Tag Archives: California

ABC Wednesday ~ R is for…

R is for Rocks

We’ve had three interesting and different walks on the same stretch of beach in the last 2 weeks. We had low enough tide on these days that we were able to walk among the rocks.

 

We start early (6:00 AM) so everything is pretty gray when we begin our walk.

 

 

The pools around the rocks are fun to explore.

 

A look back away from the water line.

 

Looking back a week before at a different spot. This week all the green was gone.

Here’s my friend Rocky. Can you see his eyes and nose?

 

Hubby walking among the rocks.

 

The sun is beginning to rise above the hills and shine on the water.

 

You can see the color change in my shots as the sun rises higher.

 

Now I’m off to see what others chose to share for R.

For more posts on the letter R take a trip to Mrs. Nesbitt’s.

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!

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!

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.

 

 

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!

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.

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!

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.

 

Camarillo also has a popular Outlet Mall Center. One of the shops in the center is the Royal Doulton shop where you can buy Royal Albert items. Here’s a collage of some of the patterns offered there.

 

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.

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!

WFW ~ John 11:25

John 11:25 ~ Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies;”

For more Word Filled Wednesday visit Amy at the 160 Acre Woods

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!

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.

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!

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 Mother who are always a joy to be around.

 

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.

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!