A Few Things in March

 The rain total to date is 7.1 inches, so the couple of storms we had in March helped a little.

My car turned 34567. A thrill to be sure but even better this grand occasion happened out on a country road at one of favorite houses.

Silas is doing a drum roll.

There is this magazine slash gas station slash buy your lottery ticket and junk food type places in town. I'm kind of a magazine junkie, just so you know. I once asked them to carry Bust magazine, but the women thought I meant a girlie rag. Uh no

Artificial Meat and Mags

More Meat and Mags

 Clouds are too few and far in-between that I must take pictures. The local goat said hello!

My cat has the prettiest feet.

Caption Blog

going into town

Valentine's Day wine

Cockpit at night

I'm a passenger.

Herringbone clouds

Gosh, I love this cat!

Watertank sunset

Mid-State Fair 2011

The fair was fairly cool this year. We didn't visit the live animals, but we saw lots of exotic miniature sparkly ones.

Somehow we missed the garden displays too. But who needs real flowers when you can own the biggest garish posy on the block.

Of course a country fair wouldn't be a country fair without your jams and jellies ... and wasabi peas.

And pizza by the slice.

I always come to the fair with an agenda, and this year it was toads.
(I've been nurturing a whole pond of polliwogs this spring.)

I found this lovey who asked to come home with me.

Took motion pictures of the carousel. Can you tell this is a Native American horse? Except for the shoes, of course.

The fun house looked kind of empty,

and the gators looked positively scared.

All in all a very fine day at the Mid-State County Fair. 

I used to think it's the same every year, but that's not the case. Every year it has a different feel, and every year I have a different agenda. Like I said toads made the list this year. Also sea turtles, a new hat (I ended up getting two), actually staying away from the 4-H animals, and taking photos that I could turn into old-timey looking shots. 

More on that maybe later.

Do you go to your county fair? 

With an agenda? 

A Silas Composition

There's something I like about this photo other than the obvious.

It's too light and it's too dark. The movement of the tail reflects the movement of the aloe plant. The rigid lines of the skeleton gazebo contrast the round tower.

And Si looks like he's thinking about something, like some memory in his head.

He's off in his own world.

My Favorite Things

Si's eyes, 
Totoro bento, 
Weird clouds, 
Pinwheel lunches, 
and Purple flowers.


Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things

Cream colored ponies and crisp apple streudels
Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
These are a few of my favorite things

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Silver white winters that melt into springs
These are a few of my favorite things

Sculpterra

One of the advantages of living in wine country is enjoying the various wineries at leisure. No need to hop from one to the other down the road getting rather blotto in the process.

We just single out a winery for inspection. Is it inviting? In a friendly and free sort of way? Some wineries, as you may know, charge to taste. This practice made popular by the bigger well-to-do wineries reek of crass commercialism. I refuse to taste at these places unless they have a clause that if you buy something then the tasting is free. I almost always buy at wineries.

One sunny weekend morning we took to the backroads to visit Sculpterra. Mainly because I had seen a fellow local picture's on myspace and thought "How bizarre!" That is usually enough for me.

And indeed How Bizarre!

The gardens are full of very large sculptures of animals.

Since I kind of knew what to expect, we strolled around the gardens before entering the wine tasting bar. I would recommend the opposite course of action.

Also there was bee bushes lining the walkways, and the bees were quite happy doing their bee business. Millions of bees buzzing back and forth, all at knee level. I kept on telling The Mister, "This is bee hell !" He suggested a drink.

Inside there was more sculptures. These were for sale too.

Only $5,400 if I remember correctly.

This was a smaller version of the one outside that I didn't get a picture of, but there is a picture of it in this picture.

All in all, this was a fun winery, if a bit gimmicky. The grounds were limited, yet the wine was tasty and the shop was unusual. I would go back with friends and relatives, maybe enjoy a picnic and a bottle of wine on a cloudy day.

Happy Mother's Day!

This picture was taken by a camera salesman in a place called Fedco (which was like a precursor to Costco but for federal employees). He was trying to sell my Dad a brand new Polaroid camera.

We were a dubious threesome. Can you tell?

I remember the incident so well. We had come in from the rain, kind of raggedy, and the salesman just sprang it on us. My mom was upset with the way her hair looked. My dad was skeptical with this new technology, and I didn't want my picture taken. (My father is holding me there by my jacket. (btw, I loved that jacket!))

When I look at this photo now, I could kiss that salesman on the lips for capturing us all on film in that weird moment, especially my beautiful mother.

Happy Thanksgiving

I knew there would be more babies. What I didn't know is that the herders would move them away from the road. There wasn't a turnout so I just stopped in the road with one eye on my rearview mirror to make sure I wouldn't get rear-ended. Sure there was plenty of visibility, but I've notice that people aren't driving very good lately, and here I was doing something unexpected on the road. Well anyhoo. I didn't see another car while I was taking these photos and the many others you will never see.

Photos shot straight into the sun. It can't be helped.

This one cracked me up.

Lambing has begun

little lamb, originally uploaded by Judy's Notebook.

When I was driving to work today, I noticed a bunch of really fat sheep out in the field. One was by herself with a grocery bag - licking it no less. I thought how awful to have all this trash floating around. Stupid humans!

Then I realized about a half mile down the road that the bag was probably a new born (can't pick out a lot of detail at 60mph), and she was probably one of the first to give birth.

I must remember to take my camera tomorrow to get some photos.

This photo here is from a few years ago.

New Bento Box Flickr Group

At first I wanted to start a Flickr group that would be all about Elegant Bentos, not copies of the Mona Lisa per se, but compositionally pleasing and sublime. I started a gallery and was quick to realize that bento is more about cute and fun. And a lot of bento is about eating a healthy and well-rounded diet as well. Not just for oneself either. And it's usually homemade.

All of this and the love of variety (and wanting to try something new), I made a new group on Flickr for all things bento. It's called Bentoland.

Fast Forward

I kept calling him my seven year old this week. Oops still six!

My Charming Polar Bear

Si just jumped up on me with the coldest ears. Indeed the weather has turned and soon there will be frost on the pumpkin.

When I purchased this charm stone, I was still thinking about how to keep my lunches cool as it was still in the triple digits. My idea is (was) to use this stone as a cold pack. Freezing it the night before tucking it into my bento box.

Of course now I'm thinking of making soup and sausages and putting on a pair of socks and a flannel shirt.

A Special Day

I received my made-to-order Scion tC from Japan back in January 2007. It had 11 miles on the ODO and was delivered on a flat-bed tow truck from a Toyota dealership in Bakersfield. I almost lost my job waiting for my Black Cherry Bomb to get to me. (I lived way out in the country and had no way to get to work, but that wasn't a good enough reason for my boss at the time (she's long gone now) to bring in a substitute.)

Car shopping was painful. Either I was ignored or told what I wanted. When I discovered what I wanted, I went online and got *exactly* what I wanted. The only price that wasn't listed was the time it took for it to get to me. When that truck came around 12 mile corner with my black cherry "soap" (that's what it looked like a mile away) on board, I started to cry, I started to scream, I started to dance. I stood at the gate and waited for my first ever (and probably last) "mine and mine only" car to arrived.

And that was 20,000 miles ago.

And here's the guy who made it all possible.................................

Happy 85th Birthday Dad !!!

Is Anybody Out There?

It's all about communication, I firmly believe. Even if you vow for silence, you still say volumes. In my first cut I disliked this photo. I wanted to capture the beauty of the clouds not ugly technology or weeds!

But the photo made the team when I contemplated. The common name for that weed is "telegraph weed," and those are two of my satellite dishes. All are pointed out to sky.

Black Cherry Turns 16,666

Seems like just yesterday when I first sat in my car and odo said 11.

  

Imagine my pride that my little plum is such a big car now. We decided to stop by the local graveyard for a photo op, and later that day....

gave it a well-deserved bath.