It was a quiet Christmas this year. On Christmas Eve, I headed out to Navarro Beach, passing the mill superintendent’s house and Captain Fletcher’s Inn, remembering what a great time Megan and I had at Navarro by the Sea Day a couple of years ago. Arriving at the beach,...
It’s probably not surprising that I am looking toward Christmas Past rather than Christmas Present, which is basically a non-event, though there are a few presents under my tree. When I was a girl, our tree was always a real one, since we had our own grove of pine...
My big/little brother My brother’s birthday is in early September, usually on or around Labor Day weekend, the unofficial last long weekend of the summer, and my sister’s birthday is on or around the Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial first long weekend of the summer, neatly bracketing the season....
My birthday dawned sunny and beautiful. It was nice to wake up to sunlight instead of darkness. Remarkably, dedicated food fan Clyde let me sleep in, his little gift to me. Of course there was the usual Cat Care™ after I got up, but there was also time to...
My blog turns 19 today, on 420. Despite the fact that I live in Weed Central, I only noticed recently that my blog’s birthday is the same day as the pot-tastic celebration of 420. There are many tales and theories about how it happened and how it got its...
Happy New Year! There has to be some kind of 2020 vision joke I can make here, but maybe because I’ve had glasses for more than half a century (!), I can’t think of one. I did approach 2020 relatively clear-eyed, mostly because I barely made it to the...
Christmas week was always going to be a weird one. Work one day, off two days, back at work two days. I kicked off the festivities with another Girl Night™ at Chez Megan on Monday night after work. I brought the snacks, and Megan made scalloped potatoes for dinner...
The Village, All Aglow One of my favorite annual traditions is Candlelight Shopping in the Village, even if I don’t buy anything. I love seeing the quaint shops all dressed up for the holidays, shining with holiday lights and glowing with candles in Mason jars on their steps. Megan...
It’s the most sparkly time of the year! Time for the Festival of Lights at the Botanical Gardens, our annual tradition. Friday the thirteenth was the day (or night) we chose, and it was far from unlucky. For one thing, the parking goddess smiled on Megan as she usually...
The week leading up to Thanksgiving was a stormy one. The Ridge was covered with redwood needles, fallen twigs, branches, and general debris. One night driving home from work, it was so foggy and stormy that I could barely see the road. In fact, I couldn’t see the turn...
I’m still not exactly sure how I became the President of the library board. It’s strange for an impostor like me to run meetings and sign official documents, even though I sign all the checks at work. When Megan was living with me* while she was in high school,...
I felt Erica’s and Jessica’s absence keenly at the Fair, and I couldn’t bring myself to go into the Fiber building, which did not contain any of Erica’s miraculous confections. However, I had no such misgivings about the quilts, which were quite wonderful this year. There were a couple...
I took so many photos at the Fair this year that it will take two posts to share them all with you. As always, it was a beautiful day. This year, we arrived around 5:00 on Saturday evening. It was still warm, and I was still glad to have...
Step right up! I took two days off around the Fourth of July holiday, and I am pleased to announce that it was not boiling hot and I was not sick or injured, as often seems to happen when I have the temerity to take a day off. It...
It wasn’t just moving day, it was Megan’s birthday. So I left the cats and The Mess behind to go and celebrate at the family estate. After a long day of moving all my worldly goods, my brother was making burgers and Rio was making salad. Jonathan had already...
It looks like the rain is over for the season, and that’s good, because I am over it! We got close to 50 inches outside, and quite a few inches inside, due to the ever-increasing number of leaks in my aging hippie hovel. But the rhododendrons are in bloom...
I found myself at an unexpected funeral one sunny day. One of my fellow library Board members died suddenly just a few days earlier, and I received an email one afternoon asking that I attend her service the following day. I later learned that she was Jewish and that...
Dad’s birthday dawned sunny and beautiful. He probably would have approved that I spent the morning doing some cooking for the week: my friend Alice’s recipe for dak dori tang (spicy braised chicken) and Ottolenghi’s recipe for mejadra. It was Suzy’s international kitchen! Megan and Rob hosted the party...
Even though I’m skipping Christmas this year, I was still delighted to learn that the local theater was putting on a holiday show. Megan and I decided to have a pre-theater dinner at Luna Trattoria since we enjoyed our last dinner there so much. This time was just as...
Just because you’re a pre-conversion Grinch who doesn’t have a single decoration up at your house or even one Christmas card in the outbound mail doesn’t mean that you’re immune to the magic of the Festival of Lights. Despite the fact that we are skipping Christmas this year, Megan...