this past weekend

Alright, I am pretty much all packed here for my trip.  I've written scripts, I've been reading documents while laundry has been on the go.  I've been responding to emails and phone calls from the library.  Busy day!  So while I wait for the last of the laundry and before I head to Van's, let's check in on the weekend that was...

Friday:  Maestro!  Long overdue.  Van and I enjoyed a corner of the bar for dinner.  Nice to be back there.  And mmmm... carnitas!

Saturday:  I got up did a long walk back to the condo, then headed to Amara for breakfast.  My usual arepa,

a decaf latte

- a good start to the day.  Later that afternoon, Van and I headed to Eataly to do some shopping and to meet Heath and Nicole for dinner at Terra.  A nice cocktail to start with,

then the pasta special for my dinner. 

It was lovely sitting outside and great to catch up with them.

Sunday:  a very long walk Sunday morning, almost 6.5 miles.  I swung by Bristol Farms to get some ingredients to make brodo for the tortellini we picked up the day before at Eataly. 

I've been wanting to enjoy that with the Lambrusco that we brought back from Italy last year.  Easter dinner at the condo, a simple little meal.  Nice.

I can't believe that I am off tomorrow for eight days in Chicago.  I can't believe that I still have nine days until I see Conrad.  It will be good when we're all home together.

Sonoma wildlife

If I can do a post on the flora we encountered on our Sonoma trip, then why not do one on the fauna?  Fair is fair, right?

Deer! 

So many deer.  I think we counted 15 of them across a handful of sightings.  Fantastic to see them all, including this pair grazing on low branches of trees in the yard of a home at Sea Ranch.

Turkeys! 

I told Van that I was amazed the first time I saw wild turkeys (in the UP, years ago).  They really are huge birds.  Dinosaurs!

Seals! 

Or are they sea lions?  I don't know which, or what type, but there were a number of them in the river mouth and on the sandy banks. 

I couldn't figure out why more people weren't stopping out of curiosity or to admire them.

And, saving the best for last, this beauty:  a banana slug! 

Cool!  The mascot of UC Santa Cruz.  Neat to see one making its way across some wet grass at Timber Cove.

Sonoma flowers

Rather than write about the Sonoma spring break trip in a strictly chronological manner, let me instead draw out certain things that I want to spotlight.  And let's start easy:  flowers.

It's spring in California, and in Sonoma as in Pasadena, gardens are abundant with blooms.  And fragrance!  Out on the Sonoma Coast, though, there were plenty of flowers lining roads and hillsides and shores.  That was a nice change from SoCal.

So, for example, our Sonoma hotel (MacArthur Place Hotel and Spa) had some beautiful wisteria in bloom. 

I've seen plenty of homes with wisteria, but I've never gotten close to it and understood what a delicious scent it has. 

Sort of wintergreen, but sweeter, not so fresh.  The gardens and lawns around the hotel and town had another surprise:  dogwoods.  What a delight seeing them - I can't recall seeing them down south here.  Pink ones, too!

(And no, not flowers, but look at these figs on a tree in a community garden park!)

There was more in bloom as we headed up the coast.  Ice plants were all about as we got to the coast. 

I have been told they are terrible and invasive, but I have also read that they help prevent erosion.  They are vibrant and pretty, though.  I think this was a profusion spotted from a distance up at Sea Ranch a day later.

Scraggly flag irises were here and there, including these growing near our hotel (Timber Cove Resort, north of Jenner).

A morning walk around the Timber Cove property revealed riches.  Seaside daisy! 

Calla lily! 

Castilleja! 

Checkerbloom! 

Lupin! 

Fig buttercup! 

Dewberry! 

Poppies! 

Sea pink! 

Footsteps of spring! 

So much, not all of them native.  All of them pretty, though!

Oh, did I mention that I needed to take Allegra whilst away?  😉

a surprisingly busy week

Happy Good Friday!

It's been a surprisingly busy week, and although I thought I would be able to carve out time to begin posting from spring break, I'll have to catch up on that this weekend when I can.  Sorry!

For now, let me report in from the little bits of down time not spent at my laptop and blogging:

A swim on Wednesday.

Another, longer swim on yesterday.

An Alaska before making dinner for me and Van last night.

A longer walk (a hair shy of 4.5 miles) to start my Friday.

We've caught up on White Lotus.  Conrad and I had a last breakfast before his trip and then my next one keep us apart for more than two weeks.  I've had time with Olive.  And life at the library has been hectic catching up after the break and now gearing up for the many many ALA meetings in the next couple of weeks.  Yikes.

But all is generally well.  And Sonoma posts will come!

The Cooper

A rare weekend online happy hour yesterday, and our theme was simple:  coupes!  So I added a layer and went for a cocktail called The Cooper.

Not a bad one:  rye, elderflower liqueur, Fernet Branca.  I'll have to remember that one for a future time.

Cheers!

coming soon!

So I thought I might do short blog entries from my time in Sonoma, but it turned out I was enjoying myself too much while there, and I didn't think about blogging at all.  Sorry!

So let me promise that entries are coming soon enough, chock full of photos.  Yay!

For now, here are the two pizzas I made for the three of us for dinner last night.

away for spring break!

Once again I am out of town without my laptop, which is a much easier device to use for blogging.  So, for this spring break week, while I am up in Sonoma County with Van

(his Christmas present to me), I will do short entries on the phone.  Sorry!  I am home later on Friday and can get some blog posts done after that, happily.

It’s a damp, grey morning here.  Van is still in bed.  I have had a 2.5 mile walk

and am enjoying a decaf latte along with a sinfully good muffin.  Our only plan for the day is to enjoy the spa.  Easy times!

some truly lovely sashimi

Conrad is home, I leave tomorrow.  So we grabbed our one night together and popped round to Mama M Sushi.  The weather was fine (in the 70s), so we sat outside and treated ourselves to a nice dinner.  Agedashi tofu.  

Shishito peppers.  

A special roll.  

And oh, a glorious serving of sashimi (plus oysters).  

We splurged on it - an overdue date night for us.  Truly worth it.  We ate at leisure, chatting with neighbours who were walking past.  It got dark, it grew cooler, and we came home, sated.  Kudos to Chef Jack for such a lovely meal.

what's been going on?

How go things, Peter, you ask?  Oh, not badly.  Conrad is in Kentucky until later today.  Next week is spring break.  Things tick along.  I spent most of Wednesday over on the west side,

or so it felt, taking Van to an appointment, waiting for things to be done, then bringing him home an making sure he had food before coming back home.  I swam yesterday, which was good

- I'll miss that next week but try to be diligent the following week.  It rained a little here,

and there was a huge peal of thunder that had folks on Reddit wondering if there was an explosion somewhere (look at the dark skies, folks, that should be a clue).  Van and I have been watching a bunch of the current season of White Lotus (binge-worthy this season, far better than season 2, which I gave up on).

The usual?  Maybe not, but there you go, caught up!  Onward with April!

first swim of April

No, not an April Fools joke.  I swam.  Not a big swim, but in combination with a good walk, a nice, active start to the day.

I really have to take photos that don't have the red reflecting off the awning colouring my face...