Category: Uncategorized

Escaping continues. As our overlords send the masses out into the streets to further the infection. One must get away. I know, the media is blaming bars and such so bars that were open for one week, must shut down. But not a word about the protests spreading the Flu. They think we are stupid, and they may be right. Also, nary a word about herd immunity. they don’t want that, but inadvertently it might be happening. So to keep sanity, its off to the mountains and the lake.

Driving up into the San Bernardino mountains. To spend the weekend with middle sons’ family.

Here we all are, on a hike. The boys did really well, such a pleasure having them able to handle a two mile hike

Exploring small tight spaces.

Coming out on the other side.

Two very handsome dudes. Later in the evening there was a massive meltdown, what I am beginning to call the Covid meltdown, it has now happened with most of my grandkids. To have our overlords become tyrants and tell us it’s for our safety. No, they are harming everyone, especially the children, since they already killed off many of the seniors in senior homes. But knowing how our justice system, the governors who sent sick people back to the nursing homes won’t pay any price. Although I’m sure they will figure out how to charge and imprison some poor orderlies in these homes.

Getting Mama to climb the rocks.

Sorry the image is blurry. Btw, that pink piece of paper, a treasure map. Went with us everywhere, the treasure was the weekend together.

Views on the hike. A number of years many trees here died from a beetle infestation. That was probably due to the draught. Luckily at least in the last few years, we’ve had plenty of rain.

A walk along the bird sanctuary.

At waters edge. Not a sandy beach, but a man made lake will be very different.

Leah

I love working with this yarn and pattern. Have I made some mistakes in the lace? yes I have, but no one will see them. I love the color and the design. this is pretty much the true color.

Color here is a little too green, but look at how great the stitch definition is!! Go Malabrigo yarn!

The melon is growing very nicely, there are a few more on the vine.

When does one pick the carrots?

I planted these from a six pack. Clearly it was a grouping of carrots, so I’ve decided to do some thinking. This one is short and stubby, but tasty. It is a white carrot, so the color isn’t a problem.

Eyal helped pick the tomato, green bean and carrot.

Then he ate them all!!

We made one big pancake! Put the blueberries on top, not inside. Another success.

The beach days will end very soon. The boys are going back to their preschool and I’ll be back to picking them up in the afternoon, so I’m not sure we’ll have the time to dig away in the sand like this, we shall see.

Mom and dad put up this succulent wall. After tearing out 30 years of vines. A lot of hard work.

Having beach breezes and overcast, these guys will probably do very well. There is one up on PCH at a local business. It looks like it’s been there a while.

My contribution, no they aren’t in the wall yet, but some of them will be, The others will probably just end up in the little patch of dirt above the succulent wall.

Leah

Watching plants grow is like watching paint dry. Although I am getting out and about a lot more, I still find myself watching my garden like a hawk. Speaking of hawks, I couldn’t get a picture, it was happening so fast, but twice I saw a hawk attacking a squirrel. Each time the squirrel got away, but at some point, he won’t.

I’ve planted some flowers, marigolds, vinca and petunia. I even went ahead and bought more soil and a lot of plant food. I’ve been very lazy last few years, just throwing things in the ground and not taking care of them. I’m seeing results of good care with my vegetables, hope to see the same with flowers.

My son in law gave me the plumeria cutting, it appears to be very happy, already sending out new leaves. Hopefully next year there will be fragrant flowers, I think he said this one is white. He took the cutting from his moms’ garden.

I think I mentioned that I have been doing some major pruning and removal of unwanted plants. This hibiscus is very happy, getting more flowers than I ever have.

In the back I have a variegated hibiscus, the flower is small and unassuming. But it’s nice having the two toned leaves year round.

I leave huge piles of trimmings for the mow and blow guy, least he can do is clean up after me.

Agapanthas starting to bloom.

Almost completely open. I have seen a dark purple one, if I could find it at a nursery I’d immediately buy it.

I do have white.

More flowers, do I ever love my flowers.

Last week I spied a baby melon!

One week later! also, there are more babies on the vine. I bought a baby pumpkin plant as well, if I treat it as well as this guy, I’m hoping to have a lot of little pumpkins in the fall.

Look at all these carrots! They are white carrots, so I have to figure out when to harvest them. Off to Google to find the answer.

Leah

Nice to have a place to park and go to the bathroom, so that going to the beach is not that hard.

How happy is this kid!

Get to work!

A lot of digging happened, coming over to inspect.

Two kids who love the sand!

Bury the baby! Eyal got some bury time as well. But like Aba, it was just his legs not up to the waist.

Eyal gets buried too

Its hard to see because of the hat, but yes, eating sand is obligatory.

Eyals favorite, Avatiach! Watermelon in Hebrew. Sister looking on, how do I get one of those?

Here you go little girl.

No fear of the water here. Missed a picture of Eyal in the water, he liked is, but initially was much more timid.

Despite the fair skin, this little girl loves everything about the beach, the sun, the water and the sand.

She makes the cutest faces. Thank goodness the cousins who live here have big sand toys.

As well as this amazing wagon. You know the locals by those who come down with this type of wagon. Another great Einav laughing face.

All of us crowding into the selfie.

Lunch at the backyard picnic table.

This will definitely be happening more often this summer. What an incredible morning. Yes, they both slept like logs on the drive home.

Leah

I ran out of yarn before the final lace section. Oh well, it won’t matter. Here is the shawl before being blocked.

Here it is blocked. What a difference stretching it out makes! I didn’t use my mats and pins. I simply stood at the ironing board with a lot of steam and pulled and stretched. It’s fine.

Now, artistic shots on my big grey boulder.

A close up. Normally I wouldn’t use stripping yarn for a lace shaw. But it’s what I had and I was helping a friend. Sad to say, it just isn’t working for her. Sometimes what you think in going to be easy, isn’t.

From another angle.

It looks very good folded up. which is good, since when wearing it, it will probably look more like this than being completely stretched out.

It is going into the gift drawer. No idea who the recipient will be. Some lucky person will get it. Its’ not for me, as I said, give me a solid or kettle dyed yarn for a lace shawl.

Like this Malabrigo yarn. First of all, it’s worsted weight, so heavier yarn. Second of all, can you see the subtlety of the color. Not a solid, but far from a stripping yarn.

Look how lovely it is knit up, even without blocking, the lace pattern is very clear. Yes, I recommended to my friend that she kind this instead of the Haruni shawl. Sure, she needs to buy more yarn, but when has that every been a problem??

A real haircut!!! It’s been four months! I did get a basic trim about three weeks ago. but this is new, fresh and to my mind, very cute.

It’s a new stylist. A lot of things have happened both with the pandemic and the riots. Sometimes I just need to start out with someone new.

Leah

A little sanity in a crazy world

The beach was amazing, really amazing today. Blue sky, deep blue water. A lot of people, and this egret.

Just this one lone egret, We walked, ran, splashed over a mile, saw him both ways, coming and going.

Not as many gulls today, which was a little surprising. The tide was very very low and a lot of small clam shells were exposed. Most were sealed shut, waiting for the tide to come back in and take them out to sea again. I would have expected gulls to be picking them up by the beakful.

I’m guessing this is a shell from a crab. There were plenty of tiny sand crabs, so this shell stood out.

The little white shell is what we saw by the thousands, by the time we walked back, the tide had gotten high enough to cover them all up. Notice a shell on a shell.

Another one, I think the upper shell still has its’ occupant.

The pier pylons were quite exposed. There is something creepy about this image of barnacles literally growing on top of one another.

We found some shells that were still attached. We brought some home.

We did see dolphins, but no way to get a picture.

Back home, a pepper is growing!!!

And the tomatoes are finally getting ripe! With grandkids around this week a lot of lemonade was made. We have picked all the ripe lemons. So I guess that is it for homegrown lemonade for a while.

Leah

The forces of evil are out in full force. The whole country is rioting and looting. It turns out that when a black man is murdered by the police, everyone must bend the knee. I don’t know anyone who isn’t horrified by this murder. But it isn’t a call for justice, it’s a call for immediate revenge. So other people are being killed, like a Black Federal guard in Oakland. Or a former Black police chief in St. Louis. I guess their black lives don’t matter. Certainly the lives of non blacks that have been murdered in these ‘peaceful protests’

I knew when the pandemic started, that this was the beginning of a lot of awful things. I wish I were wrong, Meanwhile, De Blasio in NY, won’t allow the police to stop the mayhem, or even have the national guard come in and protect private property, but he will still send the police to harass the Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn. Yeah, in my book that is blatant anti semitism. But shut up Leah, you aren’t black so just shut up.

After seeing all the black boxes on IG the other day, I’m not sure I’m going back there. This massive mind control, order from above is just too scary. The left is pushing communism on us so quickly. The difference is, more and more Americans are buying guns. So if the left succeeds it will be a bloody civil war like no other.

Back at home, the tomato bushes are full, nothing has even started to ripen yet, but more and more tomatoes popping up.

Squash flowers budding!

And blooming.

Melon is also flowering.

So is the pepper

Even the beans are getting ready to flower. I so need this small patch of nature growing and thriving.

On Saturday I went to Quilty Pleasures up in Simi Valley. They were open! It was so exciting to go into a quilt store and buy fabric. Angie was so kind! She also told me that during the lockdown Kingdom Sewing machines was broken into twice and expensive machines were stolen. Some belonging to customers. This whole period has been awful. I am so over the idea that certain lives matter, but not peoples livelihood. And by certain, I mean all those old people who died alone in nursing homes that were deliberately infected. Or alone in hospitals without any loved on around.

Slowly the quilt is growing. I do like having more solid light backgrounds, it helps the darker ones pop.

And now, I’m going to my local yarn store that might be open, who knows, the riots may have forced them to close again.

Leah

Clearly our country has decided to let anarchy and lawlessness rule. CCPflu is no more, after locking us down for 2.5 months. Now they are releasing the mobs to go out into our cities and destroy, destroy, destroy. I knew when the pandemic started that the world was entering another one of those earth tilting fazes. Every hundred years or so, the earth tilts on it’s axis, and everything changes. From 1760 with the Industrial revolution which then bled into things like the French Revolution. In the 19th centuries there was unrest for most of the century. In the 20th century it started with WWI and for the west, ended in WWII. For the east, and anywhere under communism, it continued and continued. So I knew, we are now entering another such shift.

We went to Montecito to have lunch outdoors with friends. This lovely Church, All Saints by the Sea is going through a major renovation. I loved this sign. Building to a higher standard. I’m sorry to say, this really reminds of the old TV advertisement for Hebrew National hotdogs. Kosher hotdogs, back in the 70s their tagline was: we answer to a higher power.

What an iconic beautiful image of the beach. Mother and child, fisherman. And yes, those beautiful oil Dereks. Without them, life is short ugly and brutal. I love modernity and I love oil. A woman I greatly admire made the statement, God made oil specifically for our use as fuel. That is it’s only purpose. We aren’t taking food like corn and turning it into fuel. We aren’t using animal and all the feed they need for transportation. God gave us oil. Amen to that.

I wish more sailboats had been out, I love sailboats.

The surfers were out, God bless the surfers. Like the skateboarders, nothing stops them.

We had lunch at the new Caruso Miramar Hotel. OMG, gorgeous!! once again, we need nice things, and this is a very very nice thing.

One way to keep the property nice is to make sure the flying pest, pigeons, seagulls and other birds are kept away. Every nice resort I’ve been to have hired the falconers. I love falconers. This guy has a Harris Hawk. Pretty much a native bird. Watching them in action was a pleasure.

Not great pictures. The live experience was amazing.

Here he is taking a break.

Meanwhile, I am praying for our country. 50 years ago the left removed prayer from schools and then continued it’s war on religion ever since. Today Churches, synagogues and even other places of worship are either locked down or massively curtailed because of the CCPFlu. But masses of rioters are out in every city in this country spreading mayhem and destruction of both private and public property. Yes, there is a direct connection between the two.

I’ve been saying for a few weeks now, Our overlords in government have failed miserably at their job, and are punishing us relentlessly for their massive failure. I wonder what they will come up with next, it won’t be pretty.

The one voice of reason I have found, well actually I’ve known Kira for years. Here is her podcast about George Floyd. But listen to everything she has to say, if nothing else, it will make you think. I’m sharing the link to her podcast, btw, it can be found on all podcast platforms.

http://www.fcbradio.com/just-listen-to-yourself

Leah

A friend asked me to help her with a lace shawl. This was a free pattern years ago and many people have made it. Since a lot of the instruction was over the phone, I decided that it would be best to knit myself and literally walk her through stitch by stitch as I knit. I had this yarn from New Zealand. Yes, NZ wool that is processed in Turkey and honors the Anzac soldiers from Gailopli in WWI. The wool is rather rough and scratchy, but because of the story, I had to buy a ball. It’s not great for a lace shawl because it’s hard to see the pattern. Oh well, not ideal but I’m soldiering on. (yes, pun intended).

Posh Penelope is growing. I seriously think I want this to be a king size, or at least queen size quilt. I’m not into finishing a lot of projects, one or two really well done ones is fine.

I can’t stop laughing. I guess our market, Ralphs is connected to Kroger. For the last 3 years they sold very heavy plastic bags for 10 cents a piece. I ordered this weight from Amazon and brought my own. Now they are discouraging bags from home (one good outcome of the CCPvirus) and they are now handing out these thin ones again.

I’m done with puzzle exchanges. I have enough issues when I lose pieces. But this one was missing two. Yes, I enjoyed this puzzle, I know some people, like my son don’t care if there are pieces missing. But I don’t like it.

Here is the close up. I was pretty sure early on that I was missing the green from the bull. But I kept going, hoping that the piece would actually look different when I found it. So yeah, this one went in the trash, not worth it to pass on.

From my son, another Kodak puzzle. This I knew was Balloon Fiesta in Albequerque. Here I am half way through and I put this image up on IG.

I very quickly got a response back from my buddy Clayton, the one who goes hot air ballooning every chance he can. Can you see where he circled a balloon in red? That was his fathers balloon about 20 years ago! What a small world. On closer inspection I could see an American Flag. It all makes sense. Now I am thinking that this image was photoshopped, the balloons are too well organized. The fact that his dads’ balloon was included in this puzzle is fabulous. First time I’ve ever done a puzzle where I know someone in it.

I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle. Yes, the back is color coded, and this time, I went with that, helped a lot. Also, the shapes of the balloon make it easy for me to construct the balloons. It’s not mine to pass on, it’s going back to my son.

Speaking of my son, every week I am taking these boys down to the beach!!! Sure it was overcast, we didn’t go into the water, but digging in the sand is so much fun. I didn’t realize until now that I captured flying sand mid air. I was concentrating on Cam. Yes, they love it too.

Surfers were out, but not for long, the waves just weren’t good for surfing. But hey, I bet they feel that any day on a board on the water is a good day. Oh, they have opened the Strand, walkers and bikers are now back. Little by little we’re getting there. Now if our overlords would just let people go back to work, there are more suicide attempts and many are successful, then deaths from CCPVirus in CA.

Naptime in the tent!

Leah

Main Street Ojai is just a couple of blocks long, but it does have some interesting things to look at. (Aside from people happily sitting outside eating and drinking).

The Old school bell. I think the building is now the administration building for Ojai schools, but they put the bell out front. The base says Ojai Elementary, so maybe it still is a school. The brace that holds up the bell is inscribed: Steel alloy school bells. How cool is that??

I love how small town America doesn’t forgets it’s fallen soldiers. I think ours was the only house on the street with an American flag up this weekend. Oh and by the way, Memorial Day honors those soldiers who died in the line of duty. Veterans Day, another important commemoration honors all veterans. There is a difference.

Had to spend money, not just on food. I love owls, but they have to be very unique. I think this guy fits the bill. There were others, but this is the only one who is winking! Yup he came home with me.

First I put in flowers, Ok, but not great.

Then I put in this wacky fern, much much better.

We drove the long way home, the really long way. If it was 60 miles out, it was over 100 going back. We stayed on CA 33 and climbed up into Los Padres national forest.

Stunning views and once again, people everywhere enjoying nature.

On the ocean side of our drive, the hills were full of Scotch Broom. These bushes are quite large and yellower then yellow. On the San Joaquin side of the mountains, we saw less and less of these, but there were other plants to compensate.

You can see how much drier it is on this side. We ended up in an area called Longwood Valley, there were some ranches and the ‘big’ towns are Frazier Park and Gorman. People traveling the 5 will recognize those names from the beginning of the section called the grapevine. It was all so beautiful and peaceful, a wonderful day. A lovely weekend.

Leah