Morning fog...

This morning when we opened the front blinds this is what we saw.

It has been raining and overcast the past few days which caused the fog this morning. But the sun was trying to come through the fog so we got an amazing sight of sun, fog, and shadows. So of course I had to get the camera which just happened to be setting on the table.

Wishing everyone a great day.

Winter flora...

While it's not officially winter yet, you wouldn't know it by looking in our back yard! After a couple of nights of hard frost, things are looking pretty dreary! We covered the lemon tree and some of the vines, but everything else was on it's own! The heliotropes didn't fare very well, but they are hearty and will come back. Even the geraniums are sad!

Last week we finalized the winter prune of the roses, so that job is done! We did a bit of clean-up and weeding, and Lee sprayed all of the rogue weeds in the gravel. Now we'll wait till spring for our major reclamation project.

In spite of all of that, there are some bright spots in the garden:

The last roses of 2009! These Princess Diana roses were in bud when we pruned the plant, and have enjoyed having them in the living room. They have a wonderful perfume!

Gift from the birds! Our neighbor feeds the birds, and hasn't figured out that if you cook the seed, it won't grow! The birds hide their seeds in all of our planters and flower beds - here's a sun flower growing out of one of the hanging baskets!

Sun flower close-up. I wonder if the birds get confused when they go to retrieve their seeds, and they aren't there?

Winter blooming New Zealand tea tree, in full, exuberant bloom! This is the second bloom cycle we've had this year!

First Camellia bloom of the season! The bush is loaded with blooms! This Camellia tree originally belonged to Cathi and Don when they lived in San Jose. Needless to say, it's transplanted happily to Moss Beach.

First forsythia bloom of the season! Again, the bush is loaded with blossoms, and should be quite full when we return at the end of December.

Also happening, but not picture-worthy: next springs peonies are poking up through the soil! We should have an amazing display of peonies in May. The lilac busy is loaded with buds, too. We love spring!

Holiday Festivities!

'Tis the season for Holiday Festivities, and beginning with Thanksgiving, we have had more holiday celebrations this year than ever before!

We attended the Northwest Flight Attendant luncheon on Friday, December 4th. It was held in San Francisco at the North Beach Cafe restaurant. The food was excellent and there was a great turn-out. It was good to see friends that we don't see very often, and Lee had fun catching up with both retired and still-working flight attendant friends.

Friday, the 11th, we attended the newly combined Delta/Northwest Stations Christmas dinner dance that was held at the Hyatt Regency by the airport. That's a pretty dressy affair, so a good excuse to go shopping for party wear! Lee came shopping with me, and I ended up with two mix/match skirt and top outfits and a pair of pointy-toe shoes! It was fun!
The dinner was buffet-style and very good! There were drawings for door prizes (we didn't win) and everyone attending got a little gift. We each got a bottle of wine. There was a great band and we did a lot of dancing. It was great fun, and we'll definitely be attending next year!

Sunday we met Jon, Sue and Jacob in San Francisco for our annual lunch or dinner and event holiday celebration. This year it was lunch (at the North Beach Cafe) and then we went to Beach Blanket Babylon, that San Francisco event, for their holiday show. It was terrific! I'd never seen the holiday show before and they did a great job. I think that most of us enjoyed all of the singing/dancing/irreverent skits on current events. Jon and Jacob, not so much....
I think we'll let them pick the venue for next year's Christmas! :)
It was great to see them, and catch up on what's going on in their lives. Jacob is a freshman at El Cerrito High, and is really enjoying learning to speak/read/write Japanese! Jon is the construction manager for a new building under construction on Sand Hill Road in Palo Alto, and really enjoying that challenge. Sue is keeping busy with her business, although it's slowed down due to the economy, she had loyal clients who keep working coming her way.

Tuesday we're going to the AirWest Christmas potluck and white elephant gift exchange, which is always a lot of fun. There are about 15 of us, so the gift exchange should be interesting!

And then, next on our agenda, is getting organized and packed for our upcoming trip to the Pacific Northwest to see all of our kids/grandkids/great granddaughter, for the holidays! We're really looking forward to that, and we'll take lots of pictures for our Christmas post.

At the Northwest Flight Attendant luncheon in San Francisco.

Jacob, Jon and Sue, outside of Club Fugazi, waiting to go in to see Beach Blanket Babylon. Sadly, we forgot to take pictures at the restaurant, so we don't have one of all of us together.

This group of ladies from the Red Hat Society were also waiting to see Beach Blanket Babylon. Lee asked if he could take their picture. As I was standing in the interminable line for the ladies room, I discovered that they were from Half Moon Bay!

Our Thanksgiving Trip

We spent Thanksgiving in Grover Beach with Jim and Rex. We avoided the crowded highways by driving down on Tuesday. Smooth sailing all the way!
We had a wonderful dinner, that we prepared on Thursday, and enjoyed on Friday, along with Fred, Jim's 94 year old neighbor. I have to say, it was the most relaxing holiday meal ever, since all of the work was done the day before. Clean up was even a snap! And everything was delicious, so it was a success!

After we finished with the food prep on Thursday we took a walk to the beach, and walked along the boardwalk, all the way in to Pismo Beach. As you can see, it was a beautiful, warm day - didn't even need a jacket.

Sunday night we went to the Melodrama - that's become a Thanksgiving tradition! It was great fun - they do a great job on Dickens Christmas Carol, as well as a spoof on Little Red Riding Hood, and a Holiday Revue that is hysterical. A great way to get into the holiday spirit.

We had really enjoyed visiting with Jim, and he enjoyed his long weekend, as well.

We left Jim's on Monday, and drove about an hour to Cambria, which is north on Highway 1, just south of Hearst Castle. It was my first visit to Cambria that we had spent any time. Again, the weather was beautiful, and we enjoyed exploring the villages of Cambria, east and west. We had a room at the Pelican Cove Inn, which is located right on the ocean, on Moonstone Beach. I had never heard of moonstones before, but a very nice shop keeper showed us what they looked at in their natural state, as well as when they are polished and made into jewelery.

When we checked into the hotel, they were right in the middle of their wine and cheese reception, so, of course, we joined them! There were lots of people there and all were enjoying the afternoon. We had dinner reservations in Cambria, but made sure that we were back for the Dessert Buffet that ended at 9:00 pm! On Tuesday, after a fabulous breakfast, we headed to the beach!

Armed with the knowledge of what moonstones look like, we began the search. The beach there is fabulous, lots and lots of little round stones! So different than this area - it was almost as though they had all been tumbled and shaped! And we did find moonstones! As well as a good amount of sea glass. After beach combing, we went for a long walk along the boardwalk that runs the entire length of moonstone beach. It was fabulous!

We went back through Cambria, and followed the signs that we had seen the day before for the Red Moose Cookie Company - very intriguing! The shop is tucked away in an industrial area, and we talked to each other about how we MAY buy ONE package (4) of cookies. But probably not.

We met Caren, the owner, CEO and chief baker of amazing original cookie recipes! She brought out a tray of samples and we began tasting. OMG!! Those were the most amazing cookies that we had ever eaten!! Caren's motto is that anything is possible with love and butter! I looked up at Lee and he had FOUR packages of cookies in his arms, so I added two more! Now, I have no idea what we are going to do with all of these cookies, as we aren't eating them! I suspect that they'll end up in the freezer, and come out for very special occasions. Come over for coffee and cookies!

Armed with cookies at about 1:30, we decided that we'd better head home as we still had a 3 hour drive ahead of us. So, we headed down Hwy 46, which is the central coast equivalent of Napa, with lots of wineries! We only stopped at 3, and now have 3 amazing bottles of wine for special occasions. At the 3rd winery, we had a snack on the patio, then got serious about going home.

Straight from there to Santa Cruz, where we stopped at Costco to provision for the following week, and got home, got the car unloaded and groceries put away about 8:00. Dinner at 9:00. It was a great week!

Tomorrow we are attending the Northwest Flight Attendant luncheon in San Francisco, then on Saturday night we are going to the theater in HMB, for their Holiday show.

Our beautiful weather is coming to an end - rain is due on Sunday, and it's certainly turned cold. I guess that winter is on it's way!

Jim and Rex at the beach in Grover Beach

The boardwalk in Cambria

Pebbles on the beach!

Sea weed on the beach, with feather.

I usually carry zip loc bags with us, just in case we find sea glass. However, this time I didn't. But, the shower cap from the hotel worked just fine. We found lots of treasures!

This part of the beach was home to a huge flock of seagulls. They put on a good show for Lee.

Seagulls!
There were also lots of sand pipers with very long beaks!

Rocks on the beach - there were lots of different colors of stones.

Success! A smooth, almost polished moonstone!

Gaily decorated tree outside of one of the many hotels/motels/cabins along Moonstone Drive.

Sea Glass

I know that I keep talking about finding sea glass, and we thought we'd show you some of the glass that we have found. Sea glass started life as some glass object, that somehow ended up in the sea, broke up into lots of pieces, and has been tumbled around in the waves and sand until it gets smooth and polished.

The most common colors of sea glass are brown and green, which clearly started life as a beer bottle! White, which you can't see clearly in the picture are the next more common. We've been finding some light blue glass down at the reserve. Really, really rare is blue glass. Lee has found most of the few blue pieces we have - I think I've found only one or two.

The pieces below were all found at Grey Whale cove in Pacifica. That beach seems to be really good for glass. We were there a few weeks ago and as I watched, the sea delivered a large green piece of glass onto the sand, which I snatched! The glass found there tends to be larger, too. Usually the pieces of glass we find are quite small.

It's great fun to search for and find sea glass, and yes, I'm easily amused! The white glass are "diamonds", the green, "emeralds", the brown are "topaz", and so on!

We find and are able to take sea glass at the Reserve, as glass is considered refuse there! : )

There is some beautiful jewelery made from sea glass, which is something that I may try in the future. In the meantime, it's all about the hunt!

I someday hope to find a piece of red or pink, and a marble! Tumbled, ancient marbles are sometimes found - I think that would be a hoot! So, the next time you're walking on the beach, keep your eyes open for sea glass! : )

Tuesday/Wednesday Activities

After our hike, we had a few things to do - we decided to clear out the living room! We carried both the sofa and love seat out, and put them in the garage. That was quite a feat! Following that was a good cleaning of floors, windows, etc.!

And then the living room was all empty and hollow!! Looks much bigger, doesn't it?

And why did we go to all this immense effort? Well, to make way for our new living room furniture, which was delivered this morning at 9:00 am! Two weeks ago, we visited the Sofa Outlet in San Mateo, as our old sofa was getting pretty soft and squishy. We sat on lots and lots of sofas, until we found a style we liked. Then we looked at 1000's of fabric swatches and chose one for the sofa. We found chairs that we liked as well, and chose coordinating fabric for those. They then build the furniture, and deliver it within two weeks!

Instead of the love seat, we now have two bucket swivel chairs! They look kinda gray in this picture, but they are actually a lovely brown color.

And here is the sofa, that is also a queen-size sleeper, with a deluxe mattress! We now have beds for 6, so come on over!

Very comfy sofa! And the room seems bigger and lighter as well, as the old furniture was pretty dark, and had a more over-stuffed profile. We love them, and love the new look of our living room! Anyone want a sofa and love seat?

And in addition to our new furniture, Lee is now the proud owner of a Mac Book Pro!! He's been wanting one for years, and finally decided to close out his Roth IRA, which had lost 75% of it's principal, and turn the remainder into a Mac! Good choice, don't you think? He's a happy camper!

Purisima Creek Trail

Tuesday morning we had appointments to get our hair cut, and then afterwards, planned to go hiking on a trail that we had recently read about. It's located just south of Half Moon Bay, in the Purisima Creek Redwoods. The redwoods there are about 100 years old, and are the oldest stand of redwoods on the peninsula. They are considered a second-growth forest, as the original redwoods were harvested in the 1800's. These trails are WAY off the beaten path - you have to know they are there - the odds of stumbling upon them are very slim.

When we finally found the trail head, there were other cars in the parking lot, which was a good sign. We hiked about 4 miles, round trip, with a fair amount of up and down. The redwoods were beautiful - lots of towering trees, moss, ferns, etc. It felt very Jurassic park! Lee got some great shots, too.

This was the "welcome" sign.... hmmm... mountain lions, ticks, poison oak - what could go wrong!?

Light shining on the trail through the redwoods. It was very peaceful and quiet. Also damp and chilly!
More sights along the trail

The ferns were growing everywhere! There were lots of stumps and fallen trees, and there was growth of some sort on all of them.

Mountainside filled with ferns.

The particular trail that we were on followed the creek. The sound of water followed us everywhere. Strangely enough, there were NO bird sounds and we didn't see any birds.

Some of the local fauna! As you might imagine, the banana slugs were plentiful! Banana slugs are also the official mascot of UC Santa Cruz. Valarie also had an "up close and personal" experience with a banana slug when she was in high school. Disgusting, slimy creatures, really!

There was also lots of redwood sorrel - member of the oxalis or clover family. We looked for a 4 leaf clover, but didn't find any.

The twisted branches, draped in moss, caught our eye.

The sun coming through the canopy of the redwood trees.

A friendly hiker.

Note the tree on the left - not a tree fern, but a fern tree! There were ferns growing up the length of the moss-covered tree.

The maple leaves were falling, too.

The pine trees are loaded with pine cones this year.

Sunlight on maple leaves.

It was a great walk, and we'll definitely go back to explore all of the trails. BTW, apparently either Carole or I got out dates mixed up, so we didn't get haircuts after all, but got them today, instead.

Johnston House & Marine Reserve

Sunday dawned beautiful and sunny, once the frost melted, so we went into Half Moon Bay to visit the Johnston House - the first home built in HMB in 1853, in the classic England "salt box" style. The house had been abandoned, but was rescued in 1962, and a massive renovation project took place. The house was built of local native redwood, and was still in plumb when restoration began. They give tours of the house every Saturday, but neither Lee or I had ever been there. They were having their annual Holiday House Botique, so we not only got to tour the house, but see lots of lovely handmade items for sale

Donna and I outside of the Johnston House

The Johnson House is also known as the White House of Half Moon Bay

Salt Box style construction

After the tour, we wandered around Half Moon Bay for awhile, then headed back to Moss Beach. There was a minus tide, so we decided to go down to the beach, where we found that tons of people had the same idea! The beach looks so different with all of the rock formations exposed, and it's a great time for searching for sea glass!

Searching for sea glass! Donna is on the right, I'm bending over searching through the rocks.

Donna, hard at work! We actually found quite a bit of sea glass!

This shot shows how far out the tide is! The kids would have loved it!

Another shot

We thought this was a hoot! Faithful friend, guarding boots and hat!