Under a blue moon

Lobster roll, anyone?

 

Page 2 of the travel wishbook.  The places depicted are in no special order, by the way.  If someone waved their magic wand and said I could go anywhere I'd be on a plane to Paris faster than you could say au revoir. 

 

But since there doesn't appear to be a travel fairy godmother in these parts we'll just head for Maine in my imagination. 

As with the New Orleans page each item represents something uniquely Maine-ish.   Can you guess them? 

 

I stitched that spider web onto the page.  I saw a Halloween card where they had done that and filed the idea away for future use.  Now what could a spider web have to do with Maine?  Hmmm?

I've always wanted to eat a lobster roll and I never have.  There is something kind of appealing about taking a rather luxurious food item and serving it in such a simple, accessible way.

 

I think the next stop on our journey will be somewhere in Europe.   Not sure yet where.  Paris would be the obvious choice but I have to let the images and embellishments inspire me. 

Beach glass

 

On Tuesday my youngest son and I went beach glass hunting.  There will be no pictures of beach glass because 1) The pickins' were slim and 2) My camera batteries died after taking three shots.

For those of you familiar with the California coastline we picked a spot a little South of Pescadero beach.  It was a typical June day - a bit foggy and cool but still lovely.

 

You need to be part moutain goat to get down to the beach.  I'm not sure if I should be flattered that Evan thinks I can scamper down the rocks like he can or worried that this might be some evil plot to do me in.....

No crabs were harmed in the filming of this blog.  I think this one needs a few more years before it ends up on someone's table.

 

After about an hour we climbed back up the rocks to the car and headed North into Half Moon Bay for some tacos and then stopped off at my very all time favorite nursery, the Half Moon Bay Nursery.  If you live in the Bay Area it's worth the drive.  It's on Hwy 92 just before you get into Half Moon Bay (if you are heading West on 92).  They have the best selection of plants. 

(The remaining pics were taken with my cellphone so the quality is a bit poor)

 

I resisted the geraniums.  Rick has a peculiar prejudice against them and I've already snuck a few into the garden.   Gorgeous clear, cool pink though, isn't it?

 

The wall fountain in the previous post came from this nursery about 15 years ago.  They have a good selection of pots, wicker edging (I was wondering where one would purchase that if one didn't live in England), plant stands and garden decor.

 

They also have a good selection of indoor plants.  Which seems harder to find these days, for some reason.  They also have a huge succulent section which Evan liked.  He has quite the succulent garden going. 

I bought a flat of impatiens which I have planted by the front door.  I'm hoping the shock of going from the cool, fogginess of HMB to the dry heat of Granite Bay doesn't do them in.

Let's just forget about the mantel, shall we?

 

Mantel still isn't cooperating but instead of trying to fix it I've decided to move on and just accept is as it is.  I'm going to be redoing it for Christmas in about 45 minutes anyway.

I did put away the Halloween themed decorations in the entry way and redid the library table in there.  And would you look at that....

 

It kind of reminds me of the old mantel. 

Maybe with bit more green in the mix.

 

This is how the mantel stands at the moment:

 

After staring at it for two weeks now I realized what I want is a mantel mirror.  Something kind of like this (I have seen prettier ones).

 

Day off

 

Yesterday I had the day off.  Actually, let me back up a bit.  I was SUPPOSED to have the last two weeks off.  It has been a busy Summer at work and my big project was winding down.  I scheduled to take the first two weeks of October off.  No big plans ~ just working around the house and not logging into work.  Just time to unwind.

My partner on the project was set to back me up on the last few items that needed finalizing.  And two days before I was set to be off he got appendicitis and had to have emergency surgery.  He has been out ever since.   So much for my vacation. 

I have managed to work just a few hours each day but it's just not the same as leaving it all behind for two straight weeks.

But back to yesterday.  I did manage an outing.  I worked for a few hours in the morning then picked my cousin Claudia and my sister Trish.  We drove down to Monterey and met Nicki at Tarpy's Restaurant in Monterey.

Tarpy's has an interesting history.  The restaurant is in old house in the area known as Tarpy Flats.  Named after Matt Tarpy, an early rancher in the Monterey area, who was lynched in the 1870's when he was arrested for the murder of his female neighbor over a property line dispute.  He claimed it was an accident but he was hauled off to jail and during the night he was lynched by the town folks. 

We had a lovely lunch (mixed greens, apple, candied pecans and Gorgonzola for me) and then poor Nicki had to go back to work but the rest of us headed into Carmel for a little window shopping.   Carmel Plaza has a fabulous Anthropologie (and great sales going on right now). 

I left my camera at home so the pics above are courtesy of Flickr Favorites.

Of course I'm feeling a bit cheated about my vacation, especially since I already turned in my time card for the time off.  I also have to take a lot of time off between now and the end of the year or I will lose the vacation time.  I'm thinking of taking every Friday off until then end of the year.  I just have to see how that flies with my boss. 

Think of all the projects I could get finished if I had three days off each weekend.

County Fair

This is going to be a pic heavy post.  I went to the Nevada Country Fair last night and I took over 200 pictures. 

I have gone to this particular fair since 1982.  It has won awards for being the prettiest country fair in the state.  It is held in the Sierras in a town called Grass Valley where the ferris wheels and corn dog stands are nestled in the pines. 

It is such a slice of pure, unaldultrated small town Americana.  We headed for the pigs first thing.  I think that pig is smiling at me.  The pigs below are six days old.  Makes me ever so glad I am not a mama pig.

After getting our fill of piggy cuteness we strolled through some of the exhibit halls where we saw prize winning jams and baked goods.  There was even a snickerdoodle division (Rick's favorite cookie).

There is an area called Treat Street that has every conceivable kind of fair food you can imagine.  Corndogs, steaming hot corn, giant baked pototoes, pasties, you name it.  Tough place to be if you are, ahem, on a diet but I managed to find a chicken taco salad at the Mexican food stand that was in dietary reason.

I avoided this place:

Okay I may have pressed my nose up against the window until I was shooed away.

After eating we went back to the livestock area and had a look at the baby goats.  I hate to say it but I think the 4H goats might be a little better looking than our goats. 

When it got dark we headed over to the carny games to try our hand at winning a gold fish or a ginormous Spongebob Square Pants.  Thank goodness we can't knock over a stack of milk bottles to save our life.

Going to the fair is always a little bitter sweet because to me it signals the end of Summer.  We'll still have a couple of months of hot weather but the days are definitely getting shorter and the evenings cooler.   

Another lovely day

Around here we do a little something I like to call celebrating my birthday month.  It's a fine concept, don't you think?  Why only be special for ONE day.

Yesterday Rick and I spent the day doing whatever I wanted (this, admittedly, isn't too far off how things usually go around here).  And yesterday I wanted to go to a farmer's market and out to lunch. 

There is an association of farmer's markets in our area and they are at different locations depending on the day of the week.  On Saturdays they are located in Auburn, CA.  So we drove up mid-morning.  Since it is so early in the season I wasn't expecting much - and there wasn't.  About 20 stands, mostly selling baked goods.  But I did get some leeks and new potatoes.

It took us about 20 minutes to go through the market so we decided to walk up the hill to the Placer County courthouse.  There is a museum in the bottom floor that is open seven days a week.

I love going into small, local history museums.  They are just charming and so earnest.  This one had a diorama of the Maidu Indians that were common to the area before the gold rush and all the diseases that introduced to them (we actually have a large granite boulder on our property that has three perfectly round depressions from where Indians had ground their acorns - I'll take a picture of it some time). 

It also has the original woman's jail under the courthouse stairs.

Charming, no?  One of its most notorious inmates was Alma Bell, who was jilted by her fiance so she shot him.   She actually only spent about six months here, wiling away the hours needlepointing, until she was acquitted for reasons of temporary insanity (that whole woman scorned thing...).

We strolled around old town Auburn for an hour or so then headed up to Nevada City for lunch at one of my favorite restaurants.  They have a back patio, all shaded with arbors and vines and walled in by the neighboring brick buildings.  It's very charming. 

I have decided I prefer going out to lunch over dinner.  There is something just so decadently leisurely about it. 

On our way home we stopped at a nursery and admired all the Japanese Maples and weeping cherry trees. 

Tonight the festivities continue with a Tapas and Cava party.  I hope to take pictures (something happens when food is put in front of me - I suddenly forget my blogging intentions and just settle in to eat). 

Dickens Faire

We attended the Dickens Faire in San Francisco on Sunday.  Rick and I drove down and met up with assorted family members for a day of Victorian shopping, eating and general revelry.  That's Nicki, Sara and Ryan on the right above.  This was before Nicki bought her hat from the Bosphorus that she wore for the remainder of the day and well into the evening.  Ryan looks like some random dude wearing a suit but he had a bowler hat on most of the time, fitting in with the whole Victorian vibe. 

Sara even had a newsboy cap, going for the Oliver Twist look. 

There are a whole host of characters that roam the venue.  We saw Charles Dickens (of course.  It was his faire, after all), Jacob Marley, the Cratchits, various chimney sweeps (if you see a chimney sweep, give him a kiss on the cheek and you'll have good luck), Mad Sal and her Ladies' Oratorical and Recreational Society (with an emphasis on the recreational, wink wink).   

We saw shops selling magic wands, jewelry, books, pottery and Victorian Clothing.  The picture above and below are from The Dark Garden, a shop that specializes in corsetry.  The windows had live mannequins and if you were missing one of the men in your party you could generally find them loitering outside this shop.  They claimed to be most interested in the engineering of the undergarments and how they made certain aspects of a ladies anatomy look like it was defying gravity.

The very first thing we did was stop for tea at Cuthbert's Tea Shoppe.  We sat ourselves down and had a nice cuppa and some scones and crumpets to fortify ourselves for the day's activities.   Which was mostly more eating.

There were meat pies, fish and chips, roasted chestnuts, bangers and mash.  I had falafel with tzatziki sauce because nothing quite says Victorian Christmas like Greek food.  Hey Sara had dolmas, so I wasn't the only one.  I did have hot buttered rum to make up for it (prompting Ryan to tell a joke about cider that I can't repeat here...).

It was a fun, fun day and if you are in the California Bay Area it's worth the $22 to get in. 

One last picture of a teeny flower stand tucked into an alley.  It's kind of dark but it looked so real it really did transport us back in time, if just for a few hours.

Go Duckies!!

Okay so this isn't exactly in Eugene, OR yet - this is the road trip portion of the festivities.  This motel, that we did not actually stay in, is in lovely downtown Weed, CA.  We stopped for a little sustenance for both the Mini and ourselves.  I just liked the retro vibe of the sign.

Sara and I started our journey at the crack of dawn on Thursday.  She arrived with coffee in hand and we jammed my belongings into the back of her Mini Cooper and hit the road.  The drive from Palo Alto to Eugene really isn't bad at all, provided you have an adorable car to drive and an adorable driving companion.  It took us about ten hours - and that included a stop at the Olive Pit in Corning, CA for Lemon/Citrus olives and hot pepper jelly and the aforementioned stop in Weed for lunch.

First we had a little trouble identifying a California landmark, Mt. Shasta.  We came around a bend a spied a tall, pointed thing so I started snapping pictures...

only to realize that it was just a hill.  It wasn't until the drive back that we spied this...

 

and realized our miserable grasp on California geography.  I swear we didn't even SEE it on the way to Oregon.  And the on the trip home - there it was, looming on the horizon for about an hour.  I don't know how we missed it.

After Weed, CA we knew the Oregon border was just around the corner so I gave Sara my camera so she could immortalize our entrance into Oregon.  We drove, and drove and drove and just when Sara couldn't hold the camera up any longer we came up on the state sign.

Whoops.  Well, it says Welcome to Oregon even if you can't quite make it out.

Another 120 or so miles and we made it to the mecca that is also known as Cheryl's house.  Cheryl is Becca's gracious and beautiful mother.  Becca, of course, is Sara's best friend.  And Becca is betrothed to Mike.  Just so you can keep all the parties straight.

Oh, and of course there is Max.

Cheryl is flat out lucky we did so much shopping whilst in Eugene or Sara and I would have found a way to smuggle Max into the Mini and back into California.  Next time I'm not buying so much big stuff (ha ha.  Just kidding Rick.  I really didn't, ahem, you know buy a LOT of stuff - well maybe a lot but not necessarily EXPENSIVE stuff.   Umm, yeah... anywhoo, where was I?).

Oh yes.  At Cheryl's.  Where we were greeted with my very favorite words..."may I pour you a glass of wine?"  Twist my arm. 

Eugene was a little drizzly and cool when we arrived and Cheryl's house was all aglow and smelling of wondrous things in the kitchen.  We had a fabulous pasta dinner and just talked and talked until Sara and I began to nod off. 

The next morning we popped out of bed and had a lovely tea and cranberry bread breakfast then headed to Alton Baker park to take Max on his morning constitutional and to see the Will-AMM-ette river (you are rube if you pronounce it Willuhmet ).

We had a nice stroll along the river before heading off for a day of shopping and eating.

 

More about the food and finds tomorrow.

Saturday drive

This picture is apropos of nothing really - except we had a lovely lovely lunch in San Luis Obisbo on Saturday at a restaurant called Novo.  We sat out on the deck under a giant oak tree and the shadows looked really interesting on the table.

San Luis Obisbo is a really cute town.   Since I grew up in a college town I kind of have an affinity for all of them.   Too bad it is so far away from the bay area.  We were doing a little reconnaissance - checking out the central coast area as a possible contender for a place to live. 

We know we want to move out of the Sacramento area - and would prefer to be somewhat close to the coast.   So we set out on Saturday and drove up highway 1 to SLO, had a little lunch and then drove onto Atascadero (no), Templeton (very nice but kind of hot like we are trying to get away from and also kind of far) and Paso Robles (again, nice areas but man the heat will surely kill me).

See - this is what I want (driveby shooting, hence the blurriness); only I want to be sitting on an acre lot in the Carmel Valley area.  That's not too much to ask, is it?  This was in San Luis Obisbo.  I said it was a cute town.

Hey I just realized I have been blogging for a year now (and one day).  Happy Blogiversary to me!

Ode to the peony

Okay so no ode, exactly - it's a bit early in the day for that.  But I do have to rethink my whole 'peonies are more trouble than they're worth' stance.  Pike's Place Market was loaded with them and they were gorgeous.  So lush.  Buckets and buckets of them in the most amazing pinks, corals, creams, peaches. 

Tonight we are going to a restaurant that my coworker who lives here says is the best local seafood and the tourists haven't found it yet.  I probably shouldn't mention the name (I can't recall it anyway) - try to keep it a local secret.  Yeah - like my mentioning it is going to affect the tourism in Seattle...

I love this postcard of the Space Needle.  It's so Tomorrowland looking.