Dusty Car - January 27, 2012

No, this isn't about the latest country western singer.  It's about our Prius.  In anticipation of taking the train to Tucson next year, we've decided to try to do as much as we can without our car.  It has now sat in the carport for a week and a half, collecting dust.

Of course, we've always walked to the grocery store and the bakery, which are very close.  But on Tuesday we walked to the library, which is about two and a half miles away.  It took us 45 minutes and was not a bad walk.  Then yesterday I walked to the fabric store and yarn store, which are a bit closer.  And this morning we walked about a mile and a quarter to the farmers market.  Costco is more of a problem, because it's over three miles away and we'll have big things to carry.  But we figure we can always find someone to hitch a ride with. 

Our First Meal Outdoors - January 19, 2012

It has warmed up enough that today we had our first meal on our deck.  We had black bean and corn tamales and butternut squash.  Yummy!!

Yesterday we went to Sweetwater Wetlands on the northwest edge of Tucson.  It's a water treatment plant but has been developed as a wildlife sanctuary.  We saw lots of ducks and heard several soras, but we never could see one.  We also did not find the chestnut-sided warbler that has been reported there.  But we found a resident Harris' hawk.  It was a fun trip.  We'll go back later when spring migration is underway.

On the way through town we saw this car parked next to the road.

Truly Nolen is the local exterminator.  He has a whole fleet of yellow cars and trucks painted like bugs and mice.  He also has a large antique car collection that he has parked all over town.  It's always fun to find one.

Veggies - January 14, 2012

I couldn't stand it any longer, so I went to the nursery and bought some vegetable starts and seeds.  I planted spinach and salad greens, with lettuce to follow from seed.  I hope they're far enough off the ground that they don't become rabbit food.

I also planted a bowl of herbs and a pot of celery.

 

Yesterday we went to the Friday farmers market, which is less than a mile away.  There was lots of nice local  produce, including the most wonderful grape tomatoes, which are greenhouse grown this time of year. 

I was sad to see that my tamale guy was not there.  I'm hoping he'll be back some time.  In the meantime, I asked one of our neighbors, who is from Mexico and makes tamales and sells them, if she could make some with corn, black beans, and cheese.  She said she'd try, so we got some last night.  We haven't tried them yet, but they look really good.

We've Arrived - January 12, 2012

We actually arrived last Saturday, but it's taken a while to get our internet service set up.

We had a very enjoyable (but long!) trip down.  Right from Day One, which was Tuesday, the 3rd, the weather was clear and sunny.  Our first stop was in Redding, after crossing the Siskiyous with not a trace of snow.  Our second night was spent in Seaside.  From there we drove to San Luis Obispo, after a stop at Morro Bay for some birding. 

We were driving down on Highway 1, which is scenic but rather exhausting to drive. 

Near San Simeon we stopped to look at the colony of elephant seals.  They are gigantic, much larger than the sea lions usually seen along the coast, with a face only a mother could love.

We always try to hit San Luis Obispo on a Thursday so we can go to their fantastic street market that night.  The weather was gorgeous, with highs near 80.  We had dinner at a wonderful Italian restaurant and then cruised the market.  There wasn't a lot of produce, but what there was looked great. 

We drove from San Luis Obispo to Blythe, stopping briefly in Santa Barbara to see the black skimmers (a species of shorebird, for those of you who are non-birders) on the beach.  It was a very long drive, but we really wanted to get to Tucson. 

We arrived in Tucson in the middle of the afternoon.  The weather has cooled a bit from the last couple of weeks, but it's still warm and sunny.  We got many hugs to welcome us back.  The cottage is in fine shape, with no damage or problems.  It took us a couple of hours to get settled, but now it feels like we never left.

Our life here is much more social than it is in Salem.  It's such a small community that everyone knows everyone else.  Our first party is tonight. 

Today is only in the upper 60s and overcast, but it will be warming up again soon.  And the clouds make for gorgeous sunsets!

A Step Backward - December 4, 2011

By this time I had hoped to do a post with photos of our newly renovated front yard.  Unfortunately, we've hit a snag.  We had noticed that our downspouts were not draining well, with the water just running out rather than going underground.  So we thought we'd have the system cleaned out.  It turns out that there isn't any system to clean out.  So we've had to put in a dry well and leach line in the front yard. 

About twenty plants had to be dug up and moved.  Then the trenching started.

This is the west side of the house.

This is the east side of the house, where my clothes line was.

Then the mini backhoe arrived.  One section of our new fence had to be removed.

Today the backhoe is gone but the mess remains.  The inspector is coming tomorrow, after which all the trenches can be filled.

Home - November 10, 2011

We arrived home at about 2:30 in the afternoon to find not only a new tree in front that we had our landscape guy Sean plant, but also a new fence that Jeff and Ben had erected.  It looks great.  When we went inside, we found that we also had our new kitchen countertops.  We hadn't expected these to be completed until after we returned.  The countertops are Formica and we have a new cast iron enameled sink, as well as a nifty new faucet.  I think we really are finished with the house for now, except for some gravel and mulch in the front.

Downtown S.F. - November 9, 2011

We decided to spend our last day downtown.  After checking out of our hotel but leaving our bags there, we took the street car again and got off at Montgomery and Market.  We managed to spend several hours in the Westfield Mall, which is huge and has several floors of mostly upscale stores.  We had lunch there and then left the mall to walk to Union Square.  We did some window shopping, but the streets were being torn up and it was pretty noisy and messy.  For years I've wanted to see what happened to the old City of Paris store with it's beautiful stained glass dome.  As a child I loved to visit the store every Christmas because they put up a huge tree in the middle that went up through several floors.  The store was taken over by Neiman Marcus.  They dismantled the dome, sent it back east to be cleaned and restored, and then installed it in their new store just 100 feet away from where it originally was. They've done a nice job of recreating the old City of Paris feel.

At that point we felt we'd had enough shopping and decided to try to walk back to the hotel.  We walked up Stockton Street, which goes over a hill but has a convenient tunnel.  Happily, we walked past the Victoria Pastry Company, which has the world's best cannolis.  My father used to bring home a box of them as a special treat when he worked in San Francisco.  We bought one and took it back to share at our nearby Starbuck's (which we visited often enough that they actually remembered what kind of tea David drank!)  We spent several leisurely hours hanging out in Starbuck's until it was time to meet Dan and Liz for dinner.  We had a delicious meal at Albona, complete with their yummy sauerkraut soup.  It's an Istrian restaurant and has some very unusual food.  By the time we finished it was time to head for the Amtrak bus back to Emeryville.  The train was about an hour and twenty minutes late, but we finally got on and immediately went to sleep.