Bleat, Yum, Splash, Slurp and Ahhhh.....

Song - You Hit the Wrong Note Billy Goat by Bill Haley and the Comets

 Last Friday, Mr. B and I headed down Hwy. 1 along the California coast to visit Harley Goat Farm on our way to Santa Cruz for Easter weekend.

 Their link is here - Harley Goat Farm

 Yes.....there were lots of baby goats running around and lot's of delicious cheese and body products in their shop. We came home with a few fine goat cheeses'. 

The adult goats are in the photo above and below are the baby goats that are 6 weeks old and being weaned from their parents.

 We drove through fingers of fog......

 

....then out into sunshine again....and back again to heavy fog.

We arrived at the cabin to beautiful sunshine and sat on the deck and relaxed.

For dinner on Friday night we went to Soif (which is French for "thirst") in downtown Santa Cruz where we have eaten several times before. It's a cozy little bistro type restaurant that always has an interesting menu and atmosphere.

We shared a cheese course that had Kikorangi (Blue Cheese-cow) from New Zealand,  Brillat Savarin (Brie-cow) from Lyon, France (yummmmm, yummy, yummy, yum),  Pata Cabra (Chevre-goat) from Spain,  Cabot Clothbound Cheddar (pale yellow cheddar-cow) from Vermont, Manchego El Trigal (sheep) from Spain as well as quince paste, grapes, almonds and toast. Our portions were at lease four times this size but I was so excited that I forgot to take a photo.....

We each had a couple of glasses of wine - Mr. B had Syrah from Northern Rhone which he really liked and I had a Pere et Fils Remoissenet Bourgogne Blanc which was fabulous. We both ordered amazing entrees but once again they were gone before I thought to photograph them.  So now you will just have to go to Soif yourself and try something on their delightful menu!

Saturday morning was sunny and Andy & Ashley came to visit and stay overnight. 

We stopped by our very favorite bakery in Capitola to pick up some breakfast on our way to the beach - Gayle's Bakery & Rosticceria! 

We picked up a bag of savory and sweet treats to-go and headed to Aptos Beach.

 We plopped on a log while looking at this view of the bay and dined with great joy!

We took a nice long walk along the shore and enjoyed dodging the waves as they rolled in.

 Saturday night we had an early Easter dinner as the kids had to head home in the morning to take care of some things. 

It was so nice to spend time together.

Easter morning we had breakfast and our guests took off for home.  Mr. B and I drove up to the lighthouse and watched the surfers for a while.  

The ocean was quiet but a few small waves rolled in but it looked more like

beginners-Easter-break-surfers out there.

Mr. B fixed a door in the cabin that needed attention 

and I planted a flat of white Impatiens in the garden.

In the afternoon our second set of guests arrived - our middle son Jon, his girlfriend Jacque and their puppy Chewy.  We had a lovely visit and late lunch together.

Mr. B and I stayed until Monday at noon as it was another beautiful day and difficult to return home but we will be back!

"You can't stop the waves but you can learn to surf. "

-- Jon Kabat-Zinn

Helping Hands

Song - HELP! by the Beatles

Mama Finch feeding her fledgling

While I have been posting about our April trip to France, a lot of love has been going around.....at least around our family.  We have celebrated six birthdays, Mother's Day was spent with family in Booneville, and we just celebrated Father's Day with a family BBQ in our backyard. But more importantly......

 My brother and I have found a great little rescue dog for my mom!  She has named him Buddy and that's just what he is.  He is sweet, cuddly, loves children, is properly house trained, doesn't dig in her garden or chew her shoes and insists on sleeping in bed with her! And when she gets out the brush to comb his soft coat, he lays there like he is having a Spa Day and wonders why she has stopped.  Buddy is learning to ride in a car and walk with a leash. 

Buddy is a mix of Bichon Frise and Halvanese.  He is bonding with his new family (all of us) and learning to trust again.  It's beautiful to watch this frightened little guy go from shaking in the corner to jumping into mom's lap and give her a kiss for taking such great care of him!

 A few weeks ago Mr. B and I drove down to my parents cabin in Santa Cruz.  After the long winter it needed a little loving care. 

 While Mr. B worked behind the scenes on fun stuff like the plumbing and clearing the leaves off of the roof, I got to do a little cleaning up and planting in the garden.

 Now it is ready for summer fun!

"We might think we are nurturing our garden, 

but of course it's our garden that is really nurturing us."

--Jenny Uglow

Queen of Hearts

Song - Mother and Child Reunion by Paul Simon

Mother's Day
 

 

Some photo's of mom's and their daughters.....from our family.

Mamma Mia.....
it's both a love story and a struggle for independence kinda relationship.

Above is a photo of my grandmother and my mom on her wedding day.

(I need to say that Grandma never dressed like this....she was always in an apron & cooking!)

I often wonder if there were ever  struggles in their relationship?

Grandma Sophie had four beautiful daughters.
And all the sisters were great friends.

My mom's mom - Grandma Sophie and her mom - Grandma Mary.

I was very fortunate to be able to spend time with both my Grandmother 

and Great Grandmother on my mom's side of the family.

Grandma Mary and my mom in Los Angeles c1980

Grandma Mary lived until she was 98 years old!

Need I say.....she was a pistol!

 My mom and her mother-in-law.....Grandma Violet.

(That's Duchess in between them at the beach in Santa Cruz)

 My daughter-in-law, Ashley and myself last year at her wedding shower.

Mom and myself at my wedding to Mr. B.

 Grandma Mary and me in Los Angeles.  She called me "Jeanettie"

Mom and I at the Giant's World Series game in 2010.

Very special time.

Love you mom and all the love your bring to our family!


 "God could not be everywhere, and therefore he made mothers"
 - Jewish proverb

Wet and Wild

Song - Sunset Piper at the Inn at Spanish Bay


 Every night at sunset, there appears a bagpiper to say goodnight to the links at Spanish Bay.  He walks along the 18th hole with the ocean and sunset behind him.  It is a sight to behold.

So several months ago I decided to plan a trip to Carmel with Mr. B for his birthday and to surprise him I invited all of the kids to join us for dinner at Spanish Bay!

The weekend was great....except for the weather and road conditions.  In fact the hotel called me on Friday at noon saying they had no power nor did they have any idea as to when it would be restored so we could cancel. 

But Mr. B is an adventurous sort and decided if we could get food and wine, then we should go!!! Talley Ho....

 By the time we got to our hotel, the power had been restored, however the kids were staying at the Santa Cruz cabin and they didn't have power nor a break in the rain.  The San Lorenzo River was close to flood stage - but Mr. B knew none of this as it was all a big surprise! There were a lot of secret texts going on.

Have you heard that Carmel is a dog friendly town?  And it is, as is our hotel - there were dogs everywhere.  They were rather well behaved too! As we came down the stairs for dinner Friday, at the Cypress Inn, there was my cousin, her husband and their new little four month old Cocker Spaniel, Romeo. They have a home in Carmel Valley and their power had been out all day so they drove into Carmel for dinner and we just bumped into each other! Romeo had a proper neck tie on for dinner - of course.  I told you that they were well behaved!

Meanwhile we had intermittent breaks in the rain & wind in Carmel and spent Saturday shopping and poking in galleries.

We stopped in at the Tuck Box for Scones & Devon cream so we could practice for our upcoming trip to Britain.  Is it cream first then preserves or preserves first then cream?  So many tough decisions in life. It was so windy that the Tuck Box sign had been blown loose!

You can see that I decided to go with Olallieberry preserves first then the cream on my scone and all I can say is - mmmmmmmmmm......mmmmm....mmm...it was a mighty good choice!

Saturday nights dinner at Roy's was a grand surprise for Mr. B but it was freezing outside while waiting for the piper to arrive.  We were seated around a big fire pit with blankets passed around by the waiters but still it was cold and windy.  The picture above is the ocean whipping around that evening and the very top photo is of our piper.  I'm still not sure how his fingers played the bagpipe when it was so cold outside.

Great dinner together where we were warm.  The kids had stopped by Gayle's Bakery in Capitola and brought down a yummy cake - double chocolate with salted caramel.....yummmmmm!


Sunday we spent walking around Monterey with our son Jon and his friend Jackie.  We had a great lunch and they introduced us to an outdoor granite bench that is warmed from within - they had to tear me away!

Monday we headed home in the pouring rain.  It was a long drive with downed trees, mudslides, road closures, traffic accidents and flooding everywhere.  Mr. B thought he could outsmart them and took several back roads - most made us turn around to only to try to find another route but one worked out great.

We made it home safely and are looking out our back window with our own creek on the rise.

Hope you are warm and dry where every you may live.

" The Carmel is a lovey little river.  It isn't very long but in it's course it has everything a river should have.  It...tumbles down a while, runs through shallows, ...crackles among round boulders,  wanders lazily under sycamores, spills into pools where trout live.  In the winter it becomes a torrent, ... and in the summer it is a place for children to wade in and for fisherman to wander in." 

--John Steinbeck, Cannery Row

PS - at 4 am we had a blasting Emergency Alert on our cell phones - I thought the hotel was on fire but no it was to notify us that the Carmel River was flooding - I guess Mr. Steinbeck didn't have that joy!  We had about 6 alarms on our way home on Sunday notifying us of flooding in our area - thanks - I didn't notice!

Under the Boardwalk

Song - Stars & Stripes Forever by the U.S. Marine Band

For the Fourth of July we headed down to Santa Cruz for a few days but it didn't look like the above picture......

It looked more like this! PACKED!

Luckily we were a few miles away in the Redwood Forest.

Painting, reading, walking and relaxing.  It was incredible weather and we ate dinner on the deck every night.

We brought our guard dog Mika with us!

There was a parade down our little lane that began with the new fire truck blowing its siren.

Followed by the old fire truck blowing its rickety old siren.

Followed by kids young and old.

 

People decorated their cars, trucks, golf carts, bikes, strollers, skateboards and shoes.  Anything that moved.  Mr. B and I just parked our lawn chairs in front of our cabin and ate our lunch while waving to the parade going by.

Heckle and Jeckle were in the tree nearby, cheering on the crowd! Every morning we would wake to them making a weird clacking sound. Apparently it is the noise of dominate females.  They sounded just like the bushmen tribe in "The Gods Must be Crazy".

 

Later in the day we took a drive to Lighthouse Point to watch the surfers but there were few waves and even fewer surfers. 

People were enjoying their Fourth out on the water.

And on the wild rides at the Boardwalk.  We got caught in a major traffic jam so I was able to take plenty of photos from the car.

How often do you think they inspect those bolts????





"You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family 
picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flied die from happiness.  You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism." -- Erma Bombeck