Tag Archives: California

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.

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.

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.

Tea Rooms ~ The Gilded Rose

This weeks theme is Tea Rooms and Ventures. In April my family met at the Gilded Rose Manor Tea House in Northridge, California to celebrate my mother’s 85th birthday.

I love the fact that the Tea House street address is on Devonshire St. It sounds so English and creamy 🙂

There are several different table settings. There are 3 areas of service. The Rose Salon is the largest area,  the Atrium is a little separated from the Rose Salon, and then the Blue Willow Parlor is a private side room that accomodates up to 14 people. We were in the Blue Willow Parlor.

The Blue Willow Parlor with my sisters, mom, and nieces

We had assorted scones with Devon Cream and Lemon curd and then a variety of tea sandwiches.

Our dessert platter with another fun assortment of goodies.

Although these tea pots aren’t the dainty variety that really served the purpose well, especially with these great warmers that they sat on. Our tea was the perfect temperature to the last drop of each pot. The gift shop at the Gilded Rose sells these, too.

The Gilded Rose has a nice gift shop. Besides all these fun Tea Pots and Cups they sell Tea Magazines, Cards, cake plates, baked goods, accessories. They also have a wonderful collection of loose tea for sale.

We all had a nice time here.

For more Tea Rooms and Ventures visit LaTeaDah at Gracious Hospitality.

ABC Wednesday ~ P is for…

P is for Pioneers

My husband and I were in Texas this last weekend and we were able to stroll through the Dallas Arboretum (more photos from the Arboretum tomorrow) This is a replica of a Texas Pioneer Village at the Dallas Arboretum. Pioneers settled in Texas because of the availability of land. As the poplulation increased they’d add a general store, church, school, etc. to the village.

P is also for Palm Trees…

These were all taken in Southern California in my neighborhood or close by.

For more ABC Wednesday click over to Mrs. Nesbitt’s.

Sky Watch ~ Our Lord’s Candle

I saw this wisp of a cloud on a neighborhood walk with Willow last week. The hillsides are filled with these Yucca’s blooming right now. I’d like to get a little closer to one and smell the fragrance…

Our Lord’s Candle (Yucca whipplei) Agave Family. AGAVACEAE ~ The flower stalk is 4 to 8 feet tall. There is basal rosette of spine-tipped, sword-like leaves 1 to 3 feet long. The white flowers sometimes purple-tinged, appear in a terminal compound cluster up to 4 feet long. They are very fragrant and even have a pleasant taste when nibbled.

Beginning in April and continuing through July, Our Lord’s Candle blooms abundantly in Chaparral and Oak Woodland in elevations up to 2500 feet.