Tag Archives: Weather

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.

We Made it Through the Storm!!

Our trip to Vancouver B.C. was a great contrast in light and dark, wet and dry, stormy clouds and blue skies. When we hit downtown Vancouver and turned onto Georgia St. the rains came down in buckets and I’m not exaggerating. Rivers formed within minutes on the downtown streets.

We got to Stanley Park and found the right road to get to the Teahouse Restaurant and it was fun to hear the big plops of rainwater hitting our car off the huge trees. We got out of the car to run into the restaurant and it was like someone was standing over us pouring water out of a pitcher onto our heads. We ate lunch in the conservatory type room and enjoyed seeing the rain all around us.

 

After lunch we decided the best option for this day would be to go to the Aquarium.

After our time at the Aquarium we were treated to some beautiful dry skies.

I’ll be posting photos from lunch, the aquarium, and more from Stanley Park as the week goes on.

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.

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.

Aren’t They Cute?

 

Our drive to and home from the funeral on Saturday was quite treacherous at times with rain squalls that turned the freeways into rivers. We saw a few cars that had hydroplaned and ended up in the medians or in accidents with other vehicles.

 

But we made it there and home again just fine and it was worth it to see these cuties, my mom and dad.

 

Here are the song sheets from the funeral with the same songs in Russian and English side by side.

 

A closer look at the same song here in English and below in Russian…

 

I was pleased that I understood most of the Russian message at the funeral service. The English message delivered by my brother Steve was challenging…

Welcome to my bi-lingual world…

Some of you asked if Dear is Russian and the answer is no. He took Russian in college and he can read Russian. He sang with our Russian choir when we were dating. Dear is half Swedish and half English, Welsh and Cherokee. :0)

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.

Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head…

 

See the wetness out this window? We have had rain in Southern California for the last couple of days and we are promised some more rain tomorrow. I find it very refreshing being a transplant from the Seattle area. I was happy to have to pull out my great Marmot raincoat!

Tomorrow we are travelling across town to Whittier for a funeral. The Aunt of my best friend from my Russian Baptist Days in L.A. died last Saturday. My friend and her cousins (whose mom died) were connected in many different ways to my family and extended family. Our Russian community is all inter-connected in hard to explain ways. So it will be a day of tears for the grief her children are feeling from saying goodbye and a day of rejoicing in knowing she is with her Savior in heaven. A day of remembering our friendships and re-connecting and seeing the kids “all grown up”. A day of looking at someone and thinking “oh my I know who you are but I can’t remember your name right now”. Does that ever happen to you?  We will sing in Russian and sing in English. We will hear messages in Russian and a message in English. We will pray in Russian and pray in English. We will gather at the church, then head to the graveside, then we will all meet together for lunch.

“Therefore in life I’ll trust in Thee,
In death I will adore;
And after death will sing Thy praise
When time shall be no more.”

Hope you all have a day filled with an awareness of the God who made this world for us to enjoy and numbers our days…

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 ~

Time flies when you’re old having fun. Here it is Friday already and it’s time to list our favorites from this past week. Visit Susanne from Living to Tell the Story to join in on the fun.

 

1. We had two good walks on the weekend. Our first walk was to the Farmer’s Market on Saturday morning while it was drizzling. Then on Sunday we walked to our usual Mexican Restaurant for lunch. We were feeling oh so European.

2. On Saturday my brother Tim and his wife Letty came over for most of the day and we had a special birthday dinner for Tim. We served barbecued Rib Eye Steak, roasted fingerling potatoes, mushrooms sauteed with onions with a cream and white wine reduction, and a salad with persian dressing. For dessert we had a limoncello cream cake. From some of those descriptions can you tell I watch Top Chef? Anything is fancy if you put the right description with it :0)

3. We’ve experienced some “weather” here in Southern California and it was nice to have rain and big fluffy clouds around. Now we are in another Santana Wind pattern which warms things up considerably. Willow and I had quite a windy walk on Thursday.

4. Every couple of months my mom and dad have the “girls” over for dinner. This past Tuesday my sisters, my SIL’s, and my nieces along with grand nephew Jackson met at mom and pop’s for dinner. It’s always so much fun to get together. We laugh a lot.

5. One more of my favorites was to meet up with my bloggy friend Cori face to face for the first time this past Tuesday.

To read more Fave Fives visit Susanne at 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.

Blue Monday ~ Snowflakes!!

 

This is the first time I’ve seen actual detailed snowflakes in person like these. These are very tiny ones (about the size of peas and sesame seeds) that fell on Dear’s old blue truck in the driveway at our home in Washington state. He spotted them and called me out to take a look. I’ve seen snow falling and snow piled up but not this kind of detail in a flake. I hope you can see it. I had to use super macro and zoom a bit to make it come out this clear. So glad the truck is blue so I could use these for Blue Monday. We are back at the condo in Southern California now and just heard the snow is falling again at our home in Washington! Here’s some more blue from Washington. I took this right after the snowflakes…

 

For more Blue Monday please visit Smiling Sally and join in if you have some blue to share…

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.

Will They Make It?

 

These were some of the skies about and above the Santa Monica Mountains today in Camarillo, California.

 

This is what the neighborhoods look like in the Seattle area right now.

Our 4 kids have airline tickets to fly from the Seatac Airport to the Long Beach Airport Tuesday evening. We are hoping and praying that their flight will not be cancelled and that they will make it here. This is the first time in 16 years we are all gathering with the Bagdanov extended family for Christmas Eve. The last time ellen b’s immediate family attended the celebration was in 1992! We felt it was high time for us all to attend this annual event. My parents, our kid’s grandparents, are 85 now and we wanted our kids to experience this event with them again now that they are all adults. If our kids make it down and if Lana G. and her husband make it down there will be 35 of us celebrating in Huntington Beach at my sister Vera and her husband Nick’s house.

So all of this to just get personal and let you know that I will keep busy tomorrow so I don’t fall into worry mode over whether Seatac gets it’s act and de-icer together to get those planes in the air again!

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.

ABC Wednesday ~ Outdoors in Santa Barbara

We are on the letter O and my choices are October, Outdoors, On the Coast, On a Walk, Overcast!

Dear and I drove up the coast last Saturday. After a drive through San Marcos Pass to stop at Cold Springs Tavern for breakfast, we headed back to the shoreline in Santa Barbara for a walk. We headed up the beachwalk to the Bird Refuge. There was quite an intense marine layer effect happening on our drive and during our walk. We could not see out into the Pacific. We headed to the refuge and the layer was a little less dense here.

I was really happy to capture this Pelican at the refuge. Oops I guess I should have saved him for next week. P is for Pelican…

For more ABC posts visit the ABC blog that was started by Denise Nesbitt.

Jane Austen Quote

 

“What dreadful hot weather we have!
It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance.”
~Jane Austen

We’re having a heat wave and I’m glad my condo is air conditioned. I’m heading to Huntington Beach tomorrow for a family cooking event. What a day to cook but it can’t be helped. We’re making Russian Pelemeny for a family function coming up…

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage. They have blacked out all those photos on my blog posts. OH BOTHER! I’m slowly cleaning up my posts.