Tag Archives: Walking

From Flowers to Reality T.V. Friday’s Fave Five…

Whoa…where has the week gone? It’s time to look back and pick some favorites. There is so much to choose from. Susanne has room for you to join in if you’d like to post your Five Favorites from the past week. Click over to Living to Tell the Story to join on in or see some Favorites.

One of my favorites are these new bookcases that Dear put together and I filled in our Living Area. We are really enjoying the new look this achieved and I’m enjoying seeing some of my pretties out from their hiding places.

 

My next favorite is being surrounded by live flowers this week. We bought a few Gerber Daisies at the Farmer’s Market and then on Valentine’s Day our kids sent us the beautiful bouquet of Lilies. (Of course that bouquet is my very favorite because they came unexpectedly from our kids) Then I got 2 dozen free roses from the little Thrift store I frequent. I think that God is so good to us to have created flowers of so many colors and varieties for us to enjoy. Don’t flowers just make you smile??

Call my next favorite a confession of my not so secret obsession. I love Reality TV. Not all Reality mind you just Biggest Loser, American Idol, Top Chef, Amazing Race, Project Runway, and Survivor. Can you still be my friend after I’ve made this confession? Good thing we have DVR so I don’t have to be home every night to watch these shows! For those of you who watch Top Chef, Fabio’s restaurant in Moorpark is not that far from us so Dear and I plan to go soon…

 

Onward and Upward…my next favorite was weather in Southern California this past week. Look at the contrast over a 24 hour period in Southern California. Tuesday Evening we had those great clouds that had brought rain earlier in the day and then the next afternoon not a cloud in the sky. It’s been cooler, too, which is a nice change for us in Southern Cal.

Last for this week are Willow and my walks and the fact that Dear and I continue to work out on the Bowflex and try to get our walking in too. We are starting to see and feel some results which are motivating us to continue. Us older folk need to keep our muscle tone up… Willow and I took photos of each other this week on a fun little path behind her neighborhood. We promised each other not to take photos of our behinds going up the path and steps. Little favors go a long way with body self esteem :0)

Maybe next week I’ll be brave enough for Dear to take a photo of me grimmacing on the Bowflex!

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.

Valentine’s Day Adventures and Surprises!

 

We started our Valentine’s Day very early with a low tide walk at Emma Wood State Beach in Ventura. This was a very cold morning for Southern California and we were layered well and I had my gloves on. Our faces were very cold when we walked into the wind. The only others up and paying attention to us were those 2 doggies in the window! We stopped for breakfast at Allison’s in Ventura then made a stop at Target where we bought 2 bookshelves for our living area (I wiill show how the space was transformed in my Metamorphosis post for Monday :0) Then we stopped at the Home Depot to buy an upper kitchen cabinet to put in our bathroom for some extra storage. I’ll show that project next week. Now Dear had the perfect Valentine’s Day ahead of him putting things together with his hand tools!

 

While we were busy recreating our space in the condo the doorbell rang and the florist brought this lovely bouquet from our children to us for Valentine’s Day. So unexpected and so appreciated. What wonderful thoughtful children God has blessed us with.

 

Can’t help but show you…

 

Isn’t the vase they came in pretty with the etchings on it?

 

Then after all the projects were done and we got cleaned up we were ready for our Valentine’s dinner. A very lovely, fulfilling day filled with lots of love…

God is good to us! Blessings on your upcoming Sunday.

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.

Friday’s Fave Five~

Oh my life has been busy since last Friday! It’s time to stop and think about our favorites from this last week and also to be thankful for all the good things God causes in our lives. So visit Susanne at Living to Tell the Story to join in or to see some favorites from around the world. Just want to give a shout out to our friends in Paraguay and Belgium that join in…

 

On Saturday we traveled across town to a friends Aunt’s funeral. You might wonder why a funeral makes my top 5 but funerals have been a natural part of my life from childhood. It was a good time of supporting the family and seeing friends and family that we haven’t seen for years. Reconnecting, encouraging and enjoying the company of loved ones from our past and present. It was especially good to see my parents, that cute couple in the collage.

On Wednesday I hosted a Tea for my Bible Study Group. It was another great time of fellowship with ladies that have had such a different life experience from me and each other. God has brought us together for a time and it’s always interesting to see how we connect and grow together.

Wednesday night Dear and I went to Ventura for a soccer game. We stopped at a restaurant for dinner first that we hadn’t been to since 1988. It was a fun evening. I’m a huge soccer fan and we got to see the Seattle Sounders our new MLS soccer team play a pre-season scrimmage game against a local Ventura team. We found one other fan from Seattle in the stands and I wore my Sounders Jersey that my son and DIL  gave me for Christmas. Fun times and we won 6-1!

I really enjoy walking every week. Willow and I spotted our little Dove again yesterday. We couldn’t walk Monday and Tuesday because “Life” got in the way but it’s always great to resume and continue this discipline…

 

Now for #5. Yesterday I posted some ingredients that I was putting together for an experimental meal. I said I would reveal the mystery ingredient and let everyone know if it was edible. Well here’s the reveal. The not so surprising ingredients were whole grain pasta, pasta sauce, and basil. The surprising mystery ingredient was my leftover chicken salad mix from my tea on Wednesday.

 

Strange but true it was very good! Dear went back for seconds. It gave a creamy and crunchy texture to the pasta that was surprisingly good. So my 5th favorite thing from this week is experimenting in the kitchen and having good results! :0)

To see more favorites visit Susanne from Living to Tell the Story.

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.

Outdoor Wednesday ~ “To Market, to Market”

I’m a little late in joining in for Outdoor Wednesday this week hosted by Susan at A Southern Day Dreamer but better late than never.

To market, to market to buy a fat pig;
Home again, home again, jiggety-jig.
To market, to market, to buy a fat hog;
Home again, home again, jiggety-jog.

Dear and I decided to walk to the Farmer’s Market that our hometown has every Saturday in Old Town Camarillo from 8:00 to Noon. As we set out we passed these tumbleweeds that are taking over the sidewalk. What a fun sight to see tumbleweeds tumbling through town when they dry up and the wind blows. Brings back some childhood memories for me.

It was a drizzly morning. The drizzle does not deter Dear and I from walking because of our years in the Seattle area. We do everything in the rain up there and most of the time without an umbrella!

A rare thing to see raindrops on the vegetation in Southern California.

Our walk to the Market is convoluted because we are separated from the main part of town by the railroad tracks that run up the coast of California. We have to jog and go over an overpass built for people to get to the train station. Here’s Dear sporting his new Tilley hat!

 

See the church across the freeway? That’s where we are headed.

We make it to Ventura Blvd. which is the main street through Old Town Camarillo.

Great timing as we approach the market.

We’re hoping to find some red and white flowers for the dinner we’re having for my brother’s birthday later on this day.

 

Success! On the way back I had to snap these shots of St. Mary Magdalen Church. A landmark in Camarillo which was built by the Camarillo Family.

 

 

The sun is getting brighter as we approach home. The Santa Monica Mountains are camaflouged today by these great clouds.

 

Just enough sun for Dear to spot this great spider web on the tumbleweed we pass on the way home!

For more Outdoor shots visit Susan at A Southern Day Dreamer!

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.

California Central Coast Getaway!

After viewing all the photos I took on Dear and my getaway last Sunday and Monday, it’s hard to believe we saw so much in such a short time! This is your only warning…I’m posting a lot of photos here! I will be sharing my photos from the Butterfly Grove next Tuesday.

 

After we spent some time at the Butterfly Grove we zipped over to the sleepy little town of Arroyo Grande which is inland from Pismo Beach. We wanted to do a little antiquing. Since it was Sunday some shops were closed but we got an eye full in two filled to the brim antique stores. There’s a suspension bridge over the river that was fun to cross. Brought out the kid in us!

 

These guys were making quite a racket and decided they needed to peck at our tennies! The red head decided to peck at Dear’s leg, too.

 

Pismo Beach is known for their clams and the clam symbol is used freely all over town. It was one of our goals to have a bowl of clam chowder at Splash Cafe before we left town! When we saw the line at Splash on Sunday we settled for good barbecue at Mo’s instead and hoped to get into Splash on Monday! Mo does not do Clam Chowda!

 The Pismo Clam

The Pismo Clam is one of the largest types of clams found along the California Coast. The clams can grow up to seven inches, if not interfered with by hungry clammers and sea otters. Legal size is 4 1/2 inches in diameter; and the proper place to clam is south of Grand Avenue (south of Pismo Beach).  Clams take approximately five years to reach legal size; growing about 3/4 of an inch each year. As clams approach ten years of age, they seldom grow more than 1/8 of an inch per year. The largest living Pismo Clam on record is 7 3/8 inches, however the clam shell on display in the Pismo Beach Chamber of Commerce is 8 inches in diameter.

 

See the line going out the door and around the corner? No worries…on Monday we headed back to Splash and had a bowl of very good chowder for brunch before the crowds arrived!

 

Our room would not be ready for us till 3:30 so we headed up the coast a bit to Shell beach and boy what a treat it was!

 

Beauty overload at it’s best!

 

 

 

We headed back to Pismo to check in but before we did we took a walk on the pier…

 

These two pelicans made my day while they posed for me and my camera! Actually they were hoping to steal the fish that a fisherman had just caught from the pier. It was funny to watch! We checked in, had a wonderful Swedish massage, (after standing and walking all day it felt so good) and then we had a great meal at the hotel restaurant with views of the beach.

 

On Monday morning after our picnic breakfast that was delivered to our room we headed north to Avila beach for an early morning walk.

 

Besides walking out on the pier, we found this biking/walking trail along the river and golf course that we explored.

 

 

We really enjoyed our getaway and would highly recommend this part of the California coast to anyone. If you are wine lovers there are also several wineries that do tastings in this area.

ht: photo of Pismo Clam R.Perry/UCLA Globe

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.

Pink Saturday ~

Welcome to Pink Saturday hosted by Beverly at How Sweet the Sound.

 

One of the blessings of living in Southern California is that roses are still blooming in the winter. I took this photo on one of my walks with Willow in Southern California in January.

 

This next collage is a tease. I bought some thrift store items this week that I’m going to use for a completely different purpose than they were intended for. I will show you in the future what that purpose was and how I used them. Dear and I are off for an overnight getaway to Pismo Beach, California tomorrow and I hope to find some pink to post for next week and a “show and tell” on what I do with these purchases. Have a wonderful Pink Saturday everyone.

To see more Pink visit Beverly at How Sweet the Sound!

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.

Friday’s Fave Five

If you haven’t already why don’t you join us in thinking back over this past week and picking out your 5 favorites. It’s a great exercize of counting your blessings. Susanne at Living to tell the Story is the hostess for this weekly meme.

 

1. On Saturday Dear and I returned to our favorite early morning walk and were rewarded with wonderful crashing waves.

2. After our walk on Saturday, Dear re-did the shelves in our condo pantry giving me an extra shelf. Oh the joy of an extra shelf in our little condo. Whoohoo!  Shhh, don’t tell dear I’m thinking I have more room for pretty dishes!

3. We’ve been eating “in” more to coincide with our daily exercise program we’ve started. Dear and I added resistance training this week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday instead of walking. We already are benefiting from our extra efforts.

4. I’m still walking with Willow every week day but Friday and with Dear on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Willow and I  blazed a new trail this week in her neighborhood and that was fun. Sunday is our day of rest…

5. Thrift store shopping continues to be something I really enjoy and I found a few goodies this week that I will change the original function for and show you in the future what I came up with.

We are having a heat wave here in Southern California. Dear and I are headed north on Sunday for an overnight and hope to enjoy cooler weather, at least down into the 70’s.  Have a wonderful weekend…

For more Favorites visit Susanne at Living to Tell the Story.

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.

Friday’s Fave Five

It’s almost Friday again and time to ponder some favorites from the past week! Visit Susanne at Living to Tell the Story to join in or to see other Favorites!

 

So on Sunday we flew back to Southern California from Washington. In a lot of ways my daily life in Southern California is easier than when I fly back to my house in Washington.

1. At the very top of my favorites this week, and probably for several weeks more, is the fact that my 911 neighbor, Summer, and her boyfriend are gone for good! I didn’t even realize the stress that their presence had on our quality of life until this week and the amazing difference we have experienced! We have peace. Peace is amazing. Peace with God is the most important thing in life but daily peace in your living conditions is way up there, too. I don’t have to tense up when I hear them come home. I don’t have to hear the yelling and screaming. I don’t have to get jolted out of a deep sleep with loud thumping on the floor and screaming. The photo of the empty deck in my collage is the deck that had their stuff on it before. That emptiness is such a welcome sight. Oh how sweet it is…

2. Starting to walk regularly again with Willow is another favorite. OK, so I put on way more poundage than I imagined and I need to cut back on food and increase my activity. On a more positive note,  it’s great here in Southern California to still see roses blooming and other plants flowering with lots of color. The Yellow rose is a photo from one of Willow and my walks.

3. Dear and I have also started walking together when he gets home from work and before we eat dinner. This has been a good time to talk and check out the neighborhood. The Sunset photo is from one of our late afternoon walks.

4. Meals for two. How easy that is. That’s one of the bonuses of my lifestyle in Southern California. We have actually eaten in for 4 nights in a row. That’s good for us. Don’t worry though, tomorrow we’re headed back to El Tecolote for our meal out!

5. The last favorite is seeing some beautiful sunrises this week. There’s something about the quiet of dawn that is wonderful to experience.

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.

San Francisco ~ Pacific Heights

Queen Anne homes dominated Victorian residential architecture from 1880 to 1910. In fact, this style is virtually synonymous with the phrase “Victorian house.” Typical characteristics of a Queen Anne home include projecting bay windows, wraparound porches, towers, turrets, balconies, elaborate banisters and spindles, stained glass, decorative trim, and patterned shingles.

On Sunday Dear and I walked around the Pacific Heights area of San Francisco to see these great Victorian Homes. We saw other styles of grand houses, also.

This yellow and green house are on Gough street. The Victorians on this block, all built in 1889, are particularly lovely. These are in the Queen Anne Style. I believe they refer to the yellow one being a Queen Anne-Eastlake style (marked by elaborate woodwork).

This was a smaller house tucked between two larger structures that just caught my eye.

This is the Spreckels Mansion. Romance novelist Danielle Steel’s home is one of the most extravagant in town – built in 1913 for Adolph Spreckels, heir to the sugar empire of German-American industrialist Claus Spreckels, who made his fortune refining California sugar beets and Hawaii sugarcane.

 

This is the home featured in the Robin William’s movie Mrs. Doubtfire.

I really enjoyed seeing this old church and all the people coming out of services.

This is the Haas-Lilienthal House built in 1886. The exciting thing about this house is that we stumbled upon it on their annual Christmas open house day. We met one of the Foundation workers out front who told us about the open house and invited us to come back when it started. I will be posting more about this great house and the indoor pictures I was able to take also.

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.

ABC Wednesday ~ Q is for Quiet

Quiet Places That I Enjoy…

 

Quiet Places in my world are important for me to experience. It gives me a sense of awe and helps me to worship the God of the universe who made everything that’s good for us to enjoy. Hope you find some Quiet this week.

For more ABC Posts visit the ABC Blog.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage and demanding a ransom for me to access them. I’m slowly cleaning up many of my posts where PB have added ugly black and grey boxes where my photos used to be. So frustrating!