Southern California Still In Bloom...

Southern California is such a wonderful place to be if you enjoy flowering plants because there is something blooming in our area virtually year around. The red Christmas cactus is a very recent purchase and is more fully in bloom than others we have because it was nursery forced. They are such a wonderful, long living, low care plant! The tiny white flowers were snipped from the Indian Hawthorne we planted in our patio a few years ago. We have "cousins" of it with pink blooms all over the condo community, which are glorious in the spring, but also give a second burst of color in late fall, followed by dark purple-blue berries. The orange clivia (shot through our kitchen window) was a bit of a surprise - that doesn't normally have flowers until the spring! It's a very mature plant now which had five or six flower stalks last year so I'm sure we'll be enjoying it for quite some time. The single bloom from our "Noel" camellia was it's first; it was soon followed by many others.

A few weeks ago we posted a snapshot of the orchid tree behind our condo in it's early stage of blooming. That picture certainly didn't do it justice. See it now that the branches are weighted nearly to the ground with flowers!

Thanksgiving at Chez McKay-Israel...

Both of Larry's daughters had family plans of their own for Thanksgiving - Heather and family at their home with David's mother and older brother, Robin and Co. with Andrick's mother in Sacramento. So... we shared the day with our "extended" family, our dear friends and neighbors, Chuck and Christine. It was a delicious feast for four starting with butternut squash soup, and then turkey and dressing, mashed potatoes and fresh cranberry relish prepared in our kitchen, plus green beans, dinner rolls and wonderful pumpkin pie provided by the Sweeneys. The intimacy of the meal made it possible for Margaret to bring out the Hunt Print china she bought just a few place settings of many years ago, dressed up for the occasion with pieces of her parents' silver. It was a wonderful afternoon and evening of food and conversation, including a little meal planning for our upcoming annual Christmas Day celebration with a larger group of friends - Christine committed to making Crown Roast Pork. Yum! And, all four of us are looking forward to a day trip to the San Diego Wild Animal Park next week. Photos sure to follow!

Last bunch of Sunflowers for the year...

Soon - very, very soon - the colors of autumn will be replaced by the reds and greens of the Christmas holiday. (Larry put up our outdoor Christmas lights Thursday morning!) But, Margaret had to have one last bouquet of sunflowers over Thanksgiving. We love the tall stems of baby pumpkins that we picked up last weekend at the Farm Stand!

Our early Thanksgiving prayers and blessings...

It's two days before Thanksgiving but we want to send out early our best wishes to all for a glorious day filled with wonderful food, the love of good friends and family, and, so importantly, laughter.
We send prayers to family members who are facing health challenges including Margaret's sister, Carol, facing sugery on her shoulder, her brother Lee with multiple frustrating ailments, sister-in-law Susan, who is suffering ongoing knee pain, her Uncle Byron, recovering from cataract surgery, and Aunt Anne, who has been plagued with ear infections for two months and is now experiencing vertigo, as well.
We acknowledge the sadness felt by those who are missing loved ones from their holiday tables this year.
We know that in our home we are blessed with good health, and that we are safely away from the post-fire flood areas now threatened by potentially heavy rains through the holiday. Persons throughout Southern California who lost everything in earlier fires remain in our thoughts and prayers, as do persons throughout the country facing tremendous financial crisis.
As we bless our meal on Thursday, we want to send those blessings along to family, friends and strangers not as fortunate as we are.
Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Ava In the Clouds

She's not quite walking yet, but she's sure standing up tall and strong. Our little Ava is really growing up!

Dinner with a dear old friend...

We had a wonderful dinner last evening in the home of one of Margaret's oldest friends, Bill Gobie, with he and his cousin, Louise, who is visiting from the Boston area. When Margaret first moved to California in 1974, she met Bill, who was the riding instructor at the school at Cota de Caza where she went to live and work. Bill was then, and still is, a United States Equestrian Federation steward (a rules-keeper), presiding at horse shows all over the state. When Margaret returned to college in '75, she taught lessons at the Coto school for Bill when he was away at horse shows. In later years she taught part-time for him at two other stables. Bill turned 80 in July of this year. Though he no longer trains horses and riders, he still maintains a busy schedule, working between 15 and 20 weeks/weekends of horse shows a year. Time spent with "Mr. Bill" is always a joy. He's a marvelous host, a great cook (the Chicken DeVane was tremendous), and always full of fun.

Special Delivery For The Birthday Boy...

Jonathan doesn't know it yet, but he's got a big surprise arriving today! (And, it's a good thing Grandpa has a bike rack on his car or it might not have gotten there!)

You Are Invited To A Jurassic Park Birthday Party!

Family and friends gathered on Saturday to help Jonathan celebrate turning five. (In case you couldn't tell, Jonathan is fascinated by all things dinosaur!)





































With great food and camaraderie for the adults, plus activities like a dinosaur themed "Bounce House" and a dragon shaped pinata for the kids, it was quite an event! Needless to say, Grandpa and Margaret were awfully glad to see that Jonathan's legs were long enough for his new big-boy bike!

Birthday videos

It was our Jonathan who, eventually, used all his might to slay the "fire-breathing" pinata!

The kids had a ball bouncing.

Still safe in Costa Mesa...

Since this morning's post, fires have started somewhat closer to home - in Brea, Anaheim Hills and Yorba Linda, towns in the north-east corner of Orange County. While driving inland to Jonathan's fifth birthday party earlier today, we were able to take this picture showing bright blue sky to the south and the ominous billows of smoke to the north. The sun glowing through the smoke tells the story of air quality in many parts of Southern California today. We're glad to be safe at home tonight, closer to the ocean, where the winds have finally diminished and the temperatures are dropping slowly. Our hearts go out to all those persons who've lost homes to the flames. (We'll post pictures and video from Jonathan's party soon.)

Southern California fires

View Larger Map

The closest Southern California fire to us right now is the one near Sylmar, (San Fernando Valley) about 70 miles away. For those unfamiliar with the area, we're posting a map that shows where Costa Mesa (B) is in relation. As always, our thoughts and prayers are with those people living in the LA and Santa Barbara County fire areas.

How Do You Spell P-R-I-N-C-E-S-S-E-S?

Sassy and Nica sure know how!

A Journey to Julian

We took advantage of perfect autumn weather (and our generous neighbors' offer to look after Sassy and Nica) to explore Julian, CA, on Saturday. Julian, population 1621, is a historic gold-mining town in the high desert area of Eastern San Diego County. It's well known for its fruit orchards; this time of year Julian is definitely all about apples -fresh, preserved, made into cider, and baked into pies.

From Costa Mesa, it's about 115 miles to Julian. Starting from home mid-morning, we covered the easiest part of the trip, that on multi-lane freeways, in time for our stomachs to be grumbling for lunch. But, we still had forty some miles on two-lane road to go, most of it winding up over 4000 feet through the foothills. When we arrived in Julian we found parking in a public lot and looked around for the closest place to find two very important things - food and restrooms!
We settled on the Rong Branch Restaurant and Gift Shop for lunch. While waiting to be seated, we met the first of many dogs we were going to see in this, obviously, canine-friendly town. The two pictured are Treeing Walker Coon Hounds, close cousins to fox hounds, thrilled by attention and sweet as could be. Parked in front of the Rong Branch were lots of Harley Davidson Motorcycles. Actually, all over town there were lots of bikes and bikers. Having just completed the winding drive there, we quickly figured out that Julian is well-loved by bike groups for day rides.
After lunch we meandered through the village, peeking into lots of quaint shops. Margaret did one bit of Christmas shopping, then had to talk Larry out of buying yet another bird feeder! And, we admired the architecture of old, old structures that have been threatened over and over by fire. The sign on the Julian Cafe and Bakery reads "Built in 1872 - Burned in 1957 - Restored in 1978" . It was a reminder that as recently as just one year ago Julian and its inhabitants feared total loss in a firestorm.
We were reluctant to leave, but more reluctant to travel back down through the mountain road switchbacks after dark. We did make a quick stop just outside of town at the location where the guided tours of Julian begin. The old cider house and the wooden water tower were picturesque reminders of the town's root. Continuing down the winding road, we were able to pull over at a couple of turn-outs and get pictures of the wide open, rugged countryside that makes up this part of Southern California.
When highway 78 turned back into freeway, just past Escondido, we decided we'd try to make it back to the ocean in time for the sunset. We a-l-m-o-s-t made it... Though the sun had already gone past the horizon, the colors over the water were spectacularly beautiful.
We called our dear neighbors from Oceanside to check on "the girls", and invited them to join us next day for a casual Sunday dinner of salad, potato leek soup with ("lite" turkey) kielbasa, and slices of the fresh apple pie we were bringing home with us. That should be the perfect ending to a great weekend in our little world.

Is Nica sprouting a horn???

Though she can be a little mischievous, Nica is definitely not turning into "devil dog". She was just having a bad hair day!

Fall fun from Heather and David's House

Received last night from Larry's daughter, Heather - pictures of Sophia and Jonathan in their Halloween Elephant costumes, plus other autumnal activities. Baby Joshua wanted to say hello, too. Enjoy!

Life is good....

We could complain. It's not even 4:30 pm here and the sun is sinking faster than the Titanic! (The end of Daylight Savings Time is considered a BIG downer around here.)
On the other hand...
The election will be over tomorrow.
Gas has dropped below $3.00 a gallon.
The daytime temps have dropped 15 degrees and we've gotten a little much needed rain.
We've got a huge pot of ham and bean soup simmering in the kitchen and the house smells heavenly.
Yup! Life is good!