May Birthdays!

 

So many people I love are having birthdays in May. In Picture order not birthdate order…

My niece Annie, May 16th ~ My friend Lucy, May 20th ~ My niece Debbee, May 12th

Jan my good friend in Washington, May 14th ~ Jody my good friend in Washington, May 24

My nephew Levi, May 27th ~ My dear Father Moisi, May 25th ~ My sister Kathy, May 23rd

Beautiful people who bless me with their love and friendship. A very Happy Birthday to all of you in the Merry Month of May!

I’m off today to celebrate my sister Kathy’s birthday at Julienne, a lovely breakfast spot in San Marino, California. Hubby and I walked the beach at Emma Wood at 6:00 am this morning :0) so I’m getting a lot done this morning. I’ll probably crash when I get back from eating yummy morsels. Have a wonderful weekend everyone. I’ll be posting my average walking steps on Monday. Keep walking (Lord knows I need to if I keep eating well at all these lovely spots around town!)

 

Photo Hunters ~ Candy

The theme this week is Candy. I decided to make a trip to my favorite candy shop in Southern California, See’s.

Look how sweet the See’s saleslady was. When I told her I was taking photos of candy for Photo Hunters she asked if I’d like her to take some out of the case to photograph. What a good sport..

I’m just going to post all the photos from the store because I don’t ever get tired of looking at chocolate.

I think I showed a lot of restraint and only came away with 5 pieces.

For more Photo Hunters click over to Tnchick’s!

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.

My Sweet Niece and Me and Vitiligo

I love this photo of my sweet little niece with her Aunty ellen b. Look at her great eyebrows. After we left Dallas she cut two bottom teeth within the week. She’s just 3-1/2 months old. Before we left for Dallas I had my first ever trip to the dermatologist because my face was discoloring. I thought I was getting brown spots. At my visit the dermatologist discovered that I’m not getting brown spots but instead I’m losing the pigment in my skin, a condition called Vitiligo. It’s the same condition that Michael Jackson has. I’m not wearing any cover-up in the photo above so you can see my loss of pigment especially next to my dear niece’s perfect baby skin. So from now on if I post any photos of myself out walking you’ll see me with my Dallas souvenir on…

Here I am last Saturday at Emma Wood State Beach with my new UPF50+ hat with a 3″ rim. The areas of my skin that are losing pigment are very sensitive to the sun so I need to add extra protection. A sunblock with helioplex broad spectrum uva-uvb and avobenzone 3% are highly recommended for protection. I’m using a Neutrogena product that has both of these ingredients in it. The only downside to this condition for me besides my vanity, is the fact that I don’t wear hats well and then the added condition of bad dented hair from the hat after my walks!

Between my back issues and my face issues I was happy to have memorized ~ 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 ~”Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

Have a wonderful day y’all and keep on walking. I’ve had a good week of walking and I’ll be posting my average steps every Monday from now on.

Sky Watch ~ May Gray

 

We usually have what the weather people call “June Gloom” around Southern California but this year they had to come up with a new one “May Gray”. As you can see from the photo above on a beach walk hubby and I had last Saturday morning, the skies are gray. The last couple days we have been back to sunny and slightly blue. We are suppose to reach temperatures in the upper 90’s by Friday here and the 100’s in the valleys. Yuck, that’s hot for Spring!! Have a wonderful weekend all you Sky Watchers!

For more Sky Watch photos head over to Wiggers World.

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!

Rose Bowl Flea Market ~ Tea Venue?

Although we couldn’t have a proper tea at the flea market, we could certainly buy everything we’d need to host a beautiful High Tea! So I’m going outside the box as LaTeaDah suggested and show you what we saw at the huge wonderful Rose Bowl Flea Market. I’m also going to include a couple shots of pretties for tea that I found at a local shop in Camarillo and a collage of Royal Albert goodies from the Royal Doulton shop in the Camarillo Outlet Mall.

The Rose Bowl is in Pasadena, California. It’s probably best known for the Rose Bowl Football Game on January 1st every year and for UCLA regular season football games. We arrived at 7:00am for one of the early bird entries for $15.00. The 9:00 am entry is $10.00.

We saw so many wonderful vintage hats and clothes.

These Russian “podstakaniki” (tea glass holders) were incredibly expensive.

 

Tables and ground space was covered with all kinds of oldies but goodies.

There were many vintage themed spaces.

Any kind of tablecloth you’d want. There was one stall where they just had piles of old vintage and lace tablecloths, napkins, tea towels piled in mounds. Tablecloths for $8 each and the napkin pile for $1 each. There were plenty with stains on them but a fair amount of them were stain free.

Rows and Rows and Rows of stuff. See how empty the walk-way is. That’s the advantage of coming in early. It was filled with people at 10:00 am.

There were many pretty tea cups and accessories. Some spaces had complete tea sets and old sets of china to sell also. They ranged from $75.00 to $700.00. The $700.00 set was a complete service for 12 with covered vegetable dishes, etc. (English) Now here are some goodies from my home town of Camarillo.

These first two shots are from a new shop in Camarillo. Most of this stuff is made in China. It’s priced reasonably.

Before I sign off here are the 3 items I bought at the Rose Bowl Flea Market.

My favorite purchase was this The Wind in the WillowsTea Pot made by Sadler (England). This was fun for me to find because I just read The Wind in the Willows this year. I’m on a quest to read many children’s classics that I somehow missed reading in my youth.

A glass cake plate with a Thistle pattern

And this pretty Royal Albert teacup and saucer, “Blossom Time”

For more Tea Rooms and Tea Venues you can head over to Gracious Hospitality.

Recipe Round Up ~ Russian Recipes

May’s Recipe Round Up

will be at Whatever Things…

Recipes Around The World

This month’s recipe category will be recipes unique either to the part of the world or country you live or where you’re from originally. It’s a bit like “The Great British Menu,” but with a worldwide focus.

The recipe can be for Snacks, Starters, Main Courses, Desserts, Cakes, Biscuits or even a Hot or Cold drink recipe.

My heritage is Russian (100%). I have several Russian Recipes featured on my blog already so I’ll inclule the links to click on and you’ll be able to see some step by step recipes and photos.

We’ll start with Borsch

Then how about some Golubtzi? (Stuffed Cabbage)

And lastly although I have a few more recipes is this simple version of Lopsha.

For more recipes with an International flare or to join in the fun click over to Whatever Things.

 

ABC Wednesday ~ Q is for…

Q is for a Quote by Queen Victoria

“Give my People plenty of Beer, good beer and cheap beer, and you will have no Revolution among them” ~ Queen Victoria

Q is for Quail, the California State Bird ~

Q is for Quilts. The State Quilt with State Flowers and Birds was made by my MIL Verna.

I can’t imagine the work that went into this. Sorry for the lousy photos of the quilts. I took them last year before I figured out better ways to photograph things…

The next two Quilts were handed down to us. The pastel one is from Dear’s grandmother Nettie and red patterned one is from Dear’s mother Verna.

For more posts on the letter Q visit Mrs. Nesbitt.

 

Mother’s Day 2008 ~ Whittier

Our Mother’s Day Celebrations started early this year. I was away from all my children this year so they got together and created the best gift I could possibly ask for. Each of them wrote to me and included a photo of themselves. Each note was unique just like they are. They were put together in the book cover you see in the center of the collage. I was in Mom heaven! On Mother’s Day morning Dear was very sweet and took me to the Rose Bowl Flea Market with a pocket full of cash. I’ll post more about that later. After we walked the isles and isles of goodies at the Flea Market we headed to Whittier for a smaller family gathering with my Sister’s Family and my Mom and Dad. My brother Steve was able to come, too.

As we drove through Whittier to my sister’s house we were greeted with the beautiful purple blooms on the Jacaranda Trees.

My Father and Jackson (Great grandson)

Jackson with his friend.

We were surounded by beautiful blooms on potted plants and fresh bouquets.

We started lunch with my mother’s Borsch and then had fondue. Main course of beef, chicken, cheese, bread, and vegetables. Then a dark chocolate and milk chocolate fondue mix for our fruit and wafers and biscotti. Everything was very good.

I brought my mom, sister, and niece these Johnson Bros. mugs filled with 3 kinds of Tea.

My nieces gave me the potted pink hydrangea in the top collage.

It was a beautiful day of honoring mom’s and enjoying each others company. Thank you Len and Kathy for always opening your home to family. Len’s 95 year old mother was able to join us at the table for a little while and had us in stitches with some of her remarks. How lovely the day was. Thank you Lord.

Mother’s day and I’m missing a photo of the mother’s! Oye.