Ranch Hospitality…

When you have a wedding on a Ranch/Blueberry Farm you have to consider some extra comfort items you need to bring in…like generators to provide electricity, fancy honey buckets, and special lighting.

The drive up the coast beyond Santa Barbara was lovely with lots of views of the Pacific Ocean. The wedding venue was 16 miles beyond our first beach camping experience with our family back in 1984, Refugio State Beach.

Each table had a book by a favorite author of Caleb and Marie. Each guest found a library card on file at the guest book table to see what book and author they should look for to see where they were to be seated.

I was happy to see that our table was Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment. There were a few more Russians at our table!

Here’s the table where we found our library cards and were able to sign the guest book. They had photos of the parents and grandparents on their wedding days. Sweet!

There were a few tables that I would have been very comfortable at.

They had a special coloring book for the younger guests with crayons at the tables where they would be sitting.

Blueberry Jam for each family to take home to remember the special wedding at the Blueberry Farm.

Just in case you doubted whether or not we were on a working ranch here come the cows and the horses!

After the sun set and on our way out of the ranch we stopped on a section of the road to look up. The sky were amazing with a view of stars I haven’t been able to see in a very long time. Wish I could have gotten a photo of it.

I am happy to announce that we were able to get both our cars in the garage again. That means we have everything out of the garage and back in the house in it’s new or old spot. Such a good feeling. Dear still has touch up and baseboard work to do along with closet shelving and organizing.

What’s happening for you this weekend?

The Attendees…

I really didn’t get many photos of the attendants at the wedding. There were many cameras and I-pads in my field of vision and then the wedding party was swept away to the back 40 on the ranch for the professional photos. By the time they got back it was time for dinner and the darkness descended on the venue…

The definition of attendees: a person who is present on a given occasion or at a given place

So this post will be all about the attendees and I apologize ahead of time for my tunnel vision on people I’m related to…

Our nephew Timothy with his wife Jessica and nephew Levi with his wife Kristin. Brothers and Sister in laws of the bridal couple. Looks like Levi spotted me taking his photo. Hi Levi!

These are the bride’s sisters Katie and Annie. Our nephew Joe is walking Katie down the aisle.

Our niece, grandniece and a Caleb and Marie’s friend’s little sweetie were the flower girls.

The flower girls had a great time running around the ranch!

The Best Men and the Maids of Honor helped to shield Marie from Caleb’s view while they walked to the aisle.

The wedding party getting back from their photo shoot.

From dinner we headed to the dance barn and watched a wonderful “first dance” by Caleb and Marie and the Father/Daughter Dance and Mother/Son dance. Way too dark for my camera skills!

My next post will be all about the family shots that I was able to get.

My mom continues to hang in there. Today I told her that my cousin/her niece had sent an email asking how she was. My mom then said to me “tell her to call, I can still talk!”

Happy Day to all of you!

Do You Have Favorites?

So do you have favorites? Favoritism can have a negative connotation but not on Fridays. On Fridays we look back and think about all the good things we’ve experienced and try to narrow it down to 5. Visit Susanne at Living to Tell the Story to join in the fun.

1. On Saturday at dawn Dear and I returned to one of our favorite Saturday beach walks at Emma Wood State Beach in Ventura. It had been several months since we had been there.

2. When you live in a little condo there aren’t a lot of “projects” to do on the weekends so on Sunday after a wonderful service and message on “Waiting on the Lord” we headed to 2 little farm communities to see what we could see. We had lunch in Santa Paula at Smokin Joe’s and then spent a little time in Fillmore where we saw this great old church.

3. On Tuesday Willow and I returned to the Blueberry farm for a walk before the rains came. We huffed and puffed and then got to taste test a few different varieties of blueberries….yum.

4. On Wednesday I sat at home in the condo and enjoyed the sights and sounds of a steady rain.

5. Last but not least was a surprise in my mailbox this week. Remember Susanne had a FFF giveaway? I won and the package arrived this week. Thank you Susanne. There was a devotional book, note cards, 3 healthy candles, a Starbucks gift card, and a candy bar. Well there were 2 candy bars but I don’t know what happened to one of them before I was able to take this photograph…

but clearly it was enjoyed with only a few crumbs remaining…

Thanks again Susanne.

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Outdoor Wednesday ~ Cloudy Walks

Early Saturday morning Dear and I had a cool cloudy walk at Emma Wood State Beach in Ventura, California. Then on Tuesday morning Willow and I joined 3 gals for a walk at the Blueberry Farm.

What a difference a week makes. Last Tuesday Willow and I walked on her friend’s Blueberry Farm and the Skies were clear and blue. This Tuesday we walked the Blueberry Fields again this time hurrying before the rains came down.

There’s Willow way back there. We had a fun little crowd walking this day.

I thought this mushroom was very cool…

At the end of our walk we tasted 3 or 4 different varieties of Blueberries. Yum!

To see more of the Outdoors visit Susan at A Southern DayDreamer!

Friday’s Fave Five

Friday already and time to look back and choose our favorites. Susanne at Living to Tell the Story is the hostess of this event. She’s also Canadian and will be celebrating Thanksgiving this weekend. Happy Thanksgiving to all our Canadian Friends…

Now for my favorites from this past week.

#1. We returned home to our little condo last Sunday happy to feel the cooler weather. It has remained cool all week and that is definitely a favorite of mine.

#2. On Tuesday Willow picked me up and drove us to her friend’s Blueberry farm for our walk. It was fun meeting Willow’s Blueberry Farm girlfriend and walking along the property. Some of our walk was more elevated then it looks but my huffing and puffing let me know we were climbing. It was a beautiful morning here in Southern California.

#3 and #4 ~ I finished the Anne of Green Gables Series of books this week. The last one in the series was Rilla of Ingleside and the story was told during the time of WWI. I really enjoyed all 8 books and it was the first time that I’ve read through them all. I would recommend them to fans of Anne. I was sad to be done with the series but then I found this sequel to The Wind in the Willows at the Friends of the Library. This is my #4 favorite this week. Don’t you love the cover and the here’s an illustration from inside the book.

I’m looking forward to dive in to this book. Have I mentioned before that I’m a huge fan of Children’s Literature?

#5. Before we returned to Southern California we spent fun times playing Beatles Rock Band with our kids. It was fun to sing along to those favorites of mine from my junior high and high school years.

I’m at Bible Study this morning and then I’m making and delivering a meal to someone who had surgery so I’ll be coming around later today or this evening. Have a good weekend everyone…

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Tag Archives: Blueberry Farm