walking before midnight...

Greetings! Tara and I have been talking about how we have kind of lost the knack of both blogging and taking photographs. After many chats and coincidences we decided to partner up and photograph our magic hour walks. Once a month, we will be posting photos and writing about our early evening wanders not too far from home, we're calling it walking before midnight. We hope to encourage you to grab your camera and go for a walk when the light is its most pretty and your surroundings appear magical. Begin small, take a wander around the block or your neighborhood. Look for color or interesting combinations and have fun!

Tara and I couldn't live in more different environments. She lives in the desert and I live on the coast but we still see magic and beauty in the simplest things. From flowers to rocks to cacti or sand, we aim to appreciate the beauty that surrounds us.

I took my magic hour walk along the sands of Avila Beach. Usually I like to walk this sandy stretch early in the morning when the tide is out and there are very few people milling about. Walking this beach after 6pm changes everything about my walk...the tide, the people, the sights, and sounds.

The tide was super high, which made walking in the sand a little more work. My feet would sink, sink, sink, in the soft, soft sand causing the incoming tide to embrace my knees. The air is warmer in the early evening and of course the light, more golden.

 

There are small mounds of golden seaweed scattered across the sand. Feathers are everywhere, poking up out of the sand like small forests and tangled up like a dance party with the golden seaweed.

After wandering out towards the cliffs as far as the tide would allow, we turned around and wandered up to the small village full of touristy shops, coffee houses, and tasting rooms (this is wine country, after all).

It's a tiny little stop along the coast but there is much to look at if you slow down and look. I love the colors I can see, the rust, the green, and the puffs of pink.

How quickly the light changes but it may be those hills you see in the background. One minute the light was golden, the next it was as blue as blue can be and the temperature dropped. People began packing up and making the trek up the sand back to their cars and their homes.

Really, this stretch of sand I love so is not very large at all. Maybe half a mile from end to end. Mostly sand and seaweed with the occasional sand crab tickling your toes. If the tide is out far enough, you can walk to the end where there are small green crabs that hide behind amongst anenomes and if you time it just right you may see a whale breach right before your eyes, a pair of sea otters will float by, and lines of pelicans cast shadows across the sand peppered in criss-crossed footprints of the seagulls as they do their early morning dance before the sea. Click here to see Tara's desert adventure.

the mama a-go-go had a birthday...

so we celebrated...with decorations

 

and light-up fun

and food...

 

 

and old school cocktails...

 

and gifts...

and pie (of course)

and tunes...

june

Clearly I need to work on my blogging skills. I have lost the habit of writing and I miss it but right now my brain is in such a muddle that anything I write is far from delightful so until I rediscover my happy place I'll just recap so I remember what I did in June. It was pretty busy...

The pomegranate tree finally produced fruit! Crossing my fingers at least one of the three poms matures. I am ridiculously excited over this news. My very own pomegranate tree! The best things in life, right?

I dressed up in pseudo-medieval costume for our History Day celebration at school. I work for a private school that follows the Classical Education model and we often celebrate history as an entire school. From the preschoolers to the graduating seniors we gather together for the children to share what they have learned about history. This year was all about the Middle Ages and since I missed our Viking Day I was happy I was able to make our feast! There were sword fights, dancers, court jesters, musicians, food, and even...gasp...a posoining!

More costume fun. Also for school. This time I dressed up as the little red bird from The Lion and the Little Red Bird for our end of year classroom party. The children are invited to dress up as their favorite book character from our classroom literature throughout the year. They get to present on their chosen books and we gather together for high tea with fancy china cups and all.

We celebrated the mister's birthday with a family dinner at our favorite burger joint. While the burgers are most excellent, the chocolate malts are the best! Even better, pop a silly hat on your head on your birthday and your burger is free!

The school year ended and so I schlepped all of my classroom succulents home in the tray we use to corral water bottles. Many of these happy plants were gifts from students. Succulents are the easiest way to add a little green to the classroom.

I had to pack up the classroom as we are getting new floors. Out goes the carpet, in comes checkered linoleum. While  it is going to be a lot of work unpacking and arranging, I am super excited to experiment with our even more open floor plan now! Like...keep-me-up-at-night-planning type of excited! 

The first week of summer vacation was spent recovering from a nasty food poisoning episode. After all the sleep and ick I did manage to read all sorts of fun. I do love the libary.

Also squeezed in a few coffee dates and there are plans on the horizon for some fun stuff such a partnering up with this super nifty gal. Also, just enjoying really good coffee and oh my goodness, the best morning buns EVER!

I took a trip down to Los Angeles where I finally got to squeeze these people and pass along Christmas-New Years-Valentines-Arbor Day-Etc...gifts. L.A. will get its own post coming soon. Ahem.

We sadly said goodbye to this dear kitty. At 19 years she lived a pretty long kitty life even though the decision had to be made too quickly for our wanting. Sweet Dolly, you are missed.

may

It appears I have fallen off the blogging wagon. Life has been busy with work and bad brain. But...in between it all I at least manage to take photos. So here is a wee recap of May. The garden is in crazy bloom and the black hollyhocks we brought up with us from L.A. are still showing up!

Mornings have been chilly but still pretty of course. Mister cut up these gourds we grew a few years ago. No birds have moved in yet but there is a mockingbird nest in one of the rose bushes.

I got one walk in before allergies hit...again. This was a short one but super pretty! We saw otters, sea lions, and all sorts of seabirds. Ya gotta love Morro Bay!

I found my cooking mojo and then lost it but in between we figured out we really love the crockpot. We alternate between a bean pot or a meat pot. Toss in a pork shoulder and use it for pulled pork, teriyaki, or a burrito bowl pictured here. Yum!

 Like I said, the garden has exploded! The white crown sparrows are gone until fall but there is no shortage of birdies. We have starlings (much to the mister's chagrin), gold finches, linnets, doves, hummingbirds, oak tits, and more!

I've been trying to dress like a grown up, not just wearing jeans and t-shirts all the time. Not only did I wear my grown up boots, but I even put on a necklace!

Had an impromptu coffee date in town with a friend and her kiddos. The day felt more like summer than it feels this June morning. We sat outside at a garden cafe and enjoyed the day. As we were leaving I heard a buzz, buzz, buzzing, looked up and saw a bee hive in the side of an old brick building.

More home cooking. Here I made a mushroom and kale frittata with roasted potatoes, and a spinach, kale, and strawberry salad.

I also enjoyed a coffee date with new friends. We spent almost four hours hanging out at another garden cafe chat, chat, chatting away. Also discovered  a sweet little gift shop that carries handmade pretties from local artists. They also sell succulents.

Also finally found an apron that fits. Well...fits is a bit relative as it is a leetle bit large but still. Apron! Yay! It's my new school uniform.

See? Another dress. Like a grown-up. I love this dress. It is fun and perfect for me. Made by LulaRoe it fits like it should with a flattering full skirt that hits just below the knee.  I have three of these. I may have a problem

 We did two Maker events. One Makerspace Expo in town and one Maker Faire in San Mateo. There was a Whole Foods nearby so I loaded up on beverages aside form water. I got my favorite fix of fresh squeezed orange juice and then I tried some local cold pressed coffees like this carton of Blue Bottle. I think Blue Bottle is better than Stumptown!

And we harvested our first bowl of lettuce from the garden this year. Once we eat up all the lettuce though we will be taking a gardening break as we need to rethink eating local when you are in a serious drought. Serious drought.

So, that's a wee peek at my May. How was yours? June is here and school is almost out and the plans in my head need to get out before I explode. Crossing fingers my perspective shifts. Really, perspective is important and I need to process and think about what brings me joy and what is important.

slo makerspace expo

with a sign and everything!

mister made the garlands

super nifty instruments

table set up

the maker

but they were my idea

this week...last week?

In no particular order there was... waffles for dinner, and pork pulled three ways to tomorrow. Crockpot pork is so ridiculously easy...dress is with just a smidge o' seasoning and you can eat it up multiple ways. The cut the mister picked up was a bit large for us a-go-gos and so we ate it as is with taters and peas, in quesadillas, with broccoli and teriyaki sauce, as bbq pulled pork, and with a bit o' spinach. Pork. It's what's for dinner, and lunch, and breakfast.

There was also skirt weather. Hot temps even. Enough to bring the wind and the pollen and the want for cold beverages. Also, there was sidewalk chalk. A lot of sidewalk chalk.

I not only got some gift wrapping from...ahem...Christmas completed, but I mailed the scarves I promised people back in February! I hope there's a bit  of a cold snap to those who got my scarves!

Snails reappeared in the classroom as we discovered a bunch o' babies in our wee little play yard. Baby snails are stupid cute. the one pictured above was one of the larger critters. There were some so small I could not pick them up. Eeeeeee!

And then there were socks. New socks. new socks with cute things on them such as kiwi, watermelon, foxes, and chickens! I do like happy socks.

Did I mention warmer temps and the need for cool drinks? I hydrated a bit this week. Trying to stay ahead of allergy ick. I find that keeping hydrated helps a lot. I drank nettle tea by the jars full, water, fresh squeezed orange juice, gatorade, so many smoothies, and coffee. Iced coffee. I purchased this Stumptown on a whim though I was wary of the ingredient list. Nothing too awful but I won't be purchasing it again. I am not a fan of carageenan. Blech. Besides, with the sniffer out of commission I can only taste the sweet part and since I really don't need the sweet I should stick to herbal tea. Phooey.

This week temps are supposed to be back in the high 60s which means I can wear sleeves and not want to tear them off! I can also drink hot tea without complaining, go me! How was your week?