walking the beach

A few weeks ago when we were in the throes of a heat wave, we went for a morning walk along the beach in Avila. The plan was to walk from one end to the other 9it's not very long) and then sit for a spell with a cuppa somethin'.

While the nephew a-go-go worked on treasure hunting and stick poking, I looks for small moments of pretty and found there were many.

The tide was on an upswing and moving in casting stones in tumbleweed like rolls...
 

Tiny green crabs were clicking about  the rocks and barnacles moving too quickly for me to capture with the camera.

We walked under the pier and I stood there eyes dancing over the shadow play, ears tuned to the waves and my toes in the sloopy sand.

After reuniting a wee crab to the water, we headed back for a sit. I cannot help but take photos of this tree each and every single time we visit. The pink puffs are simply so Seussian and the bees make it extra spiffty.

This young lady and her choice of doll kept my smile buoyed for the remainder of the morning. She was quite engaging.

The colorful shops in this newish cluster also make me smile. Tucked back between all this color is a nifty little tasting room I highly recommend.

And of course, more pretty blossom to catch my eye.

Afterwards we ran some errands and brought lunch to the sister -a-go and her boss man. Boss man's boy-o donated a small bag of Star Wars toys to the nephew a-go-go and the mister had a fine time playing with them over lunch.

When we got home more errands and chores were attended to and then I sat on the porch with a popsicle and the camera.

Oh! and we saw baby pigeons. Baby pigeons!

How's that for a summer day?

root beer floats our boat

 We a-go-gos like our root beer. Actually, that's not quite true. We like root beer as long as it is accompanied with vanilla ice cream. For mr. a-go-go's birthday shindig, we began a root beer taste test that that lasted a few Monday night dinners.

I cannot remember how many there were...fifteen perhaps? I do know that root beer can taste as different as each person's preference.

From super sweet to flavored with cayenne and ginger we tried root beers that were wonderful and rootbeers that fell flat.

Sadly the happier labels did not indicate a better brew though how we wished that were true. From fizz to scent to flavor and finish we tasted and rated them all. Faygo was too sweet, Barrel Brothers had nifty ingredients but meh flavor, while Dang! smelled better than it tasted. We kept a list and everything and sadly, I cannot find a photo of the list...I'm sure I took a photo, of course I took a photo but did I put the photo in a place I could find it? Sigh.

So...you may...might? Might be wondering which one stood out from the rest...believe it or not it was a lovely spicy bit of sweet called none other than Rat Bastard.

We is classy folks.

summer sipping

 One of the teachers at the preschool I work at brought her ice cream maker into the classroom. Instead of a custard, she poured a pint of lemonade into the bowl, turned it on and then magic happened. Totally floored by this idea it was all I could do NOT to go out and buy an ice cream maker that very day. i know this is all probably old news to many of you but I love when I learn something new. Especially when it involves tasty treats! 

Our young house guest has kept us on our toes and while she mostly favors the mister, she puts up with me I think because I make her bake cookies or mix Ovaltine and now, thanks to the sister a-go-go's ice cream maker, make frozen lemonade.

 

This is so easy, it is silly. Assemble your ice cream maker, pop the frozen container into place, poor oodles of beverage of choice (we used pomegranate lemonade) into the bowl, cover and turn on.

Ten to fifteen minutes later, yer in for a treat! We found a fuller bowl made a better treat. The texture is much like an icee or slurpee. Much smoother than what you can get put of the blender. I think cherries on top would be extra spiffy but I couldn't find where I put them so strawberries were our garnish. 

Happy sipping!

summer busy

We had a weekend of house guests. When house guests arrive we usually hit the beach and so that is just what we did. Armed with printouts for our reservation, we packed up to cars and hit the Buchon Trail where we opted to go the shorter route to keep the pipsqueaks less cranky. The shorter route was still a bit on the long side but our youngsters eked it out and were rewarded with an isolated beach, caves and red footed guillemots in abundance.

 

 

 

 

After we had our fill of the caves, we hiked on back to the car and drove a short minute to Spooner's Cove where we spent the day filling up pails, looking for jade, and throwing stones in the water. In the hopes we could coax the kiddos into naps, we wandered back home as quiet as could be. It was not meant to be so instead, we dressed cool and filled ourselves up on Yo Gabba Gabba before trekking to the homestead for a dinner of all sorts of good bits.

 

 

 

The next morning we breakfasted at the Madonna Inn, but of course and parted ways. I still had one kiddo in tow and so we hit up the cove again for more jade hunting, stone skipping and seagull shooing. Good, good times. I'm still looking forward to a nap in the next few days.

a little like Gidget

a little like Gidget by jekinthebox featuring a wingtip oxford

poppytalk's summer colours week: rainbow

It's time for summer colours! Check out the flickr group for more bits of happy and Poppytalk for a curated dose. Aaaand...if yer interested, you can take a wander and look through my previous colours week pics. Happy summer!

summer is finally here

yesterday the heat chased us into the car and up the coast for a beach day only to find it was HOTTER there than back down the road. crazy! we lunched at a tiny place that was slightly disappointing. i became the whiny woman who complained about her salad.. crikey! i AM old but really, it was listed as a seven dollar salad and what i got was a tiny plate with three forkfuls of lettuce, some grated beet and a very sad tomato (don;t even get me started on the tomato). we asked the gal refilling our water if perhaps our server thought i ordered a smaller side salad and she said there was only one size. moments later, our server appeared with another tiny salad and apologized for the hullabaloo. and before you think i am a crazy salad lady, mr. a-go-go and i were splitting a sandwich, fries and salad. it was hot and greens were a good idea. sniff.after the salad fiasco, we (sis & mama a-go-go included) wandered into an herb shop while mister camped out on a bench out front. they had fantastic garden out back and the prettiest hollyhock colors i have ever seen. they also had a pretty good collection of essential oils and i was tempted to pick up some black pepper oil to make a black pepper soap but i decided that black pepper was really my thing and not anyone elses (have you tried the black pepper jelly bellies? sooooo good). after a quick wander to another shop we decided it was far too hot for anything else.so we drove back down along the coast. once home after a bout of crankiness i decided a nap was a good thing. mister woke me up with a "homemade" cherry limeade and the rest of the day was spent drinking cool fizzy drinks, reading, yo yo making (me), sock monkey stitching (mister) and chatting out in the garden once it got a tiny bit cooler. after an outdoor dinner of sandwiches we wandered back in to watch The Human Face a nice slow end to a very slow day. it was icky hot all night, ya gotta love california. which i do, but i wish it would cool down, just a tad. my brain is in fall mode.

bundling up in the summertime

a few weeks ago, mr. a-go-go & i went to see Where the Wild Things Are in the park as a part of a free summer movie program. since evenings tend to get chilly here in the central valley, we knew coats and hats were in order...and blankets...hot cocoa is good...so is popcorn.and i cried like i always do when i watch this movie (well, both times).