Category Archives: Walking

The Beach at Dawn

Welcome to the 2nd Outdoor Wednesday hosted by Susan at A Southern Daydreamer. This past weekend Dear and I spent a lot of time on several different beaches in California. These dawn photos are taken at Emma Wood State Beach in Ventura, California on Saturday morning.

Being walkers with the dawn and morning,

Walkers with the sun and morning,

We are not afraid of night,

Nor days of gloom,

Nor darkness–

Being walkers with the sun and morning.

– Langston Hughes

Visit Susan at A Southern Daydreamer to view more Outdoor Wednesday posts.

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.

High Tide at Emma Wood State Beach!

Dear and I returned to our favorite Saturday walk last weekend and we were in for a fun surprise. The Tide was so high that there was no sand to be seen. The waves were so powerful we heard the large rocks and bolders moving and hitting each other when the waves receded. We had to watch our steps so that we didn’t get sprayed by the waves that hit the beach walls and rocks.

 

We were experiencing Santana winds again over the weekend so the wind really whipped out and caused some spray off the waves.

 

Then when a wave would recede and hit the next wave coming in we got a big treat with an explosion of spray!

 

It was difficult to snap at the right time to make sure I captured the great spray.

 

 

 

Yippee I got this one without getting soaked!

 

The birds were patiently waiting for the tide to go out so they could dig for their food in the sand…

Psalm 89: 8, 9 ~ “O Lord God Almighty, who is like you? You are mighty, O Lord, and your faithfulness surrounds you. You rule over the surging sea; when its waves mount up, you still them.”

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007 to 2015 hostage and has replaced them all with ugly black and grey boxes asking for a ransom to have them re-published. Such a frustrating bother as I go through each post to delete the ugly boxes.

Dawn Walks with Dear ~

 

We were back to our Emma Wood State Beach Walk this past Saturday. It’s been 8 weeks since our last walk there. We left the house at 6:00 A.M. and met the Dawn at the beach. Every walk here holds new discoveries for us. The tides change, the shore changes from season to season, the birds change too. We saw a lot of younger Seagulls and some small birds we hadn’t seen before.

I love that God’s creation cannot be exhausted. I stand in awe at His creativity.

Psalm 104: 24-25 ~ “How many are your works, O Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number – living things both large and small.”

I was glad I wore my sandals this week because the tide caught us off guard when it came in a little quicker than we expected.

 

By the end of the day on Saturday after we drove to Huntington Beach and walked to the beach there, too, we had logged in 14,032 steps! Willow and I walked 4 days last week, too, so my numbers were really good. But…Willow flew the coop to Oregon this week and my numbers will flounder…

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I posted on my blog from 2007-2015 hostage and replaced them with big black and grey boxes with threats. So discouraging…as I’m slowly trying to clean up thousands of posts!

Walking Again

Both Willow and I are back in town at the same time again and we started getting serious about walking this week. We had 3 good days of walking getting in over 9000 steps each day.

 

Thursday morning we were blessed with several glimpses of wildlife. We saw this deer which was a first for me in Willow’s neighborhood. We saw a Hawk sparring with some crows. We saw a great group of Quail, too.

 

I was in Seattle for 6 weeks and Willow was in England during part of that time. She brought me this fun Tea Towel from The Twinings in London.

She also gave me this Sweet Bavarian Plate. Thanks again Willow!

It feels so good to be walking regularly again.

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I posted on my blog from 2007-2015 hostage and replaced them with big black and grey boxes with threats. So discouraging…as I’m slowly trying to clean up thousands of posts!

A Solo Walk and My Average Steps

Last Wednesday inspired by Sara’s Walks around Long Beach and other towns, I decided to have a little walk around downtown Ventura and see what I could see.

 

I love how inviting this Rose Arbor and Gated entry are to this cute little house.

 

It’s a good idea to look up in downtown Ventura. Along Main Street there are a lot of older buildings that have some unique architecture and designs.

 

I was drawn to this arched doorway and the unique designs.

The upper window caught my eye. I wonder what the room is like up there. It seems like it could be a great bedroom for Anne of Green Gables.

 

This Historic Landmark Home has been turned into a restaurant.

It’s too bad the elaborate Schiappapietra Mansion is no longer standing.

 

The Restaurant is called Landmark No. 78. The bougainvillea arbor entry is in all its glory!

 

This next place I walked had an area that was called China Alley. My interest was piqued so I did a little research.

 

China Alley Memorial

The Chinese settlers arrived in Ventura in the 1860’s. They were highly skilled farmers and designed the irrigation system for the area. Approximately 200 of these Chinese immigrants lived in China Alley, located in front of the Ventura Mission. The Ventura fire department provided insufficient protection for their wooden shacks from fire, so they formed their own fire brigade.  They were also known to lend their services for other fires in the community.

With this solo walk and my daily walks with Willow this week my average steps were 11,118! On the Wednesday that I did this Ventura walk I also walked with Willow so that was a 13,707 step day and the rest of the days we walked I had over 10,000 steps.

My goal is to try to get over 10,000 a day. Some weeks just don’t work out that great but I still plan to walk everyday. It’s good for us women to keep moving…

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage and they have blacked them all out. I’m slowly working at restoring my posts without their help. Such a tiresome bother!

Saturday Morning Fun!

 

We started our beach walk at 6:00 AM today! The sun has not shown up in all it’s glory yet…

The colors in my photos change as the sun comes up over the hill.

We saw a lot of crabs today. The tide was not as far out and we couldn’t get as far on the sand this week.

 

The Pirates were afoot and we snuck by their ship.

 

Dear braved the surf while I took the higher road.

 

“Here’s looking at ya”

We finished our walk on the beach and were home by 7:45 AM. I then got ready to head out to San Marino, California to meet my nieces, sister, and mom for a birthday breakfast.

 

On the way to breakfast a car fully engulfed in flames was worth a photo! :0)

Julienne Restaurant in San Marino, California

My sister Kathy and her daughter Michelle

 

The sisters, Michelle and Melissa

My niece Debbee and me

My Mom

I decided on the Earl Grey Tea. Look at that pretty little bag the tea leaves come in.

A Gruyere omelette with scallions and avocado and rosemary potatoes.

 

Me, my mom, and my sister Kathy

 

Kathy and her daughters. Happy Birthday Kathy.

And yes it is hot in Southern California today. This was the hottest my outside temp registered when I hit Woodland Hills. (109 degrees)  Notice that I’m standing still in traffic so no one was in danger when I took this shot. We’re breaking records today. Thankfully it is a lot cooler than Woodland Hills in our town…

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage and they have blacked them all out. I’m slowly working at restoring my posts without their help. Such a tiresome bother!

Back to Emma Wood With the Tide Out…

We had a wonderful sandy walk at Emma Wood State Beach in Ventura, California last Saturday. We were so pleased to see the tide out far enough for a true walk on the beach.

 

 

These little Sanderlings were scurrying about in full force digging in the sand with their long narrow beaks.

 

I was excited to catch this Pelican with my camera.

 

And these Cormorants were an added bonus!

 

 

We had fun exploring some of these pools.

 

We saw many sea anemones

 

We also saw crabs, mussels stuck on rocks, and a Jellyfish!

Lord willing this coming Saturday we are going to try to do a walk here again at dusk.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage and they have blacked them all out. I’m slowly working at restoring my posts without their help. Such a tiresome bother!

Sycamore Hike ~ Walking Club Totals

 

When we got to the Sycamore Canyon Campground Parking at 7:15 the gate was still locked. Hmmm see the sign that says gate open 7am – 10pm? The attendant finally arrived at 7:30 to open the gate…

 

We stayed on the main trail today and saw a few joggers and several groups of cyclists.

 

The trees are really interesting in this canyon.

 

The shrubs were blooming nicely. It was gloomy with a thick high marine layer.

 

These purple wildflowers deserved a photograph.

 

Spring is a great time to do this hike because of all the pretty blooms.

 

We even happened on some California Poppies.

 

Some of our old and new favorites. The wild fennel is an old favorite of ours. We love using fennel in cooking and the smell when we rub it between our hands is licorice wonderful. The coreopsis is such a interesting plant the way it grows on that stalk. In the Spring it’s all over the hillsides. The one downside to our hike today were the mosquitos! They were out in droves. Anyone know of an Avon distributor so I can order some Skin-so-soft?

 

This looks like a parrot to me.

 

At the end of the hike we strolled over to see the high surf.

My walking total steps for the week averaged out to 10,152.

I’m going to keep on walking. How about you?

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage and they have blacked them all out. I’m slowly working at restoring my posts without their help. Such a tiresome bother!

One Misty Moisty Morning ~ Ладушки, Ладушки

On mornings like today this old Mother Goose nursery rhyme pops into my head and I say it again and say it again and say it again and again…

One misty moisty morning,
When cloudy was the weather,
I chanced to meet an old man,
Clothed all in leather.
He began to compliment
And I began to grin.
How do you do? And how do you do?
And how do you do again?

When I was a school teacher we had a training session on how important nursery rhymes were to a child’s language development and future reading skills. So take that baby on your knee and have fun with all the nursery rhymes out there. Sing them instead of just saying them. I remember bouncing my kids on my knee with this one, too.

Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross
To see a fine lady upon a white horse
With rings on her fingers and bells on her toes
She shall have music wherever she goes

There’s also a rhyme we would repeat in Russian that goes something like this…

Ладушки, ладушки
Pat-a-cake
Clapping Song
(Russian)
Ладушки, ладушки
Где были?
У бабушки!
Что ели?
Кашку!
Что пили?
Бражку!
Кашка масленька
Бражка сладенька
Бабушка добренька!
~
The loose translation into English
Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake,
Where were you?
At granny’s!
What did you eat?
Porridge*!
What did you drink?
A little home-brewed beer**
The porridge is buttered,
The home-brewed beer is sweet,
Granny is kind!
~
The version we sang was a bit different at the end. I’ll need to talk to my mom today and update how we ended this rhyme.
~
*In Russia porridge is very famous, it can be made from wheat (millet), oatmeal, buckwheat, rice, fine-ground barley, etc.**This probably means kvas, a Russian home-brewed non-alcoholic drink, or it means that Granny gave the children some beer to try, she indulged her grandchildren. (and actually if it sits long enough Kvas turns into an alcohol drink)
~
I updated this post with photos from our trip to Banbury, England in July of 2014.
ht: Mama Lisa’s World for the Russian Rhyme.

Back to the Burke-Gilman Trail

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage. I’m working on updating my blog posts very slowly.

Today was my first real walk since I broke my toe and have been in Washington. I get to do this same walk again on Saturday, a reunion with my two Washington walking buddies. Jody and I did the walk today and it was nice to be on this trail again. The Spring scenery here in Washington is very different from my California walks. There are signs of Spring but it’s still quite cool and dreary with welcomed sun breaks here and there.

 

The Burke-Gilman trail in the Seattle area of Washington runs from Shilshole Bay 18 miles partly along Lake Washington and then intersects with the Sammamish River Trail that runs all the way to Marymoor park in the city of Redmond along the river. We start at Log-Boom Park in Kenmore on Lake Washington and head east on the trail.

 

There were some pretty signs of Spring along the Sammamish river part of the trail in Bothell.

These huge birds looked like buzzards but we couldn’t get focused in close enough to really identify them. They were very large like a buzzard.

 

I took a shot of the willow tree for you Willow! The last photo is looking north along a creek that crosses underneath the trail. This was the first day this week that I put my pedometer on for the walk and it was over 15,000 steps and after my stops on the way home I’m up to 17,430 steps!! On the way home from the walk I had to stop at a thrift store because I’ve done some cleaning out since I’ve been here and wanted to donate some stuff, but I couldn’t leave without doing a little shopping…hmm, counterproductive?!

 

I found this sweet little mug for 50 cents with a bird and I think dogwood blossoms and the reversible table runner with blue flowers and green leaves on one side and blue and white stripes on the reverse for $3.20. I added it to my Easter table and am ready for our brunch on Sunday after the 8:30 service we decided on for Easter. I so love anticipating celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ each year…

Have a wonderful day!