

 

My table today was set in honor of my brother Tim’s birthday in January. This would make a fun Valentine Day Table, too.

 

Some of the details…the Pineapple candleholders are silverplate, Godinger. I bought them at my little thrift store. Napkins are Martha Stewart K-Mart from her Christmas line. I think they don’t scream Christmas. The napkin rings are from Pier 1, a gift from my son and wife. The rose etched goblets are from Goodwill. The red, white and black salad/dessert plate is from T.J. Maxx and oh my I paid T.J. Maxx full price for them $3.99. What a splurge on my part :0). The red chair scarves are from Target after Christmas clearance.

 

Am I boring you yet? The dinner plate is from Pier 1 clearanced for $1.64. The white chargers with black beaded rim are from T.J. Maxx and were clearanced for $1.00 each.

I’m happy to say that we actually ate food at this tablescape and had a very nice time celebrating my brother’s birthday. Here is our salad course. We also had Steak, Creamed Mushrooms, Roasted fingerling potatoes and a Limoncello Cream cake for dessert. UPDATE: So I didn’t include my true confession this week. Here it is…I did not make the Limoncello cake I bought it at costco. It was from the Cheesecake Factory. Here’s a link to a great recipe that should be pretty much like it. Limoncello Cake Recipe.

 

My younger brother Tim and his wife Letty.

For more tablescapes make sure you visit Susan at Between Naps on the Porch.

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.

Outdoor Wednesday ~ The Birds!

Outdoor Wednesday is hosted by Susan at A Southern Daydreamer. My outdoor photos this week are taken on 3 separate walks during the month of January.

 

Willow and I see this Dove pretty regularly on our walks in her neighborhood.

One day the Dove wasn’t there and we understood why when we saw this hawk instead.

Dear and I spotted this great Heron on our walk on the Bob Jones Trail in Avila, California on January 19th.

To see more Outdoor Photos visit Susan at A Southern Daydreamer.

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.

ABC Wednesday ~ St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo

It’s time for another ABC Wednesday and we are on the letter C. I decided to post something from my hometown of Camarillo, California which both start with the letter C although what I’m showing you in Camarillo doesn’t start with the letter C. Have I confused you yet? I will also share links from other posts I’ve published in the past about the historical landmarks in our city.

Today I wanted to show you St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo. I had the rare opportunity to visit the grounds of St. John’s Seminary for a Christmas Concert that a friend’s son was performing in. I’ve tried to get on the grounds in the past unsuccessfully. When I found out the campus would be open for this concert I was there with bells on. The concert was beautifully performed in the historic chapel.

 

 

In 1924, plans were being made for a minor seminary for the training of priests in the Los Angeles Area. Sixty five students were registered for the academic year of 1926-27. At that time, Juan E. Camarillo made a gift to the archdiocese of 100 acres on the knoll of Rancho Calleguas, which land separated the Calleguas Ranch from Rancho Las Posas. The purpose of Mr. Camarillo’s gift was the location there of a major seminary. Ground was broken for St. John’s in March of 1938, after a speedy and successful drive for funds.

 

The original buildings, including the chapel which is unique in its marble decorations and stained-glass windows, are built around a quad with interior porticoes.

When Archbishop Cantwell was planning for the new seminary, he approached Mrs. Edward Laurence Doheny, Sr. about the possibility that she would donate the library. Mr. Doheny, her husband, the great oil tycoon, had passed away in 1935. Together they had built the library at USC in memory of Edward Laurence Doheny, Jr. and Mrs. Doheny considered this new opportunity a most appropriate way to honor the memory of her husband. It also afforded her the opportunity to create a permanent home for the thousands of rare books and art objects which she had collected since 1930 and which would burgeon before her death in 1958.

Mrs. Doheny hired her favorite architect, Wallace Neff, and commissioned him to design a building which would house a working library for the students and faculty as well as quarters for her collection.

The result is a classical Spanish building which reflects some of the overtones of the 1,100 years of Moorish influence in Spain. The pale pink stucco structure complements and enhances the neo-Spanish architecture of the main buildings.

 

 

It was a very bright sunny day when I visited. On some of the photos you can’t see the pink tone to the building but this photo that I took at this angle the pink shows through nicely.

The first floor of the library serves students and faculty, and the second floor housed the Estelle Doheny Collection which contained some 8,000 volumes of rare books. There were also displayed much of Mrs. Doheny’s fine French period furniture, canvases by Barbizon and western American artists. The collection was distinguished for an impressive array of Bibles which were significant type, among which the premier volume were one of the few extant original Gutenberg Bibles. I found out today her entire collection was sold off to over 40 different buyers from around the world in 1988! Oh how sad that this collection is scattered all over the world now.

I wasn’t aware that this significant collection had been housed in this library when I was on campus in December. After researching and finding this information I was disappointed to find out it was no longer there.

 

Please visit Mrs. Nesbitt and Friends at the official ABC blog to see more posts on the letter C.

Here are some links to past posts about other Camarillo historic sights and city sights and surrounding areas.

St. Mary Magdalen Church here and here.

Camarillo Ranch House here ,and  here.

All about Camarillo here.

ht: Greater Camarillo…Then and Now, a Publication of the Camarillo Chamber of Commerce, copyright 1978.

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.